S41 || When nations mock Israel, are they mocking God? || Ezekiel 35:1-15 || Session 41

What if the most dangerous thing about a nation isn’t its armies, but its envy? In Ezekiel chapter 35, the spotlight falls on Edom—Mount Seir—and a hard truth emerges: God confronts “everlasting enmity,” the kind of hatred that celebrates another people’s pain and seizes land under the cover of their loss. We walk through the text line by line and place it in the larger arc of Ezekiel—early judgment on Judah, mid‑book oracles to the nations, and a turn toward restoration—showing how Edom becomes a cautionary tale for every era.

We trace Edom’s story from Esau and Idumea into the first century with Herod to show that old rivalries have long tails. Then we grapple with God’s charges: love of bloodshed, arrogant words against Him, and a bold claim on land He calls His own. It’s not a blanket defense of Israel’s behavior—Ezekiel spends chapters condemning Israel’s sin—but it is a clear boundary against identity‑driven hatred and opportunism. If repentance spared Nineveh, Ezekiel suggests that contempt and violence summon justice. And when nations mock Israel’s ruin, they risk mocking Israel’s God, who says, “I have heard it.”

This conversation leans into the nuance our moment needs. We separate principled critique from corrosive prejudice, ask why the land matters in Scripture, and consider how God’s governance of history weighs motives as well as actions. The takeaway is both sobering and hopeful: God judges envy and bloodshed, guards His name and His promises, and prepares a path toward restoration in Ezekiel chapter 36 of — His “I will,” not Israel’s merit.

If this episode challenged your assumptions or clarified your thinking, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a rating or review so more listeners can join the conversation. What question do you want us to tackle next?

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting Ezekiel’s Roadmap
• 1:59 From Israel’s Judgment to Nations’ Judgment
• 3:33 Restoration Era and Edom’s Obstacle
• 5:07 Edom’s Roots: Esau to Herod
• 7:02 Reading Ezekiel 35:1–6
• 9:53 Everlasting Enmity Explained
• 12:48 Applying Anti‑Semitism Warnings Today
• 15:58 Justice, Bloodshed, and Divine Control
• 17:55 Reading Ezekiel 35:7–15
• 19:48 The Land Belongs to God
• 21:43 Arrogance Against God, Not Just Israel
• 23:53 Lessons Nations Still Haven’t Learned
• 26:53 Personal Reflection and Next Chapter Tease

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:17

Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. We are going through the book of Ezekiel, and today we're going to see yet another of God's commands against a nation. And we're going to talk about why it is here in this section of the book. If you remember the flow of the book, at the beginning, God has called the prophet Ezekiel to be his spokesman to the people of Israel that have been taken captive in Babylon. And for the first two dozen chapters through chapter 24, God gave a series of very direct messages telling the Jewish people that Jerusalem is going to be captured, destroyed, some of the people killed, the rest of them scattered and taken into captivity. God was very blunt, very direct, saying that because of the Jewish people's sin, they were going to be punished and the nation was going to be destroyed. The land was going to be taken over by pagan nations. Starting in chapter 25, we had God speaking against other nations that were around Israel. And he went through a series of them condemning them for their sins. We made the point there that God raises up nations and he tears them down again based on his system of morality. God always sends in prophets before he does so to give a nation the word so that they would have a chance of repenting, much like the prophet Jonah that went to Nineveh. Starting in chapter 33, we've seen the last section of the book. Up to now, God has been describing judgment on Jerusalem. Now the book changes. Starting in 33 and 34, we're in the section where God is talking about restoring Israel. But more importantly, this section is representative of all nations that will oppose Israel in her restoration. This is the section of Ezekiel where God is restoring Israel. Edom had come in and taken part of the land, so they must be moved out of the way before God can restore Israel. We'll see once we get into the passage is that he's speaking against Edom because they have hated the Jews. That's where we are, and we're going to find some applications of that even today. And we're going to find the Jewish people don't get off scot-free either simply because of their continued disobedience. Very interesting passage with a lot of literary contrast. Chapter 35 and 36 deal with speaking against mountains. Well, the mountains are representative of the nation that lives there. And the contrast is in chapter 35, he speaks against the mountains of the pagan nations. In chapter 36, God speaks to and for the mountains of the nation Israel. We open here with Mount Seir, which is Edom. The Edomites descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob. So all the way back in Genesis chapter 36, verse 8, Esau was Edom and dwelt at Mount Seir. So, Steve, what else do we know about these descendants of Esau? Because that's who we're really talking about here.

SPEAKER_00: 3:44

So the Edomites, whenever they moved into Israel, they moved into that southern part as well. That area became known as Idomia. And there was conflict between the Jewish people and the Edomians. When we get into the first century, Herod is ruling over Jerusalem and the province of Judah. It's being occupied by Rome in general. He's serving at the behest of Rome, but he's an Idommean. He's not of Jewish descent. So we see the political discourse that's there between the Sanhedrin and the King Herod and all of that stuff that's going on in the first century as well. We see through this history of Edom and Esau that it continues to blend in with the history of the Jews well into the first century.

SPEAKER_01: 4:36

Back in Genesis, Isaac had twins, Jacob and Esau. God chose Jacob to make his line of descent for his chosen nation. Esau, God did not choose. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of red stew, and his descendants became the Edomites. They periodically fought with Israel, and here they have taken over part of the land when God moved the Jews out in the captivity. That's where we pick up the story here at the beginning of Ezekiel chapter 35. So, Steve, can you read the first six verses?

SPEAKER_00: 5:09

Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, set your face against Mount Sierre, and prophesy against it, and say to it, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against you, Mount Sierre, and I will stretch out my hand against you and make you a desolation and a waste. I will lay waste to your cities, and you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Because you have had everlasting enity and have delivered the sons of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, at the time of the punishment of the end. Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord God, I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you, since you have not hated bloodshed. Therefore, bloodshed will pursue you.

SPEAKER_01: 6:02

Once again, we have God giving very clear messages to nations outside of Israel. In this case, this nation Edom has gone in from outside to capture parts of the land. And God's pattern is to send a prophet in to a nation explaining why they violated his commands, giving them a chance to repent or face judgment. If they repent, like Nineveh did under Jonah, then God will spare them. If not, as the Canaanites did not, then he sends judgment against them. God is always just and sends punishment because he is a just God. If we walk through this, Stephen verse 4, what does God say he's going to do here?

SPEAKER_00: 6:49

He says that he's going to lay waste to their cities and that they're going to become a desolation. It's the same type of message that we saw in the earlier chapters with all of those other nations that God was mentioning.

SPEAKER_01: 7:01

In the very next verse, he tells them why he's going to judge them. So what does verse five say is the reason why God's going to do this?

SPEAKER_00: 7:10

It says because they have an everlasting enmity, meaning hatred for the sons of Israel. And as we have been going through this, if we really go back to Jacob and Esau, they reconciled with each other. When Jacob came back from seeking his bride and stayed for several years off in the other land, when he was coming back, him and Jacob reconciled. Now they both went their own ways and settled in different areas, but the brothers themselves reconciled to each other. But now the descendants of both of these patriarchs, they have enity amongst them. And as you see here in verse 5, God is judging Edom because the enmity is coming from Edomites. They're the ones that have the hatred for these Jewish people.

SPEAKER_01: 8:43

God is judging the Edomites and condemning, he uses the term Mount Seer here, but it's the Edomites that live there. He's not doing it simply because they disagreed with the Jews. He's not doing it because the Edomites found something abhorrent in the Jews. Remember, God himself has spent two dozen chapters in this book condemning the Jewish people because of their horrible actions. So God's not condemning the Edomites simply because they disagreed with the Jewish people or voted against them in an election. None of those things. He's saying in verse five, it was because of the quote, everlasting enmity and have delivered the sons of Israel to the power of the sword, unquote. So because they had lasting hatred for the Jewish people over time and had been attacking them and killing some of them over time, that's why he's judging them. And I think we can apply that to our day. In our day, the Jewish people are not correct in everything they do. The nation has come back together as a country. But we're not supporting Israel simply because we think they're doing right all the time. In fact, they're not. Not only the modern nation, but going back to ancient times, hard pressed to find a time when they ever did obey God or do right. They've rejected their Messiah. But nevertheless, God is judging the Edomites because of an ongoing, everlasting, continual hatred of the Jews and violence against them. And I think we can take that and apply that in our day. We should be very careful in our day when we have an everlasting, ongoing hatred of the Jews and attack them and try to spill their blood because God will judge for that in Ezekiel's day, and he'll judge for that in our day. Now, again, not saying that we have to agree with everything the Jewish nation or the Jewish people ever do. They've done a lot of wrong things that we can disagree with them about. That's fine. God disagrees with them. But what we can't do is have an everlasting enmity, is the way he says it here. It's Jew hating. That's what he's holding them responsible for, and he's going to destroy them for it. Nations today that have that, he will destroy them as well. The book of Ezekiel, if it says anything, it's saying that God is in control of nations, and he will cause the punishment of his own people because of their sins, and he will cause the punishment of the nations around Israel for taking matters into their own hands. He will protect his people when it is time. Again, what's going on here? God spent two dozen chapters condemning Israel for gross, horrible sin. Now, what is he doing? He's condemning Edom because they went against Israel. So God is the one that's in control. He will raise up and he will tear down at his prerogative. And I think the Bible and secular history tells us that any people who has a lasting anti-Semitism are going to be judged by God. Can we hold this to be applicable today?

SPEAKER_00: 12:16

I absolutely do think it's going to be applicable to our time and also in the future because it's God's people and God's land to give and to take away. And God doesn't let the nation of Israel get away with mocking him. That's what this whole book or the first part of it is about. He's bringing final judgment on them because of their actions. Now, look, we as people support different countries across the globe. On some of those support of the countries, we agree with the governments that are there at particular times and we disagree with the governments that are there at different times. We can support a nation without necessarily supporting the government of the nation and what the government does not only to its own people, but does to other surrounding nations. But there seems to be some sort of a pushback whenever someone says, I support the nation of Israel because God supports the nation of Israel. And then to think that, no, you can't do that because God is done with the Jewish people. Therefore, you can't support the nation of Israel and their right to exist and for them to be a nation on their own. No, God is going to tell us in the next chapter, He's going to give a series of I wills and a series of actions that he is unilaterally going to take in bringing the people back. So a better question is when we say that we support the nation of Israel, we're doing it because God supports the nation of Israel. Number one. A second question, though, is do the nation of Israel deserve to be in the land? And the answer is no. If you go back to Deuteronomy and what the message that Moses gave to the people, he tells them, you're going to go into the land, not because you deserve it, but because God has given it to you. And he encourages them to follow God's ordinances and statutes so that they can live long in the land. We've discussed that principle in some of our earlier sessions. So does the nation of Israel deserve to be in the land? No. If they're disobeying God, no, they don't deserve to be there. But God is very clear that He is going to bring them back to the land and it's His land to give them or to take away from them. So that kind of gives a little bit more of a flavor of what we talk about whenever we say that God has a purpose for Israel. We think it's a very clear thing that's outlined in Scripture, and we'll continue to talk about that every time that we come across it in Scripture.

SPEAKER_01: 15:03

Verse six, God makes it very clear why He's condemning the Edomites. He says, As I live, I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you since or because you have not hated bloodshed. Therefore, bloodshed will pursue you. And remember, over in the New Testament, Jesus said, All who take up the sword will perish by the sword, Matthew 26, 52. We have a day that we live in today where there's a lot of bloodshed. And those that spill blood, their blood will be shed. That's the way that God has laid things out. So we need to be very careful about our nations today. We live it with so much bloodshed. Moving on, starting in verse seven, notice the very emotional and graphic language that God uses in condemnation of the Edomites at Mount Seir. He says this I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation, and I will cut off from it the one who passes through and returns. I will fill its mountain with the slain. On your hills and in your valleys and in your ravines, those slain by the sword will fall. I will make you an everlasting desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the Lord. The Bible speaks a great deal about God's love and patience and mercy. But we also have passages like this. Why would the Bible include such graphic judgments like this?

SPEAKER_00: 16:41

Because God is sending a message to, in this case, Edom, because of the actions that they've taken against Israel and their history that the actions they've taken against them, they're now going to be judged and they're going to be made into a wasteland. Verse 6 is clear that they were violent against Israel and in their land in general. So he says, I'm going to turn you over to bloodshed. So the judgment that God is putting on Edom here is in a direct correlation to the enity that they expressed towards Israel, to the Jewish people. I think that is the same throughout all of history. It's going to be the same thing in the future. The judgment of the sheep and the goats, that's going to be based off of how the Jewish people were treated during the tribulation period. We've spoken about that when we went through the book of Matthew. So this is a principle that God has, and it was true in times past. It's true now, and it's going to be true in the future.

SPEAKER_01: 17:45

We all want to hear the passages that talk about God's love and mercy and forgiveness. And I love those as much as anyone. But if we love God, then we also have to take into account passages like the one we've just read that deal with the wrath and punishment of God. We can't have love without the justice of God as well. So in this next section, we're going to read, God gives still another judgment for Edom. He told us that he was judging them because of their bloodshed and their ongoing hatred of the Jewish people. Now he gives another one. Steve, can you read from verse 10 down to verse 15?

SPEAKER_00: 18:30

Because you have said, These two nations and these two lands will be mine, and we will possess them, although the Lord was there. Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord God, I will deal with you according to your anger and according to your envy, which you showed because of your hatred against them. So I will make myself known among them when I judge you. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have heard all your revilings which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given to us for food, and you have spoken arrogantly against me, and have multiplied your words against me. I have heard it. Thus says the Lord God, as all the earth rejoices, I will make you a desolation. As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You will be a desolation, O Mount Sierra, and all Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

SPEAKER_01: 19:39

Starting back in verse 10, very clear explanation of God telling us that the Edomites were trying to take the land. Note that God is very concerned about the land. God sent Babylon in to take the Jewish people out of the land. But when Edom tried to, on their own come and take the land itself, not the people, but the land, God is going to protect the land. It's his land, he can do with it as he wishes. So what I find interesting is that back in Ezekiel's day, there were wars going on over who's going to control this land. And God is the one that's really going to ultimately decide who gets to own it. But still today, there's people that are fighting over that land. God's judging the ancient Edomites for hating the Jews and trying to take that land. And God will judge modern nations for hating the Jews and trying to take that land. He says he's also going to punish the Edomites, quote, according to your anger and according to your envy against them, unquote. Throughout history, there have been people that have hated the Jews. We have people today that hate the Jews. God keeps an account of our motivations and our actions and will judge us if we hate the Jewish people and try to take their land. Now that's not to say, is just to repeat, we're not saying you have to agree with everything that Israel does. God didn't agree with everything Israel does, disagreed with quite a bit of what Israel did because they were sinning. We would reject their actions and a lot of their beliefs and motivations. But if we hate the Jewish people because they're Jewish and try to take their land, then God will judge modern people just like he judged the ancient Edomites.

SPEAKER_00: 21:36

He also says, in the midst of this condemnation of Edom and their hatred and enmity for the Jewish people, God's very clear in these verses that that's the main reason why he's bringing this judgment. In verse 13, he says, You have spoken arrogantly against me and multiplied your words against me. So the support of Israel is not about the nation of Israel. The support of Israel is about the support of God and what God is doing in conjunction with all of the nations. We've talked about this many, many times throughout our sessions that God is working with nations and He created the nation of Israel in order to be an example to all the other nations of who he is as God. So as the people of Israel are taken out of the land, the other nations make derision of God for that. What type of a God do you have that you have allowed them to be taken out of the land to be defeated? That was one of the arguments that Moses made when they came out of slavery in Egypt. And they were worshiping the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. God told Moses on the mountain, your people down there are worshiping a false idol. I'm going to do away with them. And Moses's main argument was, oh Lord, don't do that, because what will the other nations say that you just brought your people out here in order to do away with them? Don't do that. And so it says, God relented. So support of the nation of Israel is not about them, it's about God. And God is clear here. Their hatred for the Jewish people also transcended into speaking arrogantly against God. This is another reason that he's also condemning them. So we should be careful today about having Jew hatred in general. As we went back in the second chapter of Zechariah, God says they're the apple of my eye. We went through that when we went through Zechariah. And so we need to be careful because it's not just against the Jewish nation and the Jewish people, but it can be something that turns into being against God Himself. And we should be cautious about that.

SPEAKER_01: 24:06

You're exactly right, Steve. And he supports it, makes it very clear here. Look at verse 13. This is God speaking again, condemning the Edomites. You have spoken arrogantly against me and have multiplied your words against me. I've heard it, unquote. So God there is taking this very personally. The people that hated the Jewish people because they were Jewish and tried to take the land, he says, You're against me. God takes the hatred of the Jewish people quite personally. I find this to be quite amazing that even after two and a half millennia, then it's still going on today. Look at verse 12. I think we can know some things about God individually and personally. Does God know about our thoughts and our statements, both good and bad? What can we learn about what God knows and his knowledge?

SPEAKER_00: 25:03

He says that he has heard and he also knows about all the revilings that they have spoken against the mountains of Israel. He even gives them a quote of some of the things that they were saying. They are laid desolate, they are given to us for food. That was their thought. Oh, the Babylonians have come in, they've taken them out and now taken them away into exile. And so now we can move in. Again, it's God's land to give and to take away. So while God was disciplining the nation of Israel, in this case, the southern kingdom of Judah, finally, with Babylon, it's his land to give to somebody else, and he's not doing that. So Edom is moving in, saying, Oh, it's free for us to go in and take. What we get there is God knows what we think, and he also knows what we say. He knows what is in our heart.

SPEAKER_01: 26:00

Verse 15 says this. Again, God's speaking against the Edomites, as you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, that's the land, so I will do it to you. You will be a desolation, Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it, they will know that I'm the Lord. God is meeting justice out on these people because they were rejoicing that the Jewish people had been taken out of the land. And God says, You're going against me, and he will do it to you. What I find interesting with all of this, it's it's very specific about who's in control of the land, how we should treat the Jewish people, how we should judge the Jewish people and the nations around them. So it's not amazing to me that God is in control of Israel and the nations around it. I don't find that surprising. God's in control of nations and he'll raise them up and take them down as he sees fit. What is amazing to me is that after 3,000 years, the world hasn't learned the lesson because God was raising up nations 2,500, 3,000 years ago because of how they treated him and his people. And he's doing it today. We haven't learned the lesson. There's still some quite painful lessons being learned around the globe, even today. What is also amazing to me is the continual disobedience and disbelief of the Jews, even after all these hard lessons that God has tried to teach them. God taught them these lessons in the Babylonian captivity. They were still a very hard-headed, hard-hearted people in the first century when Jesus came, and they have still rejected their Messiah. So it's amazing to me that after all these centuries, all these years, that the nations around Israel haven't learned the lesson and the Jewish people themselves haven't learned the lesson. But Steve, I can also condemn myself because why haven't I learned the lessons that God's trying to teach me?

SPEAKER_00: 28:17

Because we're sometimes hard-headed and obstinate, just like Israel was, albeit maybe not as much. But I think it's human nature sometimes that we get tied to this world. We have the senses that are connected to this world, and the world keeps pulling us back. Therefore, sometimes it takes a little bit of push or shove from God in different ways to get us back on track.

SPEAKER_01: 28:43

That brings us to the end of Ezekiel chapter 35. Be with us next time because we're getting what is probably the most important chapter in the book, Ezekiel 36. He's going to be very explicit about the restoration of Israel. He makes it quite clear what he's going to do. So be sure and be with us next time as we continue to reason through the book of Ezekiel.

SPEAKER_00: 29:07

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