The desolation of Mount Seir.
I. AN AFTER-THOUGHT OF JUDGMENT. This is a distressing and disappointing passage. We seemed to have done with the weary recital of successive judgments against the several heathen nations. Passing from these painful scenes, we had come to the cheerful picture of the restoration of Israel. Now that picture is rudely torn, and a description of the desolation of Mount Seir inserted in the midst of it. The darkness of this unexpected scene of judgment is the more appalling inasmuch as it is in startling contrast with the preceding and the succeeding brightness of Israel's restoration. This looks like an after-thought of judgment. It is as though Edom, the nation typified by Mount Seir, had been forgotten until suddenly, by an unlucky chance, she came into mind, and then without delay the thread of joyous prophecy is broken and her doom is ruthlessly pronounced. At all events, the solitary and peculiar position of the prophecy against Edom gives to it a striking significance.
1. No impenitent sinners can be always overlooked. There are no exceptions to the law of retribution. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," is a principle of universal application. No single soul can by any rare good fortune ultimately escape from it.
2. God's forbearance does not destroy his justice. He may wait long. But if the soul is finally impenitent, he will surely smite.
3. The goodness of God does not abolish his wrath against sin. Even when the mercy is most fully displayed, this wrath is also seen.
II. THE DOOM OF THOSE WHO ARE NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM. There was one reason why Edom should receive exceptional treatment. She was not only a near neighbor to Israel, she was a blood-relation. Her people were the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. Though a foreign nation, her cousinly relationship with Israel was like that of America with England. She could reckon two—the two best—of the patriarchs as her ancestors. Like Israel, she was descended from Abraham and Isaac. Might not she, then, expect the blessings of the patriarchs? Esau had begged for a blessing with bitter tears, and he had received one, but not the best blessing (Genesis 27:38-40). The young man whom Christ loved was "not far from the kingdom of God" (Mark 12:34). Yet for all we know, he did not enter it. The members of Christians families are favored with great religious privileges. It is much to be able to claim godly ancestors. But these advantages will not serve as substitutes for personal piety. Nay, they will make the guilt of godlessness the greater. We may be like Edom, very near to Israel, yet like Edom we may be cast aside and lost, if we have not really entered ourselves into the Divine covenant.
III. THE PUNISHMENT OF HATRED. Edom was accused of "perpetual hatred" (Ezekiel 35:5)—a hatred which perhaps sprang from original jealousy, still one that had been long cherished. As love is the fulfilling of the Law, so hatred is the most effectual breaking of it. It is hatred that brings war and misery on mankind. This is constituted out of the very venom of hell. It cannot be allowed to remain unchecked. If it is not abandoned and repented of, its curses must come home to roost, and they who harbor it must suffer its doom. So long as a man cherishes hatred in his heart towards a single fellow-creature, he cannot be accepted by God (1 John 4:20).