The Issue Of Esau: Who He Is And What He Represents

The house of Jacob will be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame;

the house of Esau will be stubble. (Obadiah 1:18).

 

 

          In the last year since I begin this blog, I have on more than one occasion been struck by the profoundness of God and his ways.  In researching the identity of the Israel of Jesus’ time and linking them to present day Black aka (African-Americans) and their prophetic value to the culmination of the age, I have read and viewed discussions as to the identity of Esau (Edom).  Probably to the surprise of many a white person, some ardent Hebrew Israelite people have assigned him that identity accompanied by a great deal of vitriol and disdain.  Because there is a lot to discuss with this topic this article will be long but not exhaustive.  I ask that the reader exercise a longer attention span if needed.

            When I first dealt with Esau in my thesis The Principle Of The Second: The Age To Come and available on Amazon, I analogized him to the nations as in the one not chosen as the representative of God even though he and Jacob were twins born of the same mother and father.  From my blog it is plain that I contend white people as we know them today are the sons of Japheth just the albino version of the Black Dravidian Indian type people such as those of the Romani Gypsies.  Please read my article The Making Of The Races: What's Melanin Got To Do With It.  So, why am I writing about this now?  One night I woke up thinking about Esau so I felt it needed some attention as I have seen people flailing around wildly assigning all sorts of people the identity of the ancient Israelites.  I hope this article helps to clear up some of the confusion and add food for thought.

            In ascertaining the identity of Esau, the first place one must start is in Genesis 25: 22-23.  As a point of background for this scripture Isaac and Rebekah are about to become parents for the first time and Rebekah is experiencing some commotion in her womb.  When she inquires as to why of the Lord, He reveals, “Two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”  “So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over, so they called his name Esau. (vs. 24).  From the start it is obvious that Esau is a son of Shem via Abraham and Isaac.  However, his physical characteristic of being described as red has led some to believe he was white I am thinking because some white people exhibit a redness in the face.  But is this really the case? 

            Are babies really born red as in the crayon?  I have never seen that so in researching the Hebrew word for red I ran across a more likely scenario of Esau’s appearance.  Another way of describing Esau per Strong’s concordance is ruddy.  There are several words for ruddy but the one that conveyed a logical sense of the coloring of Esau was the Hebrew word saroq defined as an adjective sorrel as in horses.  Horses that are sorrel have a reddish-brown coat (I will provide a graphic below).  A reddish-brown color is only seen with people who are in their original state of melanin. Whereas, Esau may not have been of a dark chocolate/black skin tone he was not an albino (white) either. 

In Lamentations 4:7-8 the Nazarites are described as being brighter than snow and whiter than milk and more ruddy in body than rubies and like sapphire in their appearance.   If one took this passage at face value, he might be confused with the snow and milk comparison of the physical appearance of the Nazarites, but it is clear that in describing them as ruddy the author is going back to a reddish-brown appearance and not a white appearance given that in the very next verse he states, “Now their appearance is blacker than soot.”  The reason they are now blacker than soot is due to a famine they are experiencing.  Only someone who is in their original state of melanin will get black as soot in a time of famine.  The author is describing a people who were once brilliant, dazzling and jewel like in their appearance and are now due to famine unhealthily black. 

To further negate that Esau was born albino (white), there are several definitions of white in Hebrew according to Strong’s concordance and none of those definition are used to describe Esau.  If Esau was born white, the Hebrew word I think that would have applied is laban which is “to be white.”  Intriguingly Rachel’s father’s name was Laban which may or may not indicate that he was an Albino.  The other aspect of Esau which is little focused upon is his hair.  And it is this little detail which clears up the distinction between the original physical Israelites and everyone else.  Esau as earlier mentioned is described as being hairy.  But what type of hair did Esau possess? A quick trip to Genesis 27:16 reveals that Esau had the hair of a goat.  Goats have fine straight hair as opposed to the wooly coat of sheep.  When the combination of Esau’s reddish-brown skin and straight goat like hair is put together , the appearance of Esau inclines toward Black Japheth. 

In contrast, the other type of people in the world who have woolly type hair are the sons of Shem and Ham.  Shepherds and sheep are symbolically tied to Israel and in Daniel 7:9, the vision he has of the Ancient of Days is that is his clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool. (KJV).  God does not do anything by accident and he deliberately although they were twins made a distinction between what the son of the promise would look like and what the son who was not of the promise would look like.  Therefore, all nations in the earth today who practice some form of Judaism and have goat like hair can be ruled out as being of the son of Shem in the line of Jacob.  This would include Mongol Native Americans, mixed native Americans and white Spaniards (Latino’s), and host of other people groups from Sephardic to Yemenite Jews.  Often times what one see’s in some of these groups is a mixture of people with goat and sheep like hair from interracial marriages.  The hair tends to be looser in curl to straight wavy. 

It is known from the bible that Esau mixed with Hamitic nations in his infancy, but he according to the book of Jasher also mixed with the Romani Japhetic nations of the people of ancient Rome.  As usual around Christmas time the media talks about Jesus.  This year was no exception and an article was written extolling what the real Jesus would have looked liked according to forensic science of the people of that time.  Although it was never shown image wise what the model revealed,  an image of a man who was in appearance mulatto looking is what most readers concluded a  Semitic man of Jesus time would have looked like.  However, as noted above in Daniel, the Ancient of Days identifies with a people of a wool-like hair texture and who were probably various shades of brown skin tones such as reddish-brown.  The graphic as you will see in a separate post is of a man with a light tawny skin tone and straight curly hair.  It is more comfortable for people to think of Jesus this way in the age of Japheth because to think of him as he really would have been is too much to bear.  No one wants to imagine a negro with an afro as the Son of Man even if it is true.  

So now the question becomes what happened to Esau?  There are various theories as to the fate of Esau.  Some have noted that he mixed with other nations , that he merged with the Romans during their time of rule or that he is a part of the Askenazi Jews.  All of these assertions can be true, but I think the most telling fate of Esau is that when he sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of red stew in which he became known as Edom, he forever lost his identity either out of war or intermixing or both.  In the book of Obadiah it is prefaced by a little history detailing that when the King of Babylon conquered Jerusalem, Edom who had a contentious relationship with Israel from the birthright incident joined forces with the Babylonians and cut off the fleeing Judeans and took hold of their possessions.  Obadiah 1:10-15 states, “Because of the violence against your brother Jacob you will be covered in shame, you will be destroyed forever.  On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them….You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble…The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head.”

When Jerusalem was once again attacked in 70AD and the Israelites scattered, it is notable that Edom seemed to disappear as well.  Whatever happened to the Edomites it is apparent that unlike Israel no one assumed their identity.  I am of the persuasion that it was surviving Edomite practitioners of Judaism who transmitted the knowledge of Babylonian Judaism to the Askenazi Jews and who may have merged their dna with those particular sons of Japheth.  In any event, in a very real sense Obadiah’s prophecy that they will be destroyed forever has surely taken place because once your identity is gone you are gone.

What Esau represents: The difference between sheep and goats

The bible is a book which has above and below surface meanings.  By differentiating Esau and Jacob by two kinds of livestock via their hair, God was not just making a physical statement but a spiritual one as well.  I have never been around sheep or goat so I looked up some characteristics about them.  According to bibletool.org, “Goats are capricious. They are impulsive and unpredictable, devious and contrary. If they are not poking their heads through fences, they may be standing on their hind legs, stretching for those tender leaves just out of reach. Goats are never content with what they have.

They are experts in opening gates and squeezing through small gaps because they hate to be confined. Fences that will handle sheep, cattle, and horses will not hold goats. They will work tirelessly to spring themselves from any situation they deem inhibiting.

Consequently, goats are not very good followers. "Gregarious behavior" is a term that refers to the flocking or herding instinct which is found strongly in sheep, cattle, and horses. Again, this quality is rather weak in goats; they prefer leading or going off on their own. Meat packers use this instinct in sheep and goats to their advantage. They will train an old goat, appropriately called a "Judas," to lead sheep to the pens for slaughter. A well-trained Judas will lead group after group of sheep to the slaughter all day long.”  If ever this description doesn’t sound like the age of Japheth I don’t know what does. 

"However, a sheep follows its Shepherd peacefully moving forward with the flock. He is content to be led because he has faith in Him. A sheep responds to his Shepherd's voice and goes where He directs. On the other hand, a goat follows only its own lead, creating disunity when he comes in contact with others in the flock. Because of his independent nature, he often finds himself in contention with the Shepherd for leadership of the flock, leading some astray. A goat often eats things—a symbol of ingesting spiritual instruction—sheep would avoid because they have no real value and cause sickness."  By associating Esau with a goat God was making a statement about the rebelling first sons of God and Satan who sold their birthright because they were not content with what they had and like Esau they will one day be destroyed and replaced by sheep like second sons of God in their place.  I don’t believe it is a coincidence that a Baphomet statute, an image of which is below, is of a figure with a goat head and transgender body and is associated with Satan.  It is clear that biblically such a figure would not come from a people with wool-like hair, but certainly from those with goat-like hair as it stands in contrast to the appearance and nature of Yeshua the Son Exemplar. 

Furthermore, it is telling that whenever Israel was on the run for their lives, they never headed in the direction of the sons of Japheth (goat-hair people) but in the direction of the sons of Ham other wooly haired people. Even in Genesis Shem is never positioned next to Japeth in the table of nations but next to Ham.  This is so despite Japheth and Shem being first and second in birth order.  I believe this positioning is to let the reader know that Shem and Ham were closer to each other in physical appearance than to Japheth.  I could write a little more about this but this article is already very long.  It is my hope that it serves to clear up some confusion or maybe add fuel to the fire about Esau and the sons of Japheth.  Below in other posts are images to illustrate my thesis.