Edom
“Who
is this that cometh from Edom ...?”
The Prophet Isaiah (63:1-6), taking his standpoint down at the end of the
harvest of the Gospel age, beholds a mighty Conqueror, glorious in his
apparel (clothed with authority and power), and riding forth victoriously
over all his enemies, with whose blood all his garments are stained.
He inquires who the wonderful stranger
is, saying, “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from
Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of
his strength?”
Edom, it will be remembered, was the name given to Esau, the twin
brother of Jacob, after he sold his birthright. (Gen. 25:30-34)
The name was also subsequently applied both to the people descended
from him and to the country in which they settled.
(See Gen. 25:30; 36:1; Num. 20:18,20,21; Jer. 49:17.)
Consequently, the name Edom is an appropriate symbol
of a class who, in this age, have similarly sold their birthright; and that,
too, for a consideration as trifling as the mess of pottage which influenced
Esau. The name is frequently so
used by the prophets in reference to that great company of professed
Christians which is sometimes called “the Christian World,” and
“Christendom” (i.e., Christ’s Kingdom), which names the thoughtful
should readily recognize as misnomers, betraying a great lack of
understanding of the true object and character of Christ’s Kingdom, and
also of the appointed time and manner of its establishment.
They are simply boastful appellations which misrepresent the truth.
Is the world indeed yet Christian? or is even that part of it that
claims the name? — the nations of Europe and America?
Hear the thunder of cannon, the tread of marshalled hosts, the scream
of bursting shells, the groans of the oppressed and the mutterings of the
angry nations with deafening emphasis answer, No!
Do these constitute Christ’s Kingdom—a true Christendom?
Who indeed will take upon himself the burden of proof
of such a monstrous proposition? The
fallacy of the boastful claim is so palpable that any attempt at proof would
so thoroughly dissolve the delusion that none who wish to perpetuate it
would presume to undertake it.
The
fitness of the symbolic name “Edom” in its application to
Christendom is very marked. The
nations of so-called Christendom have had privileges above all the other
nations, in that, to them, as to the Israelites of the previous age, have
been committed the oracles of God.
As
a result of the enlightening influences of the Word of God, both directly
and indirectly, have come to these nations all the blessings of
civilization; and the presence in their midst of a few saints (a “little
flock”), developed under its influence, has been as “the salt
of the earth,” preserving it to some extent
from
utter moral corruption. And
these, by their godly examples, and by their energy in holding forth the
Word of life, have been “the light of the world,” showing men
the way back to God and righteousness.
But only a few in all these favored nations have made proper use of
their advantages, which have come to them as an inheritance by reason of
their birth in the lands so blessed with the influences of the Word of
God, direct and indirect.
Like
Esau, the masses of Christendom have sold their birthright of special and
peculiar advantage. By the
masses, we mean not only the agnostic portion of it, but also the great
majority of worldly professors of the religion of Christ, who are
Christians only in name, but who lack the life of Christ in them.
These
have preferred the mean morsels of present earthly advantage to all the
blessings of communion and fellowship with God and Christ, and to the
glorious inheritance with Christ promised to those who faithfully follow
in his footsteps of sacrifice.
These,
though they are nominally
God’s people—the nominal spiritual Israel of the Gospel age, of which “Israel
after the flesh” in the Jewish age was a type—really have little
or no respect for the promises of God.
These,
although they are indeed a mighty host, bearing the name of Christ,
and posing before the world as the Church of Christ; although they have
built up great organizations representing various schisms in the professed
body of Christ; although they have written massive volumes of un-”systematic
theology,” and founded numerous colleges and seminaries for the teaching
of these; and although they have done “many wonderful works” in the
name of Christ, which were often, nevertheless, contrary to the teachings
of his Word; these constitute the Edom class who have sold their
birthright.
The
class includes almost all “Christendom”—all reared in the
so-called
Christian
lands, who have not availed themselves of the privileges and blessings of
the gospel of Christ and conformed their lives thereto.
The
remainder are the few justified, consecrated and faithful individuals
who are joined to Christ by a living faith, and who, as “branches,”
abide in Christ, the True Vine. These
constitute the true Israel of God—Israelites indeed, in whom is no
guile.
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The symbolic Edom of Isaiah’s prophecy
corresponds to the symbolic Babylon of Revelation, and of the prophecies
of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
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Thus the Lord designates and describes that great system to which men ascribe
the misleading name, Christendom—Christ’s Kingdom.
As all of the land of Edom symbolizes all of “Christendom,” so its
capital city, Bozrah, represented Ecclesiasticism, the chief citadel of
Christendom. The prophet represents
the Lord as a victorious warrior who makes a great slaughter in Edom, and
specially in Bozrah.
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The name Bozrah signifies “sheepfold.”
Bozrah is even yet noted for its goats, and the slaughter of this day of
vengeance is said to be of the “lambs and goats.” (Isa. 34:6)
The goats would correspond to the “tares,”
while the lambs would represent the tribulation saints (Rev. 7:14; 1 Cor.
3:1) who neglected to use the opportunities granted them, and did not so
run as to obtain the prize of their high calling; and who therefore,
although not rejected of the Lord, were not accounted worthy to escape the
trouble as matured “sheep”—called, chosen and faithful.
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The reply to the Prophet’s inquiry
—
“Who
is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?”
is, “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
It
is the same mighty one described by the Revelator (Rev. 19:11-16), the “King
of kings and Lord of lords,” Jehovah’s Anointed, our blessed
Redeemer and Lord Jesus.
For our information the Prophet inquires further, saying,
“Wherefore
art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth
in the winepress?”
Hear
the reply:
“I
have trodden the winepress alone; and of the nations there was none with
me: and I trod them down in mine anger, and I trampled on them in my fury;
and their blood was sprinkled on my garments, and all my raiment have I
stained; for the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my
redeemed was come.
“And
I looked, and there was no one to help, and I was astonished; and
there was no one to support; and then my own arm [power] aided me; and
my fury, this it was that upheld me.
“And
I stamped down nations in my anger, ...brought down to the earth their
victorious strength.”
And
the Revelator adds,
“He
treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”
Rev. 19:15
The treading of the winepress is the last feature of harvest work.
The reaping and gathering is all done first.
So this treading of the winepress of the wrath of God into
which “the vine of the earth”
(the false vine which has misappropriated the name Christian and
Christ’s Kingdom) is cast when its iniquitous clusters are fully
ripe (Rev. 14:18-20), represents the last work of this eventful
“harvest” period. It pictures to our minds the last features of
the great time of trouble which shall involve all nations, and of
which we are so abundantly forewarned in the Scriptures.
The
fact that the King of kings is represented as treading the winepress
“alone”
indicates that the power exerted for the overthrow of the nations will
be divine power, and not mere human energy.
It will be God’s power that will punish the nations, and that
will eventually “bring forth judgment [justice,
righteousness, truth] unto victory.”
“He
shall smite
the
earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips
[the force and spirit of his truth] shall he slay the wicked.”
(Isa. 11:4; Rev. 19:15; Psa. 98:1)
To
no human generalship can the honors of the coming victory for truth and
righteousness be ascribed. Wild
will be the conflict of the angry nations, and world-wide will be the
battlefield and the distress of nations; and no human Alexander, Caesar or
Napoleon will be found to bring order out of the dreadful confusion.
But in the end it will be known that the grand victory of justice
and truth, and the punishment of iniquity with its just deserts, was
brought about by the mighty power of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
All of these things are to be accomplished in the closing days of the
Gospel age, because, as the Lord states through the Prophet (Isa. 63:4;
34:8),
“The
year of my redeemed is come,” and “it is the day of the
Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of
Zion.”
All
through the Gospel age the Lord has taken cognizance of the controversy,
the strife and contention, in nominal Zion. He has observed how his
faithful saints have had to contend for truth and righteousness, and even
to suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake at the hands of those who
opposed them in the name of the Lord; and for wise purposes the Lord has
hitherto refrained from interfering; but now the day of recompenses has
come, and the Lord hath a controversy with them, as it is written,
“For the Lord hath a controversy with the
inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor
knowledge of God in the land.
“By
swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery
they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land
mourn, and every one
that dwelleth therein shall languish.” (Hos. 4:1-3)
This
prophecy, so true in its fulfilment upon fleshly Israel, is doubly so in
its fuller application to nominal spiritual Israel—Christendom.
“A
noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a
controversy with the nations: he will plead with all flesh: he will
give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord.”
“Hear
ye now what the Lord saith, ...Hear ye, O mountains [kingdoms], the
Lord’s controversy, and ye [hitherto] strong foundations of
the earth [society]; for the Lord hath a controversy with his
[professed] people,”
“He
will give those that are wicked to the sword,” Jer. 25:31; Micah
6:1,2
Hear again the Prophet Isaiah concerning this controversy:
“Come
near, ye nations, to hear; and harken, ye people: let the earth hear,
and all that is therein: the world, and all things that come forth of
it [all the selfish and evil things that come of the spirit of the
world]; for the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his
fury upon all their armies: he hath [taking the future standpoint] utterly
destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter; ...and their
land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
“For
it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses
for the controversy of Zion.” Isa. 34:1,2,7,8
Thus the Lord will smite the nations and cause them to know his power,
and he will deliver his faithful people who go not with the multitudes
in the way of evil, but who wholly follow the Lord their God in the
midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
And
even this terrible judgment upon the world, as nations, thus dashing
them to pieces as a potter’s vessel, will prove a valuable lesson
to them when they come forth to an individual judgment under the
Millennial reign of Christ. Thus,
in his wrath, the Lord will remember mercy.
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