OBADIAH
THIS short book is wholly concerned with the judgment of the nation which sprang from Esau, Jacob’s elder brother. They had taken possession of the territory of the Horites between the Dead Sea and the arm of the Red Sea called the Gulf of Akaba (Genesis 36:6-8, Deuteronomy 2:4-8, 12), and thus it became the land of Edom. The Horites had made their dwellings in caves cut high up in the sides of the sandstone hummocks which abound in that country, and the Edomites made these caves their homes.
A jealous hatred of Jacob’s children early possessed the children of Esau; this first appears in the Scriptures in Numbers 20:14-21. The people of Israel were forbidden in the law to abhor an Edomite (Deuteronomy 23:7), but they were numbered among their enemies (1 Samuel 14:47). David subdued them (2 Samuel 8:14), but they revolted in the reign of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat (2 Kings 8:20, 22), and more than once attacked Judah now grown weak because of turning from God (2 Chronicles 28:17).
Obadiah’s prophecy looks forward to a day still future, when the Jews will be settled in Palestine in much greater numbers than at present; the time will be just before the Lord, having already come for His heavenly saints, raising the dead and changing the living ones, will descend to the earth to set up His kingdom. There will be an alliance among nations north and east of Palestine, and with these Edom will be associated at first; their object will be to seize the Holy Land for themselves. References, to this alliance under the “king of the north” or “Assyrian” have occupied us in our studies of the Psalms, and Isaiah and other prophets.
In verse 1 “rumor” is better translated “report”. The ambassador’s purpose will be to arouse the nations with which Edom will be in league to light against the little kingdom. God had made the descendants of Esau a small nation, but their pride knew no bounds. “Wound”, in verse 7, is rightly “snare”. Teman (verse 9) was the principal place in Edom.
Verses 10-14, with other Scriptures, tell the cause of God’s anger against the nation. Hatred toward the children of Israel led the Edomites to seek the favor of Nebuchadnezzar and his conquering host of Babylonians when Jerusalem was besieged and Judah was carried away captive, as in the future day in the same way they will seek association with the stranger against Jacob their kinsman.
They will be recompensed according to their deeds (verses 15, 16), and there shall not be any left of the house of Esau when the judgments at the Lord’s appearing are completed, and all the earth is in quietness. Their land will be uninhabited, a monument to the righteous judgment of God, throughout the Millennium.
Other scriptures dealing with the future punishment of Edom are numerous. Psalms 83 and 137, Isaiah 31, Jeremiah 49 (which repeats part of Obadiah’s prophetic language), Ezekiel 25:12-11 and chapter 35, and Malachi 1:2-5 are the principal ones.
The land of Edom is today almost uninhabited; the Edomites were dispossessed many centuries ago, and they, like the lost 10 tribes of Israel, and the Moabites, Ammonites and other former neighbors of God’s earthly people are not now recognized, but they will reappear for the closing scenes.
ML 02/21/1937