September 19, 2025 • 33 mins
God's sovereignty extends far beyond individual salvation to encompass entire nations—a biblical truth often overlooked in contemporary teaching. This eye-opening episode delves into Ezekiel 25, where God pronounces judgment on Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia for their centuries of hostility toward Israel.
What's remarkable is how God remembers national sins committed hundreds of years earlier. The Ammonites celebrated when Jerusalem fell. The Moabites claimed Judah was "like all other nations." The Edomites, despite being blood relatives through Esau, took vengeance against God's people. The Philistines maintained "everlasting enmity" toward Israel. For each, God pronounces specific judgments that were historically fulfilled through Babylon's conquests.
Throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, we see God actively raising up and tearing down nations, establishing their boundaries and appointed times. This isn't just Old Testament theology—Paul affirms it to the Athenians in Acts 17. Scripture presents three redemptive dimensions: individuals, creation, and nations.
This perspective challenges our modern tendency to compartmentalize faith as purely personal. While individual salvation has always been by grace through faith, God simultaneously works out His purposes in the geopolitical sphere. The Bible's consistent pattern shows that how nations treat Israel matters to God—a principle with profound implications for our world today.
As we reason through these challenging passages, we're reminded that only God can take righteous vengeance. Our ultimate comfort comes not from national identity but from personal salvation through Jesus Christ [the Messiah], who shields believers from the wrath these nations experienced. Join us next time as we explore God's judgment on Tyre and continue uncovering biblical truths that speak to every dimension of life.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible.
My name's Glenn, I'm here withSteve, we are working our way
through the book of Ezekiel andwe're in the beginning of the
section where God deals withnations.
And I thought we'd stop for aminute before we jump into
reading and talk about that,because we have, of course, in
(00:40):
the Bible, God dealing withIsrael and of course, there's
large sections of the Bible thattalk about salvation and our
relationship with God.
We also have large sections ofthe Bible that God deals with
nations, and we have here placessuch as this.
We're in Ezekiel, chapter 25.
(01:00):
And from Ezekiel 25 to 32, Godis dealing with a series of
nations, specifically Ammon,Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre,
Sidon and Egypt.
He deals with all these nations, giving them messages through
(01:21):
the prophet Ezekiel.
And further, as we've seenalready, God repeatedly says
that he's going to use Babylonas an instrument in the world.
He's going to use Babylon as aninstrument to punish the people
of Israel because of theirrepeated disobedience and he's
later going to punish Babylonfor their disobedience and
(01:45):
unrighteousness.
So we have here presented Godknowing about and dealing with
nations, and I think we need totalk about that just for a
second.
Steve, I think that a lot ofpeople of course in our day
focus on the Bible as giving amessage of personal salvation,
(02:06):
and that's true.
Nobody's going to sit here andsay that's not important.
But does God also deal withnations as well as individuals?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
He does deal with nations.
Glenn, there's actually threeredemptions through Scripture.
There is the redemption ofmankind, which you just
mentioned.
That is obviously the majortheme of Scripture.
But there's also redemption ofcreation.
Scripture tells us thatcreation groans under the curse
that it's under and it's lookingforward to the time whenever
(02:38):
this redemption comes about.
We're going to see that in thekingdom, restored kingdom of
Israel, call it the millennialkingdom that creation is going
to be redeemed.
The lion will lay down with thelamb and several different
types of things like that.
The curse is going to be takenaway.
Then there's also theredemption of the nations.
(03:00):
How did this start?
It started in Genesis, chapter10, at the Tower of Babel,
whenever God scattered all thenations.
All the nations were together.
They spoke one language.
He had a leader that said let'sbuild a ziggurat to the heavens
and God said that he needed totake down there and confuse
(03:22):
their languages, that he neededto take down there and confuse
their languages.
And he did that and hedispersed them and those nations
.
The table of nations in chapter10 of Genesis is displayed
there.
There's about 70 of them.
Then it's right after that, inGenesis 11, that God selects
Abraham in the Chaldees and thetown of Ur, and he calls him to
(03:45):
come follow him, that he willgive him a land and he will
multiply his descendants andthat through his descendants he
will be a blessing to all thenations.
This redemption of the nationsis a theme that as well out of
Abraham's descendants,specifically Isaac and Jacob,
(04:05):
comes this nation of Israel it'sdepicted in fact, that's the
rest of the Old Testament is thestory of God and the nation of
Israel, how they followed him attimes and how they didn't
follow him at other times.
And we just got through talkingin this first section of
Ezekiel, where he's going to dohis final discipline of
(04:27):
Jerusalem and the temple's goingto be destroyed.
And such the nation of Israelwas created to be a blessing to
other nations, not just to bringabout the Messiah, the Anointed
One, jesus Christ, who woulddie and be a satisfactory
sacrifice, god himself in flesh,but it was also to be a nation
(04:51):
that he would rule and that hewould show to all the other
nations, through Israel, how hewould interact and what type of
a merciful and good God that heis.
There is that theme as well,and through this section here,
that you're going to talk abouta little bit more and we'll read
some of these sections.
God is saying I'm going to holdthese nations accountable.
(05:15):
It's not just you, israel,that's going to be held
accountable for what you'redoing.
I'm going to hold themaccountable as well, because
part of it was that Israel hadgone off and followed the other
nations.
Rather than being an example tothe other nations to follow God
Yahweh, they had gone off andhad the other nations influence
(05:35):
them to follow their godsChemosh, molech, ashtoreth,
dagon, all of these other godsfrom these surrounding nations
that influenced Israel, and theyhad gone off and followed them.
God is telling Israel you'regoing to be disciplined, you're
going to come to a point whenyour city and your temple and
(05:58):
your sanctuary is going to betaken away from you, but these
other nations are going to bejudged as well because of their
actions.
So that is the section ofEzekiel that we're talking about
now.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
We have in our day people that, of course, focus a
lot in churches on personalsalvation, and that's good.
We should focus a lot onpersonal salvation.
Large sections of the Biblefocus on personal salvation, but
there's many of these passagesthat deal with nations that are
just not taught.
Besides Ezekiel, we have bookssuch as Isaiah, jeremiah,
(06:34):
obadiah, amos, nahum, zephaniah,jonah, habakkuk all these ones
plus the ones, steve, that youmentioned a minute ago.
There's vast swaths of theBible that talk about God
raising up and tearing down anddealing with nations, and it's
not just the nation Israel, it'smany other nations.
(06:57):
Again, there's a double handful, just here in Ezekiel.
It's to the point in ourchurches today where I've even
heard pastors that if we bringup the idea that God might have
a future for a nation and notjust individual people, those
ideas are so ignored in ourchurches that people think it's
(07:17):
strange that people think, wow,this is somehow some sort of
foreign teaching outside ofChristianity that's crept in.
No, we're just reading thescriptures Again.
Let me bring up just a handfulof these that I've got here just
to show that God repeatedlythoroughly deals with nations.
(07:38):
Isaiah 9, verses 11 and 12, godcauses the Arameans and the
Philistines to be victorious inwar.
Again, he's causing the victoryover non-Jewish, non-israeli,
non-christian nations.
Habakkuk 1.6 says, quote I amraising up the Chaldeans to
seize dwelling places that arenot theirs.
(08:00):
Close quote we have God causingvictory over nations that are
not his chosen people.
Daniel God raises up andteardowns nations and kings.
There's whole chapters full ofthat in Daniel.
Jeremiah 50, verse 9, god saysquote for behold, I am going to
arouse and bring up againstBabylon a horde of great nations
(08:24):
from the land of the north.
Close quote Psalm 22.8, godsays he rules over the nations,
judges 2.20 and following God,decides which nations he will
drive out of the land, in whichhe will not.
He's deciding what's going tohappen with all these nations.
Acts 17,.
Lest we think this is only anOld Testament thing, acts 17,
(08:48):
paul tells the Greeks in Athensthat God made from one man every
nation of mankind to live onthe face of the earth, having
determined their appointed timesand the boundaries of their
habitation.
Close quote.
Therefore, over and over OldTestament, new Testament, god
(09:10):
has an agenda for nations.
He controls nations.
He drives out some, he leavessome.
He raises up some, he tearsdown some.
He causes victories and defeats.
He has a future for some ofthem.
Steve, it's like people thinktoday that it's somehow
blasphemous that God can do morethan one thing at a time.
(09:32):
I think it's not a problem forGod to have a plan of personal
salvation and a plan for nations, and those don't overlap or
compete.
We're not saying there'sdifferent views of salvation.
We've said over and over in ourBible studies there's one plan
of salvation for all time, fromGarden of Eden to Revelation.
(09:56):
We're saved one way by gracethrough faith.
It was that way in the OldTestament, it's that way in the
New, it's that way forever.
Way in the Old Testament, it'sthat way in the New, it's that
way forever.
Personal salvation, today andin the past and tomorrow, is by
faith.
It's by grace through faith.
It's always been that way.
In addition to that, god's notlimited.
(10:16):
He can raise up and tear downnations as he wills at the same
time.
Somehow that concept is justlost.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
When we went through Zechariah, we talked about this,
because Zechariah explicitly,in a few of its sections, talked
about how the nations weregoing to become believers in
Yahweh, and it also talks aboutin that part, in chapter 2,
specifically that God was goingto discipline the nations that
plundered Israel, the ones that,how it was put in Zechariah,
(10:48):
that touched the apple of hiseye, his being God's eye, and
talking about the nation ofIsrael itself.
So, yes, the nations are partof God's plan and we see that
through these various prophetsthat you just named off.
Again, I encourage our audienceto go listen to our study in
(11:09):
the book of Zechariah, becauseit's very plain to see that the
nations are going to be part ofthe worshiping of Yahweh.
At some point in the future,during that restored nation of
Israel, all the nations aregoing to come and give tribute
to God.
Jesus himself is going to rulefrom Jerusalem.
(11:31):
He's going to rule not justIsrael, he's going to rule all
the nations.
This is an integral part of thenarrative of Scripture and it is
a part that I think has beenleft out of so many sermons and
Bible studies.
I don't think necessarily it'sleft out on purpose, I just
(11:51):
think that it's not picked upand discussed, partly because
you don't see many in our dayand age go verse by verse
through every book of the Bible.
But when you do that, when yougo through chapter 1, verse 1 to
the last chapter, last verse,then you start to see this
(12:12):
pattern and this third theme ofredemption of the nations.
I think it's pretty clear.
I think it's very clear.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I think that only by ignoring these passages or
putting on some sort of coloredglasses can we ignore the many
passages in the Bible that talkabout what God does with nations
.
In Ezekiel 25, we're to thissection now where he talks about
these nations.
There's a pattern to how he'sdealing with things.
(12:41):
He usually starts off eachnation by saying because you
have, and he lists off thingsthat they've done and ends with
therefore I will.
Then he talks about executingjudgment, his fury, his wrath,
etc.
And at the end he wraps up withthen they will know that I am
(13:01):
the Lord.
So he tells because you havedone these things, therefore I
will execute my judgment and youwill know that I am the Lord.
Always when you're doing Biblestudy, look for patterns like
this and it'll tell you wherethe sections are.
In these sections it's actuallya little hard to read sometimes
, just because it's quitegraphic and it's quite severe
(13:25):
what God does.
In these books, such as Ezekieland Jeremiah and Isaiah, they
all have many chapters on God'sjudgment, as do some other Old
Testament prophets, but there'sjudgment in the New Testament as
well.
I mean there's chapters in thebook of Revelation that deal
with the specifics of God'swrath.
(13:46):
In other places it's justmentioned as wrathful.
When we get to this section ofScripture we see this wrath, but
we also have to note they alsotalk about restoration and God's
goodness and His mercy.
If you do a word search forlove and mercy, you're going to
(14:07):
find that more in the OldTestament than you do the New,
and you're going to findpassages more about hell and
destruction in the New Testamentthan you do the Old.
But there are these passagesand we have to deal with them
because they're in front of them.
I want to read a quote from theBible teacher J Vernon McGee at
the beginning of this section.
(14:28):
Mcgee says this quote we get awarped view of him.
He means God when all we hearis God is love, god is love.
It is true that God is love,but don't lose sight of the fact
that God is also holy.
He is righteous and he willjudge.
You are not rushing into heavenon the little love boat.
(14:51):
You will go to heaven only ifyou put your faith and trust in
Jesus Christ, who shed his bloodand gave his life on the cross.
Then you will have eternal lifeand will be covered with the
righteousness of Christ standingcomplete and acceptable in him.
If you reject his salvation,there will be nothing left but
(15:12):
judgment.
Steve, let's go ahead and jumpin.
Can you read the first sevenverses of Ezekiel, chapter 25?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
And the word of the Lord came to me saying Son of
man, set your face toward thesons of Ammon and prophesy
against them and say to the sonsof Ammon Hear the word of the
Lord God.
Thus says the Lord God, Becauseyou said Aha against my
sanctuary when it was profaned,and against the land of Israel
(15:42):
when it was made desolate, andagainst the house of Judah when
they went into exile.
Therefore, behold, I am goingto give you to the sons of the
east for a possession, and theywill set their encampments upon
you and make their dwellingsamong you.
They will eat your fruit anddrink your milk.
I will make Rabbah a pasturefor camels and the sons of Ammon
(16:08):
a resting place for flocks.
Thus you will know I am theLord, for thus says the Lord God
, because you have clapped yourhands and stamped your feet and
rejoiced with all the scorn ofyour soul against the land of
Israel.
Therefore, behold, I havestretched out my hand against
(16:28):
you and I will give you forspoil to the nations.
I will cut you off from thepeoples and make you perish from
the lands.
I will destroy you.
Thus you will know that I amthe.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Lord God is speaking here, through the prophet
Ezekiel, to the people of Ammon,the Ammonites and the Ammonites
.
If we remember their history,they are in the Old Testament
all the way back to Joshua's day.
The Ammonites lived east of theJordan River and Joshua and
(17:03):
company encountered them whenthey came in to take the land.
The god of Ammon was Molech,the god that people sacrificed
their children to.
The Ammonites fought againstIsrael during the time of the
judges and, if we remember, thiswas also the group that
Jephthah promised God that if hedefeated the Ammonites, he
(17:25):
would sacrifice the first thingthat came through his gate when
he returned home, which was avery foolish promise.
So we have the people of Ammon,the Ammonites, that have been
around for most of the OldTestament.
Yet they're still here, steve.
We still have their prophetsgiving messages and it seems
(17:46):
that God will, as sure ascertain he's going to deal with
them Even going back further inhistory, the Ammonites and the
Moabites, the next group thatwe're going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
They are cousins to the Israelites Because, if you
go back, they are the offspringof Lot and his daughters.
After the destruction of Sodom,Lot and his daughters went and
hid in a cave, and the daughtersthought that their world had
been destroyed, and so theydevised this plan to sleep with
(18:22):
Lot, their father, and the twosons were born, one from the
youngest daughter and one fromthe oldest, and that are the
people of Ammon and Moab, andLot was Abraham's nephew.
So there's this relationshipbetween these people groups.
Yet we see through the historythat God is specific, through
(18:46):
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to betheir God, the one and true God.
He gives them the nation ofIsrael, the ordinances, statutes
and etc.
And once again, Israel wasmeant to be an influence to
these other nations, but theyweren't and they allowed these
other pagan nations to influencethem.
So when you start looking atthe history that's there, it's
(19:10):
quite interesting how all ofthese people groups are
interrelated to each other, eventhough they have history of
antagonistic behavior with eachother.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Steve, you mentioned the history of these people all
the way back to Abraham's dayand the time of the judges.
Well, when Ezekiel was speaking, the time of Joshua and the
judges, that was at least athousand years earlier and even
longer.
It had been many centuries thatthese people had been a thorn
(19:43):
in the side of Israel.
First question is does God knowwhat these non we'd use the
word non-Christian but not hischosen people?
Does he know what they do?
And the answer is yes, he haskept track.
The second is do they get awaywith it?
He is bringing up things herethat God knows about, that have
been in place and needed to bedealt with for a millennia.
(20:04):
Do people get away?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
with sin.
No, they don't get away withsin.
God obviously knows about thesin that are our individual
lives and he also knows aboutthe sin of the nations.
I know it's maybe controversialin our day that we're speaking
here, glenn, to say that if anation blesses the nation of
Israel, that they'll be blessedthemselves, and if they don't,
(20:30):
that they'll be cursed.
I know that that's not apopular thing to say in these
days, but God still keeps trackof what's going on and, as I
mentioned before, god describesthe nation of Israel as the
apple of his eye.
So it's very dangerous for theseother nations to go against
Israel, because God is keepingtrack of what's going on and
(20:53):
he's very explicit that there isgoing to be some discipline
with these nations and we seethrough the prophets that God is
telling of still future actionsthat are going to take place,
that there's going to be wrathand judgment on these other
nations that come against Israel.
Rather than try to put thosethings aside and bury them in
(21:16):
the ground and say, no, we don'tneed to worry about the current
state of the nation of Israel,because God is done and through
with them, that is a tremendousmistake that I think that Bible
scholars make.
If God has judged themthroughout the centuries and
eons of other nations how theytreated Israel, then believe me,
(21:40):
he's going to judge the nationson how they treat Israel now.
And God has not left that as anopen slate to wonder.
Is that going to happen?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
He tells us it is going to happen through several
of his prophets In Ezekiel 25,verse 6, he says specifically
that he is judging these peoplebecause of how they treated
Israel.
Therefore, we can draw somestrong conclusions from that.
He is judging these people inEzekiel's day on how they
(22:13):
treated Israel 1,500 to 2,000years earlier.
He was telling Abraham that thepeople around them would be
judged on how they treat thenation Israel.
So if he did it in Abraham'sday, he did it in Ezekiel's day.
There's nothing in thescripture that takes away the
idea that God, yes, he dealswith personal salvation, but he
(22:38):
also deals with nations and wewill be judged by how we treat
the nation Israel Doesn't meanwe have to accept everything
Israel does on a moral level.
We're just saying that if we docrimes against Israel, we'll be
judged for it.
We will be judged for how wedeal with Israel If we continue.
(22:59):
It tells us how much controlGod has over these nations,
which is complete and total.
Let's read the next sectionabout Moab, starting in verse 8.
Thus says the Lord God, becauseMoab and Sayer say behold, the
house of Judah is like all thenations.
Therefore, behold, I am goingto deprive the flank of Moab of
(23:20):
its cities, of its cities whichare on its frontiers, the glory
of its land, beth Jeshemoth, itsfrontiers, the glory of its
land, beth-jeshemoth, baal-maonand Kirithaim, and I will give
it for a possession, along withthe sons of Ammon, to the sons
of the east, so that the sons ofAmmon will not be remembered
among the nations.
(23:40):
Thus, I will execute judgmentson Moab and they will know that
I am the Lord.
Steve, I have a question Do youremember Moab?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
No, I don't remember Moab and there's not a nation of
Moab today.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
We have that here.
I mean, it's basically afootnote in some history books
recorded here.
But if you walk up to anyone onthe street, even national
ambassadors, things like thatthey're not going to remember
what happened to Moab.
The Moabites attacked Israel inJudges, chapter 3.
The Moabites were the enemy ofIsrael for much of its existence
(24:16):
and it says here in verse 10,what God will do to the people
of Moab is give them to thepeople of the east to be slaves.
Steve, who is in control of thenations?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
God is in control and the people of the east is
Babylon.
That's this time period that istalking about here.
And Babylon was to the east ofall of these nations, here in
the Jordan River Valley, overinto the Mediterranean Sea and
with Ammon.
God says I'm judging youbecause you're rejoicing because
(24:52):
the city of Jerusalem and thetemple, the sanctuary, is being
torn down and you've clappedyour hands in rejoicing that
Israel has been destroyed andJerusalem and Judah has finally
been taken into captivity.
And it's the same thing withthe Moabites that are here.
So while we've talked about inthis session, Glenn, about
judgment of the nations, we alsoneed to acknowledge that
(25:16):
individuals within those nationscan always come to a belief in
God and have salvation.
We go back to the story of Ruth.
Ruth was a Moabitess and inthat story we've gone through
the book of Ruth.
In that story of Ruth, naomiand her husband with her sons
(25:38):
went to Moab because of adrought in the Bethlehem area
and the sons buried Moabitewomen.
One of her sons married Ruth.
They all died and the storygoes that Naomi went back to
Israel and Ruth went back withher and we have that whole great
(25:58):
story of Ruth and Ruth'scommitment to God and Yahweh
when she says I'm going to gowith you, naomi, and I'm going
to follow you back to your landand your God will be my God.
Where you live, I'm going tolive, and where you die, I'm
going to die as well.
And we have that complete storyof Ruth and she is what ends up
(26:22):
being in the line of David and,of course, david is in the line
of Jesus Christ.
So we do want to point out that, even though there's judgment
on nations, there's always achance for the individuals
within those nations to becomebelievers in God.
In our case, it's to be abeliever and trust in Jesus
(26:43):
Christ in order to havesalvation.
While there's judgment onnations, it's always up to the
individuals to be able to comeand be followers of Jesus Christ
.
The next section.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
God gives a message to the people of Edom and, if
you remember, the Edomites werethe people that back in Moses'
day, when they were wandering inthe wilderness, Moses asked
permission to cross their landand the Edomites refused.
Steve, can you read verses 12,13, and?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
14?
.
Thus says the Lord God, becauseEdom has acted against the
house of Judah by takingvengeance and has incurred
grievous guilt and avengedthemselves upon them.
Therefore, says the Lord God, Iwill also stretch out my hand
against Edom and cut off man andbeast from it and I will lay it
waste from Taman even to Dedan.
(27:36):
They will fall by the sword.
I will lay my vengeance on Edomby the hand of my people,
Israel.
Therefore, they will act inEdom according to my anger and
according to my wrath.
Thus they will know myvengeance, declares the Lord God
.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
With this again we have the Edomites, and these
were people that attacked Judahback in 2 Chronicles 20.
And the Edomites rejoiced atthe fall of Judah in Psalm 137.
These were people again thatwere around Israel and Judah and
(28:12):
had been causing them troublein not obeying God's laws.
God knows about it, he had kepttrack of it, he had warned them
and here God is giving judgmentagainst them.
Ezekiel 25, verse 12,.
God says the reason he isagainst Edom is because they
took it upon themselves to takerevenge on Judah.
(28:36):
God says here I will takevengeance.
I'm reminded of a couple ofplaces in the Bible.
God says vengeance is mine.
He says that in the NewTestament and the Old Hebrews,
10.30, and Deuteronomy 32.35.
Vengeance belongs to the Lord.
Here we have where God actuallydoes take vengeance.
(28:58):
And again the message here overand over just because it had
been a while since these crimeswere committed doesn't mean God
won't deal with it.
We have to take that sameattitude into our lives.
We may think we get away withit.
I think I get away with my sin.
God will deal with it one wayor the other.
Steve, talking about vengeance,which is what God mentions here
(29:22):
, why do we have so much troublewith this idea of turning
revenge over to the Lord insteadof taking it myself.
Why is that so hard for mostpeople?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I think, because we're impatient people and we
want to see the justice done now.
I think in many cases we wantto participate in that justice,
or what we think is justice, butwe're told to not always do
that.
That vengeance is mine, saysthe Lord.
We're to turn many situationsover to God.
(29:54):
Let Him take care of it, andwhen we do that, we're assured
that the justice is going to betrue and it's going to be
accurate and it's going to beone which the people deserve to
let God do the vengeance and notfor us to do the vengeance.
As we mentioned before that,ammon and Moab were cousins of
(30:15):
the nation of Israel.
Edom is a brother to the nationof Israel.
Edom are descendants of Esau.
Edom means red and Esau was ared-headed and red-haired person
and of course he sold hisbirthright for a bowl of red
lentils.
So Edom is a direct relation tothe nation of Israel.
(30:38):
And all three of these nationsare on the east side of the
Jordan River Amman, then belowit, moab, and then below it is
Edom, kind of around the easternpart of the Dead Sea and the
southeastern part of the DeadSea.
These are where these nationsare located.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
In the last three verses in this chapter speak
about the Philistines.
And if you remember thePhilistines, they were a
perpetual enemy of Israelthroughout the Old Testament.
The Philistines, they were aperpetual enemy of Israel
throughout the Old Testament.
The Philistines showed up in acouple of places.
Goliath remember of David andGoliath.
Goliath was fighting for thePhilistines.
And in Judges, chapter 3, wayback in the early years of
(31:20):
Israel's being in the land, Godsays he's going to leave the
Philistines there to test Israel.
So again, God decides who'sgoing to leave, who's going to
stay where the boundaries are,and causes the victory in some
nations and causes the loss inthe other.
(31:40):
God's prophecy in Ezekiel wasliterally fulfilled when the
Philistines were defeated by theBabylonians.
It says here in verses 15, 16,and 17, that God is going to
destroy them again because theytook it upon themselves to take
vengeance.
Let me just read verse 15.
(32:01):
Thus says the Lord God, becausethe Philistines have acted in
revenge and have taken vengeancewith scorn of soul, to destroy
with everlasting enmity.
Therefore, thus says the Lord,God, Behold, I will stretch out
my hand against the Philistines,even cut off the Cherothites
and destroy the remnants on theseacoast.
(32:21):
He says, right there, I willexecute great vengeance on them
with wrathful rebukes, and theywill know that I am the Lord
when I lay my vengeance on them.
As we've seen, Steve, only Godcan take vengeance and he
remembers, and there's alwaysjustice.
Time may go by and we may thinkwe get away with it, but we
(32:46):
won't.
God keeps track, so it forcesus all to fall at his feet and
beg forgiveness.
It's a great thing that we haveJesus Christ, that we don't
have to undergo God's wrath inthe sense of cleansing us to his
wrath.
We have his loving hand offorgiveness and because of that
(33:08):
we can take great comfort inpersonal salvation.
But oh, these passages that areso ignored, where God deals
with nations, back here in thissection.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
And, as we mentioned before, it's always best to let
God take care of the vengeanceand not take it into our own
hands.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
We'll be back next time to reason through when God
takes control of the nation ofTyre.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Thank you, so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible.
My name's Glenn, I'm here withSteve, we are working our way
through the book of Ezekiel andwe're in the beginning of the
section where God deals withnations.
And I thought we'd stop for aminute before we jump into
reading and talk about that,because we have, of course, in
(00:40):
the Bible, God dealing withIsrael and of course, there's
large sections of the Bible thattalk about salvation and our
relationship with God.
We also have large sections ofthe Bible that God deals with
nations, and we have here placessuch as this.
We're in Ezekiel, chapter 25.
(01:00):
And from Ezekiel 25 to 32, Godis dealing with a series of
nations, specifically Ammon,Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre,
Sidon and Egypt.
He deals with all these nations, giving them messages through
(01:21):
the prophet Ezekiel.
And further, as we've seenalready, God repeatedly says
that he's going to use Babylonas an instrument in the world.
He's going to use Babylon as aninstrument to punish the people
of Israel because of theirrepeated disobedience and he's
later going to punish Babylonfor their disobedience and
(01:45):
unrighteousness.
So we have here presented Godknowing about and dealing with
nations, and I think we need totalk about that just for a
second.
Steve, I think that a lot ofpeople of course in our day
focus on the Bible as giving amessage of personal salvation,
(02:06):
and that's true.
Nobody's going to sit here andsay that's not important.
But does God also deal withnations as well as individuals?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
He does deal with nations.
Glenn, there's actually threeredemptions through Scripture.
There is the redemption ofmankind, which you just
mentioned.
That is obviously the majortheme of Scripture.
But there's also redemption ofcreation.
Scripture tells us thatcreation groans under the curse
that it's under and it's lookingforward to the time whenever
(02:38):
this redemption comes about.
We're going to see that in thekingdom, restored kingdom of
Israel, call it the millennialkingdom that creation is going
to be redeemed.
The lion will lay down with thelamb and several different
types of things like that.
The curse is going to be takenaway.
Then there's also theredemption of the nations.
(03:00):
How did this start?
It started in Genesis, chapter10, at the Tower of Babel,
whenever God scattered all thenations.
All the nations were together.
They spoke one language.
He had a leader that said let'sbuild a ziggurat to the heavens
and God said that he needed totake down there and confuse
(03:22):
their languages, that he neededto take down there and confuse
their languages.
And he did that and hedispersed them and those nations
.
The table of nations in chapter10 of Genesis is displayed
there.
There's about 70 of them.
Then it's right after that, inGenesis 11, that God selects
Abraham in the Chaldees and thetown of Ur, and he calls him to
(03:45):
come follow him, that he willgive him a land and he will
multiply his descendants andthat through his descendants he
will be a blessing to all thenations.
This redemption of the nationsis a theme that as well out of
Abraham's descendants,specifically Isaac and Jacob,
(04:05):
comes this nation of Israel it'sdepicted in fact, that's the
rest of the Old Testament is thestory of God and the nation of
Israel, how they followed him attimes and how they didn't
follow him at other times.
And we just got through talkingin this first section of
Ezekiel, where he's going to dohis final discipline of
(04:27):
Jerusalem and the temple's goingto be destroyed.
And such the nation of Israelwas created to be a blessing to
other nations, not just to bringabout the Messiah, the Anointed
One, jesus Christ, who woulddie and be a satisfactory
sacrifice, god himself in flesh,but it was also to be a nation
(04:51):
that he would rule and that hewould show to all the other
nations, through Israel, how hewould interact and what type of
a merciful and good God that heis.
There is that theme as well,and through this section here,
that you're going to talk abouta little bit more and we'll read
some of these sections.
God is saying I'm going to holdthese nations accountable.
(05:15):
It's not just you, israel,that's going to be held
accountable for what you'redoing.
I'm going to hold themaccountable as well, because
part of it was that Israel hadgone off and followed the other
nations.
Rather than being an example tothe other nations to follow God
Yahweh, they had gone off andhad the other nations influence
(05:35):
them to follow their godsChemosh, molech, ashtoreth,
dagon, all of these other godsfrom these surrounding nations
that influenced Israel, and theyhad gone off and followed them.
God is telling Israel you'regoing to be disciplined, you're
going to come to a point whenyour city and your temple and
(05:58):
your sanctuary is going to betaken away from you, but these
other nations are going to bejudged as well because of their
actions.
So that is the section ofEzekiel that we're talking about
now.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
We have in our day people that, of course, focus a
lot in churches on personalsalvation, and that's good.
We should focus a lot onpersonal salvation.
Large sections of the Biblefocus on personal salvation, but
there's many of these passagesthat deal with nations that are
just not taught.
Besides Ezekiel, we have bookssuch as Isaiah, jeremiah,
(06:34):
obadiah, amos, nahum, zephaniah,jonah, habakkuk all these ones
plus the ones, steve, that youmentioned a minute ago.
There's vast swaths of theBible that talk about God
raising up and tearing down anddealing with nations, and it's
not just the nation Israel, it'smany other nations.
(06:57):
Again, there's a double handful, just here in Ezekiel.
It's to the point in ourchurches today where I've even
heard pastors that if we bringup the idea that God might have
a future for a nation and notjust individual people, those
ideas are so ignored in ourchurches that people think it's
(07:17):
strange that people think, wow,this is somehow some sort of
foreign teaching outside ofChristianity that's crept in.
No, we're just reading thescriptures Again.
Let me bring up just a handfulof these that I've got here just
to show that God repeatedlythoroughly deals with nations.
(07:38):
Isaiah 9, verses 11 and 12, godcauses the Arameans and the
Philistines to be victorious inwar.
Again, he's causing the victoryover non-Jewish, non-israeli,
non-christian nations.
Habakkuk 1.6 says, quote I amraising up the Chaldeans to
seize dwelling places that arenot theirs.
(08:00):
Close quote we have God causingvictory over nations that are
not his chosen people.
Daniel God raises up andteardowns nations and kings.
There's whole chapters full ofthat in Daniel.
Jeremiah 50, verse 9, god saysquote for behold, I am going to
arouse and bring up againstBabylon a horde of great nations
(08:24):
from the land of the north.
Close quote Psalm 22.8, godsays he rules over the nations,
judges 2.20 and following God,decides which nations he will
drive out of the land, in whichhe will not.
He's deciding what's going tohappen with all these nations.
Acts 17,.
Lest we think this is only anOld Testament thing, acts 17,
(08:48):
paul tells the Greeks in Athensthat God made from one man every
nation of mankind to live onthe face of the earth, having
determined their appointed timesand the boundaries of their
habitation.
Close quote.
Therefore, over and over OldTestament, new Testament, god
(09:10):
has an agenda for nations.
He controls nations.
He drives out some, he leavessome.
He raises up some, he tearsdown some.
He causes victories and defeats.
He has a future for some ofthem.
Steve, it's like people thinktoday that it's somehow
blasphemous that God can do morethan one thing at a time.
(09:32):
I think it's not a problem forGod to have a plan of personal
salvation and a plan for nations, and those don't overlap or
compete.
We're not saying there'sdifferent views of salvation.
We've said over and over in ourBible studies there's one plan
of salvation for all time, fromGarden of Eden to Revelation.
(09:56):
We're saved one way by gracethrough faith.
It was that way in the OldTestament, it's that way in the
New, it's that way forever.
Way in the Old Testament, it'sthat way in the New, it's that
way forever.
Personal salvation, today andin the past and tomorrow, is by
faith.
It's by grace through faith.
It's always been that way.
In addition to that, god's notlimited.
(10:16):
He can raise up and tear downnations as he wills at the same
time.
Somehow that concept is justlost.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
When we went through Zechariah, we talked about this,
because Zechariah explicitly,in a few of its sections, talked
about how the nations weregoing to become believers in
Yahweh, and it also talks aboutin that part, in chapter 2,
specifically that God was goingto discipline the nations that
plundered Israel, the ones that,how it was put in Zechariah,
(10:48):
that touched the apple of hiseye, his being God's eye, and
talking about the nation ofIsrael itself.
So, yes, the nations are partof God's plan and we see that
through these various prophetsthat you just named off.
Again, I encourage our audienceto go listen to our study in
(11:09):
the book of Zechariah, becauseit's very plain to see that the
nations are going to be part ofthe worshiping of Yahweh.
At some point in the future,during that restored nation of
Israel, all the nations aregoing to come and give tribute
to God.
Jesus himself is going to rulefrom Jerusalem.
(11:31):
He's going to rule not justIsrael, he's going to rule all
the nations.
This is an integral part of thenarrative of Scripture and it is
a part that I think has beenleft out of so many sermons and
Bible studies.
I don't think necessarily it'sleft out on purpose, I just
(11:51):
think that it's not picked upand discussed, partly because
you don't see many in our dayand age go verse by verse
through every book of the Bible.
But when you do that, when yougo through chapter 1, verse 1 to
the last chapter, last verse,then you start to see this
(12:12):
pattern and this third theme ofredemption of the nations.
I think it's pretty clear.
I think it's very clear.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I think that only by ignoring these passages or
putting on some sort of coloredglasses can we ignore the many
passages in the Bible that talkabout what God does with nations
.
In Ezekiel 25, we're to thissection now where he talks about
these nations.
There's a pattern to how he'sdealing with things.
(12:41):
He usually starts off eachnation by saying because you
have, and he lists off thingsthat they've done and ends with
therefore I will.
Then he talks about executingjudgment, his fury, his wrath,
etc.
And at the end he wraps up withthen they will know that I am
(13:01):
the Lord.
So he tells because you havedone these things, therefore I
will execute my judgment and youwill know that I am the Lord.
Always when you're doing Biblestudy, look for patterns like
this and it'll tell you wherethe sections are.
In these sections it's actuallya little hard to read sometimes
, just because it's quitegraphic and it's quite severe
(13:25):
what God does.
In these books, such as Ezekieland Jeremiah and Isaiah, they
all have many chapters on God'sjudgment, as do some other Old
Testament prophets, but there'sjudgment in the New Testament as
well.
I mean there's chapters in thebook of Revelation that deal
with the specifics of God'swrath.
(13:46):
In other places it's justmentioned as wrathful.
When we get to this section ofScripture we see this wrath, but
we also have to note they alsotalk about restoration and God's
goodness and His mercy.
If you do a word search forlove and mercy, you're going to
(14:07):
find that more in the OldTestament than you do the New,
and you're going to findpassages more about hell and
destruction in the New Testamentthan you do the Old.
But there are these passagesand we have to deal with them
because they're in front of them.
I want to read a quote from theBible teacher J Vernon McGee at
the beginning of this section.
(14:28):
Mcgee says this quote we get awarped view of him.
He means God when all we hearis God is love, god is love.
It is true that God is love,but don't lose sight of the fact
that God is also holy.
He is righteous and he willjudge.
You are not rushing into heavenon the little love boat.
(14:51):
You will go to heaven only ifyou put your faith and trust in
Jesus Christ, who shed his bloodand gave his life on the cross.
Then you will have eternal lifeand will be covered with the
righteousness of Christ standingcomplete and acceptable in him.
If you reject his salvation,there will be nothing left but
(15:12):
judgment.
Steve, let's go ahead and jumpin.
Can you read the first sevenverses of Ezekiel, chapter 25?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
And the word of the Lord came to me saying Son of
man, set your face toward thesons of Ammon and prophesy
against them and say to the sonsof Ammon Hear the word of the
Lord God.
Thus says the Lord God, Becauseyou said Aha against my
sanctuary when it was profaned,and against the land of Israel
(15:42):
when it was made desolate, andagainst the house of Judah when
they went into exile.
Therefore, behold, I am goingto give you to the sons of the
east for a possession, and theywill set their encampments upon
you and make their dwellingsamong you.
They will eat your fruit anddrink your milk.
I will make Rabbah a pasturefor camels and the sons of Ammon
(16:08):
a resting place for flocks.
Thus you will know I am theLord, for thus says the Lord God
, because you have clapped yourhands and stamped your feet and
rejoiced with all the scorn ofyour soul against the land of
Israel.
Therefore, behold, I havestretched out my hand against
(16:28):
you and I will give you forspoil to the nations.
I will cut you off from thepeoples and make you perish from
the lands.
I will destroy you.
Thus you will know that I amthe.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Lord God is speaking here, through the prophet
Ezekiel, to the people of Ammon,the Ammonites and the Ammonites
.
If we remember their history,they are in the Old Testament
all the way back to Joshua's day.
The Ammonites lived east of theJordan River and Joshua and
(17:03):
company encountered them whenthey came in to take the land.
The god of Ammon was Molech,the god that people sacrificed
their children to.
The Ammonites fought againstIsrael during the time of the
judges and, if we remember, thiswas also the group that
Jephthah promised God that if hedefeated the Ammonites, he
(17:25):
would sacrifice the first thingthat came through his gate when
he returned home, which was avery foolish promise.
So we have the people of Ammon,the Ammonites, that have been
around for most of the OldTestament.
Yet they're still here, steve.
We still have their prophetsgiving messages and it seems
(17:46):
that God will, as sure ascertain he's going to deal with
them Even going back further inhistory, the Ammonites and the
Moabites, the next group thatwe're going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
They are cousins to the Israelites Because, if you
go back, they are the offspringof Lot and his daughters.
After the destruction of Sodom,Lot and his daughters went and
hid in a cave, and the daughtersthought that their world had
been destroyed, and so theydevised this plan to sleep with
(18:22):
Lot, their father, and the twosons were born, one from the
youngest daughter and one fromthe oldest, and that are the
people of Ammon and Moab, andLot was Abraham's nephew.
So there's this relationshipbetween these people groups.
Yet we see through the historythat God is specific, through
(18:46):
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to betheir God, the one and true God.
He gives them the nation ofIsrael, the ordinances, statutes
and etc.
And once again, Israel wasmeant to be an influence to
these other nations, but theyweren't and they allowed these
other pagan nations to influencethem.
So when you start looking atthe history that's there, it's
(19:10):
quite interesting how all ofthese people groups are
interrelated to each other, eventhough they have history of
antagonistic behavior with eachother.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Steve, you mentioned the history of these people all
the way back to Abraham's dayand the time of the judges.
Well, when Ezekiel was speaking, the time of Joshua and the
judges, that was at least athousand years earlier and even
longer.
It had been many centuries thatthese people had been a thorn
(19:43):
in the side of Israel.
First question is does God knowwhat these non we'd use the
word non-Christian but not hischosen people?
Does he know what they do?
And the answer is yes, he haskept track.
The second is do they get awaywith it?
He is bringing up things herethat God knows about, that have
been in place and needed to bedealt with for a millennia.
(20:04):
Do people get away?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
with sin.
No, they don't get away withsin.
God obviously knows about thesin that are our individual
lives and he also knows aboutthe sin of the nations.
I know it's maybe controversialin our day that we're speaking
here, glenn, to say that if anation blesses the nation of
Israel, that they'll be blessedthemselves, and if they don't,
(20:30):
that they'll be cursed.
I know that that's not apopular thing to say in these
days, but God still keeps trackof what's going on and, as I
mentioned before, god describesthe nation of Israel as the
apple of his eye.
So it's very dangerous for theseother nations to go against
Israel, because God is keepingtrack of what's going on and
(20:53):
he's very explicit that there isgoing to be some discipline
with these nations and we seethrough the prophets that God is
telling of still future actionsthat are going to take place,
that there's going to be wrathand judgment on these other
nations that come against Israel.
Rather than try to put thosethings aside and bury them in
(21:16):
the ground and say, no, we don'tneed to worry about the current
state of the nation of Israel,because God is done and through
with them, that is a tremendousmistake that I think that Bible
scholars make.
If God has judged themthroughout the centuries and
eons of other nations how theytreated Israel, then believe me,
(21:40):
he's going to judge the nationson how they treat Israel now.
And God has not left that as anopen slate to wonder.
Is that going to happen?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
He tells us it is going to happen through several
of his prophets In Ezekiel 25,verse 6, he says specifically
that he is judging these peoplebecause of how they treated
Israel.
Therefore, we can draw somestrong conclusions from that.
He is judging these people inEzekiel's day on how they
(22:13):
treated Israel 1,500 to 2,000years earlier.
He was telling Abraham that thepeople around them would be
judged on how they treat thenation Israel.
So if he did it in Abraham'sday, he did it in Ezekiel's day.
There's nothing in thescripture that takes away the
idea that God, yes, he dealswith personal salvation, but he
(22:38):
also deals with nations and wewill be judged by how we treat
the nation Israel Doesn't meanwe have to accept everything
Israel does on a moral level.
We're just saying that if we docrimes against Israel, we'll be
judged for it.
We will be judged for how wedeal with Israel If we continue.
(22:59):
It tells us how much controlGod has over these nations,
which is complete and total.
Let's read the next sectionabout Moab, starting in verse 8.
Thus says the Lord God, becauseMoab and Sayer say behold, the
house of Judah is like all thenations.
Therefore, behold, I am goingto deprive the flank of Moab of
(23:20):
its cities, of its cities whichare on its frontiers, the glory
of its land, beth Jeshemoth, itsfrontiers, the glory of its
land, beth-jeshemoth, baal-maonand Kirithaim, and I will give
it for a possession, along withthe sons of Ammon, to the sons
of the east, so that the sons ofAmmon will not be remembered
among the nations.
(23:40):
Thus, I will execute judgmentson Moab and they will know that
I am the Lord.
Steve, I have a question Do youremember Moab?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
No, I don't remember Moab and there's not a nation of
Moab today.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
We have that here.
I mean, it's basically afootnote in some history books
recorded here.
But if you walk up to anyone onthe street, even national
ambassadors, things like thatthey're not going to remember
what happened to Moab.
The Moabites attacked Israel inJudges, chapter 3.
The Moabites were the enemy ofIsrael for much of its existence
(24:16):
and it says here in verse 10,what God will do to the people
of Moab is give them to thepeople of the east to be slaves.
Steve, who is in control of thenations?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
God is in control and the people of the east is
Babylon.
That's this time period that istalking about here.
And Babylon was to the east ofall of these nations, here in
the Jordan River Valley, overinto the Mediterranean Sea and
with Ammon.
God says I'm judging youbecause you're rejoicing because
(24:52):
the city of Jerusalem and thetemple, the sanctuary, is being
torn down and you've clappedyour hands in rejoicing that
Israel has been destroyed andJerusalem and Judah has finally
been taken into captivity.
And it's the same thing withthe Moabites that are here.
So while we've talked about inthis session, Glenn, about
judgment of the nations, we alsoneed to acknowledge that
(25:16):
individuals within those nationscan always come to a belief in
God and have salvation.
We go back to the story of Ruth.
Ruth was a Moabitess and inthat story we've gone through
the book of Ruth.
In that story of Ruth, naomiand her husband with her sons
(25:38):
went to Moab because of adrought in the Bethlehem area
and the sons buried Moabitewomen.
One of her sons married Ruth.
They all died and the storygoes that Naomi went back to
Israel and Ruth went back withher and we have that whole great
(25:58):
story of Ruth and Ruth'scommitment to God and Yahweh
when she says I'm going to gowith you, naomi, and I'm going
to follow you back to your landand your God will be my God.
Where you live, I'm going tolive, and where you die, I'm
going to die as well.
And we have that complete storyof Ruth and she is what ends up
(26:22):
being in the line of David and,of course, david is in the line
of Jesus Christ.
So we do want to point out that, even though there's judgment
on nations, there's always achance for the individuals
within those nations to becomebelievers in God.
In our case, it's to be abeliever and trust in Jesus
(26:43):
Christ in order to havesalvation.
While there's judgment onnations, it's always up to the
individuals to be able to comeand be followers of Jesus Christ
.
The next section.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
God gives a message to the people of Edom and, if
you remember, the Edomites werethe people that back in Moses'
day, when they were wandering inthe wilderness, Moses asked
permission to cross their landand the Edomites refused.
Steve, can you read verses 12,13, and?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
14?
.
Thus says the Lord God, becauseEdom has acted against the
house of Judah by takingvengeance and has incurred
grievous guilt and avengedthemselves upon them.
Therefore, says the Lord God, Iwill also stretch out my hand
against Edom and cut off man andbeast from it and I will lay it
waste from Taman even to Dedan.
(27:36):
They will fall by the sword.
I will lay my vengeance on Edomby the hand of my people,
Israel.
Therefore, they will act inEdom according to my anger and
according to my wrath.
Thus they will know myvengeance, declares the Lord God
.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
With this again we have the Edomites, and these
were people that attacked Judahback in 2 Chronicles 20.
And the Edomites rejoiced atthe fall of Judah in Psalm 137.
These were people again thatwere around Israel and Judah and
(28:12):
had been causing them troublein not obeying God's laws.
God knows about it, he had kepttrack of it, he had warned them
and here God is giving judgmentagainst them.
Ezekiel 25, verse 12,.
God says the reason he isagainst Edom is because they
took it upon themselves to takerevenge on Judah.
(28:36):
God says here I will takevengeance.
I'm reminded of a couple ofplaces in the Bible.
God says vengeance is mine.
He says that in the NewTestament and the Old Hebrews,
10.30, and Deuteronomy 32.35.
Vengeance belongs to the Lord.
Here we have where God actuallydoes take vengeance.
(28:58):
And again the message here overand over just because it had
been a while since these crimeswere committed doesn't mean God
won't deal with it.
We have to take that sameattitude into our lives.
We may think we get away withit.
I think I get away with my sin.
God will deal with it one wayor the other.
Steve, talking about vengeance,which is what God mentions here
(29:22):
, why do we have so much troublewith this idea of turning
revenge over to the Lord insteadof taking it myself.
Why is that so hard for mostpeople?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I think, because we're impatient people and we
want to see the justice done now.
I think in many cases we wantto participate in that justice,
or what we think is justice, butwe're told to not always do
that.
That vengeance is mine, saysthe Lord.
We're to turn many situationsover to God.
(29:54):
Let Him take care of it, andwhen we do that, we're assured
that the justice is going to betrue and it's going to be
accurate and it's going to beone which the people deserve to
let God do the vengeance and notfor us to do the vengeance.
As we mentioned before that,ammon and Moab were cousins of
(30:15):
the nation of Israel.
Edom is a brother to the nationof Israel.
Edom are descendants of Esau.
Edom means red and Esau was ared-headed and red-haired person
and of course he sold hisbirthright for a bowl of red
lentils.
So Edom is a direct relation tothe nation of Israel.
(30:38):
And all three of these nationsare on the east side of the
Jordan River Amman, then belowit, moab, and then below it is
Edom, kind of around the easternpart of the Dead Sea and the
southeastern part of the DeadSea.
These are where these nationsare located.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
In the last three verses in this chapter speak
about the Philistines.
And if you remember thePhilistines, they were a
perpetual enemy of Israelthroughout the Old Testament.
The Philistines, they were aperpetual enemy of Israel
throughout the Old Testament.
The Philistines showed up in acouple of places.
Goliath remember of David andGoliath.
Goliath was fighting for thePhilistines.
And in Judges, chapter 3, wayback in the early years of
(31:20):
Israel's being in the land, Godsays he's going to leave the
Philistines there to test Israel.
So again, God decides who'sgoing to leave, who's going to
stay where the boundaries are,and causes the victory in some
nations and causes the loss inthe other.
(31:40):
God's prophecy in Ezekiel wasliterally fulfilled when the
Philistines were defeated by theBabylonians.
It says here in verses 15, 16,and 17, that God is going to
destroy them again because theytook it upon themselves to take
vengeance.
Let me just read verse 15.
(32:01):
Thus says the Lord God, becausethe Philistines have acted in
revenge and have taken vengeancewith scorn of soul, to destroy
with everlasting enmity.
Therefore, thus says the Lord,God, Behold, I will stretch out
my hand against the Philistines,even cut off the Cherothites
and destroy the remnants on theseacoast.
(32:21):
He says, right there, I willexecute great vengeance on them
with wrathful rebukes, and theywill know that I am the Lord
when I lay my vengeance on them.
As we've seen, Steve, only Godcan take vengeance and he
remembers, and there's alwaysjustice.
Time may go by and we may thinkwe get away with it, but we
(32:46):
won't.
God keeps track, so it forcesus all to fall at his feet and
beg forgiveness.
It's a great thing that we haveJesus Christ, that we don't
have to undergo God's wrath inthe sense of cleansing us to his
wrath.
We have his loving hand offorgiveness and because of that
(33:08):
we can take great comfort inpersonal salvation.
But oh, these passages that areso ignored, where God deals
with nations, back here in thissection.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
And, as we mentioned before, it's always best to let
God take care of the vengeanceand not take it into our own
hands.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
We'll be back next time to reason through when God
takes control of the nation ofTyre.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Thank you, so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
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