OBADIAH

By Gwyneth Arnold

Introduction

The book of Obadiah is intriguing in that it consists of one chapter only thereby encouraging the reader to discover more of this prophet. According to Smiths Bible  Dictionary his  name means   ‘Servant of  the Lord’. There are several descriptions of a number of Obadiahs in the  Old  Testament but  two  of  them would appear  to be related to the writer of the book of his name.

Obadiah’s name  is among those who  signed the covenant with Nehemiah, being a priest, or from  a family of priests, along with the children of Israel to keep God’s Law as given to their forefathers by Moses. Nehemiah 10.5 and 29. Smith goes on to say that his book is the ‘fourth of the twelve minor prophets and that nothing is known of him  except what is written in the book . The question of the date depends upon the 11th verse wherein he speaks  of the conquest of Jerusalem and  the  captivity of  Jacob as  having occurred.  He probably refers to the captivity by Nebuchadnezzar BCS88. It must have been uttered at some  time in the five years which intervened between BCS88 and 583.  The book  of Obadiah is a sustained attack on the Edomites melting into a vision of the glories of Zion when the arm of the Lord should have wrought her deliverance and have repaid double upon her enemies. ‘

Warning!

The Lord told  Obadiah in verse  1 of the rumour the House  of Judah  had heard concerning Edam’s plans against  them.  They had sent an ambassador to find out more  and they were to rise up against her. The Lord tells Obadiah that he has made Edom small among the  heathen and   that   they   are  greatly despised.  Ezekiel in Ch.25 and verses 12-13 confirms the message.

“Thus saith  the Lord God;  Because that  Ed om hath  dealt against the  House of Judah  by taking vengeance and   hath  greatly offended,  and revenged himself upon them; Therefore, thus saith  the  Lord  God;   I will  also  stretch out  my hand upon  Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it;  and I will make  it desolate from Teman; · and they of Dedan shall  fall by the sword.” Again in Ezekiel ch.35 and  verse 2-6 “Son of Man set thy face against  Mt Seir, and prophesy  against it, and say unto  it, Thus  saith  the  Lord God;  Behold, O Mount  Seir, I am against thee, and  I will stretch out mine  hand  against thee, and  I will make  thee most desolate. I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt  be desolate, and thou shalt  know that  I am the  Lord.   Because thou hast had  a  perpetual hatred, and  hast  shed  the  blood  of the  children of Israel by the  force of the  sword  in the time  of their  calamity, in the time  that  their iniquity had an end:  Therefore, as I live, saith  the Lord God, I will  prepare  thee  unto blood, and  blood   shall pursue thee:  sith thou hast  not hated blood, even blood  shall  pursue  thee.”

In verses 3 & 4 we read“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 they nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith  the  Lord.“

Many of us will be aware of the city of Petra which is built out of towering cliff  faces  and  people have made  their homes in the caves. The former name  for Petra  was,  in all probability, Sela(h) and  was  the stronghold of  the  Edomites, (1)   meaning ‘ the  rock’. Today it is a ruinous city in Jordan being two  days’ journey north of the Gulf of Akabah, or three  to four days’ south of Jericho.  The city was set high up in the mountainous region of  Hor  and by  virtue of  its desolation it was cut off from the outside world; most ordinary people having  no desire to visit, its narrow passageways  through tall sheer rock faces presenting a sinister appearance for  the  rare  traveller.   Thus Obadiah’s challenge from the Lord warning that their very pride had deceived them by confirming they were the people who dwelt in the clefts  of the rock, whose habitation is high, whereby they consider themselves as to be so safe that none  can bring them down to the ground.  Obadiah continues that although they exalt  themselves as the eagle  and  set  their  nests amongst the stars yet will the Lord bring them down.

They are warned (verse 5) that if thieves had come to them during  the night  they would only have stolen what  they could reasonably carry away; and that the grape-gatherers would not  have  taken all  but  left some for gleaning by the poor as required of them by the law.

In verse 6 they are told that their  evil works  have been watched continually and that the sins committed in secret  are not  only  known by God but  by other peoples  as well.

Esau’s Wickedness

It is important to appreciate the  wickedness of Esau in order  to understand the wrath of God against him and his future descendants.  God has repeatedly pointed out throughout the Old Testament that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  He is not  the God  of  Ishmael, Esau  or  the  sons   of  Keturah, therefore, this is a salient point to bear in mind.

We are all familiar with the story of Esau arriving home  exhausted after  a day in the field  and asking Jacob  for a meal in exchange for the birthright he considered his.   According to the book of Jasher (2) ch.27  v.1-12 Esau had returned from slaying Nimrod by cutting off his head with his sword and then slaying his  two  hunting companions. He was  ready  to die and  told  Jacob  the  birthright was  therefore of no value to him. The birthright, however, was not his to even give away let alone sell as the Lord God had told Rebecca that it would be the elder  who  would serve the younger. God’s plan had always  been for Jacob to inherit the birthright.

Rev Ansley Rash reminds us that while hatred in some  families is not  unknown, nonetheless, in this family  it reached an intensity which was unusual to the  point where it has  continued  through the descendants of Jacob and  Esau  down through history.  When Joshua was  at  war   with Esau’ s grandson’s  descendants the Amalekites the Lord said to  Moses, Exodus 17.14-16 “Write  this  for  a memorial in a book  and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly  put out the remembrance of Amalek   from under  heaven. And Moses  built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi: For he said, Because the Lord hath  sworn that  the Lord will have  war with  Amalek  from generation to generation.“(3)

The first recorded clash that Esau had with Israel was  along the  border of  Edomite territory when Moses was leading the children of Israel from Egypt into  the promised land.

Numbers 20: 14-22. ”And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh  unto  the  king  of Edom,  Thus  saith thy  brother Israel,  Thou  knowest all the  travail that hath befallen  us:  How our  fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed  us, and our  fathers:  and when  we cried unto  the Lord, He heard our voice, and sent an angel and  hath  brought us  forth out of Egypt:  and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the  uttermost of thy  border:  Let us  pass,  I pray thee, through thy  country:  we  will  not   pass through the   fields,  or  through the  vineyards, neither will  we  drink  of the  water  of the  wells: we will go by the king’s high way, we will not turn to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left, until  we  have passed  thy  borders.  And  Edom  said  unto  him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee  with  the  sword. And the  children of Israel said unto  him, We will go by the high way:  and if I and my cattle drink  of thy water, then  I will pay for it:  I will only, without doing anything else, go through on my  feet. And he said, Thou  shalt  not go through. And Edom came out against him with much  people, and with a strong hand. Thus Edom refused  to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned  away  from him. And the children of Israel,  even  the  whole  congregation, journeyed  from  Kadesh,  and  came  unto mount Hor”.

Throughout history Esau has endeavoured to gain the birthright which he still  feels belongs to him as the firstborn but Jacob was not named Jacob without good reason.   The name means  ‘supplanter’ and by giving him this  name the  Lord God  revealed the manner in which Jacob would receive the blessings and the birthright.  While Rebekah carried the twins who  struggled together in the  womb, she  went  to enquire of  the  Lord the  reason for  the  trouble. (Gen.25.22  & 23)  The Lord told  her “two nations are in thy womb and two manner of people  shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one  people shall  be stronger than  the  other  people;  and  the elder shall serve the younger”. Thus the birthright was never intended for Esau at any time.

Esau has made every  effort  to gain the birthright and  to take revenge of Jacob  at every  opportunity. He has done nothing to reconcile his relationship with the Lord, rather  to further  distance himself. Because of  his  arrogance he  has  continued to  strive  with Jacob  and  his  descendants determined  at  some future  stage to  gain for  himself the  blessings apportioned to Jacob.  He caused much grief to both Isaac and Rebekah by marrying Hittite wives, Judith the daughter of Beeri and Bashemath the daughter of  Elon (Gen.26  vv  34 & 35).  It was  God’s firm commandment that Abraham’s descendants were to marry only their own kind.

Psalm 52 was written to the chief musician Maschil at the time  Doeg the Edomite came  to Saul and told him that David had gone to the house  of Ahimelech. “Why boastest thou  thyself  in mischief 0 mighty man?  The goodness of God endureth continually. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp  razor, working deceitfully.  Thou  lovest evil more  than good;   and    lying   rather   than     to  speak righteousness. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.  God  shall likewise destroy thee   for ever,  he  shall  take  thee  away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living.” David was only too familiar with the pattern  of history and knew also that God would  keep  to his word and  utterly destroy Esau-Edom at some future time.  In Psalm 5 and verse 10 David calls upon  the Lord God to “Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own  counsels; cast them out in  the multitude of their transgressions;  for they  have rebelled   against thee.” In Psalm  57 v.6 David says  “They have prepared  a net  for my  steps; my  soul  is bowed down; they have  digged a pit before me, into  the midst whereof  they  are  fallen themselves.”

Esau’s True Nature Exposed

Esau is of the opinion he can change the outcome of the covenants the Lord God has made with Jacob by his own  wicked intrigue  but they are  warned  in verse 6 that they have  been searched out and  their hidden things revealed. In verse  7 they are told that the peoples who they thought were  their allies have turned  out to be traitors. Those whom they thought were  their  friends  and  prepared to fight with  them have recognised the wickedness of Esau/Edom and betrayed them accordingly.  They had even had meals together, yet Esau fails to comprehend the errors  of his ways, his pride clouding his understanding.

Verse 9 is utterly damning in that his mighty men of Teman  shall  be dismayed to the very last of the Edomites, everyone  of  them   being  slaughtered. Ternan is one  of the sons  of Eliphaz and,  therefore, grandson of Esau (Gen. 36.11 ). The prophet Jeremiah 49.v 7 asks the questions which the Lord has revealed to him in that “Is there  no wisdom in Teman? Has their  counsel perished   from  the  prudent?  Has their wisdom completely vanished?  The inhabitants of Dedan  are  warned to flee  and  hide themselves in the depths because of the devastation that will come upon  the  Edomites.  As in Obadiah, Jeremiah reminds  the people that the grape-gatherers would  always  leave  something behind; they would only take  what  they  could carry  away  and  destroy only until they had had enough. The Lord, however, in his wrath  will tolerate their wickedness no more and will cause such  devastation as to leave  the land utterly bare.   He has uncovered his secret places to the extent Esau will no longer  be able  to hide.  Not only his seed is spoiled but his brothers and  his neighbours also and  Esau is no more.

Ezekiel, Jeremiah and  Obadiah are  the required two to three witnesses testifying to the Lord’s future dealings with Esau.

The greatest sin that Esau committed was against his brother Jacob in watching the children of Israel being deported by the  Assyrians,  even  standing at the crossroads to prevent  any from escaping. When foreigners were allowed entry in Jerusalem and cast lots for the prize  properties, Esau was  one  of them indulging in the same practice. In Psalm 137.7, David calls on the Lord to “…    remember the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who  said, rase it, rase it, even  to the  foundation thereof.”

The book of Jasher ch.28 v20- “And Esau was a designing and deceitful man, one who hunted after the hearts of men  and inveigled them ……” Here there  is a footnote to the word ‘inveigled’ in that the literal meaning of the Hebrew  is he stole their minds , a beautiful figure  in the  original  to express deceit, falsehood and  fraud.”  That being  the  case we  can appreciate so  much  more  just how  much  the  Lord protected Jacob and ensured the birthright blessings remained with him.

Esau’s Punishment and Jacob’s  Reward

Finally, Obadiah warns  Esau that eventually there will come a time when the Lord will have had enough of their wickedness and  in His day he will let them feel the full fury of his wrath.

As the Edomites have done to other  peoples so it will be done  to them.   All their injustices they have committed will be heaped on them  too – that will be their reward!

The way of life they have chosen upon God’s holy mountain, Israel, is but a poison in reality but they are too proud  to believe  it. All the nations, ie heathen(4) , will be compelled to practise this deceit continually, until  the  poison  has  its full effect  and  they  perish leaving no prosperity  to such an extent it is as though they had never existed.

As for the  House  of Jacob who  have  suffered at the hands of Esau, their brethren, they will rejoice  at his demise, there  will be holiness, righteousness in the land, and they will take over their possessions.

It is the House of Jacob  (ie the ten tribes) who will be the fire and the House of Joseph the flame.  Esau will be as stubble  which once ignited burns until only ashes are left.

In Malachi 4:1-3  we read   … the day cometh that  shall burn as an oven  and all the proud, yea, and  all that  do wickedly, shall  be  stubble;   and the day that  cometh shall burn  them up, saith  the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them  neither  root nor branch.

But unto  you that   fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with  healing in his wings, and  ye shall  go forth and  grow  up like calves in the  stall.

And ye shall  tread  down the  wicked; for they shall be ashes under  the  soles  of your  feet in the day that  I shall do this  saith  the  Lord of hosts.

In verse  18 we read “There shall  not  be any remaining of the house of Esau  for the Lord hath spoken it.”

However,  the Lord does  not forget  His chosen people,  Israel, and  promises that those  of the south shall  possess the  mount of Esau,  ie Mt Hor,  while those on  the  plain will  inherit the  Philistines (presumably  their land   rather than the  people themselves),  and  they  shall  possess the  fields  of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

The captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that  of the  Canaanite even unto Zarephath, and the captivity of Jerusalem which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.

And saviours shall  come up on Mt Zion to judge the  mount of Esau  and  the  kingdom shall  be  the Lord’s.

New Testament Condemnation

Matthew  7 vv 15-20. “Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravening(5) wolves.”  We shall  know  them by their  fruits, said  our  Lord, for a thorny  tree  does not bear  grapes, neither to thistles  produce figs.

Good trees produce good fruit while corrupt  trees grow poisonous fruits.  It is not possible for healthy trees  to produce corrupt fruit any more  than  it is possible  for corrupt trees  to produce healthy  fruit.

In discussing these trees  our  Lord  is making  a comparison with family trees. The tree of the House of Jacob produces good  fruits while  the tree  of the House of Esau is totally corrupt.

Matthew 23 v 33 “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Dan Gayman (6) observes, these Scriptures deserve careful commentary.  Jesus  Christ was  obviously  talking to some valid racial Jews (Judeans) of the stock of Abraham through his grandson Jacob.  However, the language of our Lord Jesus  Christ goes beyond  the true Jews,  or Judahites, of Jacob-Israel.  The fact that our Lord Jesus Christ called  some  of these  people  “serpents … a generation of vipers”  headed for the damnation of Gehenna clearly points to an infusion of people beyond the Judeans.  Evident in this narrative are those who have tried to shed their snakeskin for the sheep covering of Jacob-Israel; yet they have not fooled the Lord Jesus Christ, Who called them a race of snakes.  Christ knows that  they are  people  within  the rank and  file of the scribes  and  Pharisees who  are  descended from  the Edom-Canaanite line.”

Let’s go back  to the book of Jasher again in ch.28 v.18. “At that time Isaac sent his younger son, Jacob, to the house·of Shem and Eber, and he learned the instructions of the Lord, and Jacob remained in the house  of Shem  and  Eber  for thirty  two  years and Esau his brother  did not go, for he was not willing to go, and he remained  in his  father’s house in the land of Canaan.”  What a difference in attitude between these  two young men.   Jacob is desirous of knowing more about the Lord God and is willing to leave home in order to study-recognising his responsibilities regarding the blessings and the birthright. Esau, on the other hand, was more intent on the hunt in the field. He did not care  to further his knowledge on serving God proving yet again his disdain  for the birthright and exposing his ignorance.

Our Lord tells the story of the wicked husbandmen in Matthew  21. vv 33-45.

“There was   a  certain householder, which planted  a vineyard, and  hedged  it round  about, and  digged  a winepress in it, and· built  a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the  fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the  fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his  servants, and   beat one, and   killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more  than  the  first:  and  they  did  unto them likewise. But last  of all he sent  unto them his son,  saying, They will reverence my son. But when the  husbandmen saw  the  son, they  said among themselves, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, and let us seize  on his inheritance.  And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard, and  slew  him.  When  the  Lord  therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will  he  do  unto those husbandmen?   They say   unto him, He  will miserably destroy those wicked  men, and  will let out  his  vineyard unto  other  husbadmen, which shall  render  him the  fruits in their  seasons.

Jesus  saith  unto  them, Did ye never  read  in the   scriptures, The  stone which the  builders rejected, the  same is  become the  head  of the corner:  this is the Lord’s doing, and   it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing  forth the  fruits thereof. And whosoever shall   fall on  this stone  shall  be broken: but  on  whomsoever it  shall   fall, it  will grind him to  powder.

And when  the chief priests  and  Pharisees had heard  his  parables, they  perceived  that  he spake of them.”

Luke 19 vv 12-25 our Lord tells the parable of the ten pounds, following which  He says:

“For I say unto  you, That unto every one which hath  shall be given: and  from him that  hath  not, even that  he hath  shall  be taken away  from him. But those mine  enemies, which would  not  that  I should reign  over  them, bring  hither, and  slay them  before me.“

It was the Edomite Jew  who  was in control  of Palestine, prior  to  the  time  of our  saviour’s  birth, during his ministry and following that time until AD70.

Esau Today

Since then they have established themselves in various  countries and  sought to regain  the coveted kingdom covering  their   tracks by clever smoke screens. The story of the two debtors in Matthew 18 vv 23-30 typifies their works in that they demand what they consider rightfully theirs with no measure of forgiveness.  Today there  is no end  of availability  of false credit by plastic cards,  bank loans and mortgage advances at exorbitant rates  of interest.  Is the day coming when  the world financiers will call in all their debts  and  have  uncountable numbers of families thrown  into a prison  of financial slavery?  Since  the end   of World  War  II  the  financial situation  has become ever more inflated.  In spite of chain warehouse merchants proclaiming that  their merchandise is cheaper than  anywhere else  prices continue to rise and  with  it the  demand for higher wages,   unions  waving  their  banners in support of these claims.

Many people who have had very responsible jobs in high places have been  forced  to leave  when they have sought to do that which  is honourable.  Press reporters have been  known  to seek  out the truth, on given subjects, only to find their editors print out that which  they know  to be false.   There  are  those  who have held high ranking  positions of responsibility in financial  sectors only  to leave  in frustration at  the unwholesome policies  of these  legal institutions.

“Ye shall  know  them  by their  fruits”  indeed ,  but the good news is that  Obadiah concludes his message that Israel will be given the kingdom.  When our  Lord  descends upon   the  Mount  of Olives  to reclaim his people and  commence his reign for the final millennium that mount will be split in two, half moving  to the  north  and  half to the  south.  This is indeed the day of the Lord, as the mountain cleaves from the east  to the west,  leaving a very great valley. From Jerusalem living waters will issue  half toward the great sea  and  half to the hinder  sea.   It will be a time  when  it is neither properly  light, nor yet dark. The whole  topography of Palestine will be changed. The order  to “bring them hither and slay them before me” will be finally executed . Whilst many will perish in this gigantic earthquake, there will be a plague  on all those  who  have fought against  Jerusalem in that their  flesh shall  consume away  while they stand  on their feet and their eyes shall  consume away  in their holes  and their  tongue shall  consume away  in their mouth. (This is the way the people of Hiroshima  and Nagasaki were  destroyed by the atomic bombs.)

Thus  Jacob-Israel is free  for evermore from  the tyranny of Esau-Edom.

January 2013

(Footnotes)

1  Smiths Bible Dictionary

2 Faithfully translated from the original  Hebrew  into English and qualified  by Isaac  Nordhiemer,Professor of Oriental Literature  University of New York April 1840, , HV Nathan,  Minister of  the   English and  German Synagogue, Kingston, Jamaica, Professor Turner an able Hebrew scholar, Theological Seminary, Chelsea Square, New York April 1840 and Professor Geo Bush, New York April 1840.   Also mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and  II Samuel 1:18

3 The Message of the Minor Prophets

4  Schofield Reference  Bible

5 Strong’s Concordance #724 and #727 offers alternative meanings as extortion, rapacious and spoiling

6 Jacob-Israel  vs Esau-Edom – the  roots of the  middle east crisis.