"And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse to judgment." Isaiah 34:4-5
One of the longest held traditions of the Babylonian Talmud and kabbalistic prophecy is that Christianity is
“The identification of Edom
with Rome is never found in the
literature of the Second Temple
period…attempts at detecting it in the…Pentateuch have no real basis. The identification appears first, apparently,
in an aggadah [non-legal rabbinic
writings recorded in the Talmud and Midrash] of the period following the Bar
Kokhba War…The identification is also found in a conversation between [Rabbi]
Akiva and Tinneius Rufus [Roman ambassador to Judea at the beginning of the second
century]…Thereafter it became very widespread.” 1
Lately, we are hearing more and more about the prophetic
significance of the mysterious kingdom known as Edom . However, the true identity of Edom
is to be found within the pages of Scripture and in the chapters of real
history, not in the traditions and predictions of men that are so prevalent
today.
The main prophecy dealing with the destruction of Edom is
found in the book of Obadiah with additional Scripture references found in
Isaiah 34:5-15, Jeremiah 49:7-22, Ezekiel 25:12-14, 35:1-15 and Amos
1:11-12. The passage in Isaiah 34:5
clearly identifies who the prophecy is speaking about. “For my sword shall be bathed in heaven:
behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to
judgment.” Idumea is “Edom ,
the elder twin-brother of Jacob; hence, the region (Idumaea) occupied by him – Edom ,
Edomites, Idumea.” (Strong’s; Idumea,
123)
In Numbers 20:14-21 the Edomites refused to let Moses and
the Israelites pass through their country.
We read in verses 18-21, “And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by
me, lest I come out against thee with the sword...And Edom came out against him
with much people, and with a strong hand.
Thus Edom
refused to give Israel
passage through his border: wherefore Israel
turned away from him.” The hostility of Edom
towards Israel
is further seen in Edom ’s
willingness to assist Israel ’s
enemies, which included aiding the Babylonians in the burning and captivity of Jerusalem . The Jewish
Encyclopedia notes, “In the time of Nebuchadnezzar the Edomites took an
active part in the plunder of Jerusalem
and in the slaughter of the Jews.” 2 For
this reason, the judgment of God against Edom
was prophesied by Obadiah, “For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame
shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.” (Verse 10)
History records that in 582 B.C., just four years after Jerusalem
was burned, Edom
was conquered by the Babylonians, leaving only a remnant of Edomites confined
to a region in southern Judea , where they continued to
exist for four centuries. 3 What happens
next is one of the most fascinating historical facts concerning the true
identity of Edom
and the role of the Edomite kings during the time Jesus Christ was on the
earth.
In 126 B.C. the Edomites were conquered by the Maccabean
ruler, John Hyrcanus and were “absorbed into the Jewish state” where they “were
forced to observe Jewish rites and laws” and “the
Edomites became a section of the Jewish people.” 4
From this time onward Edom
became known as Idumea, from which arose the Herodian dynasty. The historian Flavius Josephus tells us, “Hyrcanus took also Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea,
and subdued all the Idumeans…at which time therefore this befell them, that
they were hereafter no other than Jews.” 5 By 63 B.C. the Romans conquered Palestine
and the Herods of Idumea were placed in power over Judah .
6
Under the control of Rome ,
the Herods of Edom left a legacy of violence and murder. In 37 B.C.E. the Romans appointed Herod king
of Judea . It was
the Idumean Edomite king, Herod the Great, who slaughtered all of the male
infants two years and under in an evil plot to kill the child Jesus who was the
prophesied Messiah and King of the Jews. (Matthew 2:1-18) In Mark 3:1-6 we read that after Jesus healed
the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, “Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted
with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.” Both Matthew 14:1-12 and Mark 6:14-29 tell us
that it was Herod the tetrarch, who beheaded John the Baptist after he had John
put in prison. (See Luke 3:19-20) Acts 12:1-3 records that it was King Herod
(Agrippa I, grandson of the Edomite King Herod the Great) who persecuted the
church, killed James the brother of John with the sword, and had Peter
arrested. 7
“The name “Edom” is
used by the Talmudists for the Roman empire, and they applied to Rome every
passage of the Bible referring to Edom or to Esau…Rome, under the name of
“Edom,” is compared to a boar, and the symbolic name “Seir” was used by the
poets of the Middle Ages not only for Rome…but also for Christianity…In place
of “Edom,” the word “Hazir” (swine) was occasionally used, perhaps as a mere
term of reproach.” 8
The Chabad-Lubavitch website, Chabad.org, explains in an
article titled “Moshiach 101” that “Edom
is the perpetual enemy of Israel
and its final foe: the present galut [exile] is referred to as the galut of Edom
and Edom will
be defeated ultimately by Mashiach.” 9 Referencing
the Babylonian Talmud as its source,
the article continues, “The principal and final
function ascribed to Mashiach ben Yossef is of political and military nature. He shall wage war against the forces of evil
that oppress Israel . More
specifically, he will do battle against Edom, the descendants of Esau. Edom is the comprehensive designation of the enemies of Israel, and it will be crushed through
the progeny of Joseph.” 10
Admittedly from the statement above,
we see that according to Talmudic tradition, not only is Edom defined as the
descendants of Esau – which is the correct Biblical definition – but Edom is
inclusive of anyone who is perceived as an enemy of Israel, especially if that
enemy is erroneously accused of being the cause of Israel’s exile and
the hindrance to their final redemption!
As explained in my book, Kabbalah Secrets Christians Need to Know,
it was Rabbi Itzhak Shapira’s application of the destruction of Edom to Christianity that first prompted
me to research some of the more extreme rabbinic ideas of eschatology. I wish I could say these radical traditions
faded into history with the Middle Ages, but this is not the case. The Encyclopaedia
Judaica explains the early origin and evolution of how Christianity came to
bear the label of Edom by the Talmudists:
“The intense hatred of Rome after the
cruel crushing of the revolt of the Diaspora in the time of Trajan and still
more after the harsh suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt and the decrees of
persecution in Hadrian’s days; the fact that Rome, like Edom, had destroyed the
Temple; the similarity of Edom, compared to a pig, with Rome, for whom the pig
(or, more correctly, the sow) was a most important symbol; the allusions to
Edom dwelling on high like an eagle and the fact that the eagle, too, was an
important Roman symbol; and perhaps finally even the similarity to the name
Rome and Romans in several verses that speak of Edom, Seir, and Esau – all
these apparently combined to cause the application to Rome of the biblical
references to Edom, the eternal enemy of Israel. At the end of the tannaitic period, and still
more in the amoraic, the identification became very widespread, and the
overwhelming majority of homilies about Edom speak explicitly of Rome .
Thus it was stated that Rome was founded by the children of Esau, and
Rome was identified as one of the cities of the chiefs of Esau…At a still later
period the term became a synonym for Christian Rome and thence for Christianity
in general…(these identifications occur…in the Midrashim and the Talmuds).” 11
The False Prophecy of the Fourth Exile and Final Redemption
“In fact if the midrashim are anything to go by, Esav is the pig which
represents in a historical time line: pagan Rome, Christian Rome and present day worldwide Christianity at large which includes
messianic Judaism, which in the end undergo a transformation which
renders them Kosher by their rejection of Yeshua.” 12
As quoted above, the rabbis of Chabad state that the current
exile or galut of Israel
is “referred to as the galut of Edom ,”
an exile of almost 2,000 years; the burden of which Itzhak Shapira and his fellow
sages place upon Christianity. Drawing
always from the Babylonian Talmud and
the Midrash, the rabbis of Kabbalah advance their futuristic thesis onto the
world stage like a scene from the Armageddon
Script in a desperate attempt to usher in a carnal utopian kingdom of G-d on earth. Like a broken record that has been skipping
for millennia, the harbinger is heralded again and again:
“The Midrash speaks of four
exiles in advance of Mashiach's arrival and the Final Redemption: Babylonian,
Median, Greek, and Roman.” 13
“The first was Babylon, the second
Media/Persia, the third Greece, and finally Edom,
commonly identified as Rome…All the sages agree that the word “Edom” typically
refers to the Romans.” 14
The following statement
from the Chabad site, Kabbalah Online, comes from the teachings of the Lubavitcher
Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and reveals that they are right on cue in
the timeline as outlined by the oracle of the Zohar:
“God told Abraham that the
Jewish people would be subjugated over the course of history by four kingdoms. The final
subjugation, which immediately precedes the messianic age, will be under Rome . Our present
exile is seen as an extension of the Roman subjugation, since culturally and
legally western civilization shares the values and worldview of ancient Rome…the Midrash (Bereishit
Raba 83:4) describes [Rome/Esau] as gathering treasures
for the Messiah, [and] refers to the time
when “Rome” will no longer battle G‑d but will in fact use its “treasures,”
i.e., its resources, to contribute to the unfolding of the messianic era.” 15
In step with the Kabbalah of Hasidism,
Shapira puts forth the clarion call to Messianic believers to join the ranks in
the struggle against Edom ! Referencing four promises of God to Moses in Exodus 6:6-8 to lead the children of Israel out of
bondage from Egypt, he applies the classic Talmudic interpretation of the four
promises as relative to four future exiles:
“Remember, those four promises
represent the four exiles…The first exile is the exile of Babel . The second
exile is Persia . The third one
is Greek (Greece ?). The fourth
one is the kingdom, the last terrible
kingdom is the kingdom of Edom ,
okay, Edom ; Edom is the name of
Christianity, Esav, Yeshua…This is
the kingdom of Christianity ; that’s the
last yoke that is to be broken. The
question in the back of the mind of everybody today should be, how do we break
the last yoke? How do we overcome the
last yoke?” 16
Also included in this message by Itzhak Shapira is the
“great secret” of Jacob being transformed by the letter Vav. This is classic
Kabbalah and is based on the Zohar’s futuristic
interpretation of the redemption from Leviticus 26:42, “I will remember my
covenant with Jacob,” in which Israel
will be mystically transformed by the letter Vav of the YHVH Tetragrammaton and will break the yoke of Edom . It is significant to note that the Hebrew
letter Vav equals six and the Zohar states that Israel “will be redeemed under the secret of the letter
‘vav’. And it will be in the sixth
millennium.” 17
In a disturbing article posted onApril 17, 2019 , the kabbalistically based media platform, Breaking Israel News, released yet another
“secret” story centering on a global prayer for redemption. The prayer is based on the writings of
kabbalist and Rabbi, Moshe Chaim Luzzato, also known as the
Ramchal. Luzzato is listed in Itzhak
Shapira’s book, The Return of the Kosher
Pig, in the Appendix A: List Of Rabbis By Era, as a “philosopher,
Kabbalist, and ethicist.” 18 The Breaking Israel News article noted, “A
prayer to hasten the Messiah is circling the
globe, with millions of copies transferred from hand to hand, one copy at a
time…a prayer based on teachings of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, an
18th-century Italian kabbalist, and philosopher known by the acronym
Ramchal…‘the Ramchal had studied
secret teachings about how to pray for the Messiah.’” 19
A portion of the prayer reads as follows:
In a disturbing article posted on
A portion of the prayer reads as follows:
“May it be your will, God
and God of our Fathers, that you will receive willingly the prayers of your
nation Israel, who have prayed to you in every generation and in every place in
the world, and particularly in the holy land of Israel, and in the merit of
this prayer, may it be your will to judge us favorably, to grant Israel a
complete redemption in kindness and mercy, with wonders and miracles, and subjugate the blood that is the
Kingdom of Edom, and the fat which is the kingdom of Ishmael, and in
the merit of all the truly righteous that are with us today and for the longing
we have to see the complete redemption...” 20
SUBJUGATE – to bring under domination or control, especially by
conquest…to conquer, vanquish, defeat, crush,
quell, quash, gain mastery over, gain ascendancy over, gain control of, and bring
under the yoke.
Will Jesus Destroy
Those Whom the Father Has Given Him?
In John 17, just before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed for
His disciples and for all who would believe on Him throughout the course of
history. Knowing full well what He was
about to endure on the cross, the Son of God once again emptied Himself on behalf
of those the Father had given Him, as well as all those whom the Father would
give Him throughout time. I quote Jesus' prayer in
part here:
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his
eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy
Son also may glorify thee:
2 As thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him.
3 And
this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent.
4 I have
glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to
do.
5 And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had
with thee before the world was.
6 I have
manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine
they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
11 And
now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one, as we are.
12 While
I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest
me I have kept, and none of them is lost…
14 I have
given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the
world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray
not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil.
16 They
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify
them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
This prayer of Jesus Christ is one of the most significant
passages of Scripture. It reveals the
love and grace of the Father given freely through the death of His Son and that
true redemption is neither a future
corporate event, nor is it based on carnal political and military alliances of
this world! After Jesus prayed this
prayer He was arrested. Standing accused
before Pilate, Jesus said, “My
kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my
servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my
kingdom not from hence.” (John 18:36)
If Rome or Christianity at large are truly Edom – which they are not – then the exile that Itzhak Shapira and the Talmudic rabbis speak about is of their own choosing; for when Pilate would have released
Jesus, the chief rulers at that time said, “We have no king but Caesar.” (John 19:15) As prophesied in Genesis 49:10, the gathering
of redemption that Jesus began is being fulfilled to this day. Meanwhile, the rulers of the kingdoms of this
world continue to rage.
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain
thing? The kings of the earth set
themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his
anointed…He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have
them in derision.” Psalm 2:1-4
1.
Encyclopaedia Judaica, articles on Edom and Esau, pp. 379, 858.
3.
Halley’s Bible Handbook, (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan Publishing House, 1965), p. 362.
4.
Ibid. p. 362; Jewish Encyclopedia,
1925, Vol. 5, p. 41; The Encyclopaedia
Judaica, article on Edom, p. 378.
6.
Halley’s Bible Handbook, (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan Publishing House, 1965), p. 362.
10.
Ibid. (Emphasis added)
11. Encyclopaedia Judaica, article on Edom , p. 379.
12.
https://menashedovid1.wordpress.com/messianic-update/;
(Emphasis added); Quoted in Kabbalah
Secrets Christians Need to Know, p. 139.
18.
Itzhak Shapira, The Return of the Kosher Pig (Clarksville , MD : Lederer Books, 2013), p. 301.
20.
Ibid. (Emphasis added)