Obadiah-Introduction-Structure, Unity, Purposes and Historical Background
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday September 24, 2017
Obadiah: Introduction-Structure, Unity, Purposes and Historical Background
Lesson # 2
The book of Obadiah can be divided into four major interrelated sections.
Verses 1-9 constitute the first major section of the book which announces God’s intention to judge the kingdom of Edom and can be broken out into two sections.
Verse 1 contains the heading of the book which identifies Obadiah as the prophet receiving a vision from God to be communicated to the remnant of Judah.
This verse also contains the introduction to the book in which Edom is identified as being the subject of the prophecies in this book.
Obadiah asserts that he received a prophecy from the God of Israel which he was to communicate to the nations.
Verses 1b-9 contain prophecies which predict the defeat of the kingdom of Edom.
The second half of verse 1 contains God’s call to the nations to destroy Edom.
Verses 2-9 contain the prophecy of this nation’s destruction and within this section, Edom would be judged because of her pride (verses 2-4) and her wealth plundered (verses 5-7) and her citizens slaughtered (verses 8-9).
Verses 10-14 constitute the second major section which describes the sins committed by the nation of Edom against her blood relatives, the southern kingdom of Judah whereas verses 15-16 form the third major section, which announces the day of the Lord.
God’s righteous indignation will be directed against Edom for her crimes during this period.
Lastly, verses 17-21 form the fourth and final section of the book which contains the announcement of the Lord’s intention to bless His people Israel in the future.
This final section can be broken out into three parts with verses 17-18 announcing that the Lord will deliver Israel from her enemies whereas verses 19-20 describe boundaries of the various territories of Israel during the millennial reign of Christ.
In verse 21, the Lord announces through the prophet Obadiah that He will establish His kingdom on the earth and will rule over both Israel and Edom.
Some biblical scholars contend that the book of Obadiah is a collection of prophecies which two or more prophets announced and there are two major reasons for this view.
First, some don’t believe that the name “Obadiah” is speaking of a certain prophet but rather they believe that the name is a title which describes the prophets in general since this name is obscure.
Secondly, some contend that the book of Obadiah contained from two to five oracles or prophecies.
Those who are form critics identify judgment, repentance and salvation as three types of oracles, thus, some have come to the conclusion that Obadiah is composed of two or more prophecies which are composed by two or more prophets.
This view can be refuted because the name “Obadiah” was a common name in Israel and since other prophetic books in the Old Testament bore the name of their writers, it would be more fitting to assume that one prophet named “Obadiah” wrote the entire prophecy rather than two or more people.
Secondly, there are many other prophets in the Old Testament who wrote down several oracles or prophecies, thus, it is not unreasonable to assume that one prophet named Obadiah wrote several oracles in the book that bears his name.
It is reasonable to conclude that the book of Obadiah is a single composition composed by one prophet whose name is Obadiah.
The book of Obadiah contains a three-fold purpose.
The first is obvious from the first fourteen verses of the book, which is that God will judge the nation of Edom as a result of their poor treatment of the southern kingdom of Judah when they fell to the Babylonians.
Judgment against Edom is pronounced in more Old Testament books than against any other foreign nation or enemy of Israel (cf. Is. 11:14; 34:5-17; 63:1-6; Jer. 9:25-26; 25:17-26; 49:7-22; Lam. 4:21-22; Ezek. 25:12-14; 35; Joel 3:19; Amos 1:11-12; Mal. 1:4; Obad.).
Secondly, the book of Obadiah was written to encourage the remnant of Judah that the God of Israel is sovereign ruler over the nations who are accountable to Him.
Lastly, the third and final purpose is to announce that the God of Israel will establish His kingdom on the earth and rule over both Jerusalem and Edom in the future.
Obadiah reflects the culmination of a conflict between the nation of Israel and the nation of Edom and which conflict dated back to the patriarchal period and specifically with Jacob and Esau.
The former was the progenitor of the nation of Israel while on the other hand the latter was the progenitor of the nation of Edom and the two had been at odds but then made peace with each other later in life.
However, their descendants fought often (Num. 20:14-21; 1 Sam. 14:47; 1 Kgs. 11:14; Is. 34:5).
Let’s take a chronological look at the historical situation in the Middle East from the time of Josiah’s reforms in 622 B.C. in the southern kingdom of Judah to the destruction of the kingdom of Edom in 553 B.C.
We begin by noting the Assyrian Empire’s power came about with Ashurnasirpal II (884-859 B.C.) and Shalmaneser II (859-824 B.C.).
Tiglath-pileser III led a coalition, which took Syria and Palestine including Shalmaneser V (727-722 B.C.), Sargon II (722-705 B.C.), Sennacherib (704-581 B.C.), and Esarhaddon (681-669 B.C.) whose son, Ashurbanipal (669-631) ruled much of the upper Egyptian city of Thebes.
However, his decline coincided with the falloff Assyrian’s power in the Middle East.
The Assyrian capital, Nineveh was destroyed in 612 B.C. and the army defeated in 609 B.C. at Haran.
The remnants of this army travelled to Carchemish (just west of the Euphrates River and north of Aram).
The power of the Neo-Babylonian Empire ascended at this time.
Merodach Baladan was a Chaldean and father of Nabopolassar and grandfather of Nebuchadnezzar.
Merodach Baladan sent ambassadors to Hezekiah (Isa 39; 2 Ki 20:12-19) and then, in October 626 B.C. Nabopolassar defeated the Assyrians outside of Babylon.
In 616 B.C., there was an expansion of his kingdom and then in 612 B.C. he joined with the Medes and destroyed Nineveh.
Josiah, the ruler of the southern kingdom Judah separated from Assyrian dominance as a result of Assyrian power descending as a result of Babylon’s ascension to world dominance.
Judah was autonomous until 609 B.C. when it lost a battle with Egypt on the plain of Megiddo.
Egypt attempted to take advantage of Assyria’s troubles and made inroads into Palestine and they formed an alliance with Assyria to fight the Babylonians at Haran.
Judah attempted to thwart Pharaoh Neco II’s alliance with Assyria but instead was defeated on the plain of Megiddo while losing their king, Josiah (cf. 2 Chron 35:20-24).
In turn, the Assyrians lost their battle with Babylon despite their alliance with Egypt and never again appeared on the world stage as a superpower.
Egypt retreated to Carchemish as the dividing line between Egypt and Babylonian Empire.
However, Egypt ruled Judah with Necho replacing Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, after three months with Jehoiakim as a vassal king (who was another son of Josiah 2 Kgs. 23:34-35).
Necho plundered Judah’s treasuries and took Jehoahaz into captivity in Egypt.
Then, in 605 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish.
Consequently, Jehoiakim sided with the Babylonians and became Nebuchadnezzar’s vassal king (2 Kgs. 24:1).
Nebuchadnezzar returned home briefly after hearing of his father’s death.
He solidified his power by appointing vassal kings and taking hostages.
The prophet Daniel was taken as a part of this deportation (Dan. 1:1-6)
In 601, Egypt defeated the Babylonians and this resulted in Jehoiakim running back to the Egyptians (2 Kgs. 24:1).
Then, on December of 598, the Babylonian armies waged an attack on Jerusalem resulting in Jehoiakim’s death followed by the surrender of the city by his successor, Jehoiachin, in March of 597.
Nebuchadnezzar replaced Jehoiachin after only three months of reign and deported him and 10,000 other princes from the city.
He looted the city, and placed Zedekiah Judah’s vassal king (cf. 2 Kgs. 24:12-16).
Zedekiah was convinced by Egypt to revolt against Nebuchadnezzar with the aid of a coalition of other states (Tyre and Ammon).
Jeremiah advised against this and Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
The Edomites joined in the Babylonian army’s destruction of Judah (Psalm 137:7; Lam 4:21-22; Ezek 25:12-14; 35:5, 12-15) which resulted in the prophecies of Obadiah being published.
Then, in 553 B.C., the last of the Babylonian rulers, Nabonidus destroyed the kingdom of Edom, thus, fulfilling the prophecies of Obadiah.