Greetings to you all greatly beloved of God and welcome to another episode of our daily study of the Scriptures. We bless the name of the Lord God for His many blessings over us. Praise be to God!
In our today’s episode 610, we shall be examining the only chapter in the book of Obadiah titled:
Overview Of The Book Of Obadiah; What You Need To Know
Without doubt, this is the shortest book in the Old Testament.
The name Obadiah from original Hebrew text was transliterated by Strong’s Lexicon as: ‛ôbadyâh or ‛ôbadyâhû
Pronounced as: /o-bad-yaw’ or /o-bad-yaw’-hoo/, respectively.
And it means “servant of Jehovah.”
Thirteen people bear this name in the entire Bible.
And one of them is our focus of today’s study.
According to Biblical ranking (Hebrew text precisely), Obadiah is the fourth among the twelve minor prophets listed. The Greek text positions him as the fifth.
Apart from what we have read so far from the book of Obadiah, we do not have much information about this prophet.
The Book of Obadiah was written at a time when the descendants of Esau called Edom was cruel towards the descendants of Jacob (Israelites) during the time Jerusalem was overthrown by the Babylonians. Read verses 11-16
Prophet Jeremiah also made a reference to this in Lam 4:21 when he claimed the Edomites were making mockery of their own blood – Israelites.
Prophet Ezekiel also prophesied punishment for the Edomites for taking cruel revenge on the people of Judah in Ezekiel 25:12–14; 35:1–15. See also Ps 137:7.
Placing Obadiah 1:5 side by side with Jeremiah 49:9, and Obadiah 1:6 with Jeremiah 49:10, and then Obadiah 1:8 with Jeremiah 49:7, we will discover that it appears that Jeremiah quoted part of Obadiah’s prophecies into his writings.
Jeremiah did the same thing to Prophet Isaiah too. Please read 15:1–16:14 in comparison with Jeremiah 48:1–47.
Why was Obadiah placed in the fourth position after Amos?
The reason is simply because in Amos 1:11, the punishment of Edom was prophesied, but in Obadiah, the prophecy was elaborated more.
Remember that the Edomites were descendants of Esau and the Israelites were descendants of his twin brother, Jacob. A dispute between the brothers has negatively altered the relationship between the two brothers and their descendants for over 1000 years.
As a result of this, the Edomites refused to have anything to do with the Israelites and as a matter of fact, when the Israelites were just emancipated from the slavery in Egypt and were looking for a shorter way to travel to the promised land, they needed to cross the land of the Edomites but unfortunately, they were forbidden.
The Bible says the king of Edom refused to let Israel pass, despite various pleas. Read Numbers 20:14-21. That was cruel indeed. The matter of porridge and birth right was still boiling in their mind. They were still nursing generational beef between Esau and Jacob.
Did you know that many people, even some acclaimed believers in Christ are like the Edomites still nursing age long beef in their hearts?
Some will even say until they get to heaven before the matter can be resolved. What a shame.
Below are some more specific reasons Edom received such a harsh judgement.
They were proud – Obadiah 1:3.
They did violently against their own blood (Israelite). Obadiah 1:10
They rejoiced when Jerusalem was ravaged by the Babylonians – Obadiah 1:12
They plundered and looted Jerusalem – Obadiah 1:13
They mistreated those that survived Jerusalem’s destruction and were trying to escape. Instead of taking them in, they were rejected. In fact, they stood at the crossroad and cut them off. Obadiah 1:14
In our next post, we shall be looking at the new testament application of the book of Obadiah.
To be continued…stay tuned and stay blessed.
Let’s pray:
The Lord God will make you worthy of the life He has called you to live on earth in Jesus name.
The Lord God will rescue you and your family from wicked and evil people. God will continue to keep you safe from every form of satanic manipulations, in Jesus name.
As this year is running to an end, you will encounter unexpected breakthrough beyond your wildest imagination, in Jesus name.
Bible Readings For Today: The whole book of 2 Peter with Isaiah 44
I call you blessed now and always.
Thursday December 3, 2020 (DDMI)
