Chapter 4: Justice for Esau

Prior to 1948, most Christians supporting Zionism believed that the Jews would repent and turn to Christ before they could “return” to the old land. When this did not happen, they thought their repentance would occur after 3½ years (i.e., about 1952). This was based on the belief that the war that broke out in 1948 was the start of a 7-year “Great Tribulation.” Some taught that Christ would return in the middle of this “Tribulation.”

By 1953, it was clear that this belief was incorrect. So, their focus shifted to a “post-tribulation” view, assuring all that the Jews would repent in 1955. This too failed to materialize.

Thereafter, they began teaching that the Jews had to return first and that they would turn to Christ at some point in the future. This is still the common belief at present (2023).

As shown earlier, the law in Lev. 26:40-42 makes it clear that God will “remember” His covenant only when they cease their “hostility” toward God. Does this mean they must first become devout Jews according to the standards of Judaism? That, of course, is what Jews believe. But from Jesus’ viewpoint, it is about reversing their hostility toward Himself, which hostility is one of the major themes of the New Testament.

Isaiah 12:2 says (literally), “God is my Yeshua… for Yah Yahweh … has become my Yeshua.” In other words, the Lawgiver, identified as Yahweh, was incarnated as the Son of God in earth and has therefore “become my Yeshua.” Hence, to be hostile to Jesus (Yeshua) is to be hostile to Yahweh as well. So, Jesus said in John 15:23:

²³ He who hates Me hates My Father also.

The point is that the law of tribulation in Leviticus 26 does not allow the exiled Israelites (of any tribe) to return to the land prior to the end of hostilities. So how is it then that God allowed Zionism to succeed?

The answer is found in the fact that the word Jewry, ever since 126 B.C., has included the nation of Esau-Edom (Idumea). They have two sets of prophecies to fulfill. God allowed Zionism to succeed initially so that justice could be given to Esau, who had been deprived of the birthright through Jacob’s deception in Genesis 27. God did not allow them to return on account of any ancient Jewish claim to the land. They returned only because of Edom’s pursuit of justice.

Isaac’s Prophecy to Esau

After Jacob had secured the birthright from his blind father, Esau arrived with venison to feed his father and to receive the same birthright. But he discovered that it had already been passed to Jacob. He appealed for justice, and so we read in Gen. 27:40, King James Version:

And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.

A yoke is a sign of servitude. Esau was to remain under Jacob’s “yoke” for an unspecified amount of time. But this condition was to be reversed “when thou shalt have the dominion.” This is a reference to the Dominion Mandate, which was one of the two main elements of the birthright along with the fruitfulness mandate. (See Gen. 1:26-28.)

Essentially, this prophesied that Jacob would have to return the birthright to Esau at some point. Obviously, this was due to the deceitful and unlawful way in which Jacob had obtained the birthright. God could not leave such lawlessness unpunished, nor could God give Esau and his descendants genuine cause to accuse Him of injustice. Hence, Isaac’s long-term prophecy was fulfilled in 1948 when the British flag (“Union Jack”) was lowered and replaced by the “Israeli flag.” Jack is short for Jacob, and the British thus represented Jacob in this prophetic action.

The Jewish state, then, was established, not to fulfill the promises to the House of Israel, nor even to allow Judah to return, but to give justice to Esau-Edom. Edom thus received the birthright, and with it came the birthright name, Israel. In the long run, Edom will not be able to retain the name Israel or the land, because Edom is not called to hold the birthright. The prophecy given prior to his birth shows that clearly in Gen. 25:23, which says, “the older shall serve the younger.”

Yet in the short term, the older son was to break off the yoke of his younger brother to restore the lawful order that Jacob had violated through his deceit. So, from the perspective of the law and prophecy, 1948 marked the time when the “dominion” passed from Jacob back to Esau.

This was to give Esau the opportunity to prove himself unworthy, so that he could be disinherited lawfully. Esau, we believe, was given 76 years to hold the dominion, and, thus, the 2023 conflict in Gaza could very well be the beginning of the end of Esau’s dominion.

Esau’s Zionism

Jacob and Esau each claimed the Old Covenant promise of inheriting Canaan. Esau’s claim was based on the fact that he was the oldest; Jacob’s demand was based on the prophecy given while they were yet in the womb. They fought even before they were born (Gen. 25:22), and this too prophesied of a long-term struggle.

From Esau’s perspective, he was the victim of injustice on account of Jacob’s deceit, and so he “bore a grudge against Jacob” (Gen. 27:41, 42) and even sought to kill his brother. Nonetheless, Esau’s descendants (Edom) had to settle for nearby territory southeast of Canaan, even while coveting the Promised Land. The Edomites made an alliance with Mount Seir and later took over that land (Joshua 24:4).

Centuries later, Israel and Judah were both removed from the land for their continual sin against God. The Edomites saw this as an opportunity to replace them and take the land as their inheritance. Ezekiel 35 is a prophecy “against Mount Seir” (vs. 2) and “all Edom” (vs. 15) for rejoicing when Israel and Judah were taken captive and removed from the land.

Ezekiel 35:10 & 11 says:

“Because you have said, ‘These two nations and these two lands will be mine, and we will possess them,’ although the Lord was there, therefore as I live,” declares the Lord God, “I will deal with you according to your anger and according to your envy which you showed because of your hatred against them…”

The two nations and lands in question are Israel and Judah. The Edomites seemed to believe that they would never return from exile, giving them the opportunity to fulfill Isaac’s prophecy to Esau. But God did not like their “anger” and “envy” and “hatred.” Though the Israelites themselves never returned, the Judahites were allowed to return after 70 years in Babylon, so that the Messiah could be born in Bethlehem of Judea, according to the prophecy in Micah 5:2.

Again, we read in Ezekiel 36:5:

… therefore, thus says the Lord God, “Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who appropriated My land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and with scorn of soul, to drive it out for a prey.”

This implies that Edom received assistance from “the rest of the nations” in appropriating “My land.” It is hard to say if this took place during the Babylonian captivity, but it seems to fit very well with what took place in 1948 when the United Nations assisted the Zionists in appropriating (“dividing”) a portion of that land for themselves.

The U.N. had tried to implement a two-state solution, but neither side was willing to give up any portion of the land. War broke out, and many Palestinians were driven from their homes, farms, and villages, and crowded into “temporary” refugee camps such as Gaza. The Israelis gradually implemented tight control of their food and power supply to make life as miserable as possible, hoping that the Palestinians would emigrate “voluntarily” to other countries and leave the land to “Israeli” settlers.

Some did indeed leave, but most of them stayed. After 75 years of oppression and mistreatment, Gaza finally erupted on October 7, 2023.

Mal. 1:2-4 is another prophecy of Edomite Zionism:

“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob’ but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.” Though Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins,” thus says the Lord of hosts, “They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the Lord is indignant forever.”

When God stated, “I have hated Esau,” He was protecting Esau’s rights as the hated firstborn son, according to the law in Deut. 21:16. The status of a hated son strengthened Esau’s case in the divine court, ensuring that Jacob would have to return the birthright to his older brother. For this reason, Edom was able to say, “We will return and build up the ruins.”

God did not contradict this, but says, “They may build, but I will tear down.” The King James Version is more emphatic, saying, “They shall build, but I will throw down.”

Edom’s Zionist aspirations, then, are temporary, yet very real. If the Palestinians had been aware of this prophecy (and believed it), their lives would have been extremely difficult but more bearable in the knowledge that it would be limited in time. Not knowing the Scriptures, they were concerned only about justice for themselves. They did not understand what God was doing, nor did they understand the justice of God toward Esau on account of Jacob’s deception.

True Zionism (Sionism)

While the church continues to expect a mass conversion of Jews to Jesus Christ, their expectation is based on the errant belief that the Jews are the Israelites and that Zionism fulfills the prophecies that were actually given to the lost tribes of Israel. Furthermore, when the prophecies speak of “the return”, they fail to see that returning to God cannot be accomplished by a change of address. If a carnal man moves to a new location, he is still carnal.

The prophets record the words of the Lord often saying, “Return to Me.” It is always an appeal to repent, not to change one’s address. Mal. 3:7 asks, “How shall we return?” The answer is found in ceasing to rob God (vs. 8) and to cease being “arrogant against Me” (vs. 13). Nothing here is said about changing one’s domicile. Zionism was necessary in the plan of God to accommodate Esau’s plea for justice. True Zionism however is a return to God and to a state of righteousness. This is certainly not evident in the state of “Israel.”

The New Testament establishes Mount Sion (Hermon) as the place of Sonship, for it is where Jesus was transfigured and where the divine pronouncement was given, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased” (Matt. 17:5). All who rally around His Majesty, King Jesus at Mount Sion, have come to a different mountain. Heb. 12:18-22, King James Version, says:

For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched [i.e., Sinai], and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more… But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…

Mount Sinai corresponds to the earthly Jerusalem, Paul tells us in Gal. 4:25. That was the Old Covenant Mount, of which Jesus said in John 4:21:

… “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”

We have a better mountain in which to worship God, for we are to worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Our mountain is Mount Sion, which is Mount Hermon, the place where Jesus was transfigured. Deut. 4:48 says:

…. from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, even as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon).

Those who think that a third temple will be built in Jerusalem, where all will go to worship God in the age to come, will be sorely disappointed. Christ has come to a different mountain, the heavenly Jerusalem from which He rules. The book of Hebrews speaks of better things, and we ought to align ourselves with these New Covenant changes, so that we can truly think according to the mind of Christ.

To end this chapter on a very defining note, we quote from the book of Hebrews 12: 16 & 17:

See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.