Obadiah and God's Love for His Chosen People

Obadiah is a short little book, in fact the shortest in the Old Testament. It is twenty-one verses in one chapter. Its focus is the conflict between the Jews (descendants of Jacob) and the Edomites (descendants of Esau). Its main idea is that God has chosen the Jews to be His covenant people. That covenant is very, very serious business to Him. In spite of their unfaithfulness to Him, He loves them beyond comprehension. He may punish them for their infidelity but all others had better keep their hands off. The Edomites did not leave their brothers alone and they have paid dearly for that.

Sibling rivalry and brotherly fisticuffs are commonplace. Sometimes it ends quickly and quietly without long term damage. However, sometimes it doesn't. Crime statistics tell us that many thefts, assaults, and murders are committed against family members. Family traditions show us that arguments within families often grow into bitter family feuds with no reconciliation in sight. History points out that most of the time, national civil wars are the longest and bloodiest of all armed conflicts. Emotions run high among people who are related by blood and spend lots of time together in close quarters.

The descendants of Abraham certainly had their share of family fighting. The next three generations each had well documented problems. Today newspapers, television, and the internet carry daily reports concerning the on-going conflict between Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob are certainly not a picture of beautiful brotherly love. The sons of Jacob definitely had some differences of opinion that led to some of them selling another of them into slavery.

You are probably familiar with the story of twin brothers, Jacob and Esau, found in Genesis 25 and following. The end result is that Jacob winds up with the blessing and Esau does not. The descendants of Jacob inherited the Promised Land. The descendants of Esau, the Edomites, wound up in control of a territory south and east of the Dead Sea. Their land was somewhat barren, but it did have one significant thing going for it. The most important north-south trade route, The King's Highway, ran right through the middle of their land. When God rescued His Chosen People, the Jews, from slavery in Egypt, they requested permission to pass through Edomite territory. They offered to pay for what they and their livestock ate and drank. The Edomites made a grave error in continuing the family feud, by refusing to allow them to pass through their territory. God would hold them accountable for that. History and the Bible record how over the next few centuries the Edomites continued to exhibit malice toward their brothers, the Jews.

Verses ten through fourteen of Obadiah outline the steps of the Edomite downfall. Verse eleven tells us that they watched strangers enter Jerusalem and carry off the wealth of their brothers. Verse twelve records the Edomites gloating, rejoicing, and boasting over their brother's day of destruction. Verse thirteen describes Edomite looting of their brother's treasures. Verse fourteen tells of the Edomites killing and imprisoning their Jewish brothers who had survived their day of distress. The Bible predicts the destruction of the Edomites and they did indeed disappear as a nation during the first century A.D. Is there a lesson in all of this for the United States and the rest of the world? My reading of Obadiah indicates that we ought to be very, very careful of how we treat that people whom God has said He has chosen out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his treasured possession.