An extract from Guidelines - Obadiah

by John Barton

Included in the following extract from Guidelines are one week’s worth of readings. Click on the links below to go to a particular day’s reading


Introduction

Obadiah is the shortest book in the Bible, and the only one to consist of a single chapter. It has never been a popular book. Its message is mainly one of judgment on Israel’s neighbours, the Edomites, and its spirit is unforgiving, even vindictive. At the same time, it touches on many of the themes found elsewhere in the Old Testament prophets. Not only does it speak of God’s judgment on those who oppose his people, but it also tells us about the ‘day of the Lord’, the way that God’s punishment is always made to fit the crime, the importance of Jerusalem and the land of Israel for the Jewish people, and God’s kingship over all the world.

We know very little about Obadiah (a common name in the Old Testament), but most of the book would fit best in the period when the Babylonians had deported many of the people of the kingdom of Judah to Mesopotamia, and the Edomites—who lived to the south and east of Judah—had joined in their attack. This happened in the early sixth century bc. We know from the book of Lamentations that bands of marauders from the southern desert took advantage of the undefended state of Judah to infiltrate and wreak havoc (Lamentations 5:9). Obadiah suggests that these people had actually joined with the Babylonians in the siege of Jerusalem (see vv. 12–14). This would help to explain why many Old Testament passages from after the Babylonian exile are so hostile to the Edomites:

Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall,how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!’ (Psalm 137:7)

Although Obadiah is so short, it may be composed from two originally separate pieces. Verses 1–14 concern only the Edomites and seem to come from soon after the Babylonian invasion, but verses 15–21 speak of God’s judgment on all foreign nations. They look forward to a time when a renewed Israel will possess a much enlarged territory, more than had ever been in their possession since the days of King David several centuries earlier. These verses may therefore come from a time later than the prophet Obadiah himself, perhaps during the time when Israel was ruled by the Persians (late sixth to late fourth century bc). They may have been added by a later editor. Similar things happened to many of the other prophetic books: the idea was to give the prophecies a wider scope than they originally had. However, it remains possible that the whole book is from the one prophet, Obadiah.

Quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.


Week 1 Day 1: The pride of Edom read Obadiah 1–4

The prophet begins by referring to an earlier piece of prophecy (we do not know where it came from), which called on all the other nations to rise up and attack the Edomites. The ‘messenger’ of verse 1 may be an angelic envoy from God, delivering God’s message (compare the various angels in the book of Revelation who announce what God

is about to do), or it may be a human prophet. Either way, Obadiah believes that a concerted attack on Edom is not just a human plan, but is directed by God himself.

What had the Edomites done wrong, to deserve this attack? Later in the book, we hear of their own attack on Jerusalem, but here the prophet concentrates on their pride and arrogance. Humility is less widely regarded today than it was in the biblical world, and we know that there can be proper pride as well as unacceptable arrogance, in the case of nations as well as of individuals. But when the prophets condemn pride, they are usually thinking not so much of a psycho-logical attitude as of how this attitude is expressed in action. The Edomites’ sense of security and self-sufficiency is objectionable because of what it makes them do. It leads them to despise and ill-treat Israel. Pride consists in the ruthlessness that makes one nation think nothing of liquidating another, as if it was itself infinitely more precious. The classic prophetic condemnation of such pride can be found in Isaiah 10, where the prophet condemns the Assyrians, but most of the prophets say similar things.

Edom was a mountainous district, hence it is addressed in verse 3 as ‘you… whose dwelling is in the heights’, and the prophet predicts that it will be brought down to the depths—a typical ‘tit-for-tat’ punishment, common in much prophetic thought and especially in Obadiah.


Week 1 Day 2: The destroyer destroyed read Obadiah 5–7

The ‘tit-for-tat’ theme continues in these verses. The Edomites are said to have exceeded even the wickedness of thieves. Thieves typically do not steal more than they need, whereas the Edomites have destroyed Judah without mercy, like people gathering grapes and leaving not a single piece of fruit on the trees. (It was a rule in Israel that ‘gleanings’ must always be left for the poor to gather: see Deuteronomy 24:21–22.) As a result, other nations will plunder the Edomites in an equally merciless fashion. The Edomites were ‘brothers’ to Israel, because their great ancestor, Esau, had been the brother of Jacob, the ancestor of the Israelites. Yet they have shown no pity towards these relatives of theirs. In consequence, they will in turn be abandoned by their own allies, their ‘confederates’ and those who ‘ate their bread’, that is, who were at peace with them.

The Old Testament is generally harsh in its judgments on those who break obligations that depend on ties of either kinship or sworn loyalty. Edom is presented as guilty on both counts and so worthy of appropriate punishment. The ancient world was familiar with conventions about international relations, and faithfulness to treaties was regarded as basic to the world order. A strong sense of inter-national justice existed, not just in Israel but among most nations of the Middle East in ancient times.

Verses 1–4 are also found in the book of Jeremiah in an almost identical form: see Jeremiah 49:14–16. No one knows whether the editors of Jeremiah borrowed from Obadiah, Obadiah from them, or both from a common source. It is possible that there was a kind of ‘pool’ of anti-Edom prophecies, sparked off by Edom’s treachery at the time of the siege of Jerusalem, which several prophets could draw on. Amos also has an oracle against Edom which many scholars think does not derive from him, but from around the same period as Obadiah. It too denounces Edom for its ill-treatment of its ‘brother’:

Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity. (Amos 1:11)


Week 1 Day 3: Conniving with evil read Obadiah 8–11

The prophet continues his theme, the forthcoming destruction of Edom for its ill-treatment of its ‘brother’. Now, however, he con-centrates not on direct violence committed by the Edomites, but on the way they declined to help when Jerusalem was looted and destroyed by the Babylonian army: ‘You stood aside, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth’ (v. 11). This is a reminder that there are many ways of doing evil, and that direct involvement is not the only way: conniving at evil committed by others and not stepping

in to prevent it can be equally blameworthy. The Edomites’ cynical ‘neutrality’ when Jerusalem was attacked concealed actual hostility to the people of Judah, and as soon as the city had been breached they joined gleefully in sacking it. Their punishment would be to face sack themselves.

In fact, there is no evidence that any immediate fate fell on Edom, though it is possible that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon may have invaded and captured their capital city, Bozrah, in 582, some five years after the sack of Jerusalem. It is possible that it was news of this invasion that made Obadiah think his predictions of disaster for Edom were being fulfilled.

It is interesting that Obadiah speaks of the destruction of the ‘wise’ men of Edom (v. 8). Edom seems to have been proverbial for its ‘wisdom’—that is, for having many people skilled in educated pursuits. Although the area of Edom is largely desert, there seems to have been a flourishing culture there during this period. Job is said to have come from ‘the land of Uz’ (Job 1:1), which is another name for Edom, and, in the book that bears his name, he is presented as a learned man, able to discourse on the great issues of life. His ‘comforter’, Eliphaz, came from Teman, also in Edom—about five miles from where Petra now stands, in the present kingdom of Jordan.

Those who sacked Jerusalem ‘cast lots’ over its booty (v. 11)—common practice in the ancient world. The booty might have included people as well as goods, so that the Edomites are being accused of taking Israelite slaves. Again there is the additional outrage that it was their own (distant) kinsmen and kinswomen that they were enslaving. Deuteronomy 23:7 implies that Edomites were even acceptable as worshippers in the temple, so close were they to the Israelites. What Obadiah says about them could, then, be summed up in the words of Psalm 55:12–14:

It is not enemies who taunt me—I could bear that; it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me—I could hide from them. But it is you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend, with whom I kept pleasant company; we walked in the house of God with the throng.


Week 1 Day 4: ‘Your deeds shall return on your own head’ read Obadiah 12–14, 15b

There is a slight complication about the order of verses here. Many commentators think that verses 12–14 originally concluded with what is now the second half of verse 15 (called above ‘15b’), with 15a, the first half, as the beginning of the section that follows. (Mistakes in copying manuscripts do sometimes produce this kind of slippage.) Verse 15b makes very good sense as the conclusion of Obadiah’s message about the Edomites: ‘as you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head’.

This passage tells the Edomites what they ought not to have done and thus, by implication, tells us what they actually did. It tells us more about their involvement in the capture of Jerusalem. They gloated over their ‘brother’; they plundered his goods; they guarded the exits to the city so that any fugitives could be captured and handed over to the Babylonians. Their fate will therefore be the same: tit for tat again.

To enter into the feeling of a prophetic utterance such as this, we need to realize just how much was invested in the status and security of Jerusalem, the holy city. To have taken part in its destruction was not merely an offence, it was an outrage. This was the city where God himself was believed to live in the temple; it enshrined all the greatest hopes of the people of God. Just how the loss of this city was felt can be seen from the book of Lamentations:

How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal… All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at daughter Jerusalem; ‘Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?’ (Lamentations 1:1; 2:15)

We can understand the desire for revenge on those who helped to destroy what was thought of as the dwelling-place of God himself. Christians have learnt not to long for revenge, but it is easier to forgive when one has not been tested to the extreme extent, as the people of Jerusalem had been.


Week 1 Day 5: A remnant read Obadiah 15a, 16–18

At this point, the book of Obadiah ceases to be only about Edom and starts to be concerned with all the nations of the (then known) world. It is quite likely that these prophetic speeches are not the work of Obadiah, but of someone living somewhat later. This writer was able to look back over the long history of Israel and reflect on the havoc wrought not only by Edom but by many generations of enemies. The first half of verse 15 (‘For the day of the Lord is near against all the nations’) is a natural introduction to this wider perspective.

Once again, the theme is that Israel will get its own back on the nations that have oppressed it, not forgetting the Edomites! The author uses a common image in prophetic writings: the poisoned chalice. The idea is that there is a kind of parody of a ‘loving-cup’, the drinking-vessel that was handed round at banquets for everyone to drink a little and so show their solidarity and friendship with each other. The ‘cup of wrath’ similarly passes from nation to nation, but it brings destruction and disaster, not joy and fellowship, to each in turn. Thus, the prophet expresses a very negative judgment on all nations other than Israel. In this dark vision, Israel (the ‘house of Jacob’ and ‘house of Joseph’, v. 18) is like a fire, consuming each of the surrounding nations. Consistently with the overall emphasis of the book, Edom is particularly singled out for punishment.

For Israel, on the other hand, there will be a group who escape from the disasters that have so long overwhelmed the nation—what in later times came to be called a ‘holy remnant’. This small group will become the basis for a revival of the nation, and will not only retake possession of its own land but will come to occupy the land of those who dispossessed them. This theme is developed further in the next and final passage.


Week 1 Day 6: The restoration of Israel read Obadiah 19–21

Obadiah ends with a vision of a glorious future for Israel as the focal point of a huge empire. The passage is rather obscure on a first reading, but what it predicts is that each group of the Israelites will extend their territory to take in surrounding areas. Those still in the holy land will take over immediately adjacent territory. Thus, those in the south of Judah (the Negeb) will take over the land of Edom (‘Mount Esau’), and those in the central hill country (the Shephelah) will take over the area once occupied by the Philistines (the south-west of Israel, where the Gaza strip now lies). The area of the tribe of Benjamin, north of Jerusalem, will take over Gilead, across the River Jordan. Those now exiled from the land will similarly come to possess the areas around where they live. Thus, there will be a kind of ‘Greater Israel’, compensating for the extreme loss of land in the period of the exile. Above all, ‘the kingdom shall be the Lord’s’ (v. 21): God himself will be king over the whole of the territory involved.

On the one hand, this is a great vision of a transformed world under divine rule. But on the other, it reminds us how much the hopes in the Old Testament, even in its latest passages, concentrate on this world. What is hoped for is a kind of restoration of the empire of David, not a whole new world order—still less a hope of heaven. God will certainly establish a reign of peace, yet it is a peace in which his special people, Israel, remains central and crucial.


Guidelines

For today’s reader, the book of Obadiah, short as it is, raises important questions about how the justice of God is to be seen in the events of world history, and about his continuing relationship to the Jewish people. The vindictive tone can be understood, once we have realized how terrible were the conditions of the time when the book was written. Nevertheless, it raises the issue of the forgiveness of enemies, and how far this should find expression in the ordering of the world. Can nations forgive as individuals can, and ought they to do so? Or does justice require retribution for offences on an international scale?

Obadiah also challenges us over what we believe about the future. Christians believe that the future of the world is in God’s hands, but can we be any more specific about what that will amount to in practice? The prophets tend to speak as though God has revealed quite a lot of detail. In Obadiah, we even get a blueprint for how much territory Israel will possess in the changed world order that God’s intervention is to bring about. The fact that the promises are so specific can be something of an embarrassment to us, as we see that they never were fulfilled and probably never will be. For Christians, the coming kingdom (that is, rule) of God is not something that can be spelt out in this way. Nevertheless, we can hold on to the underlying conviction that God is ultimately in control. And there is an advantage in the way prophets speak so specifically, reminding us that there is nothing vague or woolly about God’s promise to be with his people.


For further reading

J. Barton, Joel and Obadiah (Old Testament Library), Westminster John Knox Press, 2001

R. Mason, Micah, Nahum, Obadiah (Old Testament Guides), Continuum, 1991

L.C. Allen, The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah, Eerdmans, 1976

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