Listen to the Sermon:
Edom and the Edomites: Part 2
Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • August 11, In the year of our Lord Christ, 2019
Persuasion:
- The Sins and Punishment of Edom (Continued)
- During the Babylon attack on Judah and Jerusalem,
- Edom stood by and
- encouraged Babylon against Edom’s brother Israel:
7 Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom
The day of Jerusalem,
Who said, “Raze it, raze it,
To its very foundation!”
– Psalm 137.7
- Edom also joined with Israel’s surrounding nations against Israel:
1 Do not keep silent, O God!
Do not hold Your peace,
And do not be still, O God!
2 For behold, Your enemies make a tumult;
And those who hate You have lifted up their head.
3 They have taken crafty counsel against Your people,
And consulted together against Your sheltered ones.
4 They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,
That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”
5 For they have consulted together with one consent;
They form a confederacy against You:
6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites;
Moab and the Hagrites;
7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek;
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assyria also has joined with them;
They have helped the children of Lot.
– Psalm 83.1–8 - Therefore, the Lord declared what He would do:
18 “And Edom shall be a possession;
Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession,
While Israel does valiantly.”
– Numbers 24.18 - During the time of David, Israel humbled Edom:
14 He also put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became David’s servants. And the LORD preserved David wherever he went.
– 2 Samuel 2.14 - As part of a larger context,
- the writer of First Kings
- noted what David and Joab did to Edom:
15 For it happened, when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army had gone up to bury the slain, after he had killed every male in Edom 16 (because for six months Joab remained there with all Israel, until he had cut down every male in Edom)…
– 1 Kings 11.15–16- However, some Edomites escaped and
- the nation rebuilt.
- Isaiah 34
5 “For My sword shall be bathed in heaven;
Indeed it shall come down on Edom,
And on the people of My curse, for judgment.
6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood,
It is made overflowing with fatness,
With the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 The wild oxen shall come down with them,
And the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
And their dust saturated with fatness.”
– Isaiah 34.5–7 - Jeremiah 25 prophesied against all the nations, and
- how when the Lord strikes them down,
- they are down permanently.
- Jeremiah listed the nations, and
- verse 21 shows that Edom was among them.
- Then he said of those nations,
- which would include Edom:
27 “Therefore you shall say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, be drunk, and vomit! Fall and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.”
– Jeremiah 25.27
- Jeremiah 27 prophesied that the Lord would use Babylon to do it.
- We focus on Israel or Judah and Babylon’s attack against it, but
- the Lord used Babylon against all the nations in that area
- for their sins.
- This is how the Lord works,
- then and now.
- Judah gets our attention, but see how Edom is included:
1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD to me: Make for yourselves bonds and yokes, and put them on your neck, 3 and send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4 And command them to say to their masters, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel—thus you shall say to your masters: 5 I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the ground, by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed proper to Me. 6 And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field I have also given him to serve him. 7 So all nations shall serve him and his son and his son’s son, until the time of his land comes; and then many nations and great kings shall make him serve them.”
– Jeremiah 27.1–7
- Jeremiah 49.7–22
7 Against Edom. Thus says the LORD of hosts:
“Is wisdom no more in Teman?
Has counsel perished from the prudent?
Has their wisdom vanished?
8 Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan!
For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,
The time that I will punish him.
9 If grape-gatherers came to you,
Would they not leave some gleaning grapes?
If thieves by night,
Would they not destroy until they have enough?
10 But I have made Esau bare;
I have uncovered his secret places,
And he shall not be able to hide himself.
His descendants are plundered,
His brethren and his neighbors,
And he is no more.
11 Leave your fatherless children,
I will preserve them alive;
And let your widows trust in Me.”
12 For thus says the LORD: “Behold, those whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you the one who will altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it. 13 For I have sworn by Myself,” says the LORD, “that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse. And all its cities shall be perpetual wastes.”
14 I have heard a message from the LORD,
And an ambassador has been sent to the nations:
“Gather together, come against her,
And rise up to battle!
15 For indeed, I will make you small among nations,
Despised among men.
16 Your fierceness has deceived you,
The pride of your heart,
O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Who hold the height of the hill!
Though you make your nest as high as the eagle,
I will bring you down from there,” says the LORD.
17 “Edom also shall be an astonishment;
Everyone who goes by it will be astonished
And will hiss at all its plagues.
18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors,” says the LORD,
“No one shall remain there,
Nor shall a son of man dwell in it.
19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the Jordan
Against the dwelling place 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?
Who will arraign Me?
And who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?”
20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that He has taken against Edom,
And His purposes that He has proposed against the inhabitants of Teman:
Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;
Surely He shall make their dwelling places desolate with them.
21 The earth shakes at the noise of their fall;
At the cry its noise is heard at the Red Sea.
22 Behold, He shall come up and fly like the eagle,
And spread His wings over Bozrah;
The heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day shall be
Like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.
– Jeremiah 49.7–22 - Ezekiel 25.12–14
12 “Thus says the Lord GOD: Because of what Edom did against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended by avenging itself on them,” 13 therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I will also stretch out My hand against Edom, cut off man and beast from it, and make it desolate from Teman; Dedan shall fall by the sword. 14 I will lay My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel, that they may do in Edom according to My anger and according to My fury; and they shall know My vengeance,” says the Lord GOD.
– Ezekiel 25.12–14 - Ezekiel 35
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, O Mount Seir, I am against you;
I will stretch out My hand against you,
And make you most desolate;
4 I shall lay your cities waste,
And you shall be desolate.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD.
5 Because you have had an ancient hatred, and have shed the blood of the children of Israel by the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, when their iniquity came to an end, 6 therefore, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you; since you have not hated blood, therefore blood shall pursue you. 7 Thus I will make Mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it the one who leaves and the one who returns. 8 And I will fill its mountains with the slain; on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines those who are slain by the sword shall fall. 9 I will make you perpetually desolate, and your cities shall be uninhabited; then you shall know that I am the LORD. 10 Because you have said, ‘These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess them,’ although the LORD was there, 11 therefore, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I will do according to your anger and according to the envy which you showed in your hatred against them; and I will make Myself known among them when I judge you. 12 Then you shall know that I am the LORD. I have heard all your blasphemies which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, ‘They are desolate; they are given to us to consume.’ 13 Thus with your mouth you have boasted against Me and multiplied your words against Me; I have heard them.” 14 Thus says the Lord GOD: “The whole earth will rejoice when I make you desolate. 15 As you rejoiced because the inheritance of the house of Israel was desolate, so I will do to you; you shall be desolate, O Mount Seir, as well as all of Edom—all of it! Then they shall know that I am the LORD.”
– Ezekiel 35.1–15 - Ezekiel 36.5
5 …therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Surely I have spoken in My burning jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave My land to themselves as a possession, with wholehearted joy and spiteful minds, in order to plunder its open country.”
– Ezekiel 36.5 - Yet, Edom would escape the conquering of the Greeks
- Daniel 11.40–43
40 “At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. 41 He shall also enter the Glorious Land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. 42 He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43 He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels.”
– Daniel 11.40–43 - That same passage shows Egypt not escaping Greece.
- A major city in Egypt is called Alexandria!
- Notice the Egyptian statue with the Greek face
- Daniel 11.40–43
- Joel 3.19–21
19 “Egypt shall be a desolation,
And Edom a desolate wilderness,
Because of violence against the people of Judah,
For they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah shall abide forever,
And Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 For I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted;
For the LORD dwells in Zion.”
– Joel 3.19–21 - Amos 1.11–12
11 Thus says the LORD:
“For three transgressions of Edom, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because he pursued his brother with the sword,
And cast off all pity;
His anger tore perpetually,
And he kept his wrath forever.
12 But I will send a fire upon Teman,
Which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.”
– Amos 1.11–12 - Malachi 1.4–5
4 Even though Edom has said,
“We have been impoverished,
But we will return and build the desolate places,”
Thus says the LORD of hosts:
“They may build, but I will throw down;
They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness,
And the people against whom the LORD will have indignation forever. 5 Your eyes shall see,
And you shall say,
‘The LORD is magnified beyond the border of Israel.’”
– Malachi 1.4–5
- During the Babylon attack on Judah and Jerusalem,
Exhortation:
- The hope of Edom
- is the hope of all nations,
- the hope that Edom’s brother Israel brought into the world.
- Even as the rest of the world has had exposure to Christianity,
- so the prophets spoke of Edom also embracing The Way.
- The Lord spoke through Isaiah His Elect One:
1 “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
– Isaiah 42.1- Continuing, the prophet said those peoples should rejoice.
- The God of the heavens and the earth had not forsaken them:
10 Sing to the LORD a new song,
And His praise from the ends of the earth,
You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!
11 Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice,
The villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,
Let them shout from the top of the mountains.
– Isaiah 42.10–11- Sela is the Rock.
- The Rock is Petra of modern Jordan.
- I did not see it, but
- The other three saw the church that had been built there.
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