Num 20:14 | KingComments | STEP | Edom is not just a people, but a brotherhood. This determines Israel’s attitude in Edom’s refusing to allow the people to pass through their territory. They must not fight against them. They can and must do that against hostile peoples. The request of Moses reveals the ingrained hatred of Edom against the people of God. The name Edom is related to Adam. In Adam we see what we are in our old nature. Edom represents our ‘brotherhood’, our flesh. The flesh is hostile to God “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God” ( ). We are not called to fight against it, but to be guided by the Spirit. Then we will be kept from fighting against the flesh ( ). If we do fight against it, we will end up in the situation of Romans 7 and our life will become a life of defeats. Consider ourselves to be dead to it ( ) does not mean ignoring or fighting against it, but go around it. That means recognizing hostility, while taking the right attitude to it. God uses Edom’s refusal to deflect His people and bring them on the way to the Jordan. By taking the right attitude toward our flesh, that is to give the flesh the place God’s Word gives it, we come into the right position to take the blessings of the land. This rejection of Edom is reminiscent of the rejection by “a village of the Samaritans” to receive the Lord Jesus. The Lord has also sent messengers there, as Moses does here to the king of Edom. By responding to the rejection as Israel does here, the people act in the spirit of the Lord Jesus ( ).

‏ Numbers 20:14

Edom Refuses Israel to Pass Through

Edom is not just a people, but a brotherhood. This determines Israel’s attitude in Edom’s refusing to allow the people to pass through their territory. They must not fight against them. They can and must do that against hostile peoples. The request of Moses reveals the ingrained hatred of Edom against the people of God.

The name Edom is related to Adam. In Adam we see what we are in our old nature. Edom represents our ‘brotherhood’, our flesh. The flesh is hostile to God “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God” (Rom 8:7a). We are not called to fight against it, but to be guided by the Spirit. Then we will be kept from fighting against the flesh (Gal 5:16-17). If we do fight against it, we will end up in the situation of Romans 7 and our life will become a life of defeats. Consider ourselves to be dead to it (Rom 6:11) does not mean ignoring or fighting against it, but go around it. That means recognizing hostility, while taking the right attitude to it.

God uses Edom’s refusal to deflect His people and bring them on the way to the Jordan. By taking the right attitude toward our flesh, that is to give the flesh the place God’s Word gives it, we come into the right position to take the blessings of the land.

This rejection of Edom is reminiscent of the rejection by “a village of the Samaritans” to receive the Lord Jesus. The Lord has also sent messengers there, as Moses does here to the king of Edom. By responding to the rejection as Israel does here, the people act in the spirit of the Lord Jesus (Lk 9:52-53 ; 56).