SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/10/2015
9:57 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Sins of Edom
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
35:1-15
Message of the
verses: “1 Moreover, the word of the
LORD came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy
against it 3 and say to it, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am against
you, Mount Seir, And I will stretch out My hand against you And make you a
desolation and a waste. 4 “I will lay waste your cities And you will become a
desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 5 “Because you have had everlasting enmity and have
delivered the sons of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their
calamity, at the time of the punishment of the end, 6 therefore as I
live," declares the Lord GOD, "I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will
pursue you; since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you. 7 “I will make Mount
Seir a waste and a desolation and I will cut off from it the one who passes
through and returns. 8 “I will fill its mountains with its slain; on your hills
and in your valleys and in all your ravines those slain by the sword will fall.
9 “I will make you an everlasting desolation and your cities will not be
inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
“10 "Because you have said, ’These two
nations and these two lands will be mine, and we will possess them,’ although
the LORD was there, 11 therefore
as I live," declares the Lord GOD, "I will deal with you according to
your anger and according to your envy which you showed because of your hatred
against them; so I will make Myself known among them when I judge you. 12 “Then
you will know that I, the LORD, have heard all your revilings which you have spoken against
the mountains of Israel saying, ’They are laid desolate; they are given to us for food.’
13 “And you have spoken arrogantly against Me and have multiplied your words
against Me; I have heard it." 14 ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "As all the
earth rejoices, I will make you a desolation. 15 “As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of
Israel because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You will be a desolation,
O Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the LORD."’”
I want to begin by quoting from the John MacArthur Study
Bible: “Against Mount Seir (Cf. Isa.
21:11, 12; Jer. 49:7-22; Amos 1:11, 12; Obadiah. This is another name for Edom (cf. v. 15;
Gen. 32:3; 38:6), also threatened with judgment in 25:12-14. Edom was considered Israel’s most inveterate
and bitter enemy (cf. Ps. 137:7; Mal. 1:2-5) and was located E of the Arabah
from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqabah.
The main cities were Teman and Petra, now in ruins.”
The above was from verse two of Ezekiel chapter 35 and
not this note is from verses 3-4 where MacArthur writes: “This prediction (cf. 6-9) came to pass
literally, first by Nebuchadnezzar and later in 126 BC by John Hyrcanus. There is no trace of Edomites now, though
their desolate cities can be identified as predicted by Obadiah (Ob. 18) and
Jeremiah (Jer. 49:13). Cf. vv. 6-9).”
As you can see from these two verse notes there is much
to say about Edom in the OT, for Edom was actually Jacob’s brother and that is
where the hatred began, but later when they became a nation their hatred for
Israel grew worse and worse and so we can see through the prophets named in the
above verse notes that the Lord had much to say about the destruction of
Edom. The book of Obadiah is only one
chapter in the OT, but its entirety is about Edom, and judgment upon Edom. When we were studying Ezekiel chapter 25 we
saw that he wrote about the judgment of Edom and now he writes more about
them.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Mount Seir is another name for Edom,
the nation founded by Esau, Jacob’s twin brother. ‘Edom’ means ‘red’ and was a nickname given
to Esau (Gen. 25:30). Esau was a man of
the world who had no spiritual desires and willingly sold his birthright to his
brother Jacob. Esau fought with his
brother even in their mother’s womb (Gen. 25:21-26) and hated his brother
because the Lord had chosen Jacob to receive the blessings of the
covenant. This hatred was passed on from
generation to generation and the Edomites maintained what God called ‘a
perpetual hatred’ (v.5; 25:15; Amos 1:11-12; Obadiah). This hatred was no doubt like some of the ‘ethnic
wars’ that the world has seen today.”
Now we get a picture as to where this hatred began and
why it continued and because Jacob received the covenant promises from the Lord
the Lord would then destroy Edom because of their hatred towards His covenant
people.
We see God through Ezekiel once again remind these people
of their great sin against their brethren when they assisted the Babylonians in
attacking the Jews which came when the Babylonians brought a siege against
Israel. Edom seemed to love bloodshed and so in verse six God says “6 therefore as I
live," declares the Lord GOD, "I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will
pursue you; since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you.” We can see this type of thing in the world
today as many of Israel’s enemies are wanting to destroy them simply because
they hate Israel for who Israel is, and this hatred comes from Satan as it did
when Edom hated them. However the same
will happen to Israel’s enemies today as have been happening throughout history
because God said to Abram their founder “And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who
curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will
be blessed."” To hate Israel just because they are Israel is a sin that
God promises to care for by punishing the one who does that.
God’s judgment against Edom was a just judgment and
Ezekiel explains it by saying that the descendents of Edom were a greedy people
and they wanted to take over the land of Israel for themselves, and they were neither
the first nor the last to want to do this.
We must remember that it was God who gave this land, which by the way He
owns and has the right to give it to whom He wants to, and He gave it to
Abraham the founder of the nation of Israel. By giving the land to Abraham and
his descendants He was giving it to Jacob and not Esau. When Israel was
marching from Egypt to the Promised Land the Lord told them not to meddle with
the Edomites because He had assigned their land to them and they would not
inherit the Promised Land as seen in Deuteronomy 2:1-7. Dr. Wiersbe writes “When the Babylonians
invaded Judah in 606 BC, the Lord was there fulfilling His own purposes (Ezek.
35:10) and He saw what the Edomites did.”
Verse eleven shows the anger of the Edomites: “11 therefore as I live," declares the Lord GOD,
"I will deal with you according
to your anger and
according to your envy which you showed because of your hatred against them; so I
will make Myself known among them when I judge you.”
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary by writing “God’s
promise to the Jews was that one day they would no longer be a prey to the
other nations (34:28), and this chapter explains why: God will deal with their enemies and remove
them from the face of the earth. ‘You
will be desolate, O Mount Seir’” And
this quote answers my question as to why this chapter of Ezekiel is placed in
his book where it is.
4/10/2015 10:41 PM
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