Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

[Illus] I remember a snippet of a conversation between my mom and dad when I was a little boy.

We were planning a trip to north Mississippi to see my dad’s side of the family, but my dad was not really excited to see his brother because of money.

It wasn’t that anyone owed anyone money, it was that my dad’s brother (my uncle) made more money that my dad and I guess sometimes found a way to bring up that fact.

My mom responded to my dad’s concern like an evil Hallmark Card, “Well, you’ll never make as much money as he does, so you might as well not worry about it.”

We expect siblings to fight when they are younger, but we also expect them to eventually grow out of it.

Sadly, that doesn’t always happen.

Even sadder is when the sibling rivalry becomes bitterness between families.

But what we have here in is something different.

It’s a sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau that grew into continual conflict between the two nations those men spawned; between Israel and Edom; between Mount Zion and Mount Seir.

Mount Seir was the name of the mountain range in Edom.

And if we had been alive at the time of , we would have invested in Edom and thought Judah (Israel) was going out of business.

[CONTEXT] Judah and its capital, Jerusalem, had fallen to the Babylonians.

While God’s people mourned, some nations rejoiced and others, like Edom, saw an opportunity to exploit.

Weakened by Babylon, Edomite raids increased in the land of Judah in or around the year 586 B.C., but God had a glorious future prepared for his people.

Of course, in order for that glorious future to become a reality, Judah’s enemies would have to be dealt with.

Here in God promised to deal with one such enemy - the people of Esau, Mount Seir, or Edom.

[CIT] God judged Edom for exploiting and persecuting Judah when it was at its weakest, promising to do to them as they had done to his people.

Edom thought of itself as big stuff when it was actually small stuff and would soon be no stuff at all.

Edom thought of itself as big stuff when it was small stuff and would soon be no stuff at all.

At the time

[PROP] This chapter teaches us many lessons as we’ll see, but perhaps chief among them is this: God disciplines and defends his people because he loves his people and is jealous for his own glory.

[TS] We’ll look at this chapter in three SEGMENTS...

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Deuteronomy

Edom aspired to expand into areas formerly controlled by Judah.

Archaeological evidence from the end of the Judaean monarchy supports the accusation of Edom’s gradual encroachment into Judah’s territory south of Jerusalem.

A Judaean letter from the southern outpost of Arad reflects concern over Edomite expansion.

An inscription found in southern Judah also suggests an Edomite presence, since the text invokes a blessing from Edom’s national deity, Qaus.

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Segment #1: Desolation and Waste ()

[Exp] The Lord is clear; he is against Mount Seir.

Mount Seir, Edom, and its people(cf.

v. 15) will know God’s wrath as he stretches out his hand and turns Edom into a desolation and waste.

In fact, because they cherished perpetual enmity (v.

5), God would make them a perpetual desolation (v.

9), pursued by blood (v.

6), cutoff (v.

7), with mountains, valleys, and ravines filled with the corpses of their slain (v.

8).

The reason for God’s judgment on the Edomites is given in v. 5...

That phrase at the end of v. 5, “at the time of their final punishment,” could also be rendered “when their punishment was at its worst.”

The Edomites loved to hate Israel even though the Israelites were commanded by God not to hate them in .

Nevertheless, the Edomites loved to strike at Israel when it was at its weakest point.

In fact, when the heartbroken exiles in Babylon were commanded by their captors to sing after the fall of Jerusalem, they asked in ...

We can hear the heartbreak turn to indignation, however, as they sing in ...

The Edomites surely did this.

A prophecy in at around the same time as Jerusalem was being taken captive by Babylon and as people were fleeing for their lives warned Edom not to stand at the crossroads of those who fled to cut them off or take advantage of them.

If they did, God promised the Edomites in ...

At around the same time Jerusalem fell to Babylon and people fled for their lives, a prophecy in warned Edom not to stand at the crossroads to cut off or take advantage of those who fled.

If they did, God promised the Edomites in ...

A prophecy in at around the same time as Jerusalem was being taken captive by Babylon and as people were fleeing for their lives warned Edom not to stand at the crossroads of those who fled to cut them off or take advantage of them.

If they did, God promised the Edomites in ...

T

This reminds us of many of the prophecies in chapters 25-32 of Ezekiel.

Many of the nations mentioned in those chapters found that the Lord was against them because they saw Judah’s fall to the Babylonians as an opportunity to exploit.

However, Babylon’s sacking of Judah and its capital, Jerusalem, was the discipline of God and God only disciplines those he loves.

So, when those nations saw an opportunity to be exploited, God saw a people he loved in need of discipline and a people he would defend because they were his own.

[Illus] This reminds us of many of the prophecies in chapters 25-32 of Ezekiel.

Many of the nations mentioned in those chapters found that the Lord was against them because they saw Judah’s fall to the Babylonians as an opportunity to exploit.

However, Babylon’s sacking of Judah and its capital, Jerusalem, was the discipline of God and God only disciplines those he loves.

So, when those nations saw an opportunity to be exploited, God saw a people he loved in need of discipline and a people he would defend because they were his own.

God’s people in Judah needed discipline so they would turn from their sins by turning back to him.

They needed defending because the glory of his Name was attached to them.

Allowing the nations to take advantage of his people would make God look weak and God wasn’t weak.

The Edomites were going to learn that same lesson.

They too would know God in his wrath.

[App] Here are a few lessons for us from these first nine verses...

God is clear.

God’s clarity is not confusing.

We noticed the clarity of God in saying, “Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir,” (v.

3).

People accuse God of being unclear or confusing, but neither accusation will stick in light of the Bible.

God’s is more than clear!

He is repetitively clear about who will be saved and who will not be saved; about who belongs to him and who does not belong to him.

The problem is not God’s clarity but our unwillingness to believe what he says.

God’s discipline is not desertion.

Judah experienced severe discipline as God used Babylon to conquer the nation and the capital city, Jerusalem.

God’s discipline surely didn’t feel like love, but it was loving.

God’s discipline was evidence that he had not deserted his people.

When God disciplines, rebukes, corrects, and convicts us, it is a sign of God’s love for us and his continued presence with us

God’s defends his people.

God is covenant-ally attached to his people; God and his people are bound up together.

God will defend and finally deliver his people because he will not allow his Name to suffer loss.

If belong to God through faith in Christ, we need not worry.

God will defend us and ultimately deliver us because he loves us, but just as importantly, for his own glory.

Perpetual enmity leads to perpetual desolation.

“Why does Hell last forever?”

That’s a question we can understand people asking because the idea of eternal punishment seems heavy handed.

“Couldn’t God lighten up a little bit?

Couldn’t he let people out of Hell after awhile?

Surely they would have learned their lesson by then.”

But they wouldn’t have.

Hell is eternal or infinitely long because God is eternal or infinite in his Being.

To sin against God then is an eternal or infinite crime for which their must be infinite payment.

Amazingly, God has provided just that in Jesus Christ, the God-man, on the cross.

There Jesus took upon himself the infinite wrath of God for all those who would trust him and follow him as Savior and Lord.

Those who reject Jesus will pay that infinite price themselves in Hell.

But even if God said, “Ok.

Enough’s enough.

Let’s let ‘em out,” do you know what those unrepentant sinners would do?

They’d go right back to rebelling against God! They’d go right back to rejecting his grace!

They’d go right back to their old sinful ways!

God knows that.