Warning: You Reap What You Sow! (Ezekiel 35)

Scripture reading – Ezekiel 34; Ezekiel 35

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* Please note that words and phrases in brackets are the author’s amplification.

After rebuking Israel’s spiritual shepherds for prioritizing their own interests over the people’s spiritual well-being (Ezekiel 34:2-6), Ezekiel delivered a prophecy “against Mount Seir,” which represents the region of Edom (Ezekiel 35:2). The Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother. They lived southeast of Israel, east of the Dead Sea. They despised Israel and Judah and took pleasure in the sorrows and sufferings of God’s chosen people.

Ezekiel 35 

The LORD Determined to Judge Edom (Ezekiel 35:1-4)

The LORD appeared to Ezekiel and instructed him to prophesy against Edom, saying, “Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O mount Seir [i.e., Edom], I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. ⁴I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 35:3-4).

Following Edom’s defeat, their cities were destroyed, and the land became desolate (i.e., uninhabited). Once again, the Scriptures emphasize that God’s judgments are designed so that the people and nations may recognize that Israel’s God is “the LORD” (Ezekiel 35:4).

The Edomites Hated God’s People (Ezekiel 35:5-9)

The Edomites descended from Esau, Jacob’s twin brother, as well as from Isaac and Abraham. They had a long history of “perpetual hatred” and violence toward the Israelites (Ezekiel 35:5). Their actions included shedding Israeli blood and incurring God’s wrath (Ezekiel 35:5). As a result, the LORD decided that Edom’s blood would be spilled, its people slain, and its land left forsaken (Ezekiel 35:6-7). 

The slaughter of Edom would be so thorough that the mountains, valleys, and hills would be filled with the slain (Ezekiel 35:8-9). Edom’s cities would not be rebuilt, and the people would know that what was done was the LORD’s (Ezekiel 35:9).

The Edomites Coveted Israel’s Inheritance (Ezekiel 35:10-11)

Rejoicing in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jews’ captivity, the Edomites boasted that the land the LORD had given His people would become their inheritance (Ezekiel 35:10). Through His prophet, the LORD declared that the Edomites would reap what they had sown and that His name would be glorified in their judgment (Ezekiel 35:11).

The Edomites Slandered Israel and Defied the LORD (Ezekiel 35:12-14)

Edom mocked and despised the “mountains of Israel” (referring to Israel’s leaders), proclaiming, “They are laid desolate, they are given to us to consume” (Ezekiel 25:12). 

The LORD then warned, “I have heard them” (Ezekiel 35:13), and Ezekiel declared that the nations of the earth would rejoice when Edom lay desolate (Ezekiel 35:14). The prophet Malachi later looked back on Edom’s judgment and recalled the LORD’s declaration, “I hated Esau (Edom), and laid his mountains and his heritage waste” (Malachi 1:3).

The Edomites Reaped What They Sowed (Ezekiel 35:15)

Edom rejoiced at the overthrow of Jerusalem and at the desolation of Israel and Judah. However, the LORD, being just, proclaimed that the Edomites would endure the same sorrows (Ezekiel 35:15a). What Edom (“mount Seir, and all Idumea”) had sown as a nation, they would reap, thereby demonstrating that the God of Israel is sovereign and that He is “the LORD” (Ezekiel 35:15b).

Friend, times change and nations come and go, but the principle of Sowing and Reaping remains an immutable truth. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).