Fulfilled Prophecy – Part 4 “Edom”

We considered the starkly different prophecies given to two Lebanese port cities. But the seers of the Old Testament also prophesied against a number of other cities and nations, foretelling a specific future judgment unique to each. Edom was a mountainous nation on the eastern border of Israel (modern Jordan). Their western border was in the Negev Desert and they built up Petra, the city of rock pictured to the right. It’s peoples were descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau. These people had helped the Babylonians loot Jerusalem and had mocked captive Israel. The prophet Obadiah pronounced God’s judgment upon them…particularly their elimination as a people group. Obadiah predicted, “they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it” (1:18). The prophet Ezekiel pronounced, “I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it” (Ezekiel 25:13). Eventually, the Babylonians turned on the Edomites, removing them in about the sixth century B.C. There are no survivors of Edom today.  Some first-century leaders (like Herod the Great) still traced their ancestry to Idumea, or Edom, but all mention of Edomites fades after that era. The people group just ceased to exist, in complete fulfillment of the prophecy. We considered the starkly different prophecies given to two Lebanese port cities. But the seers of the Old Testament also prophesied against a number of other cities and nations, foretelling a specific future judgment unique to each. Edom was a mountainous nation on the eastern border of Israel (modern Jordan). Their western border was in the Negev Desert and they built up Petra, the city of rock pictured to the right. Its peoples were descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau. These people had helped the Babylonians loot Jerusalem and had mocked captive Israel. The prophet Obadiah pronounced God’s judgment upon them…particularly their elimination as a people group. Obadiah predicted, “they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it” (1:18). The prophet Ezekiel pronounced, “I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it” (Ezekiel 25:13). Eventually, the Babylonians turned on the Edomites, removing them in about the sixth century B.C. There are no survivors of Edom today.  Some first-century leaders (like Herod the Great) still traced their ancestry to Idumea, or Edom, but all mention of Edomites fades after that era. The people group just ceased to exist, in complete fulfillment of the prophecy.

Posted on January 3, 2019 by dwoetzel.

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