In Isaiah 24, God prepares a feast for all nations on His holy mountain. There are some who drink and are judged as a consequence- they drink the “wine of God’s wrath” (Revelation 14:10) whereas others drink and are transfigured by death and resurrection. The complete annihilation of Edom refers both to the conversion of a part of humanity and the destruction of the other part. Obadiah 1:18 calls the house of Jacob and the “house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble.” Let your light shine before the nations: God’s Spirit radiates through His people, blessing and warming the righteous but destroying the wicked. That the house of Joseph is mentioned specifically is fascinating, given his role in Genesis of feeding all the nations with Bread and Wine- there’s the feast prophesied by Obadiah.
Alluding to Numbers 24, we are told that “those of the Negeb shall possess Mt. Esau”, and the prophecy ends on this optimistic note:
(Obadiah 1:21) Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.
There is the “kingdom” referred to in Numbers 24:7. “Saviors” go up to Mt. Zion to rule Mt. Esau. In Isaiah 2:1-4, the Torah comes from Zion. The nations of the world ascend Mt. Zion in order to receive judicial wisdom so that they might rule their own peoples. That is why ascent to Mt. Zion is the means through which “Saviors” rule “Mt. Esau”, and that’s how the “kingdom shall be the Lord’s.
Back to the text of Numbers 24. Understanding that the dispossession of Mt. Esau refers to the spread of the kingdom of God to all the Earth, and the conversion of the nations, the next verse is illuminated. It says that "one from Jacob shall exercise dominion and destroy the survivors of cities.” That word for “dominion” was last used in Genesis 1:28, where God calls Adam to “subdue the earth” and “have dominion.” The king of Numbers 24 is the last Adam, the king who exercises dominion and completes Adam’s mission to subdue (the same word for conquer) all the nations of the Earth. Indeed, Obadiah refers to “survivors”, saying that there shall be “no survivor for the house of Esau.” Why? Because the nations shall be “called by my name” (Amos 9:12). They are given a new name- all are devoted to destruction by Jesus, but some rise from the dead with a new name. Fallen humanity does not survive as fallen humanity, but is transfigured into a new humanity.
Finally, we are given the timeframe for the coming of the king. Three events are described by Balaam, each of them coming at a time when Israel’s condition in covenant history is transfigured:
1. “Amalek was the first among the nations, but its end is utter destruction.” This occurs when King Saul invades and destroys the Amalekites, devoting most of them to complete destruction. It comes when the period of the judges comes to an end and Israel is transformed into a Kingdom.
2. The Kenites are taken away when “Asshur takes you away captive.” This refers to the rise of the Assyrian Empire and their policy of exiling the nations from their native lands in order to uproot the indigenous cultures and prevent the possibility of provincial rebellion. The rise of the Assyrian Empire comes when the Northern Kingdom is destroyed and Israel and Judah are transformed from kingdoms into a host of prophetic witnesses to the nations. No longer are the nations coming to Israel to learn, but Israelites like Jonah, Elijah, and Elisha are being sent out to the nations to witness, and the whole nation becomes a nation of witnesses at the exile of Judah and return, when God spreads them “abroad as the four winds of heaven.” (Zechariah 2:6). Ezekiel 8 says the Spirit of God left the Holy of Holies and dwelt with the exiles, and the windy Spirit of God makes God’s people windy- they are the four winds of heaven.
Tomorrow, we will conclude our discussion by looking at the ships which come from Kittim.