‘In that day,’ declares the Lord,

    ‘will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,

    those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

9 Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified,

    and everyone in Esau’s mountains

    will be cut down in the slaughter.

10 Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,

    you will be covered with shame;

    you will be destroyed for ever.

11 On the day you stood aloof

    while strangers carried off his wealth

and foreigners entered his gates

    and cast lots for Jerusalem,

    you were like one of them.

12 You should not gloat over your brother

    in the day of his misfortune,

nor rejoice over the people of Judah

    in the day of their destruction,

nor boast so much

    in the day of their trouble.

13 You should not march through the gates of my people

    in the day of their disaster,

nor gloat over them in their calamity

    in the day of their disaster,

nor seize their wealth

    in the day of their disaster.

14 You should not wait at the crossroads

    to cut down their fugitives,

nor hand over their survivors

    in the day of their trouble.

15 ‘The day of the Lord is near

    for all nations.

As you have done, it will be done to you;

    your deeds will return upon your own head.

16 Just as you drank on my holy hill,

    so all the nations will drink continually;

they will drink and drink

    and be as if they had never been.

17 But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;

    it will be holy,

    and Jacob will possess his inheritance.

18 Jacob will be a fire

    and Joseph a flame;

Esau will be stubble,

    and they will set him on fire and destroy him.

There will be no survivors

    from Esau.’

The Lord has spoken.

19 People from the Negev will occupy

    the mountains of Esau,

and people from the foothills will possess

    the land of the Philistines.

They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,

    and Benjamin will possess Gilead.

20 This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan

    will possess the land as far as Zarephath;

the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad

    will possess the towns of the Negev.

21 Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion

    to govern the mountains of Esau.

    And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

Civilisations rise and fall.

Great civilisations rise and fall.

Wicked civilisations rise and fall.

Nations (just like individuals) will reap what they sow (15). Edom’s sin included pride, as we saw yesterday, and ‘passing by on the other side’ when his ‘brother’ was in need (11,12). Indeed, he gloated over his brother’s downfall. But there will be a price to pay. The tables will be turned (17ff). How good it is to know, amidst all the upheavals of history, and the machinations of wicked powers, that the Kingdom of God has come and is coming (21b). Ultimately it will triumph. Evil will be overthrown and the King will rule over all.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15.

That day is coming.