Obadiah (Chapel)

Intro:

You don’t hear a lot of sermons on Obadiah. Those who haven't read through the whole Bible or at least learned a books of the Bible song might not even know that this book exists. It is the smallest of the OT books and at only 21 verses is even short by NT standards. The book is wedged here in the minor prophets and even with a one year Bible reading plan you probably don't spend more than a few minutes here in this book. If you had asked me just a few years ago when I was going to preach through Obadiah I might have just blinked at you and said something about someday maybe preaching through the MPs.

Well, to my surprise, here we are.

And you know what, I know it should not come as a surprise to anyone here that there is actually some great hope and comfort that we can find in this tiny little 21 verse book.

So lets take a moment to pray and then we will read Obadiah’s prophecy and dive right in.

PRAY & READ

As we start we need to cover a little bit of histroical and literary context before we start in on the text itself. The book and its subject matter isnt too overly complex and because of its size it doesnt take the time to flesh out some of the ways in which in connects to the rest of the OT prophetic literature and so it does leave some work for us to do.

The book, as was Joel, is hard to pin down to a specific moment in History and as with many of these things scholars are divided in their views. I will say that I would tend to fall with those who see this as one of the prophets of the exile. Joel is a prophecy directed to the people of Israel, as they all are, but directed against the people of Edom.

We read in verses 10-14 that at some point when the people of Judah were defeated before their enemies, the people of Edom committed some very serious injustices against them.

Now this would be a big deal no matter who the people groups were but we know from our Biblical history that the people of Israel and the people of Edom were brothers. The Edomites were the descendants of Esau, Jacobs brother. Now as God had revealed to Jacob and Rebecca there was always animosity between the brothers and their descendants spent most of their time in varying degrees of hostility toward each other.

The land of the Edomites was to the south and slightly west of Judah and the Edomites had even denied the people of Israel permission to pass through their land when they were on their journey to the promised land after the exodus. Israelite kings had at times ruled over portions of Edom and subdued its people and at times Edom had pressed into Israelite territory. However, none of these more minor incursions seems to be significant enough to account for the language in verses 10-14. I would agree with those who would place the events of verses 10-14 at the time of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem during 587 BC. It makes sense that, with the hostility that existed between these people, the Edomites would have taken the opportunity to harass their brothers and commit these atrocities against them. There is even some historical evidence that suggests that Edom played a part in burning the temple during the destruction of Jerusalem.

You can get a feel for the book then if you place yourself in the shoes of one of these people of Judah who have been carried off into captivity having witnessed the horrors of the destruction of Jerusalem and the way that you as a people were treated by the Edomites there in your darkest days.

However, the message and meaning of the book does not change if you were to select another moment in history that you think these events occured. We will see that much like some similar passages in Joel and other of the prophets, though the specific incidents and occasion for this prophecy are chosen because they are relevant and tied deeply to the hearts and minds of Obadiah’s hearers, the truths that undergird this prophecy, because they connect to who God is and how He acts and His plans and purposes for the wider world, these truths and the prophecy as a whole are eminently applicable to all of God’s people throughout time and even Obadiah points to this reality in this prophecy in verse 15 where he lifts these peoples view momentarily from their own events to the farther horizon of redemptive History and the day of the Lord that we have learned so much about in Joel.

There is some more context that we will need but we can get that as we work our way through the text.

Verses 1-4: Judgement Decreed

The first 4 verse of this prophecy issue the judgement that is now decreed against the people of Edom.

First, just briefly though we see the short intordiction of the prophet and his message. Just two words in Hebrew this intro is meant to get Obadiah out of the way and shine the spotlight right on the great God of Israel and what He is planning to do. Obadiah is simply the man who recieved this message from God, the message is God’s and the power that wil bring all of these things to pass across the pages of hisory will be God’s!