Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 5, part 18

No single passage of Scripture provides a complete picture in itself. Prophecy is progressive, and the prophets receive pieces of revelation at various times, which required them (and us) to put them together in order to acquire a more complete picture. Sometimes the big picture is not clearly understood until centuries later when another prophet is shown another angle of the same prophetic event.

In the case of the fate of Jerusalem, Isaiah 29 tells us that God Himself will lead foreign nations to attack the “enemies” who occupy Jerusalem (Isaiah 29:3). The attacking nations, however, will not actually inherit the land, because it will be like a dream, where a hungry man eats, but when he awakens, he is still hungry (Isaiah 29:8). Nonetheless, Jerusalem will be destroyed suddenly by a great consuming fire, tempest, and earthquake (Isaiah 29:6).

In Jeremiah 19:10, 11 we are given confirmation that Jerusalem’s destruction will be so complete that it will never again be “repaired.” The city will be like an old earthen jar which will be broken to pieces and cast into gehenna. The word is translated “hell” in the New Testament, but it is literally the city dump. Prophetically, it is the place of Jerusalem’s destruction.

In Isaiah 34 we learn something new. The nation specifically singled out for destruction is Edom. Here the text seems to imply that Edom is leading the nations attacking Jerusalem, but this is not fully clear. The enemies of “Ariel” (Jerusalem) in Isaiah 29 were already occupying Jerusalem, and for this reason God had raised up foreign armies to destroy the city.

Hence, it should be understood that Edom, God’s enemy had already “attacked” (spiritually) and were occupying the city. The other nations were raised up against Edom. This would be consistent with the prophecy in Isaiah 29.

Likewise, when we consider what actually occurred in 70 A.D., which partially fulfilled these prophecies, we know from history that the Edomites had joined with other radical Jews from the school of Shammai to fight the Romans.

http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3190-bet-hillel-and-bet-shammai

Hence, God had raised up the Romans to bring judgment upon Edom that had already merged with Jewry more than a century earlier. The destruction in 70 A.D. did not fully exhaust the prophecy of Jeremiah 19:10, 11, because the city was rebuilt later and still stands today. So it is clear that the city must again be destroyed, this time in such a way that it will never again be rebuilt. And today it is again occupied by the Jews, who are fulfilling prophecies of both Judah and Edom.

Blood and Fire

Isaiah 34 speaks of Edom’s destruction as a great sacrifice of goats. Bozrah means “a fold” or enclosure for animals such as goats. Mount Seir, the inheritance of Edom, means “Mountain of Goats.” The sacrifice is a bloody scene. In Isaiah 34:6 the prophet says, “The sword of the Lord is filled with blood.” The Hebrew word for blood is dam.

Dam means “blood.”

Adama means “earth.”

Adam means “ruddy” or “earthy,” i.e., reddish soil.

Edom means “red.”

These names are derived from blood and are references to the color red as well. So the prophet paints a vivid picture of the destruction of Edom by using a lot of red paint. Ezekiel paints a similar picture in his description of the judgment upon Edom. Ezekiel 35:6, 7 says,

⁶ “Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord God, “I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you; since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you. ⁷ I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation and I will cut it off from the one who passes through and returns.”

In every case above, “bloodshed” is from dam, “blood.” This is how the KJV renders it. The judgment upon Edom is based upon the law prohibiting blood consumption. Leviticus 17:12 says,

¹² Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, “No person among you may eat blood, nor may any alien who sojourns among you eat blood.”

Edomites were obviously non-Israelite aliens, but the law of God applied equally to all men (Numbers 15:29). Hence, Edom was not to consume blood, and because “the law is spiritual” (Romans 7:14), the prophet interpreted this law to mean that Edom should not be bloodthirsty.

Fire is usually red, and so, after telling us that this destruction will occur in “a year of recompense for the cause of Zion."

Edom’s Land Becomes Burning Pitch

Ezekiel then compares the reddish earth with the red fire and with red blood. Such comparisons are common in the writings of the prophets, and so this gives us a better understanding of Isaiah 34 as well. Isaiah 34:9, 10 says,

⁹ Its streams will be turned into pitch, and its loose earth into brimstone, and its land will become burning pitch [gophriyth, “sulphur, brimstone”]. ¹⁰ It will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will be desolate; none will pass through it forever and ever [netsach, “constantly”].

This is the prophesied judgment against Edom when God resolves “the cause of Zion.” As I have shown previously, this divine court case between Jacob and Esau-Edom is not to be resolved until the end of the present age. While Isaiah identifies the legal controversy as that between Jacob and Esau, along with the verdict, we must compare this to other passages to get a fuller picture.

First, we must compare this to Isaiah 30:33, where we find a similar description of fire and brimstone that the prophet associated with Tophet, “burning,” in the valley of Ben-hinnom (Greek: gehenna). Brimstone, or sulphur, was used to create a hotter fire, and Topheth was the furnace where the people of Jerusalem sacrificed their children in the fire (Jeremiah 19:5). Hence also, God was to cast Jerusalem itself into Gehenna, even as the prophet cast the earthen jar into gehenna “so as to make this city like Topheth” (Jeremiah 19:12).

It is clear, then, that the judgment of God was to treat both Jerusalem and Edom in the same metaphorical way. Both were to be judged by fire and brimstone (sulphur). In addition, Isaiah 29:6 describes the destruction of Jerusalem in terms of “the flame of a consuming fire.”

Isaiah 34:10 tells us that “it will not be quenched night or day,” much like the continual fires in gehenna, which also served as Jerusalem’s city dump. The prophets use gehenna as a metaphor for divine judgment upon the nations, including Jerusalem itself. So we read in Isaiah 66:24,

²⁴ Then they will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched; and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.

Many Christians are taught that this is a picture of “hell,” where (as they say) men are tortured in an unquenchable fire. They seldom made a distinction between hades, gehenna, and the lake of fire. However, I explain the differences in my book, The Judgments of the Divine Law. Gehenna is a prophetic place for the judgment of nations, including Jerusalem itself. Yet when Jesus uses the term gehenna in Matthew 5:22, 29, and 30, both the KJV and NASB render it as “hell.”

In the end, fire itself is a metaphor for the “fiery law” (Deuteronomy 33:2 KJV) and its righteous verdicts that proceed out of the nature of God, who is pictured as the all-consuming fire. Gehenna is just one application of many judgments of God. A beating (up to forty lashes) was also pictured as a “fire” in Luke 12:48, 49.

Isaiah 66:24 (above) does not picture immortal men being tortured in the fire of gehenna but rather “the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me.” The bodies of dead criminals were often cast into gehenna unclaimed. They were not tortured there but their bodies were disposed of without an honorable burial. The worms were not immortal but, like the fire, were always ready to eat that which was decaying.

Gehenna was a vivid metaphor of divine judgment. Jerusalem was necessarily a part of this, because gehenna was the city dump and also (because of its location) the place where attackers might gather to lay siege to the city. Its meaning, however, was treated metaphorically by the prophets, because it is plain that the nations could not all fit into such a small valley.

Neither are we to think of this judgment as being directed solely against foreign nations, because the prophets include Jerusalem itself in this judgment. In fact, Jesus warns the Jews of His day that they too might be in danger of being cast into gehenna (Matthew 5:22, 29, 30). Hence, no unrighteous person is exempt on account of their genealogy or nationality. But Isaiah 34 focuses upon the judgment upon the land of Edom.

In times past, the land of Edom was in Mount Seir that was located south of Judah. But when Edom was conquered by the Judeans in 126 B.C. and when the Edomites converted to Judaism and became Jews, as the historians affirm without question, the fulfillment of this prophecy shifted somewhat.

In the New Testament, King Herod was half Edomite and half Judahite (Judean), and he was chosen by Rome to rule both territories. Hence, Edom and Judea were united as one country. In fact, Herod himself, though he was hated by virtually all of the people, actually represented the unification of Judah and Edom that had occurred in 126 B.C.

The merger between these two nations, then, must be taken into account when we discern how the gehenna prophecies are to be fulfilled at the end of the age. Jeremiah makes it clear that Jerusalem will not be spared, while Ezekiel, Isaiah, and other prophets make it equally clear that the nations as a whole will be judged in gehenna also. No ungodly nation is exempt.

In the case of Jerusalem, if we piece together the various prophesies in the light of history, it appears that the enemies of “Ariel” who are seen to be occupying the city in Isaiah 29:2, 5, are synonymous with Edom in Isaiah 34:5. One can no longer distinguish between Jerusalem and the land of Edom. As Edomite converts to Judaism, filled with the Zionist desire to lay claim to the birthright and to “return and build up the ruins” (Malachi 1:4), they have taken over the city, causing God to lead foreign armies to lay siege to the city (Isaiah 29:3) and ultimately to destroy it “with whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire” (Isaiah 29:6).

By piecing the prophecies together, it appears that Jerusalem will be destroyed by some form of nuclear “fire,” which is pictured metaphorically as casting the city into gehenna. All nations will be affected in different ways, as is the case with many wars. However, the nations will continue to exist afterward, for many of their kings will recognize Jesus Christ as the King of Kings.

Christ will reign from the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2, 23-26), not the earthly city. “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it” (vs. 24). This is not the same city that will be destroyed in gehenna. The nations as a whole will survive and join the Federation of Kingdom Nations, whose King is Jesus Christ. But Jeremiah does not extend any hope for the survival of the earthly Jerusalem.

Hence, while all nations will certainly be affected by the destruction of Jerusalem, it does not appear that this will be a world-wide destruction as is often pictured. The controversy between Jacob and Esau will be resolved “instantly, suddenly” (Isaiah 29:5), and in the end, no one will possess that land, not even those foreigners that desire to displace the Edomite Jews and to occupy the land for themselves (Isaiah 29:7, 8). A nuclear strike could resolve this controversy quickly and make the ownership of that land moot.