NOTES for Gen 36:1-43
God did not forget Esau. His descendants are the Idumeans, inhabitants of Edom, or the Idumean kingdom, located on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. Esau still had to leave Be'er Sheva, even though Jacob showed him no hostility. Most likely the problem was that two patriarchs, two founders of two fairly numerous peoples, had simply become crowded in one oasis that, though large, was still not limitless. Jacob was to become the leader of the people of God, and he did become that after Esau's departure. Esau went away from Jacob, away from Be'er Sheva, but he did not go away from God. He had no intention of going away from God, at least the Bible says nothing about any resistance to God on his part. Esau is also a descendant of Abraham, as is Ishmael, who had gone into the wilderness earlier; God simply has His own plans for him, as He also has for Ishmael.
All Jews are descendants of Abraham, but not all descendants of Abraham are Jews. This is clearly not an accident, but God's plan. God's design includes more than the Jews. More than the people of God. He has certain plans for other peoples as well. A natural question arises about these others, for example, about Noah's descendants. Abraham is among Noah's descendants, but Abraham is far from the only one. Noah's blessing extends to all whom he blessed, or rather, to all whom God blesses through him. And Abraham's blessing also extends to all whom God blesses through Abraham. Here an interesting pattern becomes visible: at first Noah's blessing, the blessing of the righteous man who became a symbol of all the righteous of all times and peoples, embraces Abraham; then Abraham's blessing, the blessing of the one who, according to the apostle's word, was to become "the father of all who believe," embraces the gentile peoples who go back to Abraham but did not become part of the people of God.
In such an "intersection" of blessings, in their "overlapping" one another, there is probably some meaning still unclear to us. One thing is clear: the history of the covenant is not linear; there is no room here for simple schemes. Every blessing of God is an act of His will, and often such acts overlap one another, projected onto earthly time in the form of the most intricate patterns of Jewish history and the history of other neighboring peoples. Patterns whose meaning will probably become clear only at the end of time.