Obadiah

LeRoy Eims

Shortly after I joined the Marine Corps during the Second World War, I arrived at boot camp in San Diego. When we got off the bus at the base we were still in our civilian clothes and there were a group of young Marines watching us disembark.

As we left the bus and walked (we hadn't learned to march) to the receiving barracks, these young marines called out, "you'll be sorry." Their prediction was not that I'd be sorry for something that I was going to do, but for something I had done. That, in a nutshell, is the essence of Obadiah's prophecy.

It was directed at the Edomites. Edom was a range of mountains between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akabah, and extends into Arabia. Petra was its chief city. It was well watered with abundant grasslands for pasture. Its capital, carved high in a perpendicular cliff over‑looking a valley of marvelous beauty, was far back in the mountain canyons.

The Edomites would go out on raiding expeditions and then retreat to their impregnable strongholds high up in the rocky gorges. They were descendants of Esau, and thus akin to the Jews. But they hated the Jews, perpetuating the enmity of Esau and Jacob. It seems they could not forget that Jacob had secured the birthright from Esau, their ancestor. They refused passage to Moses and were always ready and eager to aid any attacking army.

Obadiah predicted that the Edomites would be cut off forever and be as though they had not been. He said the kingdom of God would prevail. He enumerates the things upon which Edom relied. The first was their strong position in their rocky, natural fortress. But this will not save them when judgment falls for the shame they had heaped upon fallen Judah.

Secondly, their allies will not save them because they too are under the judgment of God and the day of God's vengeance is at hand. Thirdly, their wisdom will not save them. They will be rendered helpless and there is nothing upon which they can rely. What will these things amount to when they deal with the God of might and wisdom, the God of nations?

Within four years after Jerusalem was burned, Edom was raided and desolated by the very same Babylonians whom they had aided against Jerusalem. In 1812, its unique ruins cut out of solid cliffs of rose colored rocks, long hidden in the arid regions south of the Dead Sea, were discovered and stand as silent witness to the fulfillment of the prophecy of Obadiah.

In the ruins of Petra can be seen the evidences of its glory of bygone ages. Excavations of these rocks uncovered temples, tombs and other structures cut out of stone. In no case was prophecy more emphatically fulfilled than in the utter desolation of Idumea.

Many other nations shared the same doom. Egypt sorely afflicted the people of God and the prophets declared her coming doom. She was a great nation who lit the torch of civilization and passed it to the West. Men of renown came to her fountains of wisdom and drank deeply, but her fall and humiliation was sure.

Other nations, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Syria, and the Canaanites fell under Divine judgment. Daniel sets forth the rise and fall of the world empires and all came to pass. Prophecy declares the inspiration of the Word of God.