By far the most aggressive group of antagonists against the Jews are the Edomite Arabs. They came from Esau. After Isaac and Ishmael grew to manhood, Abraham carefully sought a wife for His son, Isaac. He wanted to make sure that his son did not marry into the Canaanite tribes. He wanted someone within his own family line. God led him to Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, a nephew of Abraham. The family agreed to let Rebekah marry Isaac. Like Sarah, however, Rebekah was barren.

Isaac prayed to God concerning the barrenness of his wife. His prayer reflected a definite dependency upon the one true God as the source of his blessing. Isaac was to focus upon God’s grace as opposed to feeling that having children was merely an act of nature (Genesis 25:21–26).

God answered his prayer, and his wife conceived twins, but the children struggled together within her. There was antagonism between the two, even before they were born. Rebekah cried out, “If I am pregnant, and if it is of the Lord, why am I this way?” She asked God for an explanation of the turmoil in her womb.

The Lord answered her. God did not say this to Isaac, or anyone else, but to Rebecca:

Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. (Genesis 25:23)

Just as the DNA for the entire human race was in Adam, the DNA for two entire nations was in Rebekah’s womb. Two different people groups would come from her. She was carrying in her womb two boys who would be the progenitors of two nations. As they had struggled against one another in the womb, so they would struggle against one another as nations throughout their history. Esau became another of God’s divine antagonists. Notice that God said that one people (one nation) would be stronger than the other.

This was history written before it happened. This is how we know that a living God is the author of the Bible. He spelled out the end from the beginning. Only God could make this happen. He said that the older would serve the younger. Esau would serve Jacob. It would have been the other way around without God’s intervention because Esau was firstborn. Like Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob’s boyhood was filled with threats from his older brother, Esau.

Esau eventually married into the Canaanite line and had many children. In fact, he had many wives (Genesis 36:1–5). These multiple Canaanite marriages brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah (Genesis 26:34). Thus began the ongoing historical conflict between the Jews, the sons of Jacob, and the Edomites, the sons of Esau. This conflict is splashed throughout the Old Testament.

  • The Edomite Arabs refused to allow the children of Israel to pass through their land during the exodus from Egypt, around 1440 BC (Numbers 20:18–21).
  • King Saul warred against the Edomites (1 Samuel 14:47).
  • King David fought against Edom and annihilated most of their male population (2 Samuel 8:1–18).
  • Edomite Arabs were successful against Jehoram in Judah (2 Chronicles 21:8–10).
  • Amaziah, king of Judah, carried out successful campaigns against the Edomites (2 Kings 14:7).
  • The Jews were never able to successfully subjugate the Edomite Arabs (2 Chronicles 28:16–17).
  • Edomite Arabs joined Nebuchadnezzar in the slaughter of the Jews because they despised them (Psalms 137:7).
  • Because of this hatred of Israel and this treachery, the Edomites are prophesied against in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 49:17–18).
  • The sins of the Edomites will not be overlooked by God (Lamentations 4:21; Ezekiel 25:13–14).
  • The Edomite city of Bozrah will be utterly destroyed (Amos 1:11–12). Obadiah covers this conflict in detail (Obadiah 1:8–21).

As a reward for helping him, Nebuchadnezzar gave the Edomite Arabs all the land of Judah, from Egypt to the northern part of the land. Esau’s children at one time had all the land. For four hundred years, the Edomite Arabs continued to dominate until the Maccabees (a Jewish family) subdued them and forced them into Judaism. The Edomites changed their name to Idumeans. However, this was conversion by coercion, and that has never worked.

The Arabs did not forget. Herod the Great (an Edomite) and Antipas (also an Arab) took the land back from the Jews politically. Herod became the number three man in the Roman Empire, behind Augustus and Agrippa. These men ruled over the Jews with an iron hand.

Just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in AD 70, twenty thousand Arabs said they wanted to help Jerusalem, so they were allowed inside. But just as the siege of Titus began, the Edomites began to rape, pillage, rob, and murder. They killed thousands of Jews before Titus was even ready for his attack. Only God can use people for His purposes and then hold those people accountable for their actions. God does not forget.