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Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 5, part 17

In Isaiah 34:5 God says, “My sword is satiated from heaven.” The metaphor pictures a comet. Hence, it is likely that we may see a comet in the sky as a heavenly sign that the prophecy against Edom is about to be fulfilled. How far in advance this might take place is debatable, but the same sign took place in 70 A.D. when the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem.

God’s Sacrifice

Isaiah 34:6 says,

⁶ The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

In other words, we are to view this in terms of a great sacrifice. In those days short swords (or knives) were used to kill the animals and to cut them up, separate the entrails, and even cut open the bones to expose the marrow (Hebrews 4:12).

Bozrah was the capital city of Edom, located just southeast of the Dead Sea. Its name means “a fold,” that is, an enclosure for sheep or goats, and so Isaiah uses the name to reinforce the idea of sacrifice. When we think in terms of the distinction between sheep and goats and understand that Edom had taken over Mount Seir (“Goat Mountain”), we see that Bozrah was pictured as an enclosure for a goat herd.

Both sheep and goats were clean animals in the law and were eligible for sacrifice, but in prophecy, they represent different kinds of believers. Goats were more aggressive, picturing carnal believers who think their “free will” can overrule God’s will.

Isaiah’s word picture shows God sacrificing a goat. Most think of this only in terms of a violent overthrow of Edom, but God does nothing without a good purpose. A sacrifice, by definition, must involve offering something that is of value. Otherwise, it is not really a sacrifice. This presents the underlying idea that God values Edomites and that God’s sacrifice serves a good purpose in the end. Likewise, since sacrifice is always redemptive, the prophecy suggests that God will restore Edom, though it is by blood.

Isaiah 34:7 continues,

⁷ Wild oxen will also fall with them and young bulls with strong ones; thus their land will be soaked with blood, and their dust become greasy with fat.

There were certain occasions when multiple sacrifices were done, such as when Solomon dedicated his temple by sacrificing “22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep” (1 Kings 8:63). So also in the case of this final sacrifice at Jerusalem, “wild oxen” and “young bulls” will be sacrificed along with the goats of Edom. This probably was meant to portray the other nations being led by Edom in their final siege of Jerusalem.

The Cause of Zion

Isaiah 34:8 says,

⁸ For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

This is perhaps the heart of Isaiah’s message. The Lord’s “sacrifice” is essentially the result of His verdict or ruling in the divine court. In other words, Edom will lose its case. The “cause” (NASB) or “controversy” (KJV) is Esau’s case against Jacob in regard to the birthright.

Why will Esau lose his case? Esau’s controversy with Jacob had a level of validity, because Jacob had obtained the birthright in an unlawful manner without giving Esau time to prove his unworthiness. In fact, when Esau appealed to his father, Isaac told him in Genesis 27:39, 40, 41,

³⁹ Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, “Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, and away from the dew of heaven from above. ⁴⁰ By your sword you shall live, and your brother you shall serve; but it shall come about when you become restless [rud, “break loose, wander, to enquire after, to seek”], that you will break his yoke from your neck.” ⁴¹ So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob…

Isaac’s answer to Esau’s appeal did not satisfy him, for he continued to bear a grudge against Jacob, contrary to the law (Leviticus 19:18). The law commands men to accept the verdict of the judges and to change their own opinions rather than remaining in disagreement. While there are certainly carnally-minded judges whose verdicts are unjust, Esau should not have dismissed or disagreed with Isaac’s verdict, for it came by inspiration.

Hence, the controversy or legal “cause” was to continue to the end of the age. But why would this case drag on for so long?

The answer is found in the fact that Jacob had indeed deceived his father to get the birthright (Genesis 27:35). Though he received it on one level, Jacob needed some divine discipline to make him worthy of the birthright. For Jacob himself, this meant that he was go into bondage in Haran for 20-21 years. Haran was part of the territory of Syria in those days.

This was a pattern for a greater time of bondage many years later, when the house of Israel was taken captive to Assyria. This Assyrian captivity was the start of “the time of Jacob’s distress” (Jeremiah 30:7). In my book, Secrets of Time, I showed how the number 21 means “distress” and that the national application of this principle was in terms of 210 years. The broadest application was that Israel was to be distressed for 12 x 210 years, or 2,520 years.

We are now in the time of release, comparable to when Jacob returned to Canaan after his own time of distress. Though he had left Canaan as Jacob, he returned as Israel and immediately settled at Succoth (“booths”), suggesting the fulfillment of the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles).

Jacob-Israel’s return to Canaan prophesied of our own time at the end of the long time of distress, or tribulation. (The KJV calls it “the time of Jacob’s trouble.”) The carnally-minded Jacobites went into captivity, but in the end, only Israelites will be found worthy to inherit the birthright. Being found worthy is not a matter of race but character, for Jacob himself was not born an Israelite. To become an Israelite should be the goal of all believers, for it indicates a change of nature which manifests primarily in the revelation of God’s sovereignty.

Israel literally means “God rules,” that is, God is sovereign. That was the lesson that Jacob had to learn, because he had previously thought that God needed his help to fulfill prophecy. Such is the nature of the carnal believers who do not yet have the law written on their hearts.

True Israelites are overcomers who are indeed qualified to inherit the birthright. It has taken thousands of years to produce a body of overcomers who have proven their worthiness to rule with Christ in His Kingdom. For this reason “the cause of Zion” was a lengthy court case. God would not issue His verdict in the divine court until the time came when the full allotment of overcomers had been gathered.

The Shift in Dominion

Isaac’s verdict showed that Esau was to break loose (rud) from his brother’s yoke, even as an ox might break free and wander away. Using metaphoric language, Isaac was telling Esau that he would break free at some point in history. The KJV captures the meaning of this Hebrew word, rendering it, “when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.”

In other words, Isaac understood that Esau had a valid complaint against his brother. For this reason, Jacob would have to pay a price for his unlawful deception. At some point, Esau would break free and “have the dominion” long enough for him to prove his unworthiness to hold the birthright. Only then could he be disinherited, for the law protected the right of the firstborn.

Another example of a firstborn son being disinherited was when Jacob himself disinherited Reuben for defiling his father’s bed (1 Chronicles 5:1, 2). Though it was Jacob’s desire and revelation to give the birthright to Joseph, he could not do so until Reuben was disqualified. Hence, prophecy is subject to the law, for the law states the path to prophetic fulfillment.

So when did Esau-Edom break loose and “have the dominion”? Considering the fact that the Edomites were incorporated into the nation of Judah in 126 B.C., we must look to world Jewry to see the fulfillment of all end-time prophecies about Edom. We see that Isaac’s prophetic verdict occurred in 1948, when the Jews established their “State of Israel” after the British government transferred the dominion to the Jews.

Britain, which is a Hebrew name meaning Covenant Land, lowered its flag at midnight of May 13/14, 1948. The flag is called Union Jack. Jack is short for Jacob. Hence, Jacob gave the dominion back to Esau to fulfill the words of Isaac. Esau-Edom was then given time to prove himself unworthy. Would the nation repent and accept the Messiah? Would they continue their carnal ways in rebellion against Christ?

The Final Verdict

In Luke 19:14 Jesus’ parable prophesies about this court case,

¹⁴ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, “We do not want this man to reign over us.”

The parable was about Christ’s return to “a distant country to receive a kingdom for Himself and then return” (Luke 19:12). The distant country was heaven, and He was to await the divine verdict that would authorize Him to rule the Kingdom of God. But the verdict had to wait for Esau’s case to be ruled upon in the divine court. That ruling, in turn, could not be rendered until Esau had had sufficient time to prove whether or not his complaint (“cause”) was valid. And that would depend on how he handled the “dominion” and the birthright after breaking loose from Jacob’s yoke.

Hence, the Jews, representing (in part) the nation of Edom, began their allotted time in 1948. While many prophecy teachers believed that the Jews would repent and accept the Messiah within 7 years (i.e., by 1955), this did not happen. Neither has the nation accepted Jesus as the King-Messiah to this day. While thankfully there are some individual Israeli Jews who have come to accept Jesus and to back His claim to the throne, these do not represent the nation as a whole. In the end, Jesus’ final verdict is seen at the end of Jesus’ parable in Luke 19:27,

²⁷ But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.

So Jesus confirms the prophecy in Isaiah 34:5 that the nations, led by Edom, would be sacrificed at Jerusalem in the “year of recompense for the cause of Zion” (Isaiah 34:8). Jesus’ prophecy also confirms the destruction of God’s enemies in Jerusalem in Isaiah 29:1-6, where the prophet appears to be describing a nuclear strike.

To this we must also note Paul’s statement in Galatians 4:30, where he says that the bondwoman must be “cast out.” That bondwoman is the earthly Jerusalem, Paul says, whose children cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. When the city is destroyed fully, as prophesied in Jeremiah 19:10, 11, then all will know that “Hagar” and her children of the flesh have been cast out and that Jerusalem will not be the mother of the inheritors of the birthright.