7 Concerning Edom.
Thus says the Lord of hosts,
“Is there no longer any wisdom in Teman?
Has good counsel been lost to the prudent?
Has their wisdom decayed?
8 “Flee away, turn back, dwell in the depths,
O inhabitants of Dedan,
For I [g]will bring the disaster of Esau upon him
At the time I [h]punish him.
9 “If grape gatherers came to you,
Would they not leave gleanings?
If thieves came by night,
They would destroy only [i]until they had enough.
10 “But I have stripped Esau bare,
I have uncovered his hiding places
So that he will not be able to conceal himself;
His [j]offspring has been destroyed along with his [k]relatives
And his neighbors, and he is no more.
11 “Leave your [l]orphans behind, I will keep them alive;
And let your widows trust in Me.”12 For thus says the Lord, “Behold, those [m]who were not sentenced to drink the cup will certainly drink it, and are you the one who will be completely acquitted? You will not be acquitted, but you will certainly drink it. 13 For I have sworn by Myself,” declares the Lord, “that Bozrah will become an object of horror, a reproach, a ruin and a curse; and all its cities will become perpetual ruins.”
14 I have heard a message from the Lord,
And an envoy is sent among the nations, saying,
“Gather yourselves together and come against her,
And rise up for battle!”
15 “For behold, I have made you small among the nations,
Despised among men.
16 “As for the terror of you,
The arrogance of your heart has deceived you,
O you who live in the clefts of [n]the rock,
Who occupy the height of the hill.
Though you make your nest as high as an eagle’s,
I will bring you down from there,” declares the Lord.17 “Edom will become an object of horror; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss at all its wounds. 18 Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah with its neighbors,” says the Lord, “no one will live there, nor will a son of man reside in it. 19 Behold, one will come up like a lion from the [o]thickets of the Jordan against [p]a perennially watered pasture; for in an instant I will make him run away from it, and whoever is chosen I shall appoint over it. For who is like Me, and who will summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand against Me?”
20 Therefore hear the plan of the Lord which He has planned against Edom, and His purposes which He has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely they will drag them off, even the little ones of the flock; surely He will make their [q]pasture desolate because of them. 21 The earth has quaked at the noise of their downfall. There is an outcry! The noise of it has been heard at the [r]Red Sea. 22 Behold, [s]He will mount up and swoop like an eagle and spread out His wings [t]against Bozrah; and the hearts of the mighty men of Edom in that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
Now we come to the people of Edom, who are descendants of Esau (v. 8), the brother of Jacob who became Israel. Shock and surprise, God doesn’t have good things to say about them either. In vv. 9-10, we see a comparison of a thief who would likely leave things behind, but God was going to strip everything away from Edom.
Yet even then, God tells them in v. 11 to leave the orphans and widows, for God will take care of them. It seems so out of place in a passage full of judgment, but there it is, as God’s compassion inevitably leaks through. Another interesting note is in v. 19, where we read, “For who is like Me, and who will summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand against Me?”
The rhetorical answer to that is “no one”, but it also highlights a large problem with the way Edom was living, and a snare that we can fall into. They had trusted people and leaders to “shepherd” them who were not wise (v. 7) or prudent. Their wisdom had decayed and instead of clinging to the God of their forefather Abraham, they had gone their own way.
There are plenty of shepherds we also could follow today, and indeed we ought to have good examples in our lives. But we must be wary of false shepherds, much like Jesus warned in John 10. If they don’t follow Jesus, and don’t “come in by the gate”, but try to twist scripture and lead us another way, run away! There is no one who cares for His sheep like the Good Shepherd, and we need to be sure that we are following Him truly.
Learn from the church at Corinth (2 Cor. 11), “For if [b]one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted…” Do not “bear if beautifully” as they did, smiling and nodding. Don’t be led astray by smooth talking and false promises, but hold fast to God’s Word and His promises. God will not leave or abandon us, and will help us to discern between the good shepherds and the bad.