And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble; and they shall kindle in them and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau for Jehovah hath spoken [it].
Obadiah's short prophecy ends with a complete reversal. The people who suffered violence become the fire. The proud nation that watched them fall becomes dry stubble. Two questions follow. Is this a picture of the church and the gospel, or of a real future for Israel on earth? And why does Edom alone face a judgment that leaves nothing behind?
Many read this verse as a picture of the gospel spreading through the world. Kelly rejects that reading and holds to the plain sense of fire and stubble.
In verse 17 Obadiah speaks of a deliverance that comes from God, but comes on earth. It is the restoration of Israel, not of the church. The Spirit means Mount Zion literally, just as He later means the mountain of Esau, the plain of the Philistines, and the fields of Ephraim and Samaria. The pictures of fire and flame burning others up like stubble stand for judgment, not for grace. They belong to the day when the kingdom of our Lord over the world has come. People, and even believers, may doubt. But "the LORD has spoken."
So Israel does the burning. Darby explains whose hand Israel is in, and when this judgment comes.
Finally, Israel itself will be an instrument in the LORD's hand for the judgment of Esau (Obadiah 18)... The part Israel takes in the judgment falls on the people as a whole. I think it comes later, when Christ is at their head as the Messiah (compare v. 17, 18). Isaiah 11:14 seems to confirm this view of the passage. In any case, it takes place after Israel's blessing.
The order matters. Blessing comes first, then the fire. Israel does not earn restoration by beating Edom. God restores Israel first, and the judgment follows.
Why two houses and not one? Kelly says these two names are the sticking point for anyone who treats Israel's hope as finished.
This is in no way the gospel. It is the kingdom, when the two will be kept apart instead of running together as they do now in Christianity. The words that follow make this even plainer. It is absurd to apply them to the church, and both ignorance and error to explain them away. Scholars work in vain to explain how a remnant of Judah can be called "the house of Jacob" and "the house of Joseph." This difficulty comes only from a false system, one that exaggerates the past, points at the future, and robs God's ancient people of their hope.
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God judges other hostile nations, yet leaves survivors among them. Edom's case stands alone.
Of all the nations that come back into view for judgment at the time of the end, Edom is the only one with no "remnant" kept alive. God will judge the Edomites without mercy because of the way they treated His people. They were the most wicked of all, and the most eager to destroy Israel. Had they not once "refused to give Israel passage through his territory" on the way into the land of Canaan (Num. 20:21)?... So at the time of the end this terrible word of the Lord will come true: "Esau I have hated" (Mal. 1:3). For, as Obadiah says, "the LORD has spoken."
Edom's crime was not distance but nearness. Edom and Israel were brother nations, and Obadiah presses that bond.
This trait, already hinted at in the quotation from Psalm 83, was a bitter hatred of God's people. Obadiah names "your violence against your brother Jacob" as the special reason why Edom will be covered with shame and cut off for ever. God will spare a remnant from Egypt, Assyria and other nations to enjoy the blessing of Christ's rule, but "there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau" (ver. 18).
Esau is more than a hostile neighbour. Vine sees in him a picture of what Scripture calls the flesh.
Esau was a nearer relative to Jacob than Moab and Ammon were. In him we see a picture of the profane character of the flesh. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God in any way. True believers now are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.
- Spoken — the verse rests on its last line: "for the LORD has spoken." People may doubt it, but the sentence is settled.
- Blessed — deliverance on Zion comes first. Israel becomes fire only after God has restored and blessed His people.
- United — "Jacob" and "Joseph" mean more than a remnant of Judah. God's promise reaches the whole people, in real places with real names.
- Consumed — every other nation keeps a remnant. Edom keeps none, because it turned violence on its own brother.
- Warned — Esau pictures the flesh: close to the blessing, profane toward it, left with nothing. Believers now live in the Spirit.
And [they of] the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the lowland the Philistines; yea, they shall possess the field of Ephraim and the field of Samaria; and Benjamin [shall possess] Gilead;
Obadiah's last section turns from Edom's fall to a map. The south takes Esau's mountain, the lowland takes Philistine country, and Israel takes back Ephraim, Samaria and Gilead. So the first question is simple. Is this poetry about spiritual victory, or a real handover of real land?
Samaria and Gilead are not symbols. They are districts with borders. One writer makes that detail the key:
Because the places are named one by one, we should not explain them away by what people call spiritualising. In fact spiritualising is the wrong word for it. It should be called allegorising. Denying the hopes of Israel has nothing spiritual about it. In these matters true spirituality means understanding the word of God in the sense He intended.
The same writer notes that reading this passage as the gospel has a long history, and he names a famous example:
Luther, for instance (blessed man as he was), through not holding fast to the general scope and connection, as well as the propriety of each phrase in detail, so far lost the true force of the prophecy as to suppose this chapter means the gospel... The golden rule is never to force scripture: otherwise we never fail to enfeeble the truth by confounding things that differ.
The verse reverses history. Edom pushed north into Judah's land while Judah was weak. Now Judah's south pushes back into Edom's mountain:
Everyone knows that the Edomites pressed their advantage as Israel and Judah declined. They even took some of the southern districts and towns of Palestine. They became closely mixed with the Jews. Then came a people called the Nabateans, who took the land of Edom and drove out the sons of Esau to a great extent. Because these men pushed up into Edom, the earlier inhabitants crowded into the Holy Land. Some of them gained large holdings there. But this situation is the reverse of the prophecy, not its fulfilment.
This swap is not random. It follows a rule in God's ways:
Obadiah shows the Jews themselves as God's instruments for the destruction of Esau... The destruction will be complete. Everyone on Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter, and no one will be left of the house of Esau (Obadiah 9, 18). Israel will take their land, for God repays what people do. The prophecy ends with "the kingdom shall be the LORD's."
Ephraim, Samaria and Gilead lay in the north, not in Judah. Naming them beside the southern district points to a people made whole again. One writer rejects any attempt to shrink these names to a surviving group from Judah:
Scholars work in vain to explain how a remnant of Judah can be called "the house of Jacob" and "the house of Joseph." The difficulty is only created by the false system. That system exaggerates the past, points to the future, and robs God's ancient people of their hope. It is a Gentile notion (see Romans 11), and not the truth.
The land itself is also larger than anything Israel ever held:
The land is not the limited portion that the Israelites of old took. It matches far more closely the large promise given to Abraham... Take it literally, as every spiritual Israelite must have understood it, and there is no difficulty at all. It simply gives interesting details of that blessed time when Israel will be delivered from her enemies and restored to the LORD's favour. Under the Messiah's rule she will enjoy the promises made to Abraham and David, which are still unfulfilled.
Some place the fulfilment in Israel's military victories between the Testaments. One writer answers that this period ended in the opposite of the prophecy. An Edomite family ruled in Jerusalem:
It is a poor idea that Obadiah, in such bright terms, predicted anything like the successes of the Maccabees for a little over a century, followed by the Edomite family that ruled over the Holy Land. The days of King Herod were far from the time when the kingdom would be the LORD's.
Another writer ties the timing to a regathering still to come:
This will be at the close of the age. Then the Lord will gather all Israel again, and Judah and the ten tribes will be reunited. At that time, and before it, Edom will appear once more in prominence.
Four times this verse says that someone will possess something. One writer applies that word to Christians now:
There is a statement in Obadiah that the house of Jacob will yet "possess their own possessions" (v. 17). Now is the time for us to possess our possessions... It is one thing to have title to all these blessings, quite another to have them as light in our souls.
- Named — Esau's mountain, Philistine plain, Ephraim, Samaria, Gilead. These are real places on a map. So commentators refuse to read the verse as an allegory.
- Reversed — Edom seized Judah's southern towns while Judah was weak. Now the south will take Edom's mountain. God repays.
- Reunited — the listed districts lie in the north as well as the south. This points to all Israel restored, not to Judah alone.
- Enlarged — the land matches the promise given to Abraham more closely than anything Israel ever held.
- Future — no past age fulfilled this. An Edomite king in Jerusalem was the opposite of the prophecy. It waits for the day when the kingdom is the LORD's.
and the captives of this host of the children of Israel [shall possess] what belonged to the Canaanites, unto Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who [were] in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.
Obadiah closes with a map, not a sermon. Two groups of exiles are named, and each is told which land it will hold. Do the place-names mean what they say? And when could such a homecoming happen?
This verse sits in the book's last section. One commentator sums up what those verses promise:
The final section of Obadiah's brief prophecy concerns the kingdom, the victory over the enemies and the restoration of His people. What God had promised to be the remnant of His people will come true. They will be a holy people, and then they will hold their possessions — all that the Lord in His infinite grace had promised them. The house of Esau will be consumed, so that none of Esau will be left, while Israel will occupy Edom's territory.
The first group's land reaches as far as Zarephath. That town belonged to Sidon, and it is known from a famine story:
A city belonging to Sidon, where Elijah stayed with a widow during part of a time of drought and famine. He was kept alive there by a miracle: the widow's flour and oil kept increasing. 1 Kings 17:9-10; Obadiah 20. Called SAREPTA in Luke 4:26.
Sepharad is harder to place. The old translations did not agree on it:
Place where the Jews were in captivity, but from which they would be brought to possess "the cities of the south." Obadiah 20. The Greek Old Testament has "as far as Ephratha." The Latin has "in Bosphoro." Jerome thought the word meant "boundary," and applied it to the scattering of the Jews in any region.
The quotes say "the cities of the south"; the ESV calls the same place "the cities of the Negeb." Commentators differ on Sepharad itself. One writer takes it as a known capital city, and then dates the promise:
And the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad [Sardis, the chief city of the Lydian kingdom], shall possess the cities of the south... Obadiah cannot justly be taken to refer to the Christian state of things. He plainly speaks of the days before the millennium, when the kingdom will be Jehovah's.
The towns and districts are named one by one. That fact shapes how we should read them:
The places are specified by name, and that shows we should not explain them away by what people call spiritualising. In fact spiritualising is the wrong word for it; it should be called allegorising instead. There is nothing spiritual about denying the hopes of Israel. In these matters true spirituality means understanding the word of God in the sense He intended.
Applying a passage is one thing. Deciding what it means is another:
The word of God must have a true and full object. That is in no way against the principle of applying particular passages in the meantime. Such use is all right, and no one would object to it for a moment. But we must distinguish between applying scripture and interpreting it rightly.
History went the other way. Jewish victories under the Maccabees came and went. Then an Edomite family ruled the Holy Land.
This state of things is the reverse of the prophecy, not its fulfilment. In fact the close of our prophecy awaits the great future day of Jehovah. It is a miserable idea that Obadiah, in such bright terms, predicted nothing more than the successes of the Maccabees. Those lasted a little over a century, and were followed by the Edomite family that reigned over the Holy Land.
When that day comes, Israel will not just watch. Another writer notes who does the fighting:
The Lord carries out some judgments in person when He comes. Yet we read of Israel also in action, and of human wars in which they take possession of the lands destined for them (Jeremiah 51:20-24; Obadiah 18-21; Micah 5:7-9).
One writer finds the same order in every prophet, and in Christ Himself:
Obadiah's message is short. Even so, it does not close without noticing the kingdom that follows the judgment. And this is so with all the prophets. Resurrection follows upon death; the kingdom and its glories come after the judgments. Jesus the Lord never speaks of His death alone, but of His resurrection after it.
- Scattered. The verse names two groups of exiles far from home. One takes land as far north as Zarephath, a town of Sidon. The other waits in Sepharad, a place the old translations could not agree on.
- Named. Real towns and districts are listed, so no one should allegorise the promise away. True spirituality takes God's word in the sense He intended.
- Possessed. Each group gets real ground. The exiles of Jerusalem receive the cities of the Negeb, and Israel takes over Edom's territory.
- Pending. The Maccabees' successes and an Edomite family on the throne were the reverse of this promise, not its fulfilment. It waits for the day of the Lord.
- Kingdom. As in every prophet, judgment is not the last word. The kingdom follows it, the way resurrection follows death.