Ezekiel 35
The promise of Millennial blessing in chapter 34 leads the divine Author of the prophecies of Ezekiel to speak further about the closing scenes leading to the establishment of peace and righteousness on earth. An enemy to the south of Israel, Edom, the people of Esau, Jacob’s brother, has been briefly mentioned in chapter 25 (verses 12 to 14), and to that land of perpetual hatred the Holy Spirit here returns in His forecast of events yet to come. The reason for again mentioning Edom is plain: When all the earth rejoices, the land of Edom will be a desolation, an abiding token of the judgment of God to be seen throughout the coming thousand years of peace and blessing.
Mount Seir (verse 3) is the range of hills extending from north to south through the land of Edom, and Seir and Mount Seir are names applied to the country in Scripture. “Most desolate” in verses:3 and7 hardly expresses the full sense of the Hebrew original; it has been translated “a desolation and an astonishment.” In verses 4, 14 and 15, also, “desolate” is “a desolation”, a somewhat stronger term.
Little did the children of Esau reckon that God was taking notice, and would in due time visit them as a nation on account of their feeling toward their brother Jacob, and the treatment they accorded him, when opportunity arose.
It is idle for men, even Christians, in the light of the promised judgment of Edom, and (not to mention other Old Testament nations which will be revived to meet God’s righteous anger on account of the past) of that proud religious system called in Revelation 17 and 18 “the great whore” and “Babylon the great”, to deny that the offenses against God, His truth and His people, committed by bygone generations, will not be dealt with in judgment upon the living who occupy the same ground morally before Him.
God requires what is past, as the Preacher declares in Ecclesiastes 3:1515That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. (Ecclesiastes 3:15), and the prophetic word in both Old and New Testaments gives abundant proof of this principle of His government.
Edom, non-existent today, as a nation, will be found again in its homeland as time draws on to the end of God’s patience with this world, and they will there again plot against the children of Israel (Psalm 83:66The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; (Psalm 83:6); Isaiah 34:5-175For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. 6The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. 7And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. 8For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. 9And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. 10It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. 11But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. 12They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. 13And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. 14The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. 15There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. 16Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them. 17And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein. (Isaiah 34:5‑17); Jeremiah 49:7-227Concerning Edom, thus saith the Lord of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished? 8Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him. 9If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough. 10But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbors, and he is not. 11Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me. 12For thus saith the Lord; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it. 13For I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes. 14I have heard a rumor from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle. 15For, lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men. 16Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord. 17Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. 18As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it. 19Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me? 20Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them. 21The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea. 22Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. (Jeremiah 49:7‑22)).
The Edomites will, in the day of their judgment, know that He who deals with them is Jehovah’ (verses 4, 9 and 15). They will know it in His judgments. Philippians 2:10, 1110That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10‑11), Revelation 1:77Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. (Revelation 1:7), and other passages point to those who will be in the class of the Edomites, —owning the power, and the just judgment of God, but strangers to His grace.
The Edomites had a deep-seated hatred of their kinsmen according to the flesh, the children of Jacob, and when Nebuchadnezzar’s army was accomplishing the destruction of Jerusalem, they helped them. Verse 5 in our chapter may be read: “Because thou...has given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword, in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity, of the end...,” See also Amos 1:11, 1211Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever: 12But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah. (Amos 1:11‑12); Obadiah 11-1411In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. 12But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. 13Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity; 14Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress. (Obadiah 11‑14), and Psalm 137:77Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. (Psalm 137:7) which tell of the attitude of Edom when Jerusalem fell.
Of no other, land does Scripture promise such a judgment as that to be poured out on Edom:—perpetual desolations, and their cities without inhabitants (verses 9 and 15). They had planned to seize the land of Israel (“these two nations and these two countries” referring to Israel and Judah), but they forgot that that land is set apart for God’s earthly people (Deuteronomy 32:88When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:8)). It never has been and it never will be a blessing to any other nation, but only to the Israel of God. They forgot, too, that Jehovah, the eternal God, heard all their reproaches, uttered against the mountains of Israel (verse 12), and their many words against Himself (verse 13).
God’s long continued forbearance is misjudged by man, yet His word (if they would but believe it) fully declares that the day of His grace will end, Truly is it said,
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” (Psalms 14 and 53), and, “He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?” Psalm 94:99He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? (Psalm 94:9).
ML 02/02/1936