The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning Edom We have heard a report from Jehovah, and an ambassador is sent among the nations. Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.
Obadiah's twenty-one verses open with a vision, a named nation, and a call to war already moving among the peoples. Who was this prophet? Why is Edom named? And who sends the messenger?
The book tells us nothing about the man himself. Efforts to link him to other men of the same name have all failed:
We know nothing of Obadiah but his name, which means "servant of Jehovah." Scripture is silent about him, and that silence stands in sharp contrast with how badly men want to know something about him. They hoped Obadiah might turn out to be the faithful protector of the prophets under Ahab. They also wondered whether he was the son of the Shunammite woman whom Elijah called back to life, or the Obadiah whom Jehoshaphat sent to teach in the cities of Judah, or the Levite chosen, with one other, to oversee the repair of the temple in Josiah's reign. Fruitless guesses at what God has hidden! God has willed that his name alone and this brief prophecy should be known in this world.
Commentators differ over when he wrote, and the difference is large:
Many would place Obadiah in the time of king Jehoram of Judah (848–841 BC), during whose reign the Edomites revolted against the rule of Judah (2 Chron. 21:8-10). In that case Obadiah would have been the first writing prophet in the history of Israel. Other scholars, however, think Obadiah lived and served at the time of Jerusalem's destruction in 586 BC, or even later. They say he must have known about that event.
The verse names Edom. This was no stranger nation, and the quarrel goes back to before the twins were born:
The only subject of this short prophetic book is the nation of Edom, whose hatred for Israel will finally lead to their total destruction. Edom is the name of Esau's descendants. The nation of Edom lived in the mountains of Seir, south of the Dead Sea, down to the Gulf of Akaba (Gen. 36:8-9). Esau was Jacob's twin brother. Before they were even born God announced that the older son Esau would serve the younger son Jacob (Gen. 25:23). Out of despising his birthright rose Esau's hatred against Jacob (Gen. 27).
The hatred did not stay between two brothers. It spread to the whole nation, and other Scriptures record it:
This people came from Isaac, just as Jacob did. Yet they had a deep-rooted hatred for the descendants of the younger son, the favoured people of Jehovah. Psalm 137 tells of this hatred in its seventh verse. In Psalm 83 Edom joins the final alliance against Jerusalem, and its aim was to cut off the name of Israel from the earth.
The prophet does not speak only to Israel. God's word reaches nations far from Jerusalem, and He aims each prophet at a target.
The Spirit in the prophets always looks beyond Israel and Judah. He takes notice of the Gentile nations too. "A messenger," as Obadiah says, "has been sent among the nations," now and again. So God sent Nahum to Nineveh, and now He sends Obadiah to Edom.
Notice who calls them out. The nations rise to attack, but the report they act on comes from the Lord:
The prophecy begins by announcing that news had come from the Lord. The prophet heard it, and so did the people. A messenger then goes out among the nations to summon them to battle against Edom. The hour for Edom's overthrow has come.
Edom's whole tragedy is a refusal to accept the size God assigned it.
God calls the nations to rise against Edom because Edom resisted His clear will. He made Edom a little people, with the fortress of Mount Seir as a natural hiding place and security. But they wanted great things, and they hated Israel's dignity. To be despised is not the lot of a man or a people content with the place assigned and fitting. It is especially the doom of those who reach beyond their measure.
The name Edom itself carries a lesson:
Edom is actually the same name as Adam, only slightly disguised. So the nation stands for the flesh, and "those who are in the flesh cannot please God." The flesh can appear in many convincing forms. It pleases the natural senses and appeals to the reasoning minds of men.
- Hidden servant. The prophet's name means "servant of Jehovah." God hid everything else about him, so the message holds the stage, not the messenger.
- Named target. Edom means the descendants of Esau in the mountains of Seir. They were a brother nation, and their hatred began over a despised birthright.
- Sent summons. The report comes from the Lord, and the messenger goes out among the nations. The armies that rise against Edom move on a word they did not invent.
- Small refused. God made Edom a little people with a safe mountain. They reached beyond their measure, and that reaching brings them down.
- Mirror held up. Edom is Adam barely disguised. Read as a picture of the flesh, the book warns that the flesh can look convincing and still cannot please God.
Behold, I have made thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised.
Here God gives His opening verdict on Edom, the nation descended from Esau. He will make them small, and the nations will despise them. Why does God single out this one people? And why is the sentence His own act?
Older translations put the verdict in the past: "I have made you small." Either way, commentators read it the same. Edom's smallness is a decree, not bad luck.
The hour for Edom's overthrow has come. The Lord has made them small among the nations. It was pride which brought them low so that they would be greatly despised. They lived in the rocks, so they thought they were safe. They boasted about it and said, "Who will bring me down to the ground?" But the Lord had decreed Edom's humbling, and no power could stop it.
Being a small nation is not itself a punishment. Edom's trouble was that it refused the place God gave it and reached for Israel's.
God made Edom a little people, with the stronghold of Mount Seir as a natural hiding place and security. But they sought great things and hated the dignity of Israel. "Behold, I have made them small among the nations; you are greatly despised." This is not so when a man or a people is content with the place given to them, the place that fits them. It is especially the doom of those who reach beyond their measure. Then being despised is especially painful, and that was Edom's history. We see pride in Esau at the start, and we see it in the Edomites to the end.
The charge is not vague hostility. Edom looked on while Jerusalem fell and lent its weight to the disaster.
The Lord needs no more. He has a word for Edom because of this, and He utters it through Obadiah. God's quarrel with the nations is this: on the day when He was angry with His people, they helped make the suffering worse. We read this in Zechariah 1:15. How much more, then, should we expect Him to be angry with Edom, Jacob's brother, for standing by and watching on the day of his disaster!
The punishment fits the crime. Edom joined the attack on Jerusalem hoping to profit, and the partners it served turned on it.
Edom planned to use the attack of the nations on Jerusalem to seize the land for itself. So it joined them and took part in the attack. It lay in wait — as you would expect from a people who lived like the Arab tribes — to cut off the escape of those who fled. It seized their goods where it could, and handed them over to their enemies as well. … But it turns out that their allies deceive them (v. 7). Edom, treated so badly by its former allies, becomes "small among the nations" (v. 1, 2). The nations are the first instruments of the Lord's vengeance.
Kelly reads the same turn as the natural end of a hired man's career:
It is the doom of a man who is false to his own family to sell himself to strangers for a hateful job. Then, once their purpose is served and he seems of no more use, they throw him off completely.
The attitude God judged here is one anyone can slip into.
Let us take this lesson to heart, because we can easily slip into the same spirit as the Edomite. Jeremiah saw the failures and sins of God's people, but he wept over them. Daniel and other godly men confessed those sins as their own. The spirit of the Edomite is different: bitter hatred toward people who have failed but are still the people of God. This spirit is especially displeasing to Him.
Some read Edom's mountain home as a picture of everything in us that stands on its own strength.
Mount Seir is the stronghold of the flesh, the fortress of godless man. But Edom would be pulled down from his high nest in the cliffs (see Obadiah), and in the end he would be driven off his high perch and brought low. And so all proud thoughts and showy strongholds of the flesh will be laid in the dust!
- Decreed — God calls Edom's smallness His own work. He settled this humbling, and no power could stop it.
- Pride — the cause was reaching past the place God gave. It is the doom of those who reach beyond their measure, and Esau's pride runs from the first of his line to the last.
- Malice — the charge is making His people's suffering worse on the day God was angry with them, and doing it as a brother.
- Betrayal — Edom is made small by its own allies. The nations are the first instrument of the Lord's vengeance, and the hired man is thrown off once he is no longer useful.
- Warning — the Edomite spirit is bitterness toward God's failing people, not tears over them. Every high stronghold of self-confidence will be brought low.
The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; -- he that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?
The shortest book in the Old Testament brings a charge against one nation. This verse names the reason for its fall: a heart that talked itself into safety. It asks whether any height a man builds can hold when God moves against it.
Obadiah does not speak to strangers. Edom was family, and the quarrel behind the prophecy runs back to two brothers.
This short book of prophecy has only one subject: the nation of Edom. Their hatred for Israel will in the end lead to their total destruction. Edom is the name of Esau's descendants. The nation of Edom lived in the mountains of Seir south of the Dead Sea down to the Gulf of Akaba (Gen. 36:8-9). Esau was Jacob's twin brother. Before the twins were even born, God announced that the older son Esau would serve the younger son Jacob (Gen. 25:23). Out of despising his birthright rose Esau's hatred against Jacob (Gen. 27).
The phrase is not poetry only. Edom lived inside stone.
Their land had once belonged to the Horim, a people who lived in caves in the mountains… Edom had the so-called troglodyte homes — cave dwellings cut into the sandstone cliffs. These homes suited their warlike character and gave them the shelter they needed. So verse 3 speaks of them as those who "live in the clefts of the rock." The ruins of Petra still bear witness to its former grandeur.
Edom refused the place assigned to them and reached for more. The fortress they trusted turned out to be no fortress at all.
They sought great things and hated the dignity of Israel. To be despised is not the lot of a man or a people content with the place assigned and fitting for them. It falls above all on those who aspire beyond their measure… For as we see pride in Esau from the first, so we see it in the Edomites to the last… "The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock." Their position looked impossible to attack. It would give them no protection once God called in the instruments to pull them down from their proud heights.
Underneath the boasting was something older than politics — a grudge against a brother who had been blessed.
Obadiah ("Serving Jehovah") writes the shortest book of the Old Testament, and his whole prophecy is against Edom. This is, of course, the family of Esau, Jacob's brother. His hatred and violence against Israel was a terrible result of pride and self-righteousness. He could not bear to see his brother receive blessing from God.
Edom asked who could bring them down. It was a boast, not a question. God answers it anyway.
Living in the rocks, they thought they were safe and boasted about it, saying, "Who will bring me down to the ground?" But the Lord had decreed Edom's humiliation, and no power could stop it. Their nests were high as the eagles', so high that their homes seemed to be among the stars. Yet the Lord would bring them down.
The fall reached past the cliffs to Edom's advisers and allies.
Edom, with all its pride, was to be brought low… God would destroy its wise men. He would smash to pieces the alliance by which it hoped to secure a leading and lasting place on the earth.
Edom's cliff-top city stands for something that outlives Edom. The pattern repeats wherever man builds his own security away from God.
If we trace the history of Edom through the Bible, we always find the same features… we always find what is profane and coarsely worldly, together with opposition to God. Mount Seir is the stronghold of the flesh, the fortress of godless man. But Edom would be pulled down from his high nest (see Obadiah), and in the end driven off his high perch and brought low. And so all proud thoughts and pretentious strongholds of the flesh will be laid in the dust!
That turns the prophecy into a mirror.
The book of Obadiah then would lead us to a very serious self-judgment of our ways and of the secret thoughts and feelings of our hearts.
- Height built. Edom cut its homes into the sandstone cliffs at Petra. Those caves gave them the shelter they needed.
- Height deceived. Their pride told them no one could reach them. The lie came from their own heart, not from outside.
- Height overreached. They refused the place assigned to them and reached beyond their measure, and there their ruin began.
- Height demolished. Though their nest rose as high as the eagle's, God Himself would bring that boastful nation down, destroy its wise men, and smash its alliances.
- Height in us. Mount Seir stands for the stronghold of the flesh. Every proud thought ends in the dust, so the book calls us to judge our own secret thoughts.
Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith Jehovah.
Obadiah speaks his whole message against Edom, the nation descended from Esau, Jacob's brother. This verse answers the boast of verse 3. The picture is a nest set among the stars, and a God who says the height changes nothing.
Edom's confidence rested on where they lived. They carved their homes into cliff faces, and the ruins still stand.
Their homeland once belonged to the Horim, a people who lived in caves in the mountains. Edom then had the so-called cave dwellings cut into the cliffs of sandstone. These rocky homes suited their warlike character and gave them the shelter they needed. That is why they are mentioned in verse 3 as "dwelling in the clefts of the rock." The ruins of Petra still bear witness to its former grandeur.
God assigned Edom a small place among the nations. Their sin was not being small. It was refusing to stay there.
They sought great things and hated the dignity of Israel. "Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised." This is not the case where a man or a people is content with the place assigned to them and right for them. It is especially the doom of those who aspire beyond their measure... Nature made their position impossible to attack. Yet it would be no protection when God called in the forces to pull them down from their proud heights. The word has gone out from God, and their fall would be all the more complete and hopeless.
Pride is what put Edom in this position, and the Lord had already settled the outcome.
It was pride which brought them low, so that they would be greatly despised. As dwellers in the rocks they thought themselves secure. They boasted of it, saying, "Who will bring me down to the ground?" But the Lord had decreed the humiliation of Edom, and no power could stop it. Their nests were as high as the eagles'. Their homes seemed to be among the stars. Yet the Lord would bring them down.
Edom's instinct is one that rulers keep repeating, and there is an opposite way to build.
In history we see again and again that rulers invade the land of other nations by force. They conquer it to enlarge their power. They build the greatness of their own house out of what they have taken from others. They build their nest high... The same pride drove Edom to build its nest among the stars. In the end all such plans result in nothing but the downfall and shame of such ambitious rulers... In contrast, the believer who wants to serve God never thinks of enlarging his own house. His joy and his honour are these: like David, he gathers the building materials for the house of his God.
Edom's name points past one nation to something in every person.
Edom is the same name as Adam, only a little disguised. The nation therefore stands for the flesh, and "those who are in the flesh cannot please God." The flesh may appear in many believable forms. It pleases the natural senses and appeals to the reasoning minds of men. In our day the strong humanist movement is a marked example of this proud, empty pretension of the flesh. It will fall under the awesome judgment of God, while the despised people of God will be delivered.
The same boast is heard wherever human progress is celebrated.
Think for a moment of the world as it lies around us. Think of the onward march of civilization, the achievements of science, the spread of knowledge. How men boast of all this! In truth they say in their hearts: "Who will bring me down to the ground?" Do they not soar aloft like the eagle and set their nest among the stars?
- Built high — Edom cut its homes into the sandstone cliffs at Petra. The height in the verse was real, not just a picture.
- Deceived high — they refused the small place God gave them, aspired beyond their measure, and hated the honour given to Israel.
- Brought down — the Lord decreed Edom's humiliation, and no power could stop it.
- Building high — rulers still enlarge their own house from what they take from others. The believer's honour is to gather materials for God's house.
- Still climbing — Edom's name is close to Adam's, and every generation proud of its own progress repeats the boast, "Who will bring me down?"