Introduction: Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, after whom the Israelis are named, had a brother Esau. Esau, and later his descendants, occupied the land of Edom. Edom was mentioned in yesterday’s tale of woes and here again at the very centre of today’s opening Edom, Israel’s neighbour, holds centre stage!
8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into sulfur;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10 Night and day it shall not be quenched;
its smoke shall go up forever. – Comment: Do you think that this is literally what was meant to happen or is it a graphic image to describe the nastiness to which God’s vengeance will lead? Does it mean that water will become bitumen or dirt become sulphur?
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
none shall pass through it forever and ever.
11 But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion over it,
and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,
and all its princes shall be nothing. – Comment: confusion, I take to mean primitive or rough territory, and from what follows probably not farmed but overrun with thistles and wild animals jackals, hyenas ostriches etc! No one presumably means not enough people to be a kingdom.
13 Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
an abode for ostriches.
14 And wild animals shall meet with hyenas;
the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;
indeed, there the night bird settles
and finds for herself a resting place.
15 There the owl nests and lays
and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;
indeed, there the hawks are gathered,
each one with her mate.
16 Seek and read from the book of the LORD: – Edom is mentioned a lot in the historical books of the Bible!
Not one of these shall be missing;
none shall be without her mate.
For the mouth of the LORD has commanded,
and his Spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them;
his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it forever;
from generation to generation they shall dwell in it. – God is sovereign and in control of everything. It pays for us to remember that nothing happens behind the back of God!
Dan 4: 34c&35 – ….for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
Prayer: Sometimes the complexities of your Book are beyond me! Please help me to learn the lessons which You desire to teach me.
As I read it! 