IN the prophecy of Obadiah we read: "Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom; . . . The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." In the phrase "Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom," the proper meaning of Edom is important in unlocking the treasures of Truth hidden in this reading. Science and Health tells us that "metaphors abound in the Bible, and names are often expressive of spiritual ideas" (p. 320). We find in Genesis that the name Edom was given to Esau when he sold his birthright to his twin brother Jacob for pottage made of red lentils. The name Edom is also used to designate both the people that sprang from Esau and the country in which they lived. Previously the country was called Mount Seir. The Edomites were dwellers in caves, and are therefore referred to by Obadiah as "thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock," and "whose habitation is high," as were these caves in Mount Seir.
We find from the Biblical account that Esau and Jacob were different in character from their birth, and it was said to Rebekah, their mother, concerning them, "The one people shall be stronger than the other people ; and the elder shall serve the younger." As Isaac, the father of Esau and Jacob, was a child promised by the Lord, so was Jacob a child by promise, as Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. Esau was the representative of the weaker people, or the children of the flesh, governed by corporeal sense ; Jacob was the representative of the stronger people, or the children of Soul, governed by spiritual understanding. We thus find that as types of character, Esau, the mortal concept, and Jacob, the spiritual idea, are still struggling in human consciousness, as they were said to have done in the consciousness of Rebekah before their birth. In fact animality, the carnal mind that is enmity to good, was so strongly expressed in Esau that he had hair like a goat, and his descendants dwelt in caves,—were figuratively buried in matter.
The birthright of man made in the image and likeness of God is dominion over all the earth, the material sense of Jacob, as representing the spiritual idea, had this dominion, but Esau, as the representative of mortal mind, was held in bondage to material sense; therefore the elder did serve the younger. Esau, disregarding the commands of Isaac, married a daughter of Ishmael, who was the son of Abraham and Hagar the Egyptian bondwoman. The descendants of Esau, therefore, were also descendants of Hagar the bondwoman, and were born after the flesh; but the descendants of Jacob became in a sense the sons of Sarah the freewoman, the wife of Abraham, and were by promise. St. Paul declares: "For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise." To this Paul adds: "Which things are an allegory: ... For this Agar [Hagar] ... answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all."
