This then is the prophecy concerning Edom. “We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, (saying), Arise ye, and let us rise up against he in battle.” Woe to Edom, woe to mankind, for the hands of man are stained with the precious blood of Christ. But the end of mankind is not pictured here. This rather is a prophecy against religious flesh. The heathen are seen to be called to rise up against Edom, showing a distinction in mankind. The heathen are here those without the gospel, atheistic lands, who are called to rise up against the so-called Christian nations. As long as the Christian nations honored God, He in turn honored them and made them great, but when in their conceit they forgot God, He in turn forgot them. “Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.” As the Christian nations turned from God to trust in the arm of flesh more and more, so more and more their greatness was lost in the scheme of things, while greater and greater grew the “heathen,” until we see that God has brought about the impossible – “Behold, I have made thee small-and despised- among the heathen.” This is a prophecy relating to the end of all things, showing that God is active behind the scenes in an age where the motto reads, “God is dead.” It is God who exalts and it is God who puts down the mighty from their seats. When we forget that simple truth, and become Esau – the man of flesh – we should know that God holds us responsible for the blood of Christ and we are not only Esau but Edom in the sight of God.
How did we ever get to this state? “The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.” Thus saith the Lord God. When technological wonders became commonplace, when great mechanical marvels became the normal way of life, when man’s knowledge rapidly increased, we became conceited, vain and puffed up. In the space age God was obsolete, a myth, a worn-out tradition of the ancients. Proud man, dressed in a little brief authority, played such fantastic tricks before high heaven as made the angels weep. Listen then to the words of the God who made you. “The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.” In our eagerness for progress we overlooked one important point – God is above all and over all. The prophecy is directed to the so-called Christian nations – “thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock” – who turned away from their trust in God to set their nest among the stars. We thought we were the greatest, but God is greater. “I will bring thee down, saith the Lord.” The edict has gone out against us and none can turn it back. The scripture cannot be broken, God’s law is immutable and that is His word to us. Esau, the natural man, has got above himself, he is vainly puffed up with knowledge, he considers himself greater that God, while calamity stares him in the face. Thus saith the Lord, “I will bring thee down.”
