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Book of Jeremiah – Jer 49:1-10 I Will Bring Again the Captivity of Ammon

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Jer 49:1-10 I Will Bring Again the Captivity of Ammon

[Study Aired August 28, 2022]

Jer 49:1  Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the LORD; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?
Jer 49:2  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs, saith the LORD.
Jer 49:3  Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is spoiled: cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together.
Jer 49:4  Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me?
Jer 49:5  Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts, from all those that be about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall gather up him that wandereth.
Jer 49:6  And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith the LORD.

Edom is also judged

Jer 49:7  Concerning Edom, thus saith the LORD of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?
Jer 49:8  Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.
Jer 49:9  If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.
Jer 49:10  But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not.

We have spent the last several studies on the judgment of Moab within us. Moab signifies our own flesh because he is the incestuous son of Lot by his eldest daughter. Ammon is the incestuous son of Lot by his younger daughter. Lot is Abraham’s brother’s son. He is Abraham’s nephew, and in that sense he is Abraham’s ‘brother’ as the scriptures put it:

Gen 14:16  And [Abraham] brought back all the goods [of Sodom], and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people [of Sodom].

Therefore, Ammon, who is both Moab’s brother, via having the same father, Lot, is also Moab’s first cousin because their mothers are sisters, the two daughters of Lot. In the same sense that Lot was called Abraham’s “brother”, Moab and Ammon are also Abraham’s ‘brother’. Like Lot and His first-born son, Moab, Ammon also signifies Abraham’s own flesh which “cannot inherit the kingdom of God”:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Jer 49:1  Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the LORD; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth their king [the king of the Ammonites] inherit Gad , and his people [the people of the king of  the Ammonites] dwell in his [Israel’s] cities?

When the Assyrians carried the northern kingdom away into captivity, the Ammonites rejoiced at Israel’s fall and retook all the land of Gad and Manasseh, which the Amorites had taken away from the Ammonites before Israel came up out of Egypt and destroyed Sihon the king of the Amorites and his army and possessed his kingdom, part of which had been taken from the Ammonites.

This fact is revealed to us in the story of the judge, Jephthah, who delivered Israel from the persecutions of the Ammonites many decades before the time of Jeremiah:

Jdg 11:5  And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob:
Jdg 11:6  And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.
Jdg 11:7  And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and expel me out of my father’s house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?
Jdg 11:8  And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
Jdg 11:9  And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head?
Jdg 11:10  And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.
Jdg 11:11  Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.
Jdg 11:12  And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land?
Jdg 11:13  And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.
Jdg 11:14  And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon:
Jdg 11:15  And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:
Jdg 11:16  But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh;
Jdg 11:17  Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh.
Jdg 11:18  Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.
Jdg 11:19  And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place.
Jdg 11:20  But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.
Jdg 11:21  And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.
Jdg 11:22  And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.
Jdg 11:23  So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?
Jdg 11:24  Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.
Jdg 11:25  And now art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them,
Jdg 11:26  While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time?
Jdg 11:27  Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
Jdg 11:28  Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.

Ammon, signifying our own flesh, has always been envious of the son of the freewoman, and wants to be Abraham’s heir, just as Hagar and Ishmael, who were even closer to Abraham, wanted to persecute and destroy the son of the freewoman:

Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

These things all happened to these people of the Old Testament, and they are all written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Moab and Ammon both signify the flesh of our “first man Adam” who is always envious of, and at war with, the new man, “the son of the freewoman” within us. Cain, Lot (the son of Abram’s brother), Moab and Ammon all feel they have claim to being the heir because they are indeed the physical firstborn in every case. Not that Haran was born before Abram, but he was born long before Isaac, and Lot had followed Abram long before either Ishmael or Isaac was born. The Truth is that “the first man, Adam is of the earth, earthy”, and therefore he cannot be heir with the child of promise who signifies “the children… of faith”:

Gal 3:6  Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Gal 3:7  Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Gal 3:8  And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Gal 3:9  So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

Gal 3:26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

If the Lord has written in His book that we are to be faithful to the end, then He has also written that we would first “fall seven times… lose our first love, [and] fulfill the seven plagues” before we would be granted to repent of losing our first love [and have our] captivity returned and brought back to the Lord and given back our inheritance.

Both Moab and Ammon, therefore, typify and signify that part of our ‘experience of evil’ (Ecc 1:13) where we ‘lose our first love’, and we want to take back the throne of Christ, which in type was taken from us by God’s design and was given to our new man. We never attempted to cast out the Amorites who had taken our inheritance from us because we felt that we could not make war with the beast within us, who the Amorites typify:

Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

The king of Ammon thinks nothing of warring against Israel over Gilead, which Israel had possessed for over three hundred years. We have no record that they ever once attempted to reclaim their inheritance while it was in the hands of the Amorites. However, in the time of Jephthah, they attempted to reclaim their inheritance which the Lord had given to His people 300 years earlier.

Here in Jeremiah 49 Ammon is again taking back Israel’s inheritance and rejoicing in Israel’s judgment at the hands of the Chaldeans. It all typifies our loss of our first love, which is also signified by the healing of the deadly wound upon the beast within us:

Rev 2:1  Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
Rev 2:2  I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Rev 2:3  And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2:5  Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

When we ‘lose our first love’ the Lord judges us:

Jer 49:2  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs, saith the LORD.

It is the Lord Himself who causes us to be carried away captive, giving our inheritance back to Ammon, which typifies the dominion of our flesh being given back to our old man. That dominion is not forever, though it may seem that way at the time.

Israel’s seventy years of captivity signify the fact that the Lord’s elect bow to Esau within them “seven times”:

Gen 33:3  And he [Jacob, whose name had been changed to Israel the night before] passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother [Esau].

It is the Lord’s elect ‘Israel’ who must be “punished seven times more for [our] sins:

Lev 26:18  And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
Lev 26:19  And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
Lev 26:20  And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
Lev 26:21  And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.

Lev 26:24  Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

Lev 26:28  Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

It is the Lord’s own servant whom He loves who must be the first to “fall seven times” and have the Lord’s seven last plagues poured out upon them:

Isa 42:18  Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
Isa 42:19  Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant?
Isa 42:20  Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.
Isa 42:21  The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.
Isa 42:22  But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.
Isa 42:23  Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
Isa 42:24  Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.
Isa 42:25  Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

Now we know why “no man could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels” has been poured out upon that man:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God [Isa 42:25], who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Jer 49:3  Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is spoiled: cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together.

Heshbon is the capital city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, which he had wrested from the Ammonites to make it into his capital. It was the first city conquered by Israel when Sihon refused to let Israel pass peacefully though his land.

Num 21:25  And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof.
Num 21:26  For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon.

“Chemosh, the abomination of the Ammonites”, had not served the Ammonites very well since he had permitted the Amorites to take Heshbon and its environs away from the Ammonites. Such is the service of all our lying, false, doctrines. Ammon, typifying our own flesh, did not learn a thing from the Lord’s chastening:

Jer 49:4  Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me?

We may indeed be fruitful and possess much treasure in this world. We might even be militarily superior to every nation on earth, but it is foolish to trust in or take pride in such carnal and temporal passing things because when the Lord comes to “visit” and “to judge” He is not the least bit impressed with such temporary, physical things. It is in His power to strike fear into the heart and mind of the man of sin who is seated on the Lord’s rightful throne in our hearts and minds:

Jer 49:5  Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts, from all those that be about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall gather up him that wandereth.

The Hebrew word translated as “wandereth” is:

Here is how this Hebrew word ‘nadad’ is variously translated:

The most common translation is the English word ‘fled’. Even where it is translated as ‘wander’, it is speaking in the context of fleeing from or being pursued by an adversary:

Psa 55:6  And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.
Psa 55:7  Lo, then would I wander [H5074: ‘nadad’] far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.
Psa 55:8  I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.

Jer 49:6  And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith the LORD.

Our salvation (‘bringing again our captivity’) must always be preceded by the destruction of the kingdom of our proud, rebellious, self-righteous old man, ‘Ammon’ within us.

What the Judgment of Edom Signifies:

Now the Lord turns our attention to the judgment of Edom, which is Esau, who signifies Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the world. While those who “come out of her” (Rev 18:4) will be brought into the temple of God, spiritual ‘Mystery Babylon’ will be destroyed. Edom is the only nation of the nations who are “Abraham’s brother”, and are in that way close to Israel, of whom we will not read ‘I will bring again the captivity of Edom’:

Jer 49:7  Concerning Edom, thus saith the LORD of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?

The answer to every question concerning Edom as a type of ‘Mystery Babylon the Great’ with all of her false doctrines is, “Yes, wisdom is no more in Teman, her chief city. Yes, counsel is definitely perished from her most ‘prudent’ leaders and elders, and yes indeed, wisdom is vanished from Edom, the type of the great whore, Mystery Babylon the Great.” No whore has any great wisdom. If she did, she would not be a whore. Only those who “come out of her” will hear the words, “I will bring again [your] captivity.” We will not see those words applied to Edom or Esau, the twin brother of Israel, the physical seed of Abraham.

Jer 49:8  Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.

This is how the concept of “dwell deep” is expressed in the New Testament:

Rev 6:15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

“The time that I will visit him [is] the great day of His wrath”, and at that time we all become ‘deep dwellers’.

Four times we are told… ‘Esau… is Edom’:

Gen 36:1  Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.

Gen 36:8  Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.

Gen 36:19  These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their dukes.

Gen 36:43  Duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession: he is Esau the father of the Edomites.

The fact this statement is repeated four times indicates that the whole of ‘Esau’ is under consideration. It is therefore of utmost importance that we understand who it is that “Esau, the father of the Edomites” foreshadows and typifies in scripture.

Esau is the closest to Abraham of the three nations who are called “His brother”. This tells us that Esau knows Abraham even better than Moab and Ammon who, through their father, Lot, are also called Abraham’s brother. Moab and Ammon came into the promised land via their father, Lot, who came into the land of Canaan with Abraham. It is the scriptures which tell us that Lot is the same as “the brother” of Abraham:

Gen 12:5  And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

Gen 14:12  And they took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

Gen 14:16  And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

Abraham typifies Christ:

Gal 3:6  Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Gal 3:7  Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Gal 3:8  And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Gal 3:9  So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

Gal 3:29  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Christ is the true “faithful Abraham”, and Esau is the twin brother of Jacob who was beloved of God. Esau, on the other hand, was ‘hated’ of God “while they were in their mother’s womb… having done neither good nor evil”:

Rom 9:11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
Rom 9:12  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Rom 9:14  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

As Abraham typifies Christ, the True Father of the faithful, Esau, the twin brother of Jacob, is the Biblical type of those who have no “respect unto the recompense of the reward”, treating faith in Christ as if it is no more valuable than a bowl of red pottage:

Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Heb 12:16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

“The elder shall serve the younger” reveals that our old man will be supplanted by and will serve our new man. It is a principle which is adhered to throughout the scriptures. Esau was born before Jacob, and therefore had the outward claim to the birthright. The same was true for Cain who was replaced by Abel and then Seth. Ishmael was born before Isaac, Esau before Jacob, and King Saul was anointed before King David. Therefore Esau, who is Edom, signifies all those who came before Christ, and who now persecute “the Lord and His Christ”. That so happens to include all men who are still being ruled over by their carnal-minded old man and who are not in Christ. Esau signifies all religion which is in opposition to the Lord. He signifies the beast which comes up out of the earth with “two horns like a lamb [who] speaks as a dragon”:

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

“Two horns like a lamb” is the same as being the twin brother of Jacob. The mind of Christ has no trouble distinguishing these two, but the natural man cannot discern the things of the spirit and he will always default to the natural mind. To our natural mind Jacob really was a conniving supplanter who obviously has no claim to neither the birthright nor the blessing.

Esau, in type, is not just those who are closest to Christ, and yet are His rejected anointed. Esau is certainly rejected, but he typifies all men who are rejected of God in this age. That is why we are told that the Lord’s ‘Christs’, His saviors, “will arise on mount Zion to judge the house of Esau”:

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S [“and His Christ”]

The only time “saviors… come upon mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau” is when “the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ”, followed by a great white throne judgment:

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

The power to judge is given to the elect of Christ at the beginning of the thousand years, and it remains in their hands throughout the time of the great white throne judgment:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Esau shows no mercy to the Lord and His Christ because he sees Christ as an interloper and a supplanter:

Gen 27:36  And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?

Jer 49:9  If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.
Jer 49:10  But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not.

Esau “is not” simply because he signifies the religious world which is all in opposition to the Lord and His Christ whom this world hates and counts as those who unjustly claim to be “the seed of Abraham”.

We will continue with the Lord’s judgment of Esau in our next study where we will learn that Esau within us thinks he can avoid drinking of the cup of the Lord’s wrath, but he will not be permitted to do so.

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

If we endure His wrath in “this present time”, it will be well worth it:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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