NOTES for Eze 35:1-15
This speaks about the desolation of Mount Seir, by which the neighbours of the Judeans, the Edomites, are meant. The prophecy about the sorrowful fate of their land was fulfilled literally; it remains desert to this day. But what does this mean for us? We might, for example, conclude that retribution inevitably follows sin and that a visible image of it will remain until the end of time; such a conclusion would not be unfounded.
Yet we can also reflect that the consequences of sin are already contained within sin itself, which is precisely why sin becomes the cause of barrenness, turning once fertile lands into desert. Any desert can flower again if its inhabitants draw near to the Source of living water. But the Edomites did not wish to...