The vision of Obadiah.
The Divine purpose in relation to humanity
A voice thundering at midnight is the voice of Obadiah. It was the voice of a stranger. His age, his country, his parents, his cradle, his grave, are all unknown. Yet his was a prophet’s voice,--deep as the boom of thunder, and penetrating as the lightning it fell upon the fortressed host of Idumea, and destruction was in every shivering note. He had been standing on some high pinnacle, on which he hoard a “rumour from the Lord,” and with the fidelity of incorruptible righteousness he breathed that fiery rumour across the doomed nation,--the sword was bared against Edom, and whoso sought to turn it aside was cleft by the gleaming blade. The prophecy is short but terrible in its fulness. It is a single shout, but the cry rends the rocks of Edom. The Edomites were famed for sagacity, prudence, and general mental skill, but God here comes forth (Obadiah 1:8) as the monarch of mind, and says He will destroy their wisdom and understanding. The high priests of wisdom come together to take counsel against the Lord, and the Lord blows upon their brain, and their counsels are confounded; the Lord touches their tongue and they babble the jargon of insanity. Looking at this vision as affording a glimpse of Divine purpose in relation to humanity, we may take our stand on two distinct facts.
1. Divine superintendence of human history. He is a shallow historian who records only the undulations of the social, political, and ecclesiastical surface. As a student of the universe, I wish to know not only the stupendous, palpable existences--the sun, moon, stars, seas, mountains,--but I wish to know their birth-forces. He who takes me to the earliest germ of national life is to me the true historian; but he who finds that earliest germ in anything short of Divine volition is unfit to guide me through the black ravines, or the temple corridors, or the mountain grandeurs of the world’s entrancing story. In all Bible history we find God upon the circle.
2. Divine sanctification of human history. This vision of Obadiah is summed up in words which might well form the concluding sentence of the history of the whole world. These words are: “And the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” As we look at this as the ultimate object of Divine government we see that a great sanctifying process is in reality continually operating in human history. God is working in the midst of her moral gloom, and He will work until the last shadow has for ever departed. We see but a scattered and struggling light; we hear but a voice here and there; we wonder how the heavens can become flooded with splendour, and how the air can be filled with one glad and undying song; and we should despair could we not lay our trembling hand upon the recorded oath of Omnipotence, and see in the van the “dyed garments,” and hear at midnight the war-shout of Immanuel. This leads us to the inspiring truth, that all our hopes are founded in Jesus, and all our energies sustained by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The tragedy of Edom
In later times Edom came to he the supreme antipathy and the typical enemy of Jewry. So when the actual Edomites ceased to be, the name was transferred, first to tyrant Rome, and then to persecuting Christendom, and the impassioned words of Obadiah became a favourite vehicle for the expression of the national and religious hatred. That is a misunderstanding and a misuse of the book. The prophecy is, indeed, instigated by indignation against Edom, and the retributive destruction of that people is its theme. But the subject is worked out in a large fashion that precludes the suspicion of petty vengefulness, and justifies the book’s place in the record of revelation. The motive is not the gratification of national spite, nor is the aim to either warn or edify the Edomites. The seer speaks out of the need of his own heart, and to the hearts of the people. What creates his vision and compels his utterance is an indestructible sense of the eternal justice and fidelity, and of the Divine destiny of Israel in building up the kingdom of God on earth. The tragedy of Edom is but a part in the great drama. It is therefore presented on a vast stage, and has the world’s history for its background. Very real and concrete to the prophet, no doubt, are the antagonisms of Israel, and his enemies, but none the less really and consciously, even if in a fashion grand beyond his conceptions, it is the collision of universal forces and everlasting principles that is embodied in them. Limited and material the presentment of those issues may be, but they carry in their bosom the consummation of the ages. Within the rivalry of Edom and Israel there was wrapped the eternal anithesis of truth and falsehood, good and evil; and the vision of an earthly kingdom on Mount Zion is finding its fulfilment in the silent, slow, but sure advent of the kingdom of God and of our Christ. (W. S. Elmslie, D. D.)
God and bad men
I. That God makes a revelation concerning bad men. Here is a revelation concerning Edom, the enemy of God and His people. Isaac had two sons by Rebecca, Esau and Jacob; Esau was called Edom, because he robbed his brother of his birthright (Genesis 25:1-34.).
1. The forms of the revelation.
(1) As a vision. “The vision of Obadiah.” The prophet was a seer. The Eternal revealed Himself to the eyes of his soul. He who would be a true minister of God must see the thing before he speaks it--“That which we have seen and handled,” man has a faculty for seeing the invisible.
(2) As a report. “We have heard a rumour from the Lord.” He heard as well as saw. The soul has ears to catch the echoes of eternal thought.
2. The character of this revelation, a message. “An ambassador is sent among the heathen.” God sends His messages to the nations in many ways and by many agents.
3. The subject of the revelation. “Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.” The object of the message was to stir up the Assyrians and afterwards the Chaldeans against Edom. But our proposition is, that God makes a revelation concerning bad men; and the subject of that revelation embraces at least two things.
(1) That their sins will ruin them. “The wages of sin is death.”
(2) That evangelical repentance will save them. “Let the wicked forsake his way,” etc.
II. That God punishes bad men by bad men. He now sent a messenger amongst the nations,--what for? To stir up the Assyrians and Chaldeans--both bad people--to wreak vengeance on corrupt Edom. Why does He employ bad men for this awful work of retribution?
1. He reveals in the most powerful way to the victim the enormity of his sin.
2. He reveals His own absolute power over the workings of the human heart. Thus “He maketh the wrath of men to praise Him,” etc. (Homilist.)
Call to the battle against Edom
The stream of prophecy may be compared to the stream of a river. At its fountain it is inconsiderable, and reveals none of its future greatness. There is nothing in Scripture more clearly revealed than the ultimate triumph of the religion we profess.
1. What persons were originally represented by “Edom,” and the cause of the Lord’s enmity against this people. The Edomites were the descendants of Esau, who sold his birthright for a momentary gratification. The Edomites seem to have assisted the Chaldeans in their work of devastating Jerusalem, and to have instigated their utmost fury against Israel, the chosen of God.
2. What is to be understood by “the heathen”--showing that we are called upon to rise up against Edom, and that we have nationally responded to that call.
3. To adduce some reasons that we should continue to propagate the Gospel, notwithstanding the objections which are urged against that duty.
4. Make the inquiry of each individual-To which of the two parties will you join yourself? Shall it be Edom or Israel? Shall it be Baal or Christ? (G. G. Tomlinson.)