All the prophets who have spoken of Edom have given that people the same character, and have found in them the same causes of God’s controversy with them. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and the Psalmist have a kindred burden for Edom. Profaneness or infidel suffering, pride, hatred of Israel, these are Edom’s common marks, the posts upon Esau. Hatred of Israel is noticed in the history, as well as by the prophets. (See 2 Chr. 28:1717For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives. (2 Chronicles 28:17).) The world was Esau’s portion, While Israel was still a stranger and a pilgrim. His children had their dukedoms, were kings also, and had their cities; were settled, as in the clefts of the rocks, where eagles made their nests; and all this while Jacob’s children were still but houseless wanderers in lands that were not theirs, or, in wasted deserts.
According to all the moral account given of them, the Edomites are called the people of God’s curse, (Isa. 34) and “the people against whom the Lord has indignation forever” (Mal. 1:44Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever. (Malachi 1:4)), and, addressing Himself to the land of Edom, the Lord says, “When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate” (Ezek. 35:1414Thus saith the Lord God; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. (Ezekiel 35:14)).
Amalek, I may observe, came of Esau; and we know what place Amalek fills in the page of Scripture. Agag belonged to Amalek and Haman to Agag, Doeg likewise. He as an Edomite, and so is he called; a true Edomite, a man of blood he was. And when the Lord arises for the avenging of Israel, for the recompense of the controversy of His people, “the day of the heathen,” as it is called, the land of Edom is presented to us by the prophets as the scene of that solemn action, as the gathering-place of the confederated hostile nations, and where the Lord in judgment meets them (Isa. 63).
I think we may see, from all Scripture that God has a special question with this people. Edom was kindred with Israel, a blood-relation, as we speak. Israel had spared Edom in their passage through the wilderness, under the direct command of the Lord. God’s claims on Edom, and that too in company with Israel, were peculiar; and He seems to be treated as the servant who had earned many stripes, having known his Lord’s will, and yet did it not.
But short as Obadiah’s word is, it does not close without taking notice of the kingdom that follows the judgment (Obadiah 19-2119And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. 20And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south. 21And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. (Obadiah 19‑21)). And this is so with all the prophets. Resurrection follows upon death, the kingdom and its glories succeed the judgments. Jesus the Lord never speaks of His death alone, but of His resurrection after it. His prophets, who spoke by His Spirit, never speak, I may say, of the judgments which are to cleanse the earth, without telling of the glory that is to follow. And according to this, here in Obadiah we see, at the end, Zion established and had in admiration; her king, the king of glory, seated in her when Edom has become a desolation. When the mount of Esau is judged, and salvation shall rejoice on mount Zion, and holiness find its sanctuary there.