S30 || All Nations are Under God's Watchful Eye || Ezekiel 25:1-17 || Session 30

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.

Chapters

• 0:20 Introduction to National Judgment
• 2:16 Three Types of Biblical Redemption
• 6:28 Why Nations Matter in Scripture
• 12:44 Structure of God's National Judgments
• 15:18 Judgment Against Ammon
• 22:58 Judgment Against Moab
• 26:32 Judgment Against Edom
• 31:02 Judgment Against Philistines

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. My name's Glenn, I'm here with Steve, we are working our way through the book of Ezekiel and we're in the beginning of the section where God deals with nations. And I thought we'd stop for a minute before we jump into reading and talk about that, because we have, of course, in the Bible, God dealing with Israel and of course, there's large sections of the Bible that talk about salvation and our relationship with God. We also have large sections of the Bible that God deals with nations, and we have here places such as this. We're in Ezekiel, chapter 25.

Speaker 1: 1:00

And from Ezekiel 25 to 32, God is 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 the prophet Ezekiel. And further, as we've seen already, God repeatedly says that he's going to use Babylon as an instrument in the world. He's going to use Babylon as an instrument to punish the people of Israel because of their repeated disobedience and he's later going to punish Babylon for their disobedience and unrighteousness. So we have here presented God knowing about and dealing with nations, and I think we need to talk about that just for a second. Steve, I think that a lot of people of course in our day focus on the Bible as giving a message of personal salvation, and that's true. Nobody's going to sit here and say that's not important. But does God also deal with nations as well as individuals?

Speaker 2: 2:14

He does deal with nations. Glenn, there's actually three redemptions through Scripture. There is the redemption of mankind, which you just mentioned. That is obviously the major theme of Scripture. But there's also redemption of creation. Scripture tells us that creation groans under the curse that it's under and it's looking forward to the time whenever this redemption comes about. We're going to see that in the kingdom, restored kingdom of Israel, call it the millennial kingdom that creation is going to be redeemed. The lion will lay down with the lamb and several different types of things like that. The curse is going to be taken away. Then there's also the redemption of the nations.

Speaker 2: 3:00

How did this start? It started in Genesis, chapter 10, at the Tower of Babel, whenever God scattered all the nations. All the nations were together. They spoke one language. He had a leader that said let's build a ziggurat to the heavens and God said that he needed to take down there and confuse their languages, that he needed to take down there and confuse their languages. And he did that and he dispersed them and those nations. The table of nations in chapter 10 of Genesis is displayed there. There's about 70 of them. Then it's right after that, in Genesis 11, that God selects Abraham in the Chaldees and the town of Ur, and he calls him to come follow him, that he will give him a land and he will multiply his descendants and that through his descendants he will be a blessing to all the nations.

Speaker 2: 3:56

This redemption of the nations is a theme that as well out of Abraham's descendants, specifically Isaac and Jacob, comes this nation of Israel it's depicted in fact, that's the rest of the Old Testament is the story of God and the nation of Israel, how they followed him at times and how they didn't follow him at other times. And we just got through talking in this first section of Ezekiel, where he's going to do his final discipline of Jerusalem and the temple's going to be destroyed. And such the nation of Israel was created to be a blessing to other nations, not just to bring about the Messiah, the Anointed One, jesus Christ, who would die and be a satisfactory sacrifice, god himself in flesh, but it was also to be a nation that he would rule and that he would show to all the other nations, through Israel, how he would interact and what type of a merciful and good God that he is. There is that theme as well, and through this section here, that you're going to talk about a little bit more and we'll read some of these sections. God is saying I'm going to hold these nations accountable. It's not just you, israel, that's going to be held accountable for what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 5:19

I'm going to hold them accountable as well, because part of it was that Israel had gone off and followed the other nations. Rather than being an example to the other nations to follow God Yahweh, they had gone off and had the other nations influence them to follow their gods Chemosh, molech, ashtoreth, dagon, all of these other gods from these surrounding nations that influenced Israel, and they had gone off and followed them. God is telling Israel you're going to be disciplined, you're going to come to a point when your city and your temple and your sanctuary is going to be taken away from you, but these other nations are going to be judged as well because of their actions. So that is the section of Ezekiel that we're talking about now.

Speaker 1: 6:10

We have in our day people that, of course, focus a lot in churches on personal salvation, and that's good. We should focus a lot on personal salvation. Large sections of the Bible focus on personal salvation, but there's many of these passages that deal with nations that are just not taught. Besides Ezekiel, we have books such as Isaiah, jeremiah, obadiah, amos, nahum, zephaniah, jonah, habakkuk all these ones plus the ones, steve, that you mentioned a minute ago. There's vast swaths of the Bible that talk about God raising up and tearing down and dealing with nations, and it's not just the nation Israel, it's many other nations. Again, there's a double handful, just here in Ezekiel. It's to the point in our churches today where I've even heard pastors that if we bring up the idea that God might have a future for a nation and not just individual people, those ideas are so ignored in our churches that people think it's strange that people think, wow, this is somehow some sort of foreign teaching outside of Christianity that's crept in. No, we're just reading the scriptures Again. Let me bring up just a handful of these that I've got here just to show that God repeatedly thoroughly deals with nations. Isaiah 9, verses 11 and 12, god causes the Arameans and the Philistines to be victorious in war. Again, he's causing the victory over non-Jewish, non-israeli, non-christian nations. Habakkuk 1.6 says, quote I am raising up the Chaldeans to seize dwelling places that are not theirs. Close quote we have God causing victory over nations that are not his chosen people. Daniel God raises up and teardowns nations and kings. There's whole chapters full of that in Daniel. Jeremiah 50, verse 9, god says quote for behold, I am going to arouse and bring up against Babylon a horde of great nations from the land of the north. Close quote Psalm 22.8, god says he rules over the nations, judges 2.20 and following God, decides which nations he will drive out of the land, in which he will not. He's deciding what's going to happen with all these nations. Acts 17,. Lest we think this is only an Old Testament thing, acts 17, paul tells the Greeks in Athens that God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. Close quote. Therefore, over and over Old Testament, new Testament, god has an agenda for nations. He controls nations. He drives out some, he leaves some. He raises up some, he tears down some. He causes victories and defeats. He has a future for some of them.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Steve, it's like people think today that it's somehow blasphemous that God can do more than one thing at a time. I think it's not a problem for God to have a plan of personal salvation and a plan for nations, and those don't overlap or compete. We're not saying there's different views of salvation. We've said over and over in our Bible studies there's one plan of salvation for all time, from Garden of Eden to Revelation. We're saved one way by grace through faith. It was that way in the Old Testament, it's that way in the New, it's that way forever. Way in the Old Testament, it's that way in the New, it's that way forever. Personal salvation, today and in 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 not limited. He can raise up and tear down nations as he wills at the same time. Somehow that concept is just lost.

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 were going to become believers in Yahweh, and it also talks about in that part, in chapter 2, specifically that God was going to discipline the nations that plundered Israel, the ones that, how it was put in Zechariah, that touched the apple of his eye, his being God's eye, and talking about the nation of Israel itself. So, yes, the nations are part of God's plan and we see that through these various prophets that you just named off. Again, I encourage our audience to go listen to our study in the book of Zechariah, because it's very plain to see that the nations are going to be part of the worshiping of Yahweh. At some point in the future, during that restored nation of Israel, all the nations are going to come and give tribute to God. Jesus himself is going to rule from Jerusalem. He's going to rule not just Israel, he's going to rule all the nations.

Speaker 2: 11:36

This is an integral part of the narrative of Scripture and it is a part that I think has been left out of so many sermons and Bible studies. I don't think necessarily it's left out on purpose, I just think that it's not picked up and discussed, partly because you don't see many in our day and age go verse by verse through every book of the Bible. But when you do that, when you go through chapter 1, verse 1 to the last chapter, last verse, then you start to see this pattern and this third theme of redemption 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 colored glasses can we ignore the many passages in the Bible that talk about what God does with nations. In Ezekiel 25, we're to this section now where he talks about these nations. There's a pattern to how he's dealing with things. He usually starts off each nation by saying because you have, and he lists off things that they've done and ends with therefore I will. Then he talks about executing judgment, his fury, his wrath, etc. And at the end he wraps up with then they will know that I am the Lord. So he tells because you have done these things, therefore I will execute my judgment and you will know that I am the Lord. Always when you're doing Bible study, look for patterns like this and it'll tell you where the sections are. In these sections it's actually a little hard to read sometimes, just because it's quite graphic and it's quite severe what God does. In these books, such as Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Isaiah, they all have many chapters on God's judgment, as do some other Old Testament prophets, but there's judgment in the New Testament as well. I mean there's chapters in the book of Revelation that deal with the specifics of God's wrath. In other places it's just mentioned as wrathful. When we get to this section of Scripture we see this wrath, but we also have to note they also talk about restoration and God's goodness and His mercy. If you do a word search for love and mercy, you're going to find that more in the Old Testament than you do the New, and you're going to find passages more about hell and destruction in the New Testament than you do the Old. But there are these passages and we have to deal with them because they're in front of them.

Speaker 1: 14:22

I want to read a quote from the Bible teacher J Vernon McGee at the beginning of this section. Mcgee says this quote we get a warped view of him. He means God when all we hear is 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 will judge. You are not rushing into heaven on the little love boat. You will go to heaven only if you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, who shed his blood and gave his life on the cross. Then you will have eternal life and will be covered with the righteousness of Christ standing complete and acceptable in him. If you reject his salvation, there will be nothing left but judgment. Steve, let's go ahead and jump in. Can you read the first seven verses 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 the sons of Ammon and prophesy against them and say to the sons of Ammon Hear the word of the Lord God.

Speaker 2: 15:32

Thus says the Lord God, Because you said Aha against my sanctuary when it was profaned, and against the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and against the house of Judah when they went into exile. Therefore, behold, I am going to give you to the sons of the east for a possession, and they will set their encampments upon you and make their dwellings among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk. I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and the sons of Ammon a resting place for flocks. Thus you will know I am the Lord, for thus says the Lord God, because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the scorn of your soul against the land of Israel. Therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand against you and I will give you for spoil to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples and make you perish from the lands. I will destroy you. Thus you will know that I am the.

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 the Jordan River and Joshua and company encountered them when they came in to take the land. The god of Ammon was Molech, the god that people sacrificed their children to. The Ammonites fought against Israel during the time of the judges and, if we remember, this was also the group that Jephthah promised God that if he defeated the Ammonites, he would sacrifice the first thing that came through his gate when he returned home, which was a very foolish promise. So we have the people of Ammon, the Ammonites, that have been around for most of the Old Testament. Yet they're still here, steve. We still have their prophets giving messages and it seems that God will, as sure as certain he's going to deal with them Even going back further in history, the Ammonites and the Moabites, the next group that we're going to talk about.

Speaker 2: 17:59

They are cousins to the Israelites Because, if you go back, they are the offspring of Lot and his daughters. After the destruction of Sodom, Lot and his daughters went and hid in a cave, and the daughters thought that their world had been destroyed, and so they devised this plan to sleep with Lot, their father, and the two sons were born, one from the youngest daughter and one from the oldest, and that are the people of Ammon and Moab, and Lot was Abraham's nephew. So there's this relationship between these people groups. Yet we see through the history that God is specific, through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to be their God, the one and true God. He gives them the nation of Israel, the ordinances, statutes and etc. And once again, Israel was meant to be an influence to these other nations, but they weren't and they allowed these other pagan nations to influence them. So when you start looking at the history that's there, it's quite interesting how all of these people groups are interrelated to each other, even though they have history of antagonistic behavior with each other.

Speaker 1: 19:20

Steve, you mentioned the history of these people all the way back to Abraham's day and the time of the judges. Well, when Ezekiel was speaking, the time of Joshua and the judges, that was at least a thousand years earlier and even longer. It had been many centuries that these people had been a thorn in the side of Israel. First question is does God know what these non we'd use the word non-Christian but not his chosen people? Does he know what they do? And the answer is yes, he has kept track. The second is do they get away with it? He is bringing up things here that God knows about, that have been in place and needed to be dealt with for a millennia. Do people get away?

Speaker 2: 20:06

with sin. No, they don't get away with sin. God obviously knows about the sin that are our individual lives and he also knows about the sin of the nations. I know it's maybe controversial in our day that we're speaking here, glenn, to say that if a nation blesses the nation of Israel, that they'll be blessed themselves, and if they don't, that they'll be cursed. I know that that's not a popular thing to say in these days, but God still keeps track of what's going on and, as I mentioned before, god describes the nation of Israel as the apple of his eye.

Speaker 2: 20:44

So it's very dangerous for these other nations to go against Israel, because God is keeping track of what's going on and he's very explicit that there is going to be some discipline with these nations and we see through the prophets that God is telling of still future actions that are going to take place, that there's going to be wrath and judgment on these other nations that come against Israel. Rather than try to put those things aside and bury them in the ground and say, no, we don't need to worry about the current state of the nation of Israel, because God is done and through with them, that is a tremendous mistake that I think that Bible scholars make. If God has judged them throughout the centuries and eons of other nations how they treated Israel, then believe me, he's going to judge the nations on how they treat Israel now. And God has not left that as an open 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 people because of how they treated Israel. Therefore, we can draw some strong conclusions from that. He is judging these people in Ezekiel's day on how they treated Israel 1,500 to 2,000 years earlier. He was telling Abraham that the people around them would be judged on how they treat the nation Israel. So if he did it in Abraham's day, he did it in Ezekiel's day. There's nothing in the scripture that takes away the idea that God, yes, he deals with personal salvation, but he also deals with nations and we will be judged by how we treat the nation Israel Doesn't mean we have to accept everything Israel does on a moral level. We're just saying that if we do crimes against Israel, we'll be judged for it. We will be judged for how we deal with Israel If we continue. It tells us how much control God has over these nations, which is complete and total.

Speaker 1: 23:05

Let's read the next section about Moab, starting in verse 8. Thus says the Lord God, because Moab and Sayer say behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations. Therefore, behold, I am going to deprive the flank of Moab of its cities, of its cities which are on its frontiers, the glory of its land, beth Jeshemoth, its frontiers, the glory of its land, beth-jeshemoth, baal-maon and Kirithaim, and I will give it for a possession, along with the sons of Ammon, to the sons of the east, so that the sons of Ammon will not be remembered among the nations. Thus, I will execute judgments on Moab and they will know that I am the Lord. Steve, I have a question Do you remember 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 a footnote in some history books recorded here. But if you walk up to anyone on the street, even national ambassadors, things like that they're not going to remember what happened to Moab. The Moabites attacked Israel in Judges, chapter 3. The Moabites were the enemy of Israel for much of its existence and it says here in verse 10, what God will do to the people of Moab is give them to the people of the east to be slaves. Steve, who is in control of the nations?

Speaker 2: 24:30

God is in control and the people of the east is Babylon. That's this time period that is talking about here. And Babylon was to the east of all of these nations, here in the Jordan River Valley, over into the Mediterranean Sea and with Ammon. God says I'm judging you because you're rejoicing because the city of Jerusalem and the temple, the sanctuary, is being torn down and you've clapped your hands in rejoicing that Israel has been destroyed and Jerusalem and Judah has finally been taken into captivity. And it's the same thing with the Moabites that are here. So while we've talked about in this session, Glenn, about judgment of the nations, we also need to acknowledge that individuals within those nations can always come to a belief in God and have salvation.

Speaker 2: 25:26

We go back to the story of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabitess and in that story we've gone through the book of Ruth. In that story of Ruth, naomi and her husband with her sons went to Moab because of a drought in the Bethlehem area and the sons buried Moabite women. One of her sons married Ruth. They all died and the story goes that Naomi went back to Israel and Ruth went back with her and we have that whole great story of Ruth and Ruth's commitment to God and Yahweh when she says I'm going to go with you, naomi, and I'm going to follow you back to your land and your God will be my God. Where you live, I'm going to live, and where you die, I'm going to die as well.

Speaker 2: 26:17

And we have that complete story of Ruth and she is what ends up 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 a chance for the individuals within those nations to become believers in God. In our case, it's to be a believer and trust in Jesus Christ in order to have salvation. While there's judgment on nations, it's always up to the individuals to be able to come and 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 were the people that back in Moses' day, when they were wandering in the wilderness, Moses asked permission to cross their land and the Edomites refused. Steve, can you read verses 12, 13, and?

Speaker 2: 27:12

14?. Thus says the Lord God, because Edom has acted against the house of Judah by taking vengeance and has incurred grievous guilt and avenged themselves upon them. Therefore, says the Lord God, I will also stretch out my hand against Edom and cut off man and beast from it and I will lay it waste from Taman even to Dedan. They will fall by the sword. I will lay my vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people, Israel. Therefore, they will act in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath. Thus they will know my vengeance, declares the Lord God.

Speaker 1: 27:52

With this again we have the Edomites, and these were people that attacked Judah back in 2 Chronicles 20. And the Edomites rejoiced at the fall of Judah in Psalm 137. These were people again that were around Israel and Judah and had been causing them trouble in not obeying God's laws. God knows about it, he had kept track of it, he had warned them and here God is giving judgment against them. Ezekiel 25, verse 12,. God says the reason he is against Edom is because they took it upon themselves to take revenge on Judah. God says here I will take vengeance.

Speaker 1: 28:39

I'm reminded of a couple of places in the Bible. God says vengeance is mine. He says that in the New Testament and the Old Hebrews, 10.30, and Deuteronomy 32.35. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. Here we have where God actually does take vengeance. And again the message here over and over just because it had been a while since these crimes were committed doesn't mean God won't deal with it. We have to take that same attitude into our lives. We may think we get away with it. I think I get away with my sin. God will deal with it one way or the other. Steve, talking about vengeance, which is what God mentions here, why do we have so much trouble with this idea of turning revenge over to the Lord instead of taking it myself. Why is that so hard for most people?

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 want to participate in that justice, or what we think is justice, but we're told to not always do that. That vengeance is mine, says the Lord. We're to turn many situations over to God. Let Him take care of it, and when we do that, we're assured that the justice is going to be true and it's going to be accurate and it's going to be one which the people deserve to let God do the vengeance and not for us to do the vengeance.

Speaker 2: 30:11

As we mentioned before that, ammon and Moab were cousins of the nation of Israel. Edom is a brother to the nation of Israel. Edom are descendants of Esau. Edom means red and Esau was a red-headed and red-haired person and of course he sold his birthright for a bowl of red lentils. So Edom is a direct relation to the nation of Israel. And all three of these nations are on the east side of the Jordan River Amman, then below it, moab, and then below it is Edom, kind of around the eastern part of the Dead Sea and the southeastern part of the Dead Sea. These are where these nations are located.

Speaker 1: 30:58

In the last three verses in this chapter speak about the Philistines. And if you remember the Philistines, they were a perpetual enemy of Israel throughout the Old Testament. The Philistines, they were a perpetual enemy of Israel throughout the Old Testament. The Philistines showed up in a couple of places. Goliath remember of David and Goliath. Goliath was fighting for the Philistines. And in Judges, chapter 3, way back in the early years of Israel's being in the land, God says he's going to leave the Philistines there to test Israel. So again, God decides who's going to leave, who's going to stay where the boundaries are, and causes the victory in some nations and causes the loss in the other.

Speaker 1: 31:40

God's prophecy in Ezekiel was literally fulfilled when the Philistines were defeated by the Babylonians. It says here in verses 15, 16, and 17, that God is going to destroy them again because they took it upon themselves to take vengeance. Let me just read verse 15. Thus says the Lord God, because the Philistines have acted in revenge and have taken vengeance with 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 the seacoast. He says, right there, I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes, and they will know that I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance on them.

Speaker 1: 32:33

As we've seen, Steve, only God can take vengeance and he remembers, and there's always justice. Time may go by and we may think we get away with it, but we won't. God keeps track, so it forces us all to fall at his feet and beg forgiveness. It's a great thing that we have Jesus Christ, that we don't have to undergo God's wrath in the sense of cleansing us to his wrath. We have his loving hand of forgiveness and because of that we can take great comfort in personal salvation. But oh, these passages that are so ignored, where God deals with nations, back here in this section.

Speaker 2: 33:19

And, as we mentioned before, it's always best to let God take care of the vengeance and 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 of Tyre.

Speaker 2: 33:31

Thank you, so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.