The prophet Obadiah has some harsh words for the nation of Edom, an ancient people we may not be familiar with, although they are actually mentioned a great deal throughout the Old Testament. Israel and Edom both have their roots in the same family, the twin brothers Jacob and Esau. These brothers’ relationship to each other is wrought from the beginning (literally before they’re even born!) with conflict, deception and resentment. Their mother, Rebekah, is told by God in her pregnancy that she’s not only pregnant with two conflicting children, but with two conflicting nations (Genesis 25). And even though Jacob and Esau do eventually get their moment of cathartic reconciliation, their families do develop into separate nations – Jacob, the nation of Israel and Esau, the nation of Edom. Like their patriarchs, the relationship between the two nations is rocky and contentious. Even so, there is a current throughout the Old Testament that, for all the conflict, Edom is still like a sibling and worthy of love. Therefore, imagine the disappointment, the hurt, when Babylon lays waste to Jerusalem, and Edom (only a little to Israel’s south) not only doesn’t lend a helping hand to their Israelite brothers and sisters, but actually joins Babylon in their brutal campaign.
The brief prophetic speech of Obadiah begins with a word of judgment and downfall for Edom, and ends with the good news that broken Israel will be lovingly restored by God. In between is a series of statements to Edom that begin with, “You should not have…” Edom should not have gloated over Jerusalem in her hour of ruin. Edom should not have looted Jerusalem’s goods. Edom should not have taken prisoners and handed them over to the Babylonians. On every count, Edom has been found guilty of a level of injustice that God cannot overlook.
And in the face of such injustice, God speaks through the prophet to announce a coming reversal. Edom will fall, and all of Israel’s losers who have been sieged, looted, and gloated over, will be gathered up by God and established as an everlasting kingdom. While many of the prophets call on their hearers to repent, Obadiah makes no such demand of us. This isn’t because repentance doesn’t matter, nor because Obadiah doesn’t value it at all. But for the brief time that we spend with this particular prophet, he is only concerned with stating the reality of the situation: God is making himself an enemy of those who cause the most harm in this world, and compassionately gathering up those who have had the most harm done to them.
Our God is not only the God of Israel, not only the God of the Church. Our God is the God of the whole world. It all belongs to him. Our God is not blind to the harm endured by those in a position of weakness. He is not blind to the injustice done by those in a position to gloat. He’s not blind to any of it. And he is reversing all of it, building his kingdom for and alongside all the losers over whom the winners thought to gloat. To be the Church is to reckon with the reality of this God, to move with the current of his justice, not against it. Even when it doesn’t feel true, this is simply the world we live in: (Obadiah v.21) “Those who have been saved shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.”
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