THE WORD OF THE LORD came to me: 2“Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir; prophesy against it 3and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you and make you a desolate waste. 4I will turn your towns into ruins and you will be desolate. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
5“ ‘Because you harbored an ancient hostility and delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity, the time their punishment reached its climax, 6therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you. 7I will make Mount Seir a desolate waste and cut off from it all who come and go. 8I will fill your mountains with the slain; those killed by the sword will fall on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines. 9I will make you desolate forever; your towns will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
10“ ‘Because you have said, “These two nations and countries will be ours and we will take possession of them,” even though I the LORD was there, 11therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will treat you in accordance with the anger and jealousy you showed in your hatred of them and I will make myself known among them when I judge you. 12Then you will know that I the LORD have heard all the contemptible things you have said against the mountains of Israel. You said, “They have been laid waste and have been given over to us to devour.” 13You boasted against me and spoke against me without restraint, and I heard it. 14This is what the Sovereign LORD says: While the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. 15Because you rejoiced when the inheritance of the house of Israel became desolate, that is how I will treat you. You will be desolate, O Mount Seir, you and all of Edom. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’ ”
36:1“Son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD. 2This is what the Sovereign LORD says: The enemy said of you, “Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession.” ’ 3Therefore prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because they ravaged and hounded you from every side so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations and the object of people’s malicious talk and slander, 4therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign LORD: This is what the Sovereign LORD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and the deserted towns that have been plundered and ridiculed by the rest of the nations around you—5this is what the Sovereign LORD says: In my burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, for with glee and with malice in their hearts they made my land their own possession so that they might plunder its pastureland.’ 6Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I speak in my jealous wrath because you have suffered the scorn of the nations. 7Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I swear with uplifted hand that the nations around you will also suffer scorn.
8“ ‘But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home. 9I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown, 10and I will multiply the number of people upon you, even the whole house of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. 11I will increase the number of men and animals upon you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 12I will cause people, my people Israel, to walk upon you. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance; you will never again deprive them of their children.
13“ ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because people say to you, “You devour men and deprive your nation of its children,” 14therefore you will no longer devour men or make your nation childless, declares the Sovereign LORD. 15No longer will I make you hear the taunts of the nations, and no longer will you suffer the scorn of the peoples or cause your nation to fall, declares the Sovereign LORD.’ ”
Original Meaning
EZEKIEL 35 COMPRISES an oracle against the nation of Edom, under the figure of its central mountain, Mount Seir. At first sight, it might seem out of place among the surrounding chapters that speak of Israel’s restoration. Ezekiel had already delivered a brief oracle against Edom in the oracles against the foreign nations (25:12–14), where Edom appears as one of the seven hostile neighbors of God’s people. However, this larger oracle against Edom is linked together with the oracle that follows it (36:1–15) as a pair of contrasting panels of darkness and light.
Having spoken of the restoration of the monarchy in chapter 34, the central feature of the Davidic covenant, Ezekiel now addresses the future of the land of Canaan, the central feature of the covenant with Abraham. The issue at stake between Israel and Edom is nothing less than the possession of the Promised Land.1 As in chapter 34, where the prophet begins by critiquing the existing bad situation and announcing judgment on it (the panel of doom), after which he announces a message of the reversal of the situation (the panel of salvation), so here first comes doom pronounced on Mount Seir, followed by salvation pronounced on the mountains of Israel.2 The judgment of Edom is a necessary prerequisite for the restoration of Judah.
The chapter opens with an address through the prophet against Mount Seir, the symbol of Edom (35:2). Edom, the nation to the southeast of Judah, had apparently taken advantage of the power vacuum left by the destruction of Jerusalem to move into Judean territory and take it over. Her fortunes seemed on the rise, but that was not God’s final word. Ultimately, God would act to bring Edom down. The Lord declared that judgment would come on Mount Seir, so that she would become “a desolate waste” (35:3), exactly the same fate he had earlier brought on the mountains of Israel (6:14).3
The reason for God’s judgment is given in 35:5: Because of the “ancient hostility” (ʾêbat-ʿôlām) between the two nations, the Edomites gave the Israelites over to the sword in their time of judgment. This hostility reached all the way back to the time of their progenitors, Jacob and Esau (also known as Edom), as recorded in Genesis 27–28. Even the establishment of peace between these two individuals (Gen. 33) did not allay the deep-seated grievances among their descendants, which stretched down throughout history, amplified rather than diminished by the passage of time. Thus, when Judah was under God’s wrath and Jerusalem was judged, Edom saw an opportunity to reclaim the stolen birthright by helping the Babylonians. But their animosity will rebound on their own heads, says the Lord. Because of their “bloodthirsty hatred” (Ezek. 35:6),4 blood will in turn pursue them until they are utterly cut off. To match their perpetual enmity toward Israel, now they will become “desolate forever” (šimmôt-ʿôlām, 35:9).
The source of Edom’s perpetual enmity toward God’s people becomes clear in 35:10. The Edomites desired to possess the two lands5 of Israel and Judah for themselves and thus to reclaim by force the stolen birthright, in spite of the Lord’s past presence there. This ambition will be thwarted by the Lord’s intervention to protect the honor of his own name, which was linked to the gift of Canaan to his people (35:11–12; cf. Ex. 32:11–14). Far from their possessing the traditional Israelite inheritance, their own inheritance will be wiped out; just as they rejoiced at Israel’s downfall, many nations will rejoice at theirs (Ezek. 35:15). Then indeed they will know that the Lord is the One who stands behind the assignment of the land of Canaan to Israel as a lasting inheritance (Num. 34:2); his present abandonment of the land is not permanent.
Lasting possession of the land is not achieved by Edomite power, nor indeed by Jacob’s tricky strategies, but by sovereign divine election, backed up by the Lord’s commitment to honor his own name (Ezek. 35:11). It is that divine election that makes the mountains of Israel the permanent “inheritance of the house of Israel” (35:15). Though the vassal Israel has been temporarily removed, the land of Canaan remains the rightful property of the Lord.6 The living God will not be mocked or trifled with (35:13). Edom’s foolish boasting will ultimately be seen as the empty words of the godless, who think to overthrow God’s kingdom, only to find themselves the object first of God’s mirth and then of his wrath (Ps. 2).
If Ezekiel 35 gives the dark side of the future (i.e., the destruction of presently ascendant Edom), 36:1–15 gives the bright side: the return of God’s people to the land of promise. The address to the “mountains of Israel” parallels the address to Mount Seir, as well as the earlier oracle of destruction to those selfsame mountains in chapter 6. Whereas Edom sought to possess the mountains of Israel, the “ancient heights” (bāmôt ʿôlām, 36:2), and will be brought down to the depths, Israel will return to possess the land that is now in the hands of many nations (36:3).
It becomes clear as the oracle progresses that Edom in Ezekiel 35 is merely one representative of the nations at large who oppose Israel and her God.7 Her fate is therefore representative of all who oppose God’s plan; all who seek to benefit from Israel’s misfortune will meet the same end at the hands of Israel’s jealous God (36:5). Though the promise of the land to Israel may at present be in abeyance because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, it has not been abrogated and ultimately will be fulfilled because of the Lord’s concern for his name.8
Whereas in the past God’s jealousy and wrath were poured out on the mountains of Israel so that they became the object of scorn for the nations, that scorn will be returned on the head of the nations (36:7). Israel has once again become “my people” (ʿammî, 36:8). The mountains of Israel will burst forth with a primeval fruitfulness as the Lord turns his face toward them in blessing (36:9). People and animals will multiply and be fruitful for the Israelites (36:11), an echo of the creation mandate in Genesis 1:28. This re-creation will not merely be a return to the former status quo but will be something even better than their original state (36:11).
Historically, the mountains of Israel had not always been experienced as a land that “does flow with milk and honey” (Num. 13:27). Sometimes it had seemed to be, as the ten timid spies falsely reported, a “land [that] devours those living in it” (13:32). But just as this report was essentially false then, so also it continued to be false as it was repeated by the nations around Israel (Ezek. 36:13). The mountains of Israel, Israel’s heartland, would once again be a place of prosperity and blessing, experiencing the positive fruits of divine election; no longer would it be a barren and undesirable place, under God’s curse because of the people’s unfaithfulness to their covenant overlord.
Bridging Contexts
EDOM AS A theological entity. To contemporary readers, Edom is a geographical entity, not a theological one. It may be faintly recognized as the name of one of Israel’s neighboring states, and the diligent student or pastor may even be interested enough to look it up on the map printed in the back of a Bible to ascertain its precise location. But this approach misses the theological overtones that the term Edom had for the ancient reader. Edom was not merely another bothersome neighbor, engaged in occasional border skirmishes over disputed territory; Edom was the archetype of the nonelect, the very paragon of a nation raging against the Lord and against his anointed.
This relationship of antagonism between Israel and Edom was longstanding. It extended all the way back to the founders of the two nations, Jacob and Esau, who struggled with one another in the womb (Gen. 25:22). It was revealed to their mother, Rebekah, that this struggle was not a simple brotherly squabble, such as is known to all those who have more than one son, but was rather the consequence of a profound theological difference. The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger” (25:23). In other words, the Lord had chosen for the line of promise to descend through the younger son, Jacob, so that the path of blessing for the older son, Esau, would lie in submitting to God’s choice.
Unfortunately, Esau was not willing to follow that path. Although he counted his birthright and the promise that (humanly speaking) went with it such a light thing that he was willing to trade it for a bowl of stew (Gen. 25:29–34), yet when Jacob craftily tricked him out of his father’s blessing, his thoughts turned to murder (27:41). Of course, Jacob himself was far from blameless in all of this; he was seeking to attain the promise by strategy rather than by faith. But from before the outset of his life, Esau appears as a man passed over by God, uninterested in the things of God and antagonistic toward the chosen line.
This remained Edom’s subsequent posture toward Israel. When the Israelites were coming up out of Egypt, they asked simply for right of passage through Edomite territory, offering to pay for whatever they consumed. The Edomites, however, refused and sent out a large army to turn them back (Num. 20:14–21). Later on, in the time of David, the tables were turned, and Edom was conquered by Israel (2 Sam. 8:14). They remained subject to Israel until the time of Jehoram, at which point they rebelled and reestablished their independence (2 Kings 8:20). Given that history, it is perhaps understandable that they rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem and cheered on the Babylonian destroyers (Ps. 137:7). But to oppose God’s chosen people and to rejoice at their fall is to incur God’s wrath, a wrath that in due time will be poured out on Edom as an example to all who oppose God.
Thus, when Isaiah depicts the coming world-shaking judgment on all nations, his language moves from cosmic destruction to the devastation of Edom (Isa. 34:2–10). Edom will be consigned to the eternally unquenchable lake of fire, whose smoke ascends forever and ever (Isa. 34:9–10), a judgment that is preparatory to God’s ultimate acts of cosmic salvation (Isa. 63). Likewise, in Malachi 1, the ultimate proof of God’s love for Israel is the destruction of Edom, who is termed “the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the LORD” (Mal. 1:4; cf. Obad.). None of this extreme language can be properly understood outside the representative role of Edom as the symbol of the nonelect, who perpetually range themselves against the Lord and his people and will ultimately face the consequences.9
This ongoing conflict provides the background for Paul’s use of the example of Jacob and Esau in Romans 9. Paul appeals to the two brothers as an example of sovereign election: God chose Jacob over Esau before the twins had done anything good or bad (Rom. 9:11). Jacob is the archetype of the one chosen by God for blessing in spite of who he was; Esau is the archetype of the nonelect, passed over by God, who then proceeds to live out his life in enmity toward God and his people. The fruit of election is salvation by grace for the elect; the fruit of reprobation is a life of enmity against God that leads to final judgment. Both of these outcomes are, however, the result of the antecedent decision of God to have mercy on those on whom he will have mercy and to harden those whom he will harden (9:18).
Yet even though Edom as a nation is implacably opposed to God, the Lord’s electing mercy is still experienced by individuals from that nation. For Deuteronomy 23:7–8 declares: “Do not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. . . . The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.” In other words, even the “hated” Edomite may be engrafted into the family tree of Israel, and the one who was “not my people” by grace may yet become “my people” (cf. Hos. 2:23). The electing grace of God knows no limits.
The land of Israel as a theological entity. In contrast to the destruction to be poured out on Edom and thus on all that Edom represents, the land of Israel is promised unparalleled fertility. Should we see a fulfillment of this in the present agricultural development of the desert areas of Palestine? To do so is to miss the significance of the Edenic overtones of the promise. It is not merely fruitfulness that is being promised to the mountains of Israel but specifically a return to the Eden-like conditions of blessing that accompany the presence of the Lord in the midst of his people. What is promised is nothing short of complete fulfillment of the blessings promised to the patriarch Abraham, of a land and its people blessed by the immediate presence of their God.10
The multiplication of people envisaged by Ezekiel (Ezek. 36:10–12) finds a partial fulfillment in the adding of multitudes to the kingdom of God through the carrying out of the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19). This is the New Testament analogue of the creation mandate given to humanity in Eden to be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:28). Its ultimate fulfillment, however, still lies in the future, where the Edenic fruitfulness of the earth will be restored in the new heavens and a new earth, where God’s presence is in the midst of his people forever (Rev. 21:1–3).
Contemporary Significance
ALL IS OF God’s electing grace. God’s people have never lacked for enemies. Throughout history, there have always been those only too eager to oppose and hurt God’s chosen ones. At times, it may seem as if the oppressors of the church have the upper hand and are about to crush her utterly. How can believers know for sure during those hard times that such an outcome can never happen? The answer is the assurance of God’s election and promise. God has determined from all eternity to save a people for himself, and that purpose must stand in spite of all that the forces of the evil one can throw against it.
Our assurance cannot rest on our own merits and strength or on our heredity; God did not choose Jacob because he was better than Esau or Israel because she was better than Edom. He chose them simply because of his own good pleasure and purpose. Nor did he choose the nation of Israel because he foresaw that they would be strong enough to withstand the fiery furnace of trials. Rather, in Israel’s case they were in the fiery furnace precisely because of their own long history of sin. Not all the descendants of Israel are part of the true Israel (Rom. 9:6). Even some who by descent are from the elect people will prove themselves to be nonelect individuals by their unrepentant sin. Some of the vine branches will refuse to abide in the vine, to their own eternal destruction (John 15:6).
But in spite of Israel’s sin and rebellion against God, the honor of his name required him to act to preserve for himself a people. Astonishingly, the way in which he has chosen to do so is by engrafting the Gentiles into a new nonethnic entity, the true Israel of God (Rom. 11:17, 26; Gal. 6:16). We were engrafted into the vine not because we chose him but because he chose us to bear lasting fruit for him (John 15:16). All is of grace, even our fruitfulness, so that no one can boast in the presence of God.
Hatred from the world. Even while we are assured of God’s love, however, we may rest equally assured of the world’s hatred. It will hate us because it hated our master, Jesus, first (John 15:18). Esau cannot abide God’s election of Jacob, and the world cannot abide God’s love for his saints. We do not belong to the world or fit in it; therefore, we should expect the world to exhibit an “eternal hostility” toward us for the sake of Christ (cf. John 15:20–21).
Those who oppose God and arrogantly attempt to injure his people face the certainty of judgment, however. God will act to protect his own people, and even where he temporarily withholds his protecting hand and allows painful experiences to befall us, that is not God’s ultimate word. Jesus’ ultimate word to those who are his people is, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance” (Matt. 25:34). By contrast, his ultimate word to those who oppose him is, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (25:41).
There is, literally, no future in fighting God. This is true not simply for the irreligious Edomite, but for the most sincerely religious individuals who range themselves against God’s people. Edom’s problem was not that they lacked sincerity in their religious beliefs in their gods, but rather that their sincerely held beliefs were misguided. In the experience of the outpouring of God’s wrath on them, they would come at last to acknowledge the painful truth of the reality and power of Israel’s God, the Lord (Ezek. 35:15).
We can be thankful, however, that just as “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel” (Rom. 9:6; in other words, not all of the elect nation are elect individuals), so also not all who are descended from Edom are Edom (i.e., not all those who wickedly oppose God are headed for eternal torment). Otherwise, we would all be lost. But alongside God’s sternness exists his mercy (11:22). God’s present patience with unbelievers serves his purposes in election, for some of those who are at present blasphemers against God and persecutors of the church will ultimately be found among the elect, trophies of redeeming grace, which can extend even to darkest Edom.
The apostle Paul himself was evidence of this powerful work of God (1 Tim. 1:13), and church history abounds with similar examples. To give just one, the very Auca Indians who speared to death Jim Elliot and his four friends—missionaries who had come to share the gospel with them—were subsequently converted and discipled through the ministry of two of the widows, Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint. Those who once sought to destroy the gospel of God were by grace ultimately brought to love the same gospel.11
Properly understood, this electing grace of God should cause us as Christians to be lost in wonder, love, and praise that we have been chosen by God to become part of his people. We have been chosen not because of anything in us or because of what we can do for him, but simply because of his mercy. We who were once not his people have by grace been incorporated into the community of God’s saints. As former Edomites who have been engrafted into the Israel of God, we of all people should therefore sing Charles Wesley’s great hymn with renewed amazement: