Edom in Trouble

Edom in Trouble

Ezekiel 25:12 – “This is what the sovereign LORD says: ‘Edom has taken vengeance against the house of Judah; they have made themselves fully culpable by taking vengeance on them. 13 – So this is what the sovereign LORD says: I will stretch out my hand against Edom, and I will kill the people and animals within her, and I will make her desolate; from Teman to Dedan they will die by the sword. 14 – I will exact my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel. They will carry out in Edom my anger and rage; they will experience my vengeance, declares the sovereign LORD.’”

Edom was the name given to the descendants of Esau.  It means red, after Esau himself whose skin looked red when he was born.  If you look back at the story of Jacob and Esau you’ll find that Esau felt justified in his anger against his brother Jacob for losing both his birthright and his blessing to him.  Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for lentil stew because he felt he would die from hunger.  He blamed Jacob for taking advantage of him.  He lost his blessing to Jacob as well due to Jacob deceiving their father, Isaac, into thinking he was Esau.  Once the blessing was given Isaac never retracted or corrected it when he learned the truth.

Fast forward to the dreaded meeting between brothers and we’ll find that after Jacob wrestled with God he met with Esau and enjoyed a tearful, nonviolent reunion.  Jacob insisted on making things right with Esau and gave him an incredible amount of gifts and they parted in peace.  The brothers had reconciled.  The problem was with their descendants.  Their descendants kept the conflict alive down through the generations with Edom constantly thinking they were justified in taking vengeance against Judah and Israel. And now in our verses for today we see that they had acquired the means to do exactly that.  Look at how God responds.  He did not permit them the vengeance they sought, rather, Edom was to experience the unchecked vengeance of God himself!

Let’s carefully consider what all this means.  Jacob made peace with God before he made peace with his brother Esau.  There is no record of Esau ever making peace with God even though he made peace with his brother – so his descendants have a debt of vengeance left unforgiven and unpaid.  Edom was not justified in taking vengeance when the original quarrel was settled and with an unpaid debt to God on their record.

Now let’s make it personal.  Romans 12:19 says – Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” says the Lord. 20 – Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. 21 – Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We may find ourselves capable of exacting vengeance but God counsels us: do not take it.  Remember God is capable of exacting vengeance on us for all our sins but He will not take it upon those who have received His forgiveness.  In the parable Jesus told of the unforgiving slave.  A slave was forgiven an unpayable debt to his king yet refused to forgive a fellow slave of a much smaller debt.  He took vengeance upon his fellow slave and discovered the painful truth: in withholding forgiveness he too would have forgiveness withheld from him.  Here are concluding verses to the parable:

Then his lord called the first slave and said to him, ‘Evil slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me! Should you not have shown mercy to your fellow slave, just as I showed it to you?’ And in his anger his lord turned him over to the prison guards to torture him until he repaid all he owed. So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart.” – Matthew 18:32-35.

Let’s not take the trouble of Edom upon ourselves.  Let’s forgive each other and may the love and mercy of God flood our hearts with peace, not vengeance!