Tuesday, July 10

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Tuesday

“The Pride of Edom”

Now that we’ve covered who Obadiah is we can dive into his message. Obadiah’s message is threefold. Throughout the short book he’ll look at the pride of Edom (vv. 1-4), the fall of Edom (vv. 5-16), and finally the restoration of Judah (vv. 17-21). Today we’ll focus on the first part of his message, the pride of Edom. The pride of Edom is displayed in the opening verses of Obadiah. In Obadiah 1-4 the prophet declares, 

¹ The vision of Obadiah.

This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom —

We have heard a message from the Lord:
    An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Rise, and let us go against her for battle” —

² “See, I will make you small among the nations;
    you will be utterly despised.
³ The pride of your heart has deceived you,
    you who live in the clefts of the rocks^[a]
    and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
    ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
⁴ Though you soar like the eagle
    and make your nest among the stars,
    from there I will bring you down,”
declares the Lord. 

Verse 1’s a very interesting and important verse. It’s interesting and important because it establishes that the coming prophecy, the coming “vision” is from the Lord about Edom. Now if you’re not a Biblical scholar Edom is probably a fairly unfamiliar word. Edom is one of a few names that will be used throughout this book to refer to one of the neighboring nations of Israel. By this point in this series I’m sure most of us are familiar with Israel right? In the Old Testament Israel was the nation that God had chosen to be His people. It was a small, relatively unimportant territory in Palestine. Edom then, is one of her neighbor’s, the Canada to Israel’s America if you will. 

What we quickly discover about Edom is that God is incredibly upset with her as a nation. Obadiah doesn’t beat around the bush with this, instead he frontloads YHWH’s critique of Edom in these four verses. God promises to make Edom “small among the nations,” because “The pride of your heart has deceived you.”  

What was it that Edom had done to incur such judgment from God? Well the Edomite’s sin was multifaceted, but it all circles back around to their relationship with the nation of Israel. As we covered earlier Edom is a brother nation of Israel. As we continue to read through the book we’ll see that I’m not referring to Edom as a “brother nation” of Israel just because they share a border with them rather I refer to them as a brother nation because of their national origin, let me explain. The country of Edom was founded by Esau, the brother of Jacob.

Unfortunately just like the brothers had issues with each other throughout most of their lives these two nations had issues with each other throughout most of their histories. Although it’s impossible to know exactly what the relations between the two countries were like in the time period leading up to Obadiah’s prophecy we can take an educated guess. Commentator Paul Raabe summarizes that, “It is plausible to suppose that in the preceding century the relationship between Judah and Edom had become amicable.”  If Raabe is correct on that, and I believe he is, then in the period before Obadiah’s prophecy against Edom Israel and Edom were living together in a time of peace. 

So what happened? Well the short answer is that the exile happened. In 588 B.C. the armies of Babylon stormed down on the nation of Israel, killing many, destroying the capital city and the temple, and repatriating those who weren’t killed. The exile was a crushing event that changed the course of Israel’s history drastically and, are you ready for this? Edom was a part of it. Yes, here we arrive at the meat of Obadiah’s prophecy, Edom is condemned for her pride because she participated in the Israelite exile with the nation of Babylon. Read with me as we get a clear picture of the reason for Edom’s condemnation before God in Obadiah 10-14

Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
    you will be covered with shame;
    you will be destroyed forever.
¹¹ On the day you stood aloof
    while strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
    and cast lots for Jerusalem,
    you were like one of them.
¹² You should not look down on your brother
    in the day of his misfortune,
nor rejoice over the people of Judah
    in the day of their destruction,
nor boast so much
    in the day of their trouble.
¹³ You should not march through the gates of my people
    in the day of their disaster,
nor look down on them in their calamity
    in the day of their disaster,
nor seize their wealth
    in the day of their disaster.
¹⁴ You should not wait at the crossroads
    to cut down their fugitives,
nor hand over their survivors
    in the day of their trouble.

Those verses make the situation that we’re looking at clear. Obadiah is prophesying against the nation of Edom because of her pride. He’s prophesying against her because in her pride when her brother nation Israel was attacked by the Babylonians instead of rallying to Israel’s aid Edom pridefully looked down on Israel and acted alongside the Babylonians with violence against the people and nation of Israel. Make sure to check back in tomorrow as we discover what any of this has to do with our lives today. 


Grant Diamond