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The Exodus Book of Psalms--Part 10

When God speaks of the judgment of nations in Psalm 60, he singles out Edom in verse 8, saying, "over Edom I shall throw My shoe."

This is a reference to the law of Sonship found in Deut. 25:5-10. If a man died childless,

(5) Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as a wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. (6) And it shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel.

If the dead man's brother refused to do this, the woman was to "pull his sandal from off his foot" (vs. 9), and then in verse 10 it says,

(10) And in Israel his name shall be called "The house of him whose sandal is removed."

The word for "shoe" and "sandal" is the same in Hebrew. It is the word nahal, which appears 22 times in Scripture. The number 22 signifies "the sons of light." It is a sonship number, showing that this law in Deut. 25 is about Sonship.

Jesus died childless. Hebrews 2:11 tells us that He is not ashamed to call us BRETHREN. In other words, we are His brothers, so we are called to raise up a Son who will be Christ's INHERITOR. Thus, by faith in Christ, we are impregnated by the Holy Spirit with "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).

That holy seed that is in you is the real you--what you are becoming in Christ--but it legally is also the Son of God. It is both Son of Man and Son of God, because it has two parents in the same manner as Mary was the mother of Jesus, but He was also conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was both Son of Man and Son of God.

This is the essence of the Message of Sonship. Sonship is also the essence of the Birthright and has everything to do with the inheritance that we have in Christ. Without possessing the Birthright, it is impossible to give birth to the "Manchild," that is, to bring forth the fruit that God has been looking for since Gen. 1:28 when He said, "Be fruitful and multiply."

As I showed in The Struggle for the Birthright, there has been a long, historic struggle over the Birthright, beginning with Jacob and Esau (that is, Israel and Edom). The Birthright came in two main parts: The Dominion Mandate and the Fruitfulness Mandate (Gen. 1:26-28).

Esau sold the Birthright (Fruitfulness Mandate) to Jacob for some beet soup. While Esau certainly did wrong, Jacob also engaged in what we would call "price gouging." He took advantage of Esau's hunger, much like people do today when they buy the last shirt from a starving man for a bargain price.

Later, Jacob stole the Dominion Mandate ("blessing") in an unlawful manner by lying. So Isaac prophesied to Esau that "when THOU shalt have the dominion, you will break his yoke from off your neck" (Gen. 27:40). In other words, the "dominion" would have to be given back to Esau for a season in order to let God work it out.

The entire Birthright, then, including both of its major parts, were obtained by Jacob, whose name means "deceiver or usurper." It was done while Jacob was still a carnal believer who thought God needed help in fulfilling prophecy. A little help from the flesh only contaminates the process, making it necessary to "do over" at a later time.

So history shows the lengthy feud continuing through biblical history, until finally Edom was conquered and absorbed by Judea in 126 B.C. The Edomites were forced to convert to Judaism and became some of the most rabid Jewish zealots in later Jewish history. From then on, the prophecies of Edom would be forever linked to Judaism. The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1903 edition, under "Edom," says,

"From this time the Idumeans [Greek form for the Edomites] ceased to be a separate people, though the name 'Idumea' still existed [in] the time of Jerome."

In 1948, then, the Birthright was finally given back to the representatives of Esau-Edom, who then took the name "Israel" for their nation. Just as the Sonship Message was being revealed to the Church in 1948, the Birthright was returned to Esau, giving Edom the lawful right to bring forth the sons of God. That situation remained, I believe, for 62 years, ending in 2010, after Joseph was found and the Birthright returned to the one originally called to be "a fruitful son" (Gen. 49:22).

With that brief history in mind, the situation was set up to fulfill Psalm 60:8, where God says He would cast out His shoe over Edom. When Edom received the Birthright in 1948, non-believers were given the legal right to become the sons of God. But they had no interest in doing this in the biblical way. They were presenting themselves as Israel (the wife of the deceased Messiah).

God's response is this: "I do not want Edom to be the mother of the Sons of God. I would rather lose my shoe."

Hence, "over Edom I will cast out My shoe."

One might say that this word is pregnant with meaning. Psalm 60 is about the judgment of the nations. The introduction to the psalm shows that in David's day it dealt with the war against Aram-naharaim (the old name for Babylon), Aram-Zobah (part of Syria), and finally Edom. At the same time it refers back to Exodus 40, where the tabernacle was erected and glorified by the Divine Presence. God will work through His people to manifest the sons of God, but He will not work through Edom to do this.

Yet Edom had to have his time in which to prove himself unworthy. That time extended from 1948-2010 (in my understanding). We are now seeing signs of the rise of Joseph, along with his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, which I have written about in the past year. Joseph is the true inheritor of the Birthright (1 Chron. 5:1, 2). And so Psalm 60 must be seen in the light of Exodus 40 and today's transfer of the Birthright to the true inheritors.