Commentary on Ezekiel Chapters 33 through 39, 'The Prophecy of Ezekiel

As we begin chapter 35, we get right into the reason for Israel's current struggles with those who dwell around them. The same struggles they've had throughout their history. Verses 2-4 read, "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."

Who is Mount Seir? Genesis 36:8 reads, "So Esau dwelt in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom." The Palestinians are the Edomites descended from Esau. If Esau represents the Palestinians, then his twin brother, Jacob represents Israel. Need I say more?

This conflict goes back to Esau and Jacob while they were still in Rebekah's womb. God prophesied to Rebekah in Genesis 25:23, it reads, "And the LORD said to her: 'Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.'" Jacob would eventually become Israel and Esau would become Edom. It was odd for God to say, "the older will serve the younger", because it was, and is still today the tradition that the younger serves the older. Yet, Esau was the first born, so he still has the birthright, this will change as we move forward.

Because Esau was the first to be born— the oldest, he would receive the birthright. The birthright was the right to be the head of the family or household, should the father pass away. Now, Scripture says that Isaac— Esau and Jacobs father, favored Esau, but Rebekah, their mother, favored Jacob. In Genesis 25:29-33, the conflict, which actually started in the womb, takes on new light, as Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for some red stew. There is a significance to "red" since Esau was red when he was born (verse 25), and also this is where the name Edom comes from— Edom means "red".

In Genesis 27, again we have a major turn of events as Jacob deceives Isaac into giving him Isaac's blessing. If Esau were to receive the blessing as Isaac wanted, it would have made Esau head over his brother Jacob, even though Jacob now has the birthright. The blessing was more important than the birthright. The story starts in chapter 27:1-4, "1) Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, 'My son.' And he answered him, 'Here I am.' 2) Then he said, 'Behold now, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. 3) Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. 4) And make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.'"

Now, Rebekah, Esau's mother, was secretly listening in on Isaac and Esau's conversation. So she quickly tracked down Jacob and devised a plan to be sure that Jacob would receive Isaac's blessing instead of Esau. You can read the continuing story in Genesis 27, but for this study I will just point out that this division between the two, Jacob and Esau, has escalated into this modern day hatred of each other.

Now, getting back to Ezekiel 35, we continue on in verse 5, where God prophesies against Edom and says, "Because you have had an ancient hatred..." There it is! The ancient hatred that stems back to the conflict between Esau and Jacob. In verses 7-9, God let's Edom know that He means business, "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."

Why is God so harsh to the people of Edom? Because as we read in the remaining verses, Edom has not acknowledged the blessing of Israel. On the contrary, Edom and those who support them have been determined to take Israel and Jerusalem as their own, against God's wishes, since the time of Esau and Jacob.

Most of the Muslim factions, called Palestinians are modern day Edomites. They come from the area of modern day Jordan, which was Edom, the descendants of Esau. There are Christian Palestinians as well, who do not pose a threat to Israel, although they also have a great dislike for Israel, but they themselves are also disliked and persecuted by the Muslim Palestinians. But, being Christian's they will need to overcome this hatred, in order to be recognized of God and true followers of Christ, because God has made it clear that those who are against Israel, even if they call themselves followers of Christ, are against God as well, and will be cursed. This is evident with the prophecies of Edom, because of their hatred and disdain for Israel.

To get further confirmation of these prophecies of Edom's or the Palestinian's eventual destruction, we turn to the books of Obadiah and Zechariah— both books tell of these same prophecies, but have interesting elements that add to our understanding.

First we will take a look at the Old Testament book of Obadiah. It's a short book of just one chapter, but it references Edom's destruction and Israel's restoration. In Verse 6 of Obadiah, we find the connection again, between Esau and Edom, when speaking of Edom, God mentions Esau by name as being ransacked. Verse 6 reads, "Oh, how Esau shall be searched out! How his hidden treasures shall be sought after!" In verse 8 we read, "Will I not in that day,” says the LORD, Even destroy the wise men from Edom, And understanding from the mountains of Esau?" Now we come to an interesting part of Obadiah, where God tells of why He has cursed Edom.

In verse 10, God gives His reason, "For violence against your brother Jacob." Esau's descendants have had an animosity against Jacob's descendants ever since the feud between the two brothers began. It's amazing to me that very few, if any Palestinians realize where their hatred of Israel stems from. If the Palestinian Christians were true Christians, they would see this biblical truth and turn toward God and accept it, because as true believers in Christ, they too will be blessed, but not if they continue their hatred and denial of these Old Testament truths.

I know many who may be reading this will say, "God doesn't seem to be fair here— after-all Esau was the first born, His descendants should have been God's chosen and blessed." From a human standpoint, this could appear to be true, but our level of understanding is not God's level of understanding. We cannot possibly comprehend God and His plan in its entirety. God's plan is perfect, but unfolded imperfectly within mankind because of our fallen sinful nature. Just like, had Sarah listened to and trusted God with His promise to both her and Abraham, that through Sarah, Abraham would receive a son to be his heir, Sarah would not have done what she had done. Sarah became impatient as she grew old and did not see this promise come to fruition, at least not in the timeframe that was acceptable to her.

The story goes forward as Sarah takes matters into her own hands and tells Abraham to sleep with her maid-servant, Hagar, an Egyptian woman, to fulfill God's promise to Abraham. Sarah has just assumed that, although God promised her a child, that it wasn't going to happen. This tells us that God would go long periods without communicating with His people, because if God were in constant communication with Sarah and Abraham, they would have understood that it was not yet time.

Abraham must have become unsure as well, because he accepted Sarah's proposal, to sleep with Hagar. If there wasn't any doubts about God's plan in Abraham, he would have denied Sarah's proposal and reassured her that what God says, will be. Hagar eventually did give birth to Abraham's first born son, but this was a huge mistake. Ishmael, whom he was called, was never supposed to be born. The Muslim prophet Mohammad was descended from Ishmael, a descendant who was never supposed to be, yet will be the ultimate catalyst for the great end time wars as we see developing on the world scene in our time today.

I know there doesn't seem to be any relevance between the story of Esau and Jacob, and Abraham and Sarah, but their is a tie-in— that tie-in is Satan! Because of the weakness in mankind to being manipulated by Satan, Satan is able to throw some curve balls into God's plan. Although God's plan will never be stopped, Satan through man, is able to side-track it, with some minor disruptions. I say "minor disruptions" in reference to God, but these disruptions are major disruptions to mankind, because of all the problems and consequences it creates for us. Satan would not be able to disrupt God's plan at all, if it were not for mankind. Satan has no power over God. As a matter of fact, God gave man more power than Satan. Satan is just a great deceiver, and in doing so is capable of utilizing man's own power against himself.

God can straighten out His plan anytime He wants, but because He gave man freedom of choice, God would be breaking His own law if He bypassed mankind to straighten things out Himself. God needs man to make the ultimate decisions regarding the direction God's plan takes. Because man is so predictable, God is able to design His plan around man's predictability, without stepping in and breaking His own law by doing it Himself. There is a saying which I'm sure you've heard at some point, that man is "a creature of habit." Habits are predictable!

This is also the reason why we wonder why God allows suffering in innocent people, such as children. People get angry and turned-off on a God who would allow babies to be born deformed, or let tragedy strike little children. But, it is not God at all who allows it, believe me, He hates it more than you can possibly hate it, but it's mankind who allows it by the way we live. It's hypocritical for man to complain about God allowingbad things to happen to innocent people and children, when man himself allows abortion, homosexuality, and anything else that the Bible clearly says is a depravity to God. We don't live according to the way God has instructed us from the day He created Adam and Eve. As a result, there are consequences that are out of God's control, that we must reap.

I say, "out of God's control", because, God is perfect, there is nothing evil in God. Evil is a product of sin. The Bible tells us in Habakkuk 1:13, in reference to God, "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil." If man stirs up evil, by committing sin, man cannot be in God's presence. That's also why the Bible says that God needed to turn His head the moment Jesus took upon Himself all of mankind's sin, just before He died. God cannot face sin— Jesus became sin. One of the last things Jesus said before He died was, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" This is what man cries when they are in sin, they blame God for leaving them. God never leaves them, we separate ourselves from Him. Jesus was separated from God for that moment. Jesus was never separated before from the Father. It must have been an awful feeling for Him.

At that moment in time, Jesus felt what humans feel, when they are separated from God. The emptiness, the loneliness— that is why Jesus can sympathize with us, because He experienced that separation from God. Although we live with it everyday, He never experienced it before, and it must have been a horrible experience for Him.

Getting back to my example in Obadiah, I'd just like to point out something interesting in verse 10, which reads, "For violence against your brother Jacob, Shame shall cover you, And you shall be cut off forever." I want to point out in this verse that the Hebrew root word for "violence" is "khawmas", doesn't it sound eerily similar to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas?

This next point may be stretching it a bite, but it is still interesting to mention. The word "shame" also used in verse ten, is the Hebrew word "buwshah", this is the feminine version of the root word "buwsh", pronounced "boosh" or "bush". Of course, we all know the President of the United States is George W. Bush, when all these prophecies may be beginning to come to a head here in the end times. I kind of doubt there is any relevance to this, but I thought I would just throw that out there.

If we move onto the prophecy in Zechariah, in 2:8, God tells us that anyone who touches Israel, touches the apple of His eye. This helps confirm what I said earlier in this study, that anyone who goes against Israel will be cursed because they go against God Himself. We've already discussed who Edom was and is today, but here in Zechariah chapter 9, we get a list of the remaining peoples around Israel that are enemies of Israel. Let's take a look at the list and see if we can determine who they might be today.

The list of cities or nations that we find in chapter 9, who are against Israel are as follows: Hadrach, Damascus, Hamath, Tyre, Sidon, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, Ashdod, Philistines, and the Jebusites. Now, two of these are familiar, because the names are still with us today— they are: Damascus, which is the capital of the nation of Syria; and Gaza, which has just recently been handed over to the Palestinians (Edom, Esau's descendants) by Israel, to be governed by them as their homeland.

We start out with Hadrach, which is only mentioned this one time in the Bible. Their have been no archeaological discoveries that indicate a people of that name existed. The closest known name to Hadrach is Hatarikka, which was a city in the Assyrian records. This city of Hatarikka, if related in anyway to Hadrach, was located in what today is Northern Syria.

Next we have Hamath, which is the modern day city of Hama in Syria, about 130 miles north of Damascus. Next is Tyre. Tyre was an Island or peninsula, today called Sur, about 50 miles south of Beirut, in Lebanon. Then we have Sidon, which is also located in Lebanon, about 28 miles south of Beirut. Next is Ashkelon, which was one of five cities of the Philistines. It was located in the southwestern region of Israel on the Mediterranean Sea. Today it is a Jewish city resort called Ashqelon, spelled with a "q", but pronounced as a "k".

We move on to Ashdod— Ashdod also was one of five cities of the Philistines. It was located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, about 50 miles north of Gaza. As far as the Philistines, the name Philistia, designates the coastal plain of Palestine from just north of Gaza to the Wadi Ghazza. The origin of the Philistines is uncertain, but were said to be of Aegean-Asian origin. The final people mentioned are the Jebusites— the Jebusites are descendants of Canaan. The Jebusites inhabited Jerusalem at the time of the Israelite invasion.

Some other nations or peoples that are not listed in Zechariah, but have an affect on Israel's security are the Medes, a people of the Iranian plateau. These people are descended from Japheth, son of Noah. The Medes are a close relation to the Persians, who are both of the nation of Iran. The Canaanites, who were descended from Canaan, son of Ham— Ham was son of Noah. The actual people of Canaan are not clear, but are thought to be associated with the Palestinians. Canaan was said to be a land between Egypt and Syria, which the Israelites settled in.

Of course the Egyptians, who were also descendants of Ham, son of Noah. Moab, like Edom were from the vicinity of Edom. The Hittites were from the vicinity of Northern Syria and Turkey. The Hittites are descended from Canaan (Genesis 10:15). There are more who I can mention, but my point here is that these peoples and nations or descendants of, who hate Israel will all be cursed according to the prophecies I've gone over here in this study. The interesting part is that when you look into who these people are, they all descended from Abraham, just as the Jews or Israel.

Since being descended from Abraham that makes these people mentioned, blood relatives with the Jews. As a matter of fact, some archaeological excavations, how shown that many of the customs of these different nations or peoples are similar to that of the Israelites. Which makes sense if they are descended from the same blood line.

In conclusion to Part 3 of our study, we have found the identities of the nation of Edom and those nations and peoples who have a hatred for Israel. We have discussed God's prophecy to those peoples and the curse that God has put on them because of this hatred. Is there a chance of redemption for these people? Yes, and that redemption is Jesus Christ. If the modern day people of those ancient nations would turn and repent of this hatred, they can and will be spared, but the Bible tells us that they will not repent, some individuals may, but in general these nations will continue to pursue the destruction of Israel. But I have a news flash for them, God is going to supernaturally protect Israel, even though it will appear that they are about to finally defeat them. It's at that moment God will intervene!

In Part 4 of this study, we will see the prophecies of the restoration of Israel begin!

Continue to Part 4, click here.

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