Ezekiel 35:10 - Meaning and Application

Here Ezekiel gives a fuller account of the Edomites’ sin and their cruel behavior toward God’s people. The church had already complained that they stirred up the Babylonians against Jerusalem, crying out, “Destroy it, destroy it” (Psalm 137:7). Here they are also charged with gloating over Jerusalem’s ruin and over the country’s desolation. They spoke blasphemies against the mountains of Israel, saying with pride and pleasure that they were laid waste (Ezekiel 35:12).

The troubles of God’s church show two things at once. They prove the faithfulness of its true friends, and they expose the corruption of its enemies. In such times, enemies often reveal a deeper and rougher malice than anyone expected. The Edomites’ joy over Jerusalem’s fall came from sinful hatred, envy, and anger against Israel (Ezekiel 35:11). Though they were not strong enough to harm Israel themselves, they were glad when the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, did it for them.

Their joy also came from greed. They hoped that when Israel was destroyed, they would take over the land they had long envied. They thought they had some right to it because Israel had been driven out, as if the land must now pass to the next heirs, or at least to the nearest neighbors. “We will possess it,” they said, as though being first to occupy it would make them rightful owners. This is the spirit of Edom: wanting others to fail because it may bring personal gain.

When we see how empty the world is, through the losses and disappointments that come to others, we should not become greedy for it. Instead, we should loosen our grip on it and lower our hopes in it. But the Edomites’ desire for Israel’s land was worse than simple greed, because it insulted God himself. They acted as if the land had been given to them to devour and enrich them. God says they boasted against him and multiplied their words against him, because they expected to take possession just because Israel had been driven out. Yet the Lord was still there (Ezekiel 35:10).

The temple had been burned, and other signs of God’s presence had gone away. Still, his promise to give that land to Jacob’s descendants as their inheritance had not been canceled. That promise still stood, and God still held the land for Israel until the time of restoration. It was Immanuel’s land, the land where Christ was to be born (Isaiah 8:8). Since the Lord was there, and the Lord Jesus was to be there, Israel’s temporary loss of possession did not cancel their right. God would keep that land for them until the promise of Canaan was replaced by the promise of something far better through the Messiah.

It is a great insult to God when Edomites, or anyone else, claim the special gifts and comforts that belong to God’s chosen people. It is blasphemy against the mountains of Israel, the holy mountains, to say that because they are for a time trampled by the nations (Revelation 11:2), even the holy city itself, the Lord has abandoned them or forgotten them. The apostle rejects that idea completely: “Has God cast away his people?” (Romans 11:1). No, they may be cast down for a time, but they are not cast off forever. Those who say otherwise reproach the Lord himself.

God noticed the Edomites’ wicked pride and passed sentence on them. “I have heard all your blasphemies” (Ezekiel 35:12). Again he says, “You have multiplied your words against me, and I have heard them” (Ezekiel 35:13). God kept account of every word. In a flood of speech, not one word escapes his notice. People may speak carelessly and forget what they said, but God hears it all, even the most idle words, and he will call sinners to account for them.

This includes every proud and harsh word spoken against God’s people. God hears the words that are magnified, as well as the words that are repeated. Nothing is too small to escape his knowledge, and nothing is too bold to escape his rebuke. “I have heard all your blasphemies.” That should comfort us when we are mistreated, because we can bear reproach as if we did not hear it, knowing that God hears it (Psalm 38:13, Psalm 38:15).

Since God has heard Edom’s blasphemy, they must also hear their sentence (Ezekiel 35:14-15). Their sin was national, because these blasphemies were the settled speech and spirit of all the Edomites. So their punishment would also be national desolation. It would be a special punishment, too. As God has special favors for Israel, so he has special judgments for Edom. When the whole earth rejoices, he will make Edom desolate, and while other nations may have their ruins restored to joy, Edom’s ruin will be permanent (Ezekiel 35:9).

Their punishment would fit their sin. Since they rejoiced in the desolation of the house of Israel, God would give them plenty of desolation. Because they delighted in it, they would become desolate themselves. Those who laugh at the grief of others may justly be made to taste the same grief and feel its weight and pain. Some understand Ezekiel 35:14 to mean that the whole earth will rejoice when God makes Edom desolate, just as Edom rejoiced when Israel was laid waste. Those who are glad at another’s fall may expect others to be glad at theirs.

In the destruction of the enemies of the church, God also aims at his own glory, and he will surely carry out that purpose.

God’s purpose is to show himself as a just and jealous God, one who stays true to his covenant and faithful to his people and their wronged cause (Ezekiel 35:11). He says, “I will make myself known among them when I judge you.” The Lord makes himself known through the judgments he carries out.

This purpose will be fully achieved. Not only will his own people come to know this and find comfort in it, but the Edomites and all the other enemies of his name and people will also know that he is the Lord (Ezekiel 35:4, Ezekiel 35:9, Ezekiel 35:15). In the same way that creation and God’s ordinary care show that there is a God, his care for Israel shows that Jehovah, the God of Israel, is the only true and living God.