To this day Edom has been in rebellion against Judah. Libnah revolted at the same time. – 2 Kings 8:22

Today's Scripture Reading (January 24, 2023): 2 Kings 8

Sometimes, it is amazing how the role of the arch-rival changes. In the early twentieth century, the nightmare nation was Germany. It was an era when people of German descent hid that reality if they could. The British Royal family, in 1917, gave up the ducal title of the "House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha," a German title that had been passed down from Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. But in 1917, in response to Britain's war with Germany, King George V renounced the name and took up the more English-sounding ducal title, "The House of Windsor." The Royal decree reads,

Now, therefore, We, out of Our Royal Will and Authority, do hereby declare and announce that as from the date of this Our Royal Proclamation Our House and Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that all the descendants in the male line of Our said Grandmother Queen Victoria who are subjects of these Realms, other than female descendants who may marry or may have married, shall bear the said Name of Windsor.

And with the decree, the British House of Windsor was born, an attempt to distance themselves from their German cousins.

I also have some German in me. I remember trying to ask my maternal grandfather about our family line, and he repeatedly told me that we were "Pennsylvania Dutch." Being young and without understanding, I was trying to connect to before "Pennsylvania." I knew with names like "Baker" and "Klink," there had to be some German in our background, but grandpa insisted that we were "Pennsylvania Dutch." A little later, I found that "Pennsylvania Dutch" was simply the house name for German immigrants to North America who came to the New World in the 1600 -1800s. "Pennsylvania Dutch," an anglicization of "Deutsch," indicating the German language, was one way of taking another step away from our German past.

In the early twentieth century, the threat to the West was Germany. As a student of history, I am convinced that the German threat could have been destroyed in 1919 as the first World War came to an end. But instead, we set conditions on Germany that were intended to punish the nation, but that actually laid the foundation perfectly for the rise of Adolf Hitler and a second world conflict.

As the Second World War ended, Germany receded as the great rival of the West, replaced by the Soviet Union. Soviet time on the throne lasted for just over forty years until the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Russia. And Russia has worked hard at their bad boy image, but the reality in our contemporary world is that the West's real adversary is China. And who knows who will be next?

In the ancient world, there were many problem countries for Israel. Some of them were the grand empires of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. But there were also the smaller players, like Edom. Edom and Israel had warred into the times of Judah's Babylon exile, and the Book of Kings was written at the beginning of that era. When the Book of Kings was written, Edom was still a problem for the Kingdom of Judah. The Edomites even helped plunder Jerusalem when it fell in 586 B.C.E., but that would eventually change. Around 110 B.C.E., many Edomites converted to Judaism; they had been living in Jewish territory since the fall of their own country, but now they were called Idumeans. And as surprising as it might be to the writer of Kings, King Herod of the Jews was actually an Edomite; Herod was an Idumean.

During the First Jewish-Roman War, the Idumeans, supported by the Zealots, takeover the Temple from the Judean Provisional Government and the Pharisees and Sadducees. But following the Roman destruction of the city, the Idumeans disappear from the pages of history. A great foe that was, but is no more.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 9