Name means: “Servant of the Lord.”
Not to be confused with: Eleven other men in the Old Testament with the same name, including an official in charge of Ahab’s palace (1 Kin. 18:3–16).
Occupation: Prophet, and possibly other occupations.
Best known as: The prophet whose vision of the Lord’s judgment on Edom is contained in the shortest book of the Old Testament.
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• Principal city of the Edomites, located about 50 miles south of the Dead Sea at the intersection of two major roads, the King’s Highway (see “The King’s Highway” at Num. 20:17) and the route through the Arabah.
• Not mentioned by name in the Bible, but possibly the same as Sela (“Rock”; Judg. 1:36; 2 Kin. 14:7; Is. 16:1; 42:11).
• Captured by David in his raid of the Valley of Salt (2 Sam. 8:13, 14; 2 Kin. 14:7).
• Possibly alluded to in Obadiah’s prophecy against Edom, in a reference to “you who dwell in the clefts of the rock” (Obad. 3).
• Later controlled by the Greeks (312 B.C.) and then by the Romans (A.D. 106), who renamed it Arabia Petraea.
• Flourished as a commercial center under Hadrian (A.D. 117–138), who built there a temple to Isis, a 700-seat amphitheater, a triple-arched gate, shops, a colonnade, houses, tombs, and paved roads.
• Declined in importance when trade routes shifted.
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The story of Obadiah begins in Genesis with the account of Jacob grasping the heel of his brother Esau as they emerged from their mother’s womb (Gen. 25:24–26). Jacob continued his grasping, scheming ways when he stole the family birthright and the fatherly blessing that rightfully belonged to Esau as the elder son (27:1–40; see also “Birthrights” at Gen. 25:31).
For several years Jacob hid from his vengeful brother, but they eventually reconciled. Esau settled in Edom and became the father of the Edomites (36:1–43). Jacob remained in Canaan and gave rise to the nation of Israel. The stage was set for the fulfillment of the Lord’s word to Rebekah that “the older shall serve the younger” (25:23).
Centuries later, as the Israelites fled Egypt and traveled along the King’s Highway bound for Moab and Canaan, they arrived at a portion of the road controlled by Edom. Moses petitioned for safe passage, but he and his people were turned away (Num. 20:14–21). The Israelites were forced to take a longer southern route, which resulted in many hardships and setbacks.
The Israelites eventually took control of Canaan and established a kingdom. Their first king, Saul, harassed the Edomites (1 Sam. 14:47). Then King David tried to exterminate them (2 Sam. 8:13, 14; 1 Kin. 11:15, 16). King Solomon exploited their land (9:26–28). These oppressions occurred despite the Law’s prohibition against “abhorring” the Edomites (Deut. 23:7, 8).
During the era of the divided kingdom, under the reign of Jehoshaphat in the south, the armies of Edom, Moab, and Ammon formed an alliance and forded the shallows of the Dead Sea to stage a sneak attack on Judah (2 Chr. 20:22, 23). Later, Edom rebelled against King Jehoram (2 Kin. 8:20–22). Later still, King Amaziah of Judah slaughtered ten thousand Edomites, as if in remembrance of David (see “Inconsistent Obedience” at 2 Kin. 14:7–10; see also 2 Chr. 25:11–25).
The Edomites eventually rose in prosperity and power due to the Exile (see the introduction to Obadiah), but in an ironic postscript to the biblical record (and perhaps in fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy against the Edomites; Jer. 49:17, 18; Lam. 4:21), they, too, fell on hard times. Eventually driven out of the land by the Nabateans, a tribe from northern Arabia, the Edomite refugees settled in the Negev, south of Judah, where they came to be called Idumaeans.
In the second century B.C., the Idumaeans were subdued by a Maccabean Jew named John Hyrcanus, who compelled them to be circumcised. One of the descendants of these Idumaean proselytes was Herod, a politically astute leader installed by the Romans as “king” of Judea (37–4 B.C.). It was this Herod who ordered the deaths of all male infants in the region of Bethlehem in an attempt to eliminate the baby Jesus, the “King of the Jews” he viewed as a threat to his rule. Herod’s family governed Jewish Palestine for the Romans until the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
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1. Nations are brothers and sisters. Obadiah condemned Edom for betraying a family member. What began as a temporary estrangement between brothers became a permanent rift between two nations. Interpersonal conflicts can still shape history today if we allow them to escalate into policies and systems that destroy relations between nations and ethnic groups. (See “Pain That Leads to Prejudice” at Num. 20:14–21.)
2. Foreign policy must be tempered by concern for civil and human rights. Woe to any nation that chooses political expediency or commercial gain over human rights and the value of people. Scripture commands nations as well as individuals to resist their natural tendency to act only in their own self-interests. Rather, they must treat others as they want to be treated. The Edom-Israel conflict illustrates the proverb that what goes around comes around (Obad. 15). According to Obadiah’s prophecy, entire nations will be judged by the way they treat other peoples.
3. Injustice and oppression are intolerable. Edom ignored Judah’s cries for help. In fact, they celebrated when the Babylonians decimated their enemy. The Lord rebuked the Edomites for aiding and abetting the plunderers of His people (vv. 11–14; see also “Gloating” at Lam. 4:21).
4. Bitter memories die hard. The rivalry between Israel and Edom lasted for centuries, making reconciliation difficult at best. With each successive insult, the Israelites and Edomites further doomed their children to repeating an age-old conflict. Countless conflicts today reflect a similar history of hatred. (See “How We Will Be Remembered” at 2 Sam. 8:13, 14.)
5. Our security must not be in earthly defenses but in God. The Edomites felt secure in the stony clefts of Petra (see the city’s profile at Obad. 3), but the Lord eventually allowed them to be driven out and absorbed by other ethnic groups. By contrast, after the Jews seemed to have perished as a nation, the Lord brought a remnant back to the land. He also brought to pass His promises of a Messiah despite the attempt of Herod (an Edomite; see “A Tale of Two Brothers” at Obad. 10) to thwart His plan (Matt. 2:1–18). The “mountains of Esau” would be judged, but “on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance” (Obad. 17, 21). God is the author of justice and mercy, and the Lord of history.
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