Obadiah – Pride and Punishment

• Rift Valley – Olduvai Gorge – Leakeys

• Geological fault runs northward to Red Sea, Gulf of Aqaba

• Dead Sea, Jordan River Valley, Sea of Galilee

• Dead Sea - the lowest land on earth (1300 ft. below sea level)

• Some of the hottest land on earth

• Evaporation of Dead Sea equivalent to influx of Jordan and streams

South and east of the Dead Sea (present day Jordan) is a forbidding territory of red sandstone cliffs and canyons.

• Who could live here?

• Yet – a whole city hewn into the rock – Petra

• So people did live here

In Biblical times, the people who lived here were actually blood relatives of the Jews – they were known as Edomites.

• Descendants of Esau (Genesis 36)

  • Esau and Jacob were twins; Esau born first; red and hairy

  • Jacob born grasping his brother’s heel (hence his name); literally “the deceiver” the one who wants to trip you up

  • Esau was a hunter; Jacob was a homebody

  • Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of red lentil stew – hence the name “Edom” which means “red”

  • Later, Jacob tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing instead of Esau

  • Led to Gen. 28:36: Esau cries: “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!”

  • Gen. 28:41 – Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And he planned to kill him. Jacob fled out of the country to live with his uncle Laban.

  • Much later, the two brothers reconciled and lived in peace, but the seeds of enmity had been sown in their descendants.

During a time of famine, Jacob’s sons took refuge in Egypt under the protection of one of them, Joseph, who had become the prime minister of Egypt.

• There they stayed and mutliplied (latter chapters of Genesis)

• A new pharaoh, who did not know about Joseph, came to the throne of Egypt.

• He saw the Israelites as a threat because they were so numerous.

• He enslaved them – made them a “worker” class; treated them harshly

• They cried out to God for deliverance. By this time, 400 years had passed.

• God answered their cry for deliverance and sent Moses to lead them to the Promised Land (book of Exodus)

During the Exodus, the Israelites, in order to get to Canaan, needed to pass through the territory of the Edomites.

• Numbers 20:14-21

• So this episode adds to the animosity between Israel and Edom

  • So much so, that God gave a specific commandment in Deuteronomy forbidding the Jews to hate the Edomites

  • Deuteronomy 23:7 Do not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother.

Much later, after the Israelites had settled in the land of Canaan, King David began to enlarge Israel’s borders. David was a skillful warrior and his army conquered many of the surrounding territories, including that of Edom.

• • Edom came under Jewish control at this time

  • But when Israel’s empire broke apart after the reign of David’s son Solomon, the Edomites regained their independence and were, for the most part, hostile to the southern kingdom of Judah for the next 400 years.

Around 600 BC, the Middle East was dominated by the Babylonians (present day Iraq), under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar.

• Judah was giving tribute to Babylon, but at a time of unrest in Babylonian internal politics, Judah decided to withhold tribute and throw in her lot with Egypt.

• As soon as Nebuchadnezzar got things straightened out in Babylon, he marched on Jerusalem, and after laying siege to it, captured and destroyed it on the 9 Ab (early August), 586 BC

• (Ironically it was the same date in 70 AD when Roman general Titus captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple – which has never been rebuilt since)

• As this was happening, what were the Edomites doing? They were applauding. They were allies of the Babylonians against their own flesh and blood, the Jews.

  • So heinous that it is recorded for us in a couple of places in Scripture:

  • Lamentations 4:21 Rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who live in the land of Uz. But to you also the cup will be passed; you will be drunk and stripped naked.

  • Psalm 137:7 (read)

  • So you get the idea that there’s no love lost between the Israelites and the Edomites!

  • Family disputes can be the most bitter and destructive

In that historical context that we come to the book of Obadiah.

• Shortest book in the OT

• Fourth shortest book in Bible (only 2 & 3 John and Philemon are shorter)

• It is never quoted anywhere in the NT

• We don’t know anything about the author; his lineage or geneaology isn’t given to us

• There are 13 other men in the OT who are named Obadiah

  • The name means “servant of Yahweh”

So what possible relevance could this little book have for us? Why did God put it in the Bible? (Especially since it bears such a close resemblance to Jeremiah 49?) Why does the message of Obadiah warrant its own place in the Scriptures?

• Because it is a message of pride and punishment.

• Let’s read it… (stop at v. 15) read from CEV

What was Edom’s sin? It was the sin of pride.

• v. 3 – The pride of your heart has deceived you; you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights; you who say to yourself, “Who can bring me down to the ground?”

  • Edom’s physical location gave rise to a feeling of invincibility and security: “Nobody can attack us up here in our stronghold”

I wonder whether that sin is not common to us today in N. America?

• We live with a great sense of independence

• We have all that we need and more besides

• We have lots of information at our fingertips

  • The Edomites had a tradition of wisdom; a class of “knowledge workers”

  • v. 8 – Will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, men of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

  • They were relying on their “superior smarts”

• We, like the Edomites, think that we can live however we please, without being dependent upon God

• But God says (v. 4) “Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down”

• And he’s going to do it in such a way that Edom won’t even know it is happening – v. 7

All the things that we find to put our “security” in are ultimately deceptive.

• E.g - high tech industry stocks – beginning of 2000 great; now: horrible

• nice house, nice car, good bank balance – it can all disappear

How did the Edomites treat their brothers?

• “violence” – v. 10

• “aloof” – v. 11

• “look down on” – v. 12

• “boastful” – v. 12

• “seize their wealth” – v. 13

• “unmerciful” – v. 14

Can these things be said of us? Do we live so as to make the lot of those less fortunate than us even worse?

• Do we practice compassion and mercy?

• Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

What was the fate in store for Edom?

• v. 15-18

• Interesting that every day in our newspapers we read about Israelites, but we never read about the Edomites. They have simply disappeared from the pages of history.

• God has his purposes and his plan will not be thwarted

Footnote:

• In the 2^(nd) century BC, the Edomites were driven out of their land by an Arabic people called the Nabateans (these were the people who built Petra)

• The Edomites fled westward and settled in the Negev (southern part of Israel), where they became known as Idumeans (Greek form of Edomite)

• During the Intertestamental Period, the Jews gained their independence under the Macabbees. A Macabbean ruler named John Hyrcanus took over the area of the Negev and forced the Idumeans to convert to Judaism

  • This was the only instance in history where the Jews forced conversion on another people (perhaps as revenge for what the Edomites had done earlier?)

• The Macabbees were overthrown by Rome, which conquered Palestine (Pompey took Jerusalem in 63 BC)

• The Romans appointed an Idumean named Anitpater to become procurator (governor) of Judea. This Antipater became close friends with Julius Caesar.

• Anitpater had a son named Herod who was one day to be named “King of the Jews” by the Romans. He was actually an Edomite!