Divine Judgment Against Edom, Part II

Above:  Icon of Obadiah

Image in the Public Domain

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READING OBADIAH, PART II

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Obadiah 1b-21

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For the sake of succinctness, I will not repeat all I have written about Edom in posts based on the following passages:

1. Amos 1:11-12;
2. Isaiah 21:11-12;
3. Jeremiah 49:7-22;
4. Ezekiel 25:12-14; 35:1-15; and
5. Isaiah 34:5-17.

I provide links to those posts instead.

Consider these words from a prophet after Obadiah’s time, whenever Obadiah’s time was, O reader:

I have shown you [Israel], love, says the LORD.  But you ask, “How have you shown love to us?”  Is not Esau Jacob’s brother? the LORD answers.  Jacob I love, but Esau I hate, and I have reduced his hill-country to a waste, and his ancestral land to desert pastures.  When Edom says, “We are beaten down, but let us rebuild our ruined homes,” these are the words of the LORD of Hosts:  If they rebuild, I shall pull down.  They will be called a country of wickedness, a people with whom the LORD is angry for ever.  Your own eyes will see it, and you yourselves will say, “The LORD’s greatness reaches beyond the confines of Israel.”

–Malachi 1:2-5, The Revised English Bible (1989)

Edom not only rejoiced at the Fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.), but moved into former Judean territory afterward.  These points came up in Obadiah 12-14.  The sentence of judgment followed:

You will be treated as you have treated others;

your deeds will recoil on your own head.

–Obadiah 15b, The Revised English Bible (1989)

Turnabout seems to be fair play in divine justice.

Obadiah 17-21 contrasts the restoration of the Jews to the fate of the Edomites.  Historical evidence indicates that many Edomites assimilated with the Nabateans and that others became Idumeans.  Historical evidence indicates the existence of survivors (contra Obadiah 18).  Yet hyperbole is a rhetorical device, so one can may legitimately abstain from being overly critical of the line about there being no Moabite survivors in Obadiah 18.

The book concludes:

…and dominion will belong to the LORD.

–Obadiah 21b, The Revised English Bible (1989)

This element is commonplace in visions of restored Israel/Judah in its homeland after the Babylonian Exile.  In a broad sense, dominion always belongs to God; God is always sovereign.  One may recall C. H. Dodd‘s theology of Realized Eschatology:  The Kingdom of God does not come; it is.  Certain events, from a human, temporal perspective, make it more evident than it was.  One may also recall that, in the New Testament, the Kingdom of God is both present-tense and future-tense; it is partially realized (at least from a human, temporal perspective), with the fully-realized version yet to come (at least from a human, temporal perspective).

Thank you, O reader, for joining me on this journey through the brief Book of Obadiah.  I invite you to remain by my side, figuratively, as I continue to the composite work of Haggai-First Zechariah.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 10, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF MYLES HORTON, “FATHER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT”

THE FEAST OF SAINTS EUMENIOUS AND PARTHENIOS OF KOUDOUMAS, MONKS AND FOUNDERS OF KOUDOMAS MONASTERY, CRETE

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH OF DAMASCUS, SYRIAN ORTHODOX PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1860

THE FEAST OF SAINT NICHOLAS SPIRA, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF RUED LANGGAARD, DANISH COMPOSER

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