THREE SINS, EVEN FOR FOUR (PART 4)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Edom, even for four, I will not relent. Because he pursued his brother with a sword and slaughtered the women of the land, because his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked, I will send fire on Teman that will consume the fortresses of Bozrah.”

Amos 1:11-12

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It started in a way that seemed innocent at first. A woman named Rebekah had been pregnant for some time and the time had come for her child to be delivered. What a shock it must have been to her and her husband, Isaac, when two children were born, two sons one after the other with the second child holding onto the heel of his brother. The firstborn son, firstborn by a matter of moments, was named Esau while the younger was named Jacob. It was a special moment for the parents but little did they know that these two brothers would one day be at war with one another.

It all got started when the youngest son, Jacob, spurred on by the urging of his mother, deceived his father to bless him with the birthright which was supposed to belong to his brother. Jacob would go onto have his name changed to Israel as he fathered twelve sons who would serve as progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel. On the other hand, Esau would move south of Israel and settle in the hill country of Seir which would be called Edom (meaning “red”) (Genesis 36:1-9), symbolic because Esau had been tabbed with the name given his talent for making a special red stew (Genesis 25:30). Esau would become the founding father of the Edomites who would be consistently at war with Israel, perhaps never forgetting how Esau had been wronged by his brother.

The scriptures tell us that one of the first contentious meetings between the Israelites and Edomites came as the people of God were in their exodus from Egypt and heading to the Promised Land. While traveling what was known in the day as the King’s Highway, a trade route that passed through Edom, the Edomites refused to allow the Israelites to pass through their land, rejecting them by force. Of interest, the Israelites were forbidden by God to despise the Edomites due to the fact that they were related through the biological brotherhood of Esau and Jacob (Deuteronomy 23:7).

Later, the Edomites would battle against Saul during his reign as Israel’s first king and David, Saul’s successor, won victory over them, making them subject to him (2 Samuel 8:14). This would remain in place through the rule of David’s son, Solomon, but afterwards, the Edomites won their freedom and remained that way until attacked by the Assyrians, attacks that damaged the nation but did not eliminate it. We know this because the Edomites were still in existence when the Greeks and then Romans came into power, although during that period they were referred to as the Idomaeans. Of note, a prominent Idomaean was placed in power as king over Judea during the Roman empire during the time around Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. You may know him as he is mentioned in the Bible as none other than Herod the Great, the man who asked the wise men to tell him where Jesus was so he could go and worship him (he really wanted to kill him as Jesus was being referred to as the Messiah, the prophesied King of the Jews). When the wise men failed to do as Herod asked, the king had all children 2 and under slaughtered in Bethlehem and the surrounding vicinity with the intent of killing Jesus, unknowing that Joseph and Mary had been warned to flee to Egypt for safety by an angel (Matthew 2).

Indeed, the hatred and anger toward Israel by the Edomites/Idumaeans extended well into the days of Jesus, all a result of the brotherly conflict and associated resentment between two Israelites brothers.

With all this as a backdrop, look again at our verses for today as we look at the sins of Edom that were mentioned by the Lord as well as His associated judgment upon them for those sins:

This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Edom, even for four, I will not relent. Because he pursued his brother with a sword and slaughtered the women of the land, because his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked, I will send fire on Teman that will consume the fortresses of Bozrah.”  Amos 1:11-12

When we know the history of the relationship between Israel and Edom, it’s easier to understand the Lord’s charge, that Edom had displayed a continual anger and unchecked fury against Israel and pursued his “brother with a sword” and “slaughtered the women of the land”. This summation of some of the atrocities committed by Edom pointed toward this coming punishment God was sending:

“I will send fire on Teman that will consume the fortresses of Bozrah.”

Here, two main cities within Edom are mentioned, representing the overall destruction and damage God was about to bring on the Edomites for their sins, not just the ones mentioned but all their sins. As you may recall from our prior three devotions in this series, the Lord’s allusion to many sins is found in this expression:

“Three sins, even for four.”

And as with Aram, Philistia, and Phoenicia before, the many sins of the nation were not going to go unchecked. Rather, God showed He would not hesitate to hold any nation accountable for their wickedness and willful rejection of Him and His will. The same will apply for any other countries today who choose to not get along but rather opt to always remain in conflict with one another. In the end translation, I think we can see the Lord favors peace and that will only come when every nation chooses to allow itself to be guided by the Prince of Peace.

Amen

In Christ,

Mark
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