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I. Introduction
Proverbs 27:6 in the old AV says "Faithful
are the wounds of a friend;
but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."
Well that's possibly not the best translation, as
is highlighted by the fact it often doesn't feel like that.
When a friend puts the knife in when you're down,
it wounds but it doesn't feel very faithful.
And that's the sort of situation the little-known book of the prophet Obadiah deals with.
This is an all-too-common situation, in reality,
isn't it?
Let down by 'the church'.
Let down by someone you thought was your brother
... or sister.
Turned on by those you would have least expected
to shape up like that.
Here's how that situation develops and then pans
out in the prophet Obadiah.
Just a sneak preview of where this is going, though: God
is watching – but it’s not going to simply pan out the way you might think.
But let’s not jump the gun!
II. Who is
Obadiah?
A. His
identity
The name Obadiah in Hebrew means “servant of the
Lord.”
A dozen or so individuals in the OT have this
name, none of whom may be safely identified with the author of this book.
In reality we know very little about this prophet
with regard to his exact identity or historical circumstances.
What about his era?
B. His
Era
The date of the book of Obadiah is very difficult
to determine too.
Since there is no direct indication of
chronological setting clearly suggested by the book itself, and since the
historical identity of the author is uncertain as well, a possible date for the
book can be arrived at only on the basis of internal evidence ... what goes on inside the book.
When did the hostile actions of Edom against
Judah that are described in this book take place?
Many nineteenth-century scholars linked the
events of the book to a historical note found in 2 Kings 8:20 (see 2 Chronicles 21:16-17): “In [Jehoram’s] days Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah and
established a king over themselves.”
If this is the backdrop against which Obadiah
should be read, it would suggest a ninth-century B.C. date for the book, since
Jehoram reigned c. 852-841 B.C.
But the evidence presented for this view is not
entirely convincing, and most contemporary Old Testament scholars reject a
ninth-century scenario.
A more popular view, held by many biblical
scholars from Luther to the present, understands the historical situation
presupposed in the book to be the Babylonian invasion of Judah in the sixth
century (see Psalm 137:7, Lamentations 4:18-22, Ezekiel 25:12-14; 35:1-15).
Understood in this way, Obadiah would be
describing a situation in which the Edomites assisted in the Babylonian sack of
Jerusalem.
Although it must be admitted that a sixth-century
setting for the book of Obadiah cannot be proven, the details of the book fit
reasonably well into such a context. Other views on the dating of the book,
such as an eighth-century date in the time of Ahaz (c. 732-716 B.C.) or a
fifth-century date in the post-exilic period, are less convincing.
Parallels between the book of Obadiah and Jeremiah 49:1-22 clearly suggest some kind of literary dependence, but it is not
entirely clear whether Jeremiah drew on Obadiah or whether Obadiah drew upon
Jeremiah,
In any case, the close relationship between
Obadiah and Jeremiah 49 might suggest the sixth-century B.C. setting.
C. His
Scenario
The early church father Jerome warns us that
Obadiah is as difficult as it is brief … the shortest book in the Old Testament
at just twenty-one verses, and one of the only ten Old Testament books that
aren’t quoted in the New Testament.
Anyway the scenario is this - Obadiah has had
a leak
He's heard or over-heard of something that has
gone on in the Court of Heaven:
"We have heard a message from the Lord:
an
envoy was sent to the nations to say,
‘Rise, let us go against her for battle’–"
Obadiah 1:1
And that brings us to our next question ...
III. What is
he dealing with?
Adom in Hebrew is 'red'.
Edom is a kingdom living in the red rock desert
by the Dead Sea
Adam is the Hebrew word for humanity.
Hebrew lacks vowels in the Biblical text and
Hebrew, especially Hebrew poetry like the first eighteen verses of this
book, just LOVES to play around with words and sounds like that.
As we’ll see Edom, its red rocks and then
humanity in general figure across the face of this book with a thread running
right through it.
But Edom is not, in fact, the name that’s used so much for
these protagonists in this book.
There are seven references to Edom as ‘Esau’ and two
to ‘Jacob’ instead of Jerusalem or Judah in the book.
Why?
Well ...
A. 'Edom' is an enemy with a history
Edom shares its genes with Israel.
Abraham married Sarah and they had a son called
Isaac
Isaac married Rebekah and they had two sons, Jacob and Esau ... you can read about them in
Genesis 25-27, and it's a tale of brotherly contrasts and hostility.
Famously, the old translations say that 'Esau was
an hairy man but Jacob was a smooth man'.
That points up the contrast.
But the contrast seems to have influenced
parental favouritism, as Rebekah favoured Jacob but Isaac favoured Esau who was
a hunter and used to bring him game to eat.
Genesis 25:22-28 tells
us that when Rebekah was expecting:
"The babies jostled each other within her,
and she said, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ So she went to enquire of the
Lord.
The Lord said to her,
‘Two nations are in your womb,
and two
peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the
elder will serve the younger.’
When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.
The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.
After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.
Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
The boys grew up, and Esau became a skilful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.
Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but
Rebekah loved Jacob."
Now, that shows you the differences between the
two ... the contrasts ... and gives you the beginning of a clue that there’ll
be conflict, because the contrast in their characters and the idea that the
younger will rule the older (which in THAT sort of society was an outrageous
idea) paints a picture that is going to lead to trouble.
And that's exactly how it worked out in Genesis
What happens in Obadiah is that the Kingdom of
Edom, based in the red rocks of the desert east of the Dead Sea, recapitulates
the hostility of Esau against Jacob in the book of Genesis ... it runs the story again.
Obadiah deals with the WORST episode in this
stormy family history, at the time when Edom took advantage of Babylon's
conquest of Jerusalem and Judah.
In the big picture of what happens in Obadiah,
that stormy relationship, rivalry, cheating and betrayal gets worked out
between the following generations ... between what grew to be Judah and Edom.
So what you've got with Edom taking advantage to
rule over Judah is a rebellion against the sovereignty of God ... Who had
decreed that the younger should rule the older, but which Edom was trying to
overthrow, rebelling against God's decree as to which brother should rule the
other and against God's decrees distributing the Land He led them all into way
back in the book of Joshua.
Edom was becoming a cipher for Babylon in the outworking of history as it dealt
treacherously in this family feud and
overthrew the sovereign decree of God concerning the two peoples.
We could say, then that Edom was ...
B. Being
Babylon by betrayal
When Babylon over-ran Jerusalem, destroying and
plundering the city and the Temple,
the Edomites took advantage, they acted just like
Babylon and plundered other cities in Judah and abused the refugees trying to
flee (capturing and killing them).
You get a taste of what that was like in Psalm
137:7-9 which wishes for Edom what she has done to Jerusalem …
“Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
‘Tear it down,’ they cried,
‘tear it down to its foundations!’
Daughter
Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who repays you
according to what you have done to us.
Happy
is the one who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.”
In Ezekiel
35 God speaks out against this sin of the Edomites in very round terms.
And also in Amos we
read:
“This is what the Lord says:
‘For
three sins of Edom,
even for four, I will not relent.
Because he pursued his brother with a sword
and slaughtered the women of the
land,
because his anger raged continually
and his fury flamed unchecked,
I will send fire on Teman
that will consume the fortresses
of Bozrah.’”
Amos 1:11-12
Other
prophets deal with this sin of Edom as one issue among many others, but with
Obadiah this issue is the main course.
What
happens in Obadiah is that the prophet receives a 'leak' from the Court of
Heaven that God is going to hold them accountable for what they have done ... but that is most
certainly NOT all of it!
IV. What
has Obadiah got to say about it?
The prophecy of Obadiah comes in two halves with a bit of a hinge in the middle.
Verses 1-14 set out a pretty thorough indictment
of Edom.
It's all about their erroneous self-image and
pride.
They thought they were above everyone else ...
quite literally they lived in the crags in the red rocky cliffs above and to
the East of the Dead Sea.
Metaphorically, they thought they were above
everyone else too:
"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 1:3-4
That pride had led them to not just stand idly by
while Babylon was destroying Jerusalem, but to jump in and join in with the
destruction.
So Obadiah gets the leak from the Court of Heaven
that Obadiah then publishes like any good journalist ... except he's a prophet
... that Edom will be brought down from their height and destroyed, according
to the rule of strict justice: 'as you have done to Israel, so it will be done
to you'.
So ...
V. How do
things pan out?
Well, NOT as you'd expect!
Just as you are expecting to hear the gruesome
details of what will befall Edom ... that's not what you get ... and here's the
crucial thing about the point of this book and possibly why it is in the Bible
at all.
Obadiah may have started to seem to you like a
bit of a 'venge-fest' where Obadiah is showing that Edom is a bad boy and gets the absolute kicking
he deserves, 'yah-boo Esau and your attitude'.
That might make a good block-buster movie but it
wouldn't make a very good book in the Bible.
There's a point which makes Obadiah (like any
other Bible book) useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in
righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good
work! (yup - 2 Timothy 3:16 ff. is something we really need to keep in mind in
the Old Testament too!)
A. The
'hinge', v. 15
So, just as you think you're about to hear how
Edom meets its Waterloo, the topic suddenly pivots around v. 15
"‘The day of the Lord is near
for all
nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
your
deeds will return upon your own head.
Just as you drank on my holy hill,
so all
the nations will drink continually;
they will drink and drink"
Obadiah 1:15-16
B. The
Day of the Lord for All Nations
It's not just Edom ... you see?
ALL prideful nations will fall from their heights
in the same way and come to ruin ... and all of a sudden the Book of Obadiah
is all about OUR history and OUR politics!
The combination of these two sections in the
book, one about Edom and the other about ALL nations shows us why Obadiah was
so interested in Edom, of course.
Obadiah sees Edom's pride and fall as an example,
an illustration, even a proto-type (except God doesn't NEED to make prototypes
to work out how to do things better!)
It's an EXAMPLE then, of how God will one day
confront all prideful nations and bring about their fall too before His
righteous Kingdom.
Look at v. 16:
" Just as you drank on my holy hill,
so all
the nations will drink continually;
they will drink and drink"
Obadiah 1:16
VI. Conclusion
So here in Obadiah we get a bit of a review of
why nations fail, first of all.
A. Why
Nations Fail
· Too much
pride in their military defences, vv. 3-4
· Too much
trust placed in ungodly alliances, vv. 5-7
· Too much
confidence in their own 'experts', as if God is saying 'there's no use your
experts knowing a lot of stuff if they don't know Me!' v. 8
And (get this!)
· Poor
treatment of God's people, vv. 10-14
God won't have any of this ... especially that last one.
B. Deliverance
for God’s People
This is something that gets picked up explicitly
in 2 Thessalonians 1:6 and it’s worth noting this:
“God is just:
he will pay back trouble to those who trouble you
and give relief to you who are troubled,
and to us
as well.
This will
happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his
powerful angels. “
There, you see?
Deliverance on the ultimate Day of the Lord!
“ He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the
gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
In Obadiah 1:11 Edom didn't come to help God's
people but stood aloof.
They WATCHED God's people get abused and allowed
them to be plundered of the inheritance God gave them.
And not only did they take advantage of the
situation themselves by piling in and grabbing what they could, but Edom GLOATED over their calamity.
They didn't even allow God's people to run away
but cut off their opportunity to flee in retreat.
Edom were supposed to be allies but defeated
God's people from the back.
But that’s not really the essential message of Obadiah.
C. The
Message of Obadiah
Deliverance for Judah DOES come in verses 19-20,
but the resolution comes in v. 21
There is only one winner out of a terrible
situation like this.
And that winner is going to be God.
The Edomites thought they'd win wealth, power and
prestige by their treachery.
The Jerusalemites of Judah thought that they'd
have God come in to vindicate them and give them revenge against the Edomites.
Yes, it’s true that:
“There
will be no survivors
from
Esau.’
The Lord has spoken.
People from the Negev will
occupy
the
mountains of Esau,
and people from the foothills will possess
the
land of the Philistines.
They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,
and Benjamin
will possess Gilead.
This
company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan
will
possess the land as far as Zarephath;
the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
will
possess the towns of the Negev.”
(Obadiah 1:18-20)
Yes, the wronged brother WILL have their justice
done and the abusing brother WILL get his just deserts.
But that isn’t the resolution of the matter,
which is far bigger and encompasses all time and all of humanity in the bigger
solution:
“Deliverers
will go up on Mount Zion
to
govern the mountains of Esau.
And
the kingdom will be the Lord’s.”
We can see now with our
New Testament spectacles on that it is the salvation of God and the restoration
of His dynamic rule – His Sovereignty and Kingdom – that will bring the
resolution of the feuding of brothers and the sins of the world as a whole.
The ‘saviours’ of v. 21
are like the Old Testament Judges on steroids, fighting a religious war with ‘the
Nations’ by preaching the Gospel to win over their hearts.
In verse 21 we see the
plan for the coming Day of the Lord is salvation through judgement.
In Obadiah, Edom’s rise
and fall is like a parable of how God’s justice will one day oppose human
arrogance and pride in the great Day of the Lord … but in Scripture, God’s judgement
is never His FINAL word.
So let's finally see ...
D.
Where does this fit in
God’s Good News ‘big picture’?
Johnny Gibson in Nancy
Guthrie’s ‘Help Me Teach the Bible’ podcast on Obadiah for The Gospel Coalition
talks about how the two prophets that precede Obadiah (Joel and Amos) talk about
what happens AFTER the Day of the Lord.
Joel 2-3 follows
the Day of the Lord as judgement with a new act of salvation in Jerusalem after
which all those who humbled themselves would call on the Lord and be delivered …
it makes fascinating reading alongside Acts 2 where the people cry out
to Peter after Peter explains the events of the Day of Pentecost that first
time up in Jerusalem: ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ and Peter … in the
role of one of these ‘saviours’ that’ve gone up on Jerusalem’s hill… responds to
that crowd drawn from ALL NATIONS: “‘Repent
and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you
and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our
God will call.’” (Acts
2:37-39).
Then, Amos 9:11-15 speaks of God restoring
David’s fallen line after the Day of the Lord, including Edom and all nations
in the new Kingdom of God … comprising all who are called by His Name.
Yuo see, Obadiah has been placed where it is in our
Bible to expand on these promises about the HOPE of ALL NATIONS!
And the book concludes with a very hopeful
future rising out of all this terrible rivalry and brokenness in human
history.
God says (Obadiah 1:17-21) that
He is going to restore His Kingdom over the New Jerusalem.
God says He will populate that Kingdom with
His faithful remnant.
And from there, God’s Kingdom will expand to
fill all the territory and nations around Israel that end up hearing the
praises of God declared in their own languages on the day the Spirit was poured
out at Pentecost and that still come together in the Church of God.
Yes, the ancient pride and betrayal of
ancient Edom portrays an example of the fallen human condition.
It relates to all the ways we oppose God’s
sovereignty and betray and hurt one another in the world God created ‘good’.
But Obadiah is showing that even in dark days
like those when Edom became Babylon, there is HOPE in the awful Day of the Lord
as God judges sin and brings about salvation.
Edom’s come-uppance (as its’ sin meets God’s
justice) points forward to the final Day of the Lord when God will deal with the
evil in His world, but also bring about His healing Kingdom of peace over all
the Nations.
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