Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 5, part 19

The destruction of Edom in Isaiah 34 is accompanied by a metaphorical description of a desolate and unpopulated land. The prophet enlarges upon his statement in Isaiah 34:10, “From generation to generation it will be desolate; none will pass through it forever and ever” (netsach, “continually”).

When Israel wanted to pass through Edom on the way to the land of Canaan, Edom refused to allow them to pass through their land (Numbers 20:20, 21). This forced Israel into a lengthy detour around Edom, which set the prophetic pattern of our own detour on the way to the Kingdom which began in 1948. Essentially, Edom became a roadblock to the Kingdom because they refused to be neighborly and to treat a brother with love and respect.

So later the prophet tells us that no one was to “pass through” Edom once again. The judgment was to fit the crime in the final judgment upon Edom, which has occupied Jerusalem while claiming the birthright and the birthright name, Israel.

Yet during the time allotted to them to prove themselves unworthy, we are not to treat them badly but are called to show them love and respect as a brother. Hence the law says in Deuteronomy 23:7, “You shall not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother.” Though Edom refused to treat Israel as a brother in violation of the law, we are not to do the same to them.

Note that the Israelites traveled around Edom to get to the Promised Land, giving respect to Edom as a brother. In the past century God blinded the church so that Esau-Edom would succeed in its identity theft, not only to bring judgment upon Jacob for his own act of stealing Esau’s identity, but also to ensure that the church would love and honor their brother. This has resulted in the church believing that the Edom is indeed chosen as the birthright holder.

God is indeed righteous in all His judgments.

Desolation

Isaiah 34:11 continues,

¹¹ But pelican and hedgehog will possess it, and owl and raven will dwell in it; and He will stretch over it the line of desolation [tohu, “formless”] and the plumb line of emptiness [bohu, “empty, void”].

The words tohu and bohu were used first in Genesis 1:2, “the earth was formless and void.” Further, a plumb line was normally used to determine the true vertical edge while constructing a building, so that it would not lean to one side (Amos 7:7). Hence, a plumb line is a biblical metaphor for Truth.

Isaiah tells us that God will use “the plumb line of emptiness” with Edom. In other words, Edom’s Zionist project will not be built upon Truth. So Malachi 1:4 says, “They may build, but I will tear down.”

Edom’s Unique Government

Isaiah 34:12 says,

¹² Its nobles—there is no one there whom they may proclaim king—and all its princes will be nothing.

In other words, they will not have a kingdom because they will lack both kings and princes. This refers to Edom’s unusual practice of being ruled by “dukes” (Genesis 36:15 KJV). The NASB calls them “chiefs.” The book of Jasher explains this in greater detail. Jasher 57:39, 40 says,

³⁹ And all the children of Esau swore, saying that none of their brethren should ever reign over them, but a strange man who is not of their brethren, for the souls of all the children of Esau were embittered every man against his son, brother and friend, on account of the evil they sustained from their brethren when they fought with the children of Seir. ⁴⁰ Therefore the sons of Esau swore, saying, from that day forward they would not choose a king from their brethren, but one from a strange land unto this day.

Their first king was Bela, the son of Beor, who was from Dinhabah, who then reigned in Edom for thirty years.

When Moses gave the law to Israel, he commanded in Deuteronomy 17:14, 15,

¹⁴ When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and say, “I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,” ¹⁵ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.

In other words, do not follow Edom’s example of crowning foreigners as kings. This law was applicable in the time that the people wanted a king, when God chose Saul of the tribe of Benjamin to rule over them. Likewise, David was of the tribe of Judah. Later, Jesus Christ came of the tribe of Judah, for this was the lawful requirement. The ultimate fulfillment, we know, is that Christ in His second coming must be of the tribe of Joseph in order to rule over all His brethren (Genesis 37:10) and inherit the birthright (1 Chronicles 5:1, 2).

Getting back to Isaiah 34:12, it appears that Edom’s original form of government was to be perpetuated in 1948 when they again formed an independent nation toward the end of the captivity to Mystery Babylon. It appears that the State of Israel was to be ruled by a foreign king of a hidden government, a “mystery” or “secret” government ruling the world.

This is suggested by the fact that it was the United Nations that authorized the formation of the State of Israel when it passed the Palestinian Resolution on November 29, 1947. That UN ruling has been used ever since to prove the legitimacy of the Jewish state when encountering opposition from various Arab states which denied its “right to exist.”

Isaiah 34:12 is vague, but when we understand Edom’s original form of government and how it has played out in ancient and modern history, we can interpret current events with greater clarity.

The Curse

Isaiah 34:13 continues,

¹³ Thorns will come up in its fortified towers, nettles and thistles in its fortified cities; it will also be a haunt of jackals and an abode of ostriches.

No doubt the prophet was again prophesying on two levels. First, we find Edom being desolate and uninhabited nationally speaking after being absorbed into Jewry in 126 B.C. Secondly, the scene of thorns and thistles suggests that Edom’s land was under the curse for Adam’s sin, for we read in Genesis 3:17, 18,

¹⁷ … Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. ¹⁸ Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field.

Of course, we are also aware of the connection between Adam (“ruddy”) and Edom (“red”). God’s curse upon the ground was a universal judgment upon all, but Scripture tells us that Edom was specifically cursed, along with a few others such as Canaan, Amalek, and later Jerusalem itself. Jeremiah 26:4-6 says,

⁴ And you will say to them, “Thus says the Lord, ‘If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, ⁵ to listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have been sending to you again and again, but you have not listened; ⁶ then I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city [Jerusalem] I will make a curse to all the nations of the earth’.”

Edom’s land became desolate, but when the nation was forcibly absorbed into Judah without a genuine heart conversion, the curse upon Edom was not cancelled. Instead, the curse was brought into Judah and Jerusalem, in order to fulfill the prophecies of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was the prophet who was told to smash an earthen vessel in the valley of Ben-hinnom, signifying the utter destruction of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 19:10, 11).

Other Creatures

Isaiah 34:14, 15 says,

¹⁴ The desert creatures will meet with the wolves, the hairy goat also will cry to its kind; yes, the night monster will settle there and will find herself a resting place. ¹⁵ The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there, and it will hatch and gather them under its protection. Yes, the hawks will be gathered there, every one with its kind.

The desert creatures meeting (joining forces with) the wolves is supported by the parallel idea of the hairy goat crying to its kind. The metaphor shows that the desert creatures have come in league with the wolves, even as the hairy goat is in league with “its kind.” Wolves, of course, are a metaphor for predators and violent men. The hairy goat is of particular interest, because of the name Mount Seir (“Goat Mountain”), the home of the Edomites. Note also that Esau himself was “hairy” (Genesis 25:25).

This suggests that Edom would “cry to its kind,” that is, Edom would appeal to the carnal nature in others. It suggests an alliance of the carnally-minded. The “tree snake” suggests the scene in the Garden of Eden, where the serpent tempted Eve at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In this case, the tree snake lays eggs in the protection of the tree, so that it can breed and spread its evil to other generations.

The main idea is that the curse on the ground was to be spread and enhanced by Edom and its ungodly allies, who are pictured as “mates” that breed evil in the earth.

The Book of the Lord

Isaiah 34:16, 17 concludes,

¹⁶ Seek from the book of the Lord and read: Not one of these will be missing; none will lack its mate. For His mouth has commanded, and His Spirit has gathered them. ¹⁷ He has cast the lot for them, and His hand has divided it to them by line. They shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they will dwell in it.

The prophet points to prophecies already written in the past in a book known as “the Book of the Lord.” In essence, Isaiah was proving the validity of his own prophecy, because the Book of the Lord had already said something similar. It appears that the prophet was quoting directly from this Book.

The Book of the Lord may have been the books that were already known to be Scripture. Certainly, this included the book of Genesis, which says in Genesis 1:24,

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.

Isaiah’s main point was that God had created the animals to reproduce after its kind. This command is then treated as a prophecy, not only of physical reproduction but also of spiritual reproduction. Righteousness breeds righteousness; unrighteousness breeds unrighteousness. Both do so without fail, for “none will lack its mate.” Hence, Abraham’s faith is reproduced in His spiritual children (Galatians 3:7); Edom’s lack of faith also has mates who reproduce his faithlessness. The Book of the Lord says so, according to Isaiah, and it explains the spiritual law of reproduction.

The “lot” being cast is a binary lot to determine yes or no, good or evil, light or darkness. In this case it is righteousness or unrighteousness in the story of Jacob and Esau, whom God chose by His own sovereign will, dividing them by “lot” before the boys were even born (Romans 9:11-13).