July 18, 2024 | Be God's Light
Edom's Destruction and Israel's Restoration
Scripture: Obadiah 1(NIV)
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, 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
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.
5 “If thieves came to you,
if robbers in the night—
oh, what a disaster awaits you!—
would they not steal only as much as they wanted?
If grape pickers came to you,
would they not leave a few grapes?
6 But how Esau will be ransacked,
his hidden treasures pillaged!
7 All your allies will force you to the border;
your friends will deceive and overpower you;
those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,
but you will not detect it.
8 “In that day,” declares the Lord,
“will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,
those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?
9 Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified,
and everyone in Esau’s mountains
will be cut down in the slaughter.
10 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 gloat over 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 gloat over 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.
15 “The day of the Lord is near
for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
your deeds will return upon your own head.
16 Just as you drank on my holy hill,
so all the nations will drink continually;
they will drink and drink
and be as if they had never been.
17 But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;
it will be holy,
and Jacob will possess his inheritance.
18 Jacob will be a fire
and Joseph a flame;
Esau will be stubble,
and they will set him on fire and destroy him.
There will be no survivors
from Esau.”
The Lord has spoken.
19 People from the Negev will occupy
the mountains of Esau,
and people from the foothills will possess
the land of the Philistines.
They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,
and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20 This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan
will possess the land as far as Zarephath;
the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
will possess the towns of the Negev.
21 Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion
to govern the mountains of Esau.
And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.
Devotional
For the last few weeks, we have been focused on the kings and prophets of the northern kingdom of Israel. Now we shift to the southern kingdom of Judah, headquartered in Jerusalem. Things down south had been similar to life in the north, but not quite as bad. Some of Judah’s kings had truly honored God and destroyed the idols. But some had sold themselves out to idolatry.
Because of this checkered past, the people of Judah were wishy-washy with their faith in God, unity with one another, and defense against enemies. One such enemy was Edom, a nation located south of the Dead Sea where the Israelites had wandered for forty years after leaving Egypt. The conflicts between Judah and Edom were hundreds of years old. By the time of Obadiah, Edom was threatening the very existence of Judah.
The people of Judah needed a prophet of God to speak hope into their lives. Enter Obadiah. We don’t really know much about this prophet. We don’t even know for sure when he was alive and ministering – there’s nearly a three-hundred-year gap between the earliest and latest dates put forth by scholars.
But we do know the content of his one-chapter message. Edom would be destroyed, and Israel/Judah would be restored. How do the following prophetic messages ring true no matter when they were written, including in our modern day?
“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?’” (v. 3)
“All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it.” (v. 7)
“Because of the violence against your brother Jacob (Israel), you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever.” (v. 10)
“The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.” (v. 15)
“But on Mount Zion (Jerusalem) will be deliverance; it will be holy, and Jacob (Israel) will possess his inheritance.” (v. 17)
“Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau (Edom). And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.” (v. 21)
Poem
Once The Lord Has Spoken
Who can speak a word
Once the LORD has spoken?
Who dares to take up sword against God’s will?
Who can brag in might
Once the LORD has spoken?
Who tempts to cheat the Master in His yield?
Who can claim reward
Once the LORD has spoken?
Who hides the loot from battle God has won?
Who can crush God’s saints
Once the LORD has spoken?
Who brags when head is stomped by God’s Son?
