God s Blessing of Jacob through His Battle with Edom (Obadiah) WestminsterReformedChurch.org Pastor Ostella July 3, 2016 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. 16 For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been. 17 But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions. 18 The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the LORD has spoken. 19 Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. 20 The exiles of this host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb. 21 Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the LORD's (Obad 1.15-21). Introduction Obadiah s vision (of 1.1a) refers to his reception of the word of God regarding Edom: The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom. What did he see? What was revealed to him in this overlap of the vision, a report, and the words of a messenger (1.1): Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom: We have heard a report from the LORD, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: "Rise up! Let us rise against her [Edom] for battle!? What the Lord says and what others say converges. On one hand, we have thus says the Lord and when we get to what He says, others speak of a report we have heard from the Lord and they tell of a messenger who speaks in the quoted section at the end of the verse: Rise up! Let us. The messenger is joined by people among the nations who say we have heard in response to his call for them to rise up. Thus, they respond with the same words in an address to themselves: Rise up! Let us rise against her [Edom] for battle. The bottom line of this convergence of speakers is that the words, intentions, and actions of these people among the nations are the result of God s word concerning Edom; their message that calls them to rise up in battle against Edom is God s message. Thus, God is calling for this battle through human agents. Whatever specifically provoked them to battle historically (their greed, desire for conquest, and so forth) is not denied here (nor is their accountability denied). The particulars of their thoughts and goals are simply left out of the picture to emphasize the actions of the sovereign God; the text looks past secondary causes to the primary cause. Two immediate introductory questions surface here: Who are these people, the Edomites of Edom? Why do we have this looking past secondary causes to the primary cause? Regarding the first question, the Edomites are the descendants of Esau as the parallel between Edom and Esau in verse 8 indicates (out of Edom out of Mount Esau). From Genesis, we know that Esau is the brother of Jacob, of whom it was said, the elder (Esau) shall serve the younger (Jacob). According to Genesis 36, after Esau separated from Jacob, he settled in the land of Edom where his sons became chiefs. Edom is located outside of Canaan to the south of the Dead Sea (if you think of the top of the Red Sea as an index finger and a thumb, the thumb points toward the Dead Sea; Edom is the land between the thumb and the Dead Sea). Genesis 36.8 equates Esau and Edom because Esau s descendants subjugated the Edomite clans formerly living there. The fact that Esau is Edom (36.8) and the fact that the chiefs of Edom are really chiefs of Esau (Edom, that is Esau, the father of Edom, 36.43) indicates the fulfillment of God s word about Esau that he would become a nation (Gen 25.23). This is genealogical testimony to covenant fulfillment, interestingly, regarding the non-elect son of Isaac and Rebekah, Esau. This is a reminder that the Lord of heaven and earth is the Lord of all nations and all individuals within them. Regarding the second question, the emphasis on God as the primary cause in the war against Edom has it roots in His election of Jacob in line with the Abrahamic covenant. Obadiah thus speaks of the Lord s battle with Edom because of how she treated her brother at the time of
!2 the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem (1.10). Deeply rooted in the covenant with Abraham through the election of Jacob is the fact that cursings threaten all who curse the descendants of Jacob (Gen 12). Clearly, the Edomites cursed Abraham s children through Jacob. These thoughts yield the title: God s blessing of Jacob through His battle with Edom. Things covered about this battle are its result, reason, time, and triumph. I. The result of the Lord s battle against Edom The battle is a judgment that will have two results according to verses 2-9. A. In the language of direct address, first, you will be humiliated (v. 2): Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised. This is more than a reference to size: in parallel with utterly despised, it means that you will be utterly humiliated. Thus, the next verse picks up on her pride and arrogance about her invincibility. Your militarily strategic location in the clefts of the rock on elevated terrain gives you great self-confidence.you think no one can bring you down (3b): You say to yourself, Who will bring me down to the ground? Who can capture me, when I soar to the lofty heights of the eagle and dwell among the stars? But the Lord declares the illusion of their thinking (3-4): 3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, "Who will bring me down to the ground?" 4 Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the LORD. In your pride, you think that no one can conquer you, but you are wrong. Even if your lofty thoughts and exaggerations were true and you were able to soar to the heights of an eagle, and even if you were able to make your nest in the stars, nonetheless, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord, the creator of earth s terrain and heaven s stars. B. Also in the language of direct address, you will be destroyed You will be plundered, devoted to destruction, deprived of treasure, land, friendship, wisdom, and military might (5-6): If thieves came to you, if plunderers came by night-- how you have been destroyed!-- would they not steal only enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? 6 How Esau has been pillaged, his treasures sought out! Thieves who plunder typically take only what they need according to what they want and are able to carry away with them, but your plunderers will take everything to the complete destruction of your wealth. Grape gatherers typically leave gleanings for the poor and needy, but those who harvest your vineyards will not leave gleanings. It will be said of you: Esau has been pillaged, his treasures sought out! O how you have been destroyed! Your loss will go far beyond wealth and property to include your friends (v. 7): All your allies have driven you to your border; those at peace with you have deceived you; they have prevailed against you; those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you-- you have no understanding. Those with whom you have treaties and covenants will deceive you, so that in ignorance and without understanding you will eat bread with them and carry on business as usual. Then, a trap beneath you will be sprung and you will be driven to your borders, out from your mountainous terrain, and thus off your land. Every basic need for national survival will be taken away so that wise leaders and mighty warriors will be destroyed, dismayed, and cut off by slaughter (8-9): Will I not on that day, declares the LORD, destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of Mount Esau? 9 And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman [a key city cited poetically as part for the whole of Edom], so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter. 1 II. The reason for the Lord s battle against Edom is stated plainly and then ironically A. The reason for this judgment-battle is stated plainly in 10-11 10 Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. 11 On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners Accordingly, Edom was defeated by Nabonidus, the father of Belshazzar of Babylon, and later deprived of national 1 identity by a revived Judah in the Maccabean period before the coming of the Romans. Edomites eventually migrated to the south of Judah to the region known as Idumea of the NT. Notably, King Herod who sought to kill the infant Jesus was of Edomite descent.
!3 entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. In particular historically, like the other Palestinian peoples, Edom became a vassal state to Assyria and then to Babylon. What stimulated the message of the book of Obadiah was the plundering of Judah and Jerusalem after the fall of the southern kingdom to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 by the Edomites who added insult to injury when they took advantage of the people that remained in the homeland, broken and vulnerable under the sword of God's judgment. Emphasis is placed on kinship; therefore shame shall cover you, Esau, because of the violence done to your brother Jacob. 2 B. The reason for this judgment-battle is stated ironically in 12-14 Indictment comes in the imperative do not. The ground of the judgment is made clear by a form of irony: by stating the reason in a way that is contrary to what one expects. Here a series of commands do not call for action in the future. Instead, they refer to deeds already committed in violation of these imperatives. 12 But do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune; do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin; do not boast in the day of distress. 13 Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity; do not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity. 14 Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives; do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress. These do not s amount to a heart cry: no, no, let it not be, do not do these sinful and cruel things! This is a very emotional way of viewing the past by speaking of it as something future. It is therefore filled with pathos, evoking deep pity and sadness because in the nature of the case the commands cannot be kept, which is so because they were already violated in cruel, unloving, and pathetic ways. 3 Thus, we are taken back beyond Cain and Abel to God s purpose of family. III. The time of the Lord s battle A. It is the day of the Lord 15a: For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations. This battle will take place imminently, but the thought moves to the judgment of all nations. The battle with Edom inaugurates the demonstration of divine severity and mercy that is coming on the Day of the Lord. Clearly, the prophet envisions a linkage between the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the nations. 4 The universality of the judgment (on all nations) shows that in view is not simply a day (or time) back then and there. Therefore, your judgment, Esau, is the beginning of the end; it is an anticipation, picture, and guarantee of the final day of judgment. It is a distinct day that rests in God s predetermined plan of history and is guided by His providential rule. Thus the end is guaranteed. In the nearness passages of prophecies like this, the Lord reveals what that final day will be like by manifesting its nature ahead of time in the history of Israel. What will befall Edom is a taste of eternal judgment ahead of time; hence, the language of total destruction, continuance, and eternality. Thus, the fact that they will disappear as a nation in history illustrates in part what is coming forever. B. It is the day of table-turning Consider how this is expressed in 15b-16: 15b As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. 16 For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been. For 2 Kinship creates obligation, which cannot be neglected with impunity, Allen, 155. 3 Hearing of the wrongs and the prophet s pleading is fraught with stimulants that stir up the opposite kind of action in a life of love for the brother and neighbor. Behind the fate of the nations, as behind that of Edom stands the fall of Jerusalem as the crime that sets the 4 wheels of divine retribution in motion (Allen, 160-161).
!4 besmirching the holy things of God in the temple at Jerusalem represented by what the Lord calls my holy mountain, His cup of wrath is passed to Edom and then to the nations (likewise in Lam 4.21-22 and Isa 51.22-23). What is coming is a table turning based on a misused, violated, and contradicted golden rule. Sin is essentially a lack of love for the neighbor in disobedience to God s command to be your brother s keeper. You may recall the command of Deuteronomy 23.7 to Israel: you shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. Kinship bonds are important to the Lord. That they have been broken since the fall (as Cain and Abel well illustrate) enhances all the more the value of the household of faith. But the Lord s battle day is coming when the traitor will be betrayed, and the unfaithful will discover how bitter is the taste of unfaithfulness. Greedy vultures will be helpless prey. They will drink the cup of God s wrath continually, drink and drink, and shall be as though they had never been (v. 16). Eventually the sinful nations will be forgotten in the reality of the new nation composed of people of all nations. Things will be set right by the Lord on His day; oppression will end, justice will prevail and the covenant Lord will manifest His righteousness. IV. The triumph of Lord s battle Victory belongs to the Lord. Triumph carries with it positive promises for those who escape (17): the house of Jacob and of Joseph (south and north of the divided kingdom, 18), the exiles (20), and those saved (not saviors, 21). Clearly, focus is on a remnant of the people of God for whom the Lord does battle. Here a great light suddenly shines out of the darkness! A. First, because it is the Lord s battle, the remnant shall consume Esau, 17-18 17 But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions. 18 The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the LORD has spoken. The reference to those who escape emerges from the experience of the fugitives and survivors caught at the crossroads and delivered up to the foreign oppressors mentioned in verse 14. 5 The destruction of the house of Esau took place in the days of the Babylonians when Nabonidus (father of Belshazzar cited in Daniel) drove them from their supposedly invincible high places. Later, a revived Judah consumed them like stubble in a fire in the second century BC. As a nation, the house of Esau like the house of Israel to the north, ceased to exist. Along with this victory, holiness will dominate Mount Zion. The degradation of temple, its institutions, and its people will be overturned when a holy people will worship God wholeheartedly in a new heavenly city. The triumph of the Day of the Lord is revealed in these anticipatory victories of the past. Included in the formation of the holy people for eternity is the execution of eternal judgment: (Ezek 25.14): And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath, and they shall know my vengeance, declares the Lord GOD. Obadiah, Ezekiel, and John the Baptist concur: the battle day of the Messiah is coming when the true Baptizer with the Spirit will bring about the day of vengeance and the chaff shall be burned with unquenchable fire (Mat 3.12). B. Second, because it is the Lord s battle, the remnant shall possess Canaan, 19-21 Holy worship at the temple by a holy people in a holy city, and a holy land are inextricably linked together. The table turning between Esau and Jacob inevitably involves a reversal in Israel s loss of the Promised Land. 19 Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. 20 The exiles of this host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb. This is an unmatched promise of the return to Canaan. Here the But contrary to Allen (164), this does not deny reference to a distant event in the future. Prophetic perspective 5 clearly controls the entire context.
!5 promise reaches beyond the original boarders of the south (Negeb and Mount Esau), east on the seacoast (from the foothills to the land of the Philistines bordering the Mediterranean), all the midsection going west to the Jordan River (Ephraim, Samaria, Gilead), and the far north to Zarephath. The geographical picture shows bulging and bursting borders. Finally, because it is the Lord s battle, the remnant shall exercise rule (21): Saviors [better those saved, as those who escape in v. 17] shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the LORD s. From Jerusalem they shall rule Edom and thus the whole promised land; from the promised land they shall rule the earth. Israel shall exercise this rule in the rule of the true Israelite, the coming prince (Jer 30.21) and Davidic king (2 Sam 7), Jesus Christ because the kingdom that shall be the Lord s is His kingdom. Application Obadiah speaks to the people of God at the lowest point in their national history; under judgment for sin with both the northern and southern kingdoms now in exile. Worthy of note is the fact that destruction and deportation has come upon them by the hand of God using sinful nations as instruments in the execution of His justice. He used the sins of those outside the land including the sins of the Edomites to judge the people called by His name. Therefore, Obadiah not only teaches the sovereignty of God but (in the mystery of providence) he also extends a call to holy living by contrast to the evils performed by Esau against his brother, Jacob. The powerfully expressed do not s tell us what to do on the right path of holiness, which is the goal to be attained eventually on God s holy mountain (v. 16). We can reflect there on love. The book promises the righting of all wrongs and the vindication of God s people on the day of His wrath. His justice will triumph according to His eternal plan. It is what He declares and His word is effective across time; He is the sovereign Lord who orders the history of all nations. Although none who oppose Israel will survive (Obad. 18), there will be a remnant of Edom and the nations in the restored Eden (Amos 9.12): that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name," declares the LORD who does this. So more deeply, we need to reflect on the possession of Israel s possessions. They lose kingdom and land because of their departure from the living God; they lose it for disobedience. It was promised to them if they obey. So all is lost and still there is hope because God keeps His covenant. He will accomplish His purpose from the very creation of the world to have a family of male and female image bearers with Him in His rest at the end of history. That we learn from Genesis 1.1-2.3. The fall did not thwart that purpose; the Lord God will attain His fundamental objective despite the fall; only now it will be attained by a redeemer that He promised to give within the human family in descent from Eve, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Israel and the Davidic Kings. Thus the Israelite nation was a type and promise of the coming family of the redeemed image bearers at the end of history. By their sins they failed to fulfill their role in history that was to be obedient and thus embody a foretaste of the coming eternal kingdom. Like Adam in the garden they failed to obey and like Adam who was cast out of the Garden of Eden they were cast out of the gardens of the Promised Land. Nonetheless, His purpose of having a family of image bearers with Him in His rest does not change and He remains ever faithful to His promises to the patriarchs. So through the offspring of Eve, the Lord will bring restoration from all the effects of the fall by His obedience. It is because the Lord has spoken and thus revealed His will that all Israel shall possess the land of Ephraim (representing the northern kingdom) and the land of Benjamin (representing the southern kingdom). The reversal of land holdings will involve territorial expansion in all directions until all that has been lost is regained and expanded. The conquest of Edom (of the Negeb and Mount Esau) is cited as a step that triggers a new Joshua-like conquest of the land by the Lord s army. Therefore, God s battle with all nations on His day (v. 15) shows that this
!6 conquest of the land extends the borders of the Promised Land to the ends of the earth. This battle is the way of entry into Canaan rest and thus into the rest that has been promised since the foundation of the world (Gen 1 and Heb 4). 6 May we fall down before the majesty of God in acknowledgment of our sins; may we praise Him for His just judgment that has already begun in His sovereign rule of history; may the Spirit give us insight into the triumph of the Messiah by His resurrection who as our Joshua will bring us into the heavenly Canaan and into His kingdom to reign with Him eternally; to the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit now in His church and forevermore, amen. It seems best to connect what promise of rule with the promise of judging the twelve tribes given to the twelve 6 apostles (Lk 22.29-30): Beyond expectation, we hear the promise of His gift to them of a kingdom: I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (22.29-30). He assigns it and covenants to grant it to them as the Father has assigned and granted a kingdom to Him. At this point, we have entered a profound dimension of things, and cannot say much about it. It is like describing heaven. It helps to speak of golden streets in one sense because that suggests glorious riches in a beautiful place, but it is metaphor. So, once we go beyond the literal, we have a sense of awe, but quickly realize that what we behold is beyond our grasp. So, it is with this promise. It is helpful therefore, that Jesus explains further that He is referring to being at His table to eat and drink in His kingdom and to sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (22.30). Reference to the twelve tribes is a symbolic way of referring to the people of God of all time in close connection to the church Jesus came to build in the time between. Notably, the future consummation is in view but not exclusively. Instead, Jesus promises this eating and drinking in symbol and sitting on thrones judging the new Israel in prophetic metaphor. By symbol and metaphor He looks ahead to His kingdom that will emerge from His death and resurrection in anticipation of the great feast of consummation glory. He speaks of the authority that the disciples will have while the church remembers Him and shares in the benefits of His death until His comes again. He gives them what the Father gave Him; Jesus labored to receive a kingdom and the apostles enter into His labors in the same kingdom. Thus, we are reminded by the Lord s Table of anticipation that entrance into the kingdom that is the Lord s is secured by the death and resurrection triumph of the Lord Jesus who is our Joshua-warrior. He will defeat all His and our enemies to bring us into the Promised Land that bursts the borders of Canaan and encompasses the earth.