SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/21/2015
6:37 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Judgment on
Moab and Edom
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
25:8-14
Message of the
verses: We will first look at Moab
and the judgment that will fall on them, but even before that I want to quote
an endnote from Warren Wiersbe about Moab.
“See Isaiah 15-16; Jeremiah 48; and Amos 2:1-3. Note that ‘Seir’ is another name for the land
of Moab (Gen. 32:3; 36:20-21).
“8 ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Because Moab and Seir
say, ’Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations,’ 9 therefore, behold, I am going to deprive the
flank of Moab of its cities, of its cities which are on its frontiers, the
glory of the land, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon and Kiriathaim, 10 and I will give it for a possession along
with the sons of Ammon to the sons of the east, so that the sons of Ammon will
not be remembered among the nations. 11 “Thus I will execute judgments on Moab,
and they will know that I am the LORD."
If you go back and look at Numbers 22-25 you will find
that it was Balak, who was the king of Moab at that time, who hired Baalam to
course Israel, but God would not let him, so Baalam taught the Moabites how to
seduce Israel into sinning against God by causing the woman of Moab to
intermarry with the children of Israel.
This sin is found in different parts of the New Testament. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The sin of Moab was
slander against Israel, a refusal to see the Jews as God’s special people.” As stated above there was another sin
too. Now when we fast forward to when
Israel was defeated the Moabites would say that if Israel was such a special
nation why were they defeated by Babylon.
Moab was situated in the high mountains and so they were
a very proud people, thinking that no one could defeat them. However when we read the text above we will
see that God will have them defeated and will give their land to the sons of
Ammon. God always keeps His Word.
“12 ’Thus says the
Lord GOD, "Because Edom has acted against the house of Judah by taking
vengeance, and has incurred grievous guilt, and avenged themselves upon
them," 13 therefore thus says the
Lord GOD, "I will
also stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off man and beast from it.
And I will lay it waste; from Teman even to Dedan they will fall by the sword. 14
“I will lay My vengeance
on Edom by the hand of My people Israel. Therefore, they will act in Edom
according to My anger and according to My wrath; thus they will know My
vengeance," declares the Lord GOD.”
Now we look at Edom who was actually Jacob’s twin
brother, and like some brothers he hated Israel which was the name that God
gave to Jacob. If you look at what
happened to these two brothers you will better understand why there was so much
hatred between them. Jacob stole the
birthright of Esau (Edom) and then with the help of their mother Jacob schemed
to secure the special blessing from their father for Jacob. We know from the story that God told both
Rebecca and Isaac that both belonged to Jacob because God in His sovereign will
had chosen Jacob over Esau to continue on in the promise that God had given to
Abraham. But the scheming went on
anyway.
The prophet Obadiah, which is only one chapter in the OT
was dedicated to the people of Edom and in verses 10-14 we read: “10 "Because of violence to your brother
Jacob, You will be covered with shame, And you will be cut off forever. 11 "On the day that you stood aloof, On the
day that strangers carried off his wealth, And foreigners entered his gate And
cast lots for Jerusalem- You too were as one of them. 12 “Do not gloat over your brother’s
day, The day of his misfortune. And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah In the day
of their destruction; Yes, do
not boast In the day of their distress. 13 “Do not enter the gate of My people In the
day of their disaster. Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity In the day of their disaster.
And do not loot
their wealth In the day of their disaster. 14 “Do not stand at the fork of the road To cut down
their fugitives; And do
not imprison their survivors In the day of their distress.”
Let us also look at Psalm 137:7 “GOD, remember those
Edomites, and remember the ruin of Jerusalem, That day they yelled out,
"Wreck it, smash it to bits!" (Message).”
Dr. Wiersbe reports that in spite of the warnings the
Edomites did help the Babylonians in capturing some of the Jewish refugees who
were trying to escape, and they helped the Babylonians they cheered when Israel
was being attacked. Remember that God
was disciplining Israel because they belonged to Him, but He would destroy Edom
for they did not belong to Him, and sinned against His people.
We can learn from this that family feuds are very costly
so be forgiving to your family and get along.
2/21/2015 7:05 PM
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