The Reward of the Reprobate

There is a place in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus makes a contrast between true spiritual disciplines and those of the religious hypocrite. When it comes to those who give to the needy, those who pray, and those who fast—those that do these simply that others may see them, He says, “Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward” (Mat. 6:2, 5, 16). There is a “reward” for false religion; but it passes away and is condemned.

Here in Genesis 36:1-43, as we expand that circle out to all those who reject the ultimate promise of God, there is a “reward” that the reprobate pursue. At first it seems like an impossibly obscure genealogy with little to offer the modern reader. But recall that Esau was passed over by God, that the text of Malachi 1 says it most strongly (and that is reiterated by the Apostle Paul in Romans 9:13), that “I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated” (vv. 2-3). This choice is confirmed in the reprobate willfully, insistently, passionately pursuing that which does not last and will be condemned.

• The reprobate’s choice.

• The reprobate’s power.

• The reprobate’s possession.

Doctrine. When God grants the wicked the good things of this life, it is that they may be all the more condemned.    

The reprobate’s choice.

‘Esau took his wives from the Canaanites’ (v. 2). We saw earlier that these wives “made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah” (Gen. 26:35); and, “when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had” (Gen. 28:8-9). HE TOOK. HE CHOSE. HE SPITED. So Esau’s choice of wives represented a deliberate desire to live outside of the covenant of grace.

As Matthew Henry comments here:

“Esau having sold his birthright, and lost his blessing, and entered into alliance with the Hittites, his posterity and the sons of Seir are here reckoned together. Note, Those that treacherously desert God’s church are justly numbered with those that were never in it; apostate Edomites stand on the same ground with accursed Horites.”1

We should also not miss that he took or chose a plurality of wives. Unlike with Jacob, there was no state of duress here. Esau premeditated his polygamy, and he did so to populate hell. As to why ‘Oholibamah’ (v. 41) is the name of a tribal chief in this line, and not merely one of the three wives (vv. 2, 5, 14, 18, 25), either that was a typical name that could be assigned to males and females, as plenty of modern names function, or else this was simply a stand-in for the tribe’s name—the name meaning “tent of the high place.”2

As to the LAND, we are given Esau’s rationale here as well; and the language is similar to the situation between Abraham and Lot. Here it says, ‘He went into a land away from his brother Jacob. For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together’ (vv. 6-7). In all these things, the reprobate chose. You may say, “But reprobation is a divine decree. It is God’s choice.” That’s true about the decree, but it does not annihilate the sinner’s creaturely agency. Esau willed that bowl of stew. Esau determined vengeance against his brother (only God restrained him). Esau delighted to frustrate his parents by marrying pagans. And Esau genuinely believed that he would make a great living ‘in the hill country of Seir’ (v. 8). As the Westminster Confession says about God’s decree versus human choice: “nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established” (III.1). The reprobate is making all kinds of choices and will be held accountable for them.

The reprobate’s power.

There is a kind of progression in the bulk of this chapter, from the land of the reprobate, to the fathers of their clans, to finally their kings. It is the rise of the nearest sector of Babylon—a front line against the people of God. ‘These are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir’ (v. 9). It was all foretold when Esau desired some earthly reward.

“Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: ‘Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck” (Gen. 27:39-40).

I say a “front line” of Babylon against the people of God. Verse 40 there in Chapter 27 prefigures how Edom would literally do that. When the Babylonians conquered the Southern Kingdom, the Edomites, we are given a glimpse back in the smallest prophetic book:

“Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them” (Obadiah 10-11)

So that’s the other reason that this passage is preserved for us, because it gives a preview of a later thorn in the side of the remnant of Israel.

‘These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau’ (v. 15). A chief (אַלּוּף) is identified by Kidner as “the head of a ‘thousand’ or clan.”3 Why all the mentions of those who rise to prominence in the family? For Henry, the answer is simple: because “Esau and his family lived by the sword, ch. 27:40.”4 Again, the NORM outside of God’s people who are to renew Eden with the proper use of the image of God and the proper relation to the image of God, all outside of Christ will LIVE BY THE SWORD, that is, to be driven by violence against the image of God.

And then the text expands the circle once more: ‘These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the Israelites’ (v. 31). Now, biblical scholars have had no trouble including the second clause of this verse as among what we call “post-Mosaica,” that is, a later redaction by an equally inspired author. In other words, we have a reference to Israel having a regular procession of kings in the past tense.5

While the children of Jacob were in chains in Egypt, the children of Esau would be rising to power and comfort. Thus far, the exchange for that bowl of red soup was turning out alright. Remember that this was the reason why Esau’s name was, from the beginning, associated with the name for the place: “Therefore his name was called Edom” (Gen. 25:30). So the reminder is placed here as well, parenthetically in the ESV: ‘Esau is Edom’ (v. 8).

The reprobate’s possession.

We first define a “possession” or “reward” as a divine grant. No one but God can ultimately give it, since “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof” (Ps. 24:1). The Scriptures are specific about that in this case, because much later, God says through Moses,

“Turn northward and command the people, ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession” (Deut. 2:4-5; cf. Josh. 24:4).

These are practical instructions, so that there may be a peaceful return to the Promised Land; but its also an honor to God as the One who “allotted … the boundaries of [the nations’] dwelling place” (Acts 17:26).

God does this. It is no afterthought. We must consider it a portion of His wise providence. So, the Psalmist spoke of the,

“men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants” (Ps. 17:14).

With that theology of God decreeing both the reprobate and their temporal reward, we can place ‘the chiefs of Edom (that is, Esau, the father of Edom), according to their dwelling places in the land of their possession’ (v. 43). Everything they have is wisely placed by God.

You will recall that Ishmael was also, in a sense, taken care of by God.

“As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation” (Gen. 17:20).

If we went back further, we would see the same of Cain as well, at least by giving him that mark and enabling him to live on in the east and build cities (cf. Gen. 4:16-17). There is always a reward.  Saul had his forty years on the throne. Herodias had John the Baptist’s head. And Judas had his thirty pieces of silver. But the reward of the reprobate is IRREVERSIBLE and echoes in eternity as the sum of all bitterness and pain. He will say to all as Abraham said to the Rich Man in the parable: “remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish” (Lk. 16:25).

Practical Use of the Doctrine

Use 1. Instruction. God grants the wicked the good things of this life, that the wicked may be all the more condemned. How does this work? I will limit myself to two ways:

First, because such things are good things: “for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17).

“For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mat. 5:45).

How does that make them more condemned? That the temporal inheritance of the reprobate includes good things increases guilt because the bad use of a good thing is more blameworthy than the bad use of a bad thing, since the bad use of a good thing manifests ingratitude, waste, and a total lie about God’s goodness in that thing.

Second, it increases condemnation because such good things seem to cause pride in the wicked and despair in the righteous, even tempting the righteous to desire the lot of the wicked.

“But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Ps. 73:2-3).

So God’s wrath is kindled greater against those misuses of good things that cause His children to stumble.

Use 2. Admonition. Jesus poses the question to us, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mk. 8:36) For Esau, at first, it was not even the world, nor even a significant slice of the world, but, at first, it was for a bowl of stew. But even the whole world is less than that bowl when it is a world that is passing away. Edom would have kings again. They would rebel against Judah when they became weak (cf. 2 Kings 8:16-24), and so was fulfilled that even though “the older shall serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23); but you may recall that it was added after the deception of Jacob, “but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck” (Gen. 27:40). That probably renewed their national aspirations, but then we are reminded again that, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Ps. 127:1). So this genealogy of the rewards of the reprobate warns us from striving for the inheritance of this world.

Use 3. Consolation. We might add this to our growing list of evidences of salvation. That is, we must add the endurance of the elect in watching the constant rise and fall of the reprobate. But how does this evidence grace in our lives?

“A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent” (Ps. 91:7-10).

As we see the manner of the reprobate coming and going, the exact nature of their hope passing with them, we are increasingly weary of this world’s treasures and longing for an eternal reward.

Use 4. Exhortation. This is the last we will see of Esau in the book of Genesis, and you may ask, “What if I am an Esau? I don’t want the rewards of the reprobate.” Then look to Christ. God does not brand us with an external E and R, and so we are never told to discover the inside of God’s decree, but only to discover Christ. It is in Him that we make our calling and election sure.

These are the gospel words of the prophet Isaiah. This is where you look.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isa. 55:6-7).

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1. Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 76.

2. Kidner, Genesis, 188.

3. Kidner, Genesis, 189.

4. Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 76.

5. cf. Belcher (Genesis, 217) and Kidner (Genesis, 189).