Ezekiel 25:8-11 Moab & Seir
God pronounces judgment against Moab and Seir for their attitude. They didn’t rejoice at Judah’s fall but they dismissed their God.
This is a very short prophecy against these two nations. Their attitude towards Judah, the Temple, and especially Judah’s God would be their undoing. They said that Judah was just like all the other nations. This was an afront to God Himself.
Judah is going through a HORRIBLE time, because of her own sins. It is a time of judgment, punishment, and correction. God is using the nation of Babylon to inflict this just punishment but He has NOT forgotten His people. Nor has he failed to protect them.
What Moab and Seir see though is another nation falling. Moab was a close relative of Israel but they treated them with disdain while in the wilderness. Moab would not let Israel pass through their land on the way to the Promised Land. Israel had to go around. Moab was also the tempters of the first generation of Israel. The last of the lives of the first generation fell as God judged them for their sin with the Moab women and their gods. Moab had felt God’s wrath before and had witnessed God’s care of Israel.
But when Judah fell, Moab dismissed ALL the evidence of God watching over Israel. They dismissed God’s faithfulness in defending Israel and Judah. They dismissed God’s power and His love. They called Judah just like the rest of the world. Which said that Judah’s GOD was no better than any other god of the nations.
THAT was a “no-no”! It was a LIE and God would see to it that they learned, or relearned, the truth. If anything, Judah’s fall was PROOF of God’s power, love, and sovereignty. His hand has been on Israel from the beginning. He has cared for them AND disciplined them throughout their history. He does what HE KNOWS is right for His people, INCLUDING giving them the ‘silent treatment’. HE brought their oppressor. Did Moab and Seir actually think that God couldn’t have repelled Babylon as easily as ALL THE OTHER NATIONS of the past IF He wanted to? All one needs to do is look back at the history of this small nation and KNOW that Someone was doing their fighting for them. Did they think God had ‘run out of power’ and couldn’t defend Judah any longer?
Or did they think God had abandoned Judah? That is a more reasonable assumption, if you ask me. Maybe they were saying that Judah was now like the rest of the nations because her God had abandoned her. This means that they had NO understanding of the depth of God’s covenant with Israel. God made a PROMISE to be their God forever. In order for Him to abandon Judah, He would have to break His word. And THAT would NEVER happen! Moab and Seir would learn that the HARD way.
Those of us who love the Lord and find ourselves in tough times can take comfort in this. God will NEVER abandon His children. The commitment He makes to them is an ‘eternity’ commitment. It doesn’t end at our first sin. It doesn’t end at out 100th one either. It doesn’t end at death. It is for ETERNITY. And it means that, BECAUSE He loves us, He will discipline us when needed. “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent” (Revelation 3:19). If God didn’t love us, He wouldn’t care what we do. Because He loves us, He works to create in us the BEST we can possibly be.
Father God, I’ll GLADLY take Your discipline BECAUSE it proves Your love for me. I KNOW I can trust You to work to bring out the best in me. AND to drive out the ‘ugliness’. I want to be EXACTLY what You created me to be. To be the daughter who LOVES YOU with my WHOLE BEING! The one who is not afraid of being abandoned. The one who understands and accepts Your right discipline. You NEVER get in the ‘spanking mood’ and punish all of us for the sins of another. You work with ME on MY issues. You bring about the BEST in me! THANK YOU for loving me enough to discipline me Father!
