For my sword is bathed in the heavens; behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my ban, to judgment.
Isaiah 34 announces a sword bathed in heaven, and it comes down on Edom. Two questions follow: why does the blow fall on Edom, and when is the sword drawn?
The sword is in heaven before it strikes. One writer weighs that phrase, and the darkness that comes with the day it is drawn:
The sword and the sceptre of this coming day of power stand alone in their glories. The sword is to be "bathed in heaven" (Isa. 34:5). What an expression! The sun will turn to darkness and the moon to blood. The powers of heaven will shake. Darkness will be under His feet, and thick clouds of the sky will go with Him, on the day when that sword is drawn for the slaughter.
Edom is Esau's line. One writer traces this judgment back to Edom's spite against Israel, and to the birthright Esau despised:
Morally, Edom's judgment comes last in the record, perhaps because Edom was so near to Israel by nature... When God was blessing Israel, or correcting them, Edom disputed God's right to bless His people. Edom took delight in their shame and sorrow. God resents such spite. And was it not in the line of the man who despised the birthright?
The same writer notes how far back God reaches when He settles the account:
With unerring wisdom God goes back to what Esau did at the very beginning of his history. He had waited patiently, nearly a thousand years. Now He shows His perfect knowledge of the whole course and its end. But when the end does come, God always traces everything back to the beginning.
Nothing in Edom's past has matched this. One writer places the fulfilment in the day of the Lord, and dates it from the next verses:
The sword bathed in heaven, coming down on Edom, is unfulfilled to the present time. It will be fulfilled when "the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom" (verse 6), that is, in the future day of the Lord. The context shows the same in Isaiah 34:8: "For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion."
Because the language sounds cosmic, many read the chapter as a picture of the last judgment. Kelly argues the named country rules that out:
How can sensible men — still less believing, reverent men of God — apply all this to what people call the day of judgment? The wicked dead will stand before the great white throne to receive their doom. Then it will be no question of Edom or any other land... Here it is the judgment of the earth while it still exists, not that eternal judgment where the old creation disappears to make way for the "new heavens and new earth, in which righteousness dwells."
Another writer adds why people forget it:
Edom is marked out as a centre of judgment for the living... Christians have in great measure lost sight of this terrible judgment of the living, because they expect judgment only after death. But there will be a judgment of the living as well as a judgment of the dead. People like to forget it. The judgment of the dead is further off, so it does not press so closely on the way one walks on the earth.
The sword comes down on Edom, but Edom is not the whole story. Edom's land is where a wider reckoning falls:
Isaiah 34 reveals the terrible judgments which will fall upon the other nations in Edom (compare Isa. 63). Here it is those who have oppressed Zion, and the vengeance that God takes on oppressors. Edom itself is the particular object of this. But all the enemies of Israel who joined with Edom — the armies of the nations gathered against Jerusalem — will perish by the judgment of Jehovah in the land of Edom.
Isaiah later asks who it is that comes from Edom. One writer answers from this chapter:
There is "a great slaughter in the land of Edom." "It is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion." His sword comes down upon Edom, the people of His curse... So in Isaiah 63, the Mighty to Save is coming to Zion; and the question is asked, "Who is this that comes from Edom?" Isaiah 34 tells us who it is. It is the LORD; it is JEHOVAH. It is THE ANOINTED PREACHER, THE REDEEMER AND THE AVENGER, of chapters 61, 62 and 63. IT IS JESUS!
- Cause — Edom's judgment goes back to Esau, who despised his birthright, and to a line that delighted in Israel's shame. God waited nearly a thousand years, then traced the end back to the beginning.
- Sword — God bathes it in heaven before it comes down. Sun, moon and the powers of heaven shake on the day it is drawn.
- Timing — Nothing in the past has matched this. Verses 6 and 8 date it: a sacrifice in Bozrah, the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year when God settles Zion's cause.
- Reach — God names one country, but Israel's enemies from every side fall there. The armies gathered against Jerusalem perish on Edom's ground.
- Result — This is judgment on a living earth, not the great white throne. It touches how we walk now. And the One who comes from Edom is Jesus.
The sword of Jehovah is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Jehovah hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
The verse pictures God's sword soaked in blood and fat, like a knife at an altar. Two questions follow: when does this happen, and why does the sword fall on Edom?
Bozrah was a city in Edom, the land of Esau's descendants. Edom is also called Idumea. The armies that have troubled Jerusalem meet their end there.
Isaiah 34 reveals the terrible judgments that will fall upon the other nations in Edom (compare Isaiah 63). Here it is those who have oppressed Zion, and the vengeance that God takes on oppressors. Idumea is itself the particular object of this. But all the enemies of Israel who joined with Edom — the armies of the nations gathered against Jerusalem — will perish by the judgment of the LORD in the land of Edom.
This is judgment on people still alive, not on the dead. One writer says Christians today have lost sight of it, and points back to Korah and Achan, judged openly in their own lifetime.
The Christian world has lost this terrible judgment of the living. The Jews had no clear idea of a judgment of the dead. They knew judgments on the living, which God carried out visibly by His direct government, as we see with Korah and Achan. The resurrection has changed everything in the church's relationship with God. So Christians have largely lost sight of the judgment of the living, because they expect judgment only after death. But there will be a judgment of the living as well as a judgment of the dead.
The verse names a country. A judgment that ends the old creation would have no place for named countries.
How can sensible men — never mind believing and reverent men of God — apply all of this to what people call the day of judgment? For when the wicked dead stand before the great white throne to receive their doom, it will be no question of Idumea or any other land. Here it is the judgment of the earth while it still exists, not that eternal judgment where the old creation disappears to make way for "new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."
Edom's hatred of Israel runs back to Esau. This chapter gives the reason for the sword in verse 8.
In the last book of the Old Testament God says that He hated Esau. One of the shorter prophetic books, Obadiah, deals entirely with predictions against him. Here we find the same thing. Verse 8 says that vengeance falls on them in repayment for "the cause of Zion." In Zion God chose to have mercy on Jacob, while Edom pursued them with undying hatred, as we see in Psalm 83:3-6.
The delay before the sword falls is not indifference. It is God taking the long view of a family quarrel.
With unerring wisdom God goes back to what Esau did from the beginning of his history. He had waited long and patiently, nearly a thousand years, and now He shows His perfect knowledge of the whole course and its end. But when the end does come, God always traces everything back to the beginning.
One writer links this chapter with Isaiah 63, and warns against confusing that scene with the cross.
The nations will gather in Idumea, and there they will be judged (Obadiah 13-15; Psalm 137:7; Isaiah 63:1-4). The sword of the LORD will come down on Idumea, and on the people of His curse, for judgment. Edom is marked out as a centre of judgment for the living. He has disciplined His people to sanctify them, but He will judge the nations. Chapter 63 shows what will happen to them at that time. Jesus will judge and trample them down in His fury. That scene has no connection with the cross, where Jesus was Himself trampled down.
God traces a nation's ruin back to its first wrong turn. One writer applies the same method to believers.
God always goes back to the beginning when He judges. So our wisdom as Christians, when we fail, is to go back to our first departure. We never get right merely by judging this or that outbreak; we should always search out the cause. Otherwise we do not gain the strength we need. We never judge a sin properly by judging only its visible effects. We must probe into the hidden sources of the trouble.
- Sword — The sword comes down on a named country. That settles the timing. This is judgment on the earth while it still stands, not the final judgment where the old creation disappears.
- Sacrifice — The verse calls the slaughter a sacrifice, because God Himself acts. Edom is the marked centre for the judgment of the living.
- Cause — Edom fell under it for its undying hatred of Israel, repaid as "the cause of Zion."
- Christ — In Isaiah 63 Jesus tramples His enemies in fury. That scene is not the cross, where He was trampled down Himself.
- Self — Believers should judge themselves the way God judges Esau. Trace the failure back to its first cause, not just its latest outbreak.