The name Obadiah is translated, “Servant of the Lord.” It was a very common name in ancient Israel,
and the writer of this short, one-chapter, book is one of 12 men in the Old
Testament with this name. Who he was is
not as important as what he wrote. And
what he wrote was very important in his day.
Some scholars say he wrote in 840 B.C. and other scholars say it was 586
B.C. Again, the date is not as important
as the substance of what was written.
The main theme of this book is God’s judgment against
Edom. The Edomites were descendants of
Esau, the twin brother of Jacob (Israel).
Although Esau was the older son, it was Jacob who received their father,
Isaac’s blessing, as well as the blessing of God. Jacob was a deeply spiritual man, obedient to
God, and mindful of God’s will. Esau was
concerned only for himself, he was shallow, and took lightly the
responsibilities that fell to him as the older son. He sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of
stew. There was jealousy and enmity
between the two brothers for most of their lives, but eventually they did
reconcile (Genesis 33). Together, Jacob
and Esau amassed a large fortune. Their
herds became so large that the land was not able to sustain all their
livestock, so Esau left the land of their ancestors and made his home in the
hills to the south. This land was known
for its high cliffs, making it easy to defend against any enemies who might attack.
The Edomites inherited their patriarch’s spiritual
identity. They married pagan wives and
adopted their pagan ways. They were
violent, especially toward Israel, never forgetting that it was Jacob who was
blessed and not Esau. When Moses was
leading the people of Israel out of Egypt to the promised land, he wanted to
pass through Edom to get to Canaan, but the Edomites refused them safe passage,
even after Moses promised to stay on the highway and not go through their
fields or even drink any of their water (Numbers 20:14-22). Much later, King David conquered Edom and set
up forts there (2 Samuel 13-14).
Needless to say, the Edomites hated the Kingdom of Israel. After the kingdom was divided, Edom rebelled
against Judah’s King Jehoram and won their independence (2 Kings 8:20-22).
That is the back story, the history of Israel and Edom. So why did God judge Edom? Obadiah spells is out quite clearly:
- Pride. They trusted in their own strength and ingenuity and in their high, rocky fortresses:
The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in
the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to
yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar like the
eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares
the Lord. (Obadiah 3-4)
- Violence. When Israel was taken captive, Edom stood by and did nothing to help them, even though their ancestors were brothers. They watched as they were slaughtered and carried into captivity and as their enemies took over Jerusalem. God said they were just as guilty as those who actually overtook Jerusalem. But after the battle was done, they actively participated in the violence by killing some of the people who had escaped, and handing over other survivors to their captors:
Because of the violence against your
brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed
forever. On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his
wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were
like one of them. (Obadiah 10-11)
Obadiah continues to pronounce God’s judgment on Edom with a series of seven things they should not have done. When studying the Bible, it is always significant when phrases are repeated. In verses 12 – 14, the phrases, “you should not” and “in the day of” are repeated seven times. This is important:
- You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune,
- nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction,
- nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.
- You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster,
- nor gloat over them in their calamity in the day of their disaster,
- nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster.
- You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble. (Obadiah 12-14)
The very next verse should not have been taken
lightly:
He goes on to say that the kingdom of Edom will be completely destroyed, and there will be no survivors from Esau.
So what does all this mean to us today? This is all ancient history, right?
Well, yes and no. The kingdom of Edom was destroyed. After Israel was allowed to leave its bondage in Babylon, part of the land it occupied was the land that had been Edom. But there were still descendants of Esau in the land. During the Maccabean wars (167-160 B.C.) during the rule of Greece, the Seleucids, the remnants of the Edomites, were forced to convert to Judaism. And by the time Jesus was born, during the rule of Rome, the people of the area that had been known as Edom were then known as Idumaeans. The one Idumaean we have all heard of was Herod the Great, the tyrant who had all the baby boys in the area of Bethlehem killed, trying to kill the Christ Child. The violent spirit of Esau was alive and well.
So does that mean that Obadiah’s prophecy was wrong?
No, it just has not been
completed yet. Whether any descendants
of Esau still live, no one knows. But the
spirit of Esau, that is, the spirit of evil, jealousy, and violence toward God’s people is
certainly alive and well. All we need to
do is turn on our TV news to see what is happening in the Middle East. There are rockets being launched into Israel
every day. Christians are being beheaded
in Iraq every day. Surely this is the
spirit of violence that God saw in Edom.
Look again at verse 15 above. “The
day of the Lord” always refers to a day when God intervenes and acts to
accomplish His will. God has promised us
that He will intervene:
When God said, “so all the nations will drink continually,” He is referring to His wrath. Isaiah calls it His cup of anger:
And notice, too, that it is not JUST Edom that will taste God’s wrath, but it will be all the nations who stand idly by as God’s people are persecuted as well as those who participate in the violence against His people. He says that it will be as though they never existed, just like the descendants of Esau.
The good news is that when God intervenes, peace will prevail forever. We see another repeated phrase in the last three verses of Obadiah, “will possess.” Five times we are told that God’s people will possess the land. And finally we read:
Throughout this book, God is referred to as
the Lord. The Hebrew word used is
Adonai, He Who Is. The Lord who is the
deliverer of Zion is Jesus. Mount Zion, The
City of God, the site of Solomon’s Temple, is the place where the church was
established on the Day of Pentecost, and it is where Christ will someday return
to rule His Kingdom:
Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion. (Revelation 14:1a)
This week my prayer is from Psalm 83, verses 1-4 and 17-18. I hope you will join me in this prayer for God’s people:
O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God. See how your enemies growl, how your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more”. . .May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord — that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.
All scripture is from the New International
Version.
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