Chapter 11: The Conqueror From Edom
Chapter 11: The Conqueror From Edom
"Mighty to save" - Isa. 63:1-3.
ISRAEL AND EDOM were hereditary foes. This was the more remarkable because their ancestors were brothers. But from the earliest there was strife between these two; and the antagonism of the cradle was perpetuated throughout the history of the great nations, which owed their existence to Jacob and Esau respectively.
When Israel pleaded for permission to pass through the land of Edom, and so curtail the weary desert march, Edom refused, and came out against him with much people and with a strong hand-an affront which was never forgotten. It was a grim satisfaction, therefore, to Israel when the whole band of Edom was temporarily subdued under David. But the subjection could not be maintained; and through the troubled reigns of the kings we find the Edomites always giving trouble, siding with Israel's inveterate foes, and taking every opportunity of molestation and injury. When Nebuchadnezzar made the final assault against the holy city, it was the children of Edom who cried, "Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof."
Esau may fairly be taken as an emblem of the imperious desires of the flesh that will hardly brook restraint, but lust against the Spirit, fretting for their wild and unrestrained indulgence. For one morsel of meat he sold his birthright; and we all know moments when, for one brief spell of gratification, we are disposed to barter away our noblest prerogatives and squander our most sacred trust. Who has not stood between the basin of steaming pottage - which appeals so daintily to the hungry sense - and the power to pray, to know God, to bless mankind, which are the sacred prerogatives of the soul? Many a time has our choice wavered in the balance; and what was true years ago may perhaps be true still. Edom still vexes us, and makes incursions into the sacred territory of the soul; the flesh is still vehement within us; the old Adam is more than a match for the young Melanchthon.
One day, a novel and blessed spectacle greeted the prophet's gaze. Standing on the last ranges of the low hills, which sloped down from Jerusalem toward the Edomite territories, he descried in the distance the figure of a mighty conqueror coming from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, its capital city, glorious in his apparel, and travelling in the greatness of his strength. When within speaking distance he asked who it was, and received in answer the reply:
"The mighty Saviour!"
Again he asked the reason for the stains on his dress, as of the treader of grapes in the wine-press; receiving the reply:
"I t is the life-blood of Israel's foes, the juice of the vintage of Edom."
From that moment Israel had no further need for alarm - from that quarter at least. There in the desert haze she could always descry the figure of that Almighty Victor, by whom Edom had been subdued. Her cities were in ruins, her palaces leveled to the ground, her soldiers had bitten the dust, and there was, therefore, now the most absolute security.
The lesson for ourselves is obvious, and hardly needs enforcement. Jesus died in the likeness of sinful flesh; in dying it was rent. The rending veil of the temple and the rending flesh on the cross teach the same lesson, that Jesus mastered the flesh by the Spirit, overcame it as He uttered his dying cry of victory, and in his resurrection came up from the Edom of our foes, radiant with victory, though stained with the blood-juice of the battle.
Whatever the flesh means for anyone of us, with its passion and pride, its self-assertion, its imperious will, its restless yearning for gratification and licence - all has been met, vanquished, and forever trodden under foot by Him who is mighty to save; and who travels in the greatness of his strength to succour the weakest and most often defeated of his disciples.
We need not fear the flesh if we abide in Jesus, because He has so absolutely encountered and mastered it; and if we abide in Him, we share his victory. It is indeed as much ours as it is his. It is ours because we are one with Him. It was his that it might be ours. Let us meditate on this great fact until it has become part of the texture of our inner consciousness. Let us call to mind the special form of pride, selfishness, or self-indulgence that most perpetually masters us, as Edom did Israel; and let us realize, as a matter of fact, if not of feeling or consciousness, that this has been specifically encountered and mastered by our blessed Lord. It was included in the victory of Calvary. It was one of the cities or townships in that territory of Edom over which He cast out his shoe; and therefore, by virtue of union with Him in his glorious resurrection, it has no right, for a single other moment, to assert supremacy over those who live in vital and conscious fellowship with Him. It is a great point gained in the inner conflict to know that our Edom has been vanquished; to know that no proud lust is too strong for Jesus; to know that his victory was acquired for us, and is ours, if only we dare avail ourselves of its prevalence.
Whenever, then, the Edom of the flesh asserts itself, fall back on the victory of the Cross, where Christ refused to listen to its solicitations, but laid down his life, and gave Himself to the rending nail, the piercing spear; identify yourself with that victory: believe that the body of sin has been done away-that we should no more be in bondage to sin. Assert your freedom, and reckon that the living Saviour comes from: your Edom, leaving it a defeated and devastated kingdom, mighty to save you to the uttermost since you have fled to Him for shelter, succour, and salvation.
As long as the soul maintains its position in the risen and victorious Son of God, it is invulnerable. The flesh may chafe for its old supremacy; but in vain. It cannot pass across the great gulf of Christ's grave and resurrection; it cannot re-assert its pristine power. The only ways, therefore, in which Satan can succeed in bringing us again beneath the power of the flesh is either by hiding from us what Christ has done, or by leading us to look away from it to the strength of the foe, the weakness of our might, the perpetual failures of the past.
"The flesh is so strong," the tempter says. "Look at it in its pride: is it likely that you will ever be able to master it?"
"You are so weak," the tempter suggests. "It is not to be supposed that you can hold your ground against so mighty and persistent an adversary."
"You have failed so often in the past. In spite of your most strenuous efforts and most solemn vows, you have failed and failed again. Each failure has weakened you. Is it likely that you can stand where you have so often fallen? "
If the soul listens to these suggestions, and looks away from Jesus, it is tempted out of that abiding fellowship with Him, through which it is made a participator of his victory. But if, on the other hand, it refuses to have its gaze diverted from the risen Lord; if it persists in its repose on his victorious might; if it dares to appropriate the position which pertains to all who believe, as seated in the heavenly places far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion then the demand of the flesh sinks harmlessly into foam and dies away upon the shore on which, a moment before, it had thundered forth its demands.
This is the victory that overcomes, even our faith: faith in what Jesus is; faith in what He has done; faith in the might of his hand, the faithfulness of his heart, the tenacity of his love. Oh, heed his voice, weary, troubled heart! He speaks in righteousness, and is mighty to save. Cherish the unfailing conviction that Jesus stands for evermore between thee and thy foes.