THE LORD AGAINST THE MOUNTAIN THAT REJOICED OVER RUIN
The word of the LORD comes against Mount Seir—Edom’s land—and it comes with a direct sentence that removes every illusion of safety:
“I am against you.”
This chapter is not about a random neighbor.
It is about a heart posture that watched Judah bleed and felt pleased. 😶🔥
Edom carried an old hatred and kept it alive like a fire that never went out. When Israel was weakest—when Jerusalem was collapsing—Edom did not grieve. Edom leaned in.
Not to help.
To harm.
This is what the LORD exposes.
A people can be near God’s story and still oppose God’s heart.
A nation can be related by history and still be ruled by envy.
A neighbor can stand close and still choose cruelty.
THE SIN GOD NAMES WITHOUT SOFTENING
Edom is charged with “perpetual hatred.”
Not a moment of anger.
A preserved hostility.
And that hatred did not stay hidden in feelings. It became action.
• Delivering people to the sword
• Taking advantage of disaster
• Treating judgment like entertainment
• Acting like someone else’s pain was opportunity
God is not confused by the excuses that come later.
He speaks as the One who saw the blood and counted it. 🩸⚖️
It is a sobering truth: when you rejoice over another person’s destruction, you are standing in a place God will confront.
THE LAND THAT BOASTED, “WE WILL POSSESS IT,” AND THE GOD WHO SAID, “NO”
Edom looked at Israel’s emptied places and spoke with appetite:
“These two nations… will be ours.”
But the LORD answers with a reality Edom refused to accept:
“I was there.”
That line is quiet, but it is crushing.
Edom thought the land was abandoned.
Edom assumed God was absent.
Edom treated loss as vacancy.
But God says He remained present even in judgment.
And because Edom’s hatred was aimed not only at Judah, but at the LORD’s purposes, the land of Seir would taste desolation.
The chapter describes it like a reversal of confidence:
• Roads emptied
• Cities silenced
• Mountains made bare
• The land becoming a sign instead of a prize 🌑
BEFORE ↓
• “Now we can take what we want” 🏴
• “Their fall is our rise” 📈
• “No one will stop us” 🧱
AFTER ↓
• A land turned quiet 🌬️
• A people facing God’s sentence ⚖️
• A mountain made a warning ⛰️
| WHAT EDOM SAID ↓ | WHAT GOD ANSWERED ↓ |
|---|---|
| “We will possess it” ✊ | “I was there” 👑 |
| “Their collapse is our gain” 💰 | “Your hatred will be judged” ⚖️ |
| “This is our moment” ⏳ | “I will make you desolate” 🌑 |
THE DAY THE WHOLE EARTH REJOICED AND THE LORD MADE SEIR EMPTY
God says something striking near the end:
“When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate.”
It means Edom’s joy was crooked.
Edom celebrated when it should have trembled.
Edom laughed when it should have wept. 😔
And the LORD answers that kind of joy with emptiness.
Because the LORD does not allow hatred to become inheritance.
He does not allow cruelty to become a kingdom.
He does not allow mockery over judgment to stand forever.
THE HEART WARNING THAT LIVES INSIDE THIS PROPHECY
Ezekiel 35 is not only about Edom’s geography.
It is about Edom’s posture.
It warns every heart that is tempted to treat someone else’s collapse like entertainment, or someone else’s discipline like a chance to climb.
God sees what people call “just jokes.”
God hears what people say when they think no one important is listening.
God measures the hidden delight in another person’s downfall. 🕯️
And the chapter quietly calls the opposite spirit out of God’s people:
• Not envy, but humility
• Not mockery, but mercy
• Not revenge, but reverence
• Not hatred preserved, but hatred surrendered
| THE WAY OF EDOM ↓ | THE WAY GOD CALLS FOR ↓ |
|---|---|
| Rejoicing over ruin 😶🔥 | Trembling before God 🙇 |
| Hatred kept alive 🧨 | Mercy that releases 🤍 |
| Appetite for advantage 💰 | Humility that refuses pride 🌿 |
| Words that curse 👄 | Words that bless 🕊️ |
And this is the final weight of the chapter:
Edom wanted Judah’s land.
But what Edom truly revealed was a heart that opposed God.
So God makes the mountain a message.
So that everyone will know the LORD is not absent when His people are disciplined, and not silent when hatred celebrates.
• THE LORD WHO ANSWERS PERPETUAL HATRED AND MAKES PRIDE EMPTY ⚖️⛰️
Mount Seir was not judged for a single sharp moment.
It was judged for hatred kept warm. 🔥
Hatred stored like treasure.
Hatred carried forward like a family inheritance.
When Judah bled, Seir smiled.
When Jerusalem fell, Seir leaned closer.
When discipline came, Seir treated it like entertainment.
And the LORD calls that spirit by its name:
perpetual hatred.
Not a passing wound.
A chosen posture.
Because there is a cruelty that does not swing a sword,
but still kills with delight.
Words that celebrate ruin.
Eyes that enjoy collapse.
Hands that reach for advantage while others bury the dead. 🕯️
That is what the LORD confronts here.
Not merely actions—
the appetite underneath them.
• BEFORE ↓
Shame becomes spectacle 😶
Discipline becomes a joke 🗣️
Someone else’s fall becomes your ladder 🪜
• AFTER ↓
The ladder breaks 🧱
The laughter dries up 🌬️
The land becomes a warning ⛰️
| WHAT HATRED DOES IN SECRET ↓ | WHAT GOD DOES IN THE OPEN ↓ |
|---|---|
| Turns pain into opportunity 💰 | Turns pride into emptiness 🌑 |
| Calls disaster “deserved” 👄 | Calls cruelty “guilty” ⚖️ |
| Reaches for what is not given ✊ | Protects what is His 👑 |
| Celebrates when others fall 🪦 | Speaks and ends the celebration 🛑 |
• WHEN SOMEONE ELSE’S JUDGMENT MAKES YOU BOLD, GOD MAKES YOU SMALL 🧨
Seir looked at the emptied places and said, “We will possess it.”
But the LORD answers with a line that shatters all false confidence:
“I was there.”
That means the land was never vacant.
God’s purposes were never abandoned.
Judah’s discipline did not mean God’s absence.
Many mistake silence for permission.
Many mistake delay for approval.
But God was there.
There in the smoke.
There in the rubble.
There in the discipline.
There in the grief.
There when the proud thought the Holy One had left the room. 👑
And this is why Edom’s boasting becomes sin that rises to heaven:
It was not merely against Judah.
It was against the LORD.
A person can oppose God without saying His name—
by opposing what He is doing,
by mocking what He is correcting,
by using a neighbor’s pain as a chance to rise.
• WHEN THE LORD REBUKES THE MOCKER, HE IS DEFENDING HIS OWN NAME ✨
Ezekiel 35 shows a hard mercy:
God refuses to let hatred become inheritance.
He refuses to let mockery become a crown.
He refuses to let gloating stand unchallenged.
Because if the LORD stays silent,
the nations conclude the wrong thing:
That God is weak.
That holiness is negotiable.
That cruelty wins.
That pride is safe.
So the LORD makes Seir a message.
A mountain that once roared with confidence
becomes a landscape of quiet warning. 🌑
Not because God enjoys destruction—
but because God will not let evil rewrite reality.
And this is where the chapter speaks into the smallest places too:
The “Edom spirit” is not only national.
It can live in conversations.
It can live in comment sections.
It can live in secret satisfaction when someone fails.
It can live in a heart that keeps score and calls it justice.
The LORD does not call His people to that.
He calls them to fear Him.
To tremble at judgment instead of mocking it.
To pray for the broken instead of feeding on their breaking.
To be guarded from bitterness that feels righteous but poisons the soul. 🧂💔
And when the wound is deep—
when humiliation has created rage—
the LORD is still able to take a heart that has lived on hatred
and cleanse it into humility.
He can do that.
He can remove the poison.
He can quiet the appetite for revenge.
He can replace the thrill of another’s fall with the trembling of reverence.
Because the LORD is not only Judge.
He is also the One who can rescue a heart
from becoming the very thing it hates.
And the safest place for the soul
is not the high ground of pride—
It is the low ground of repentance,
where God gives mercy and keeps you near Himself. 🕊️
Books by Drew Higgins
Prophecy and Its Meaning for Today
New Testament Prophecies and Their Meaning for Today
A focused study of New Testament prophecy and why it still matters for believers now.
Christian Living / Encouragement
God’s Promises in the Bible for Difficult Times
A Scripture-based reminder of God’s promises for believers walking through hardship and uncertainty.
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