Download discussion questions:  Obadiah 1:10-14

How did we get here – from a Jewish prophet denouncing another nation to a letter from Paul to a Macedonian church?  As we finished the letter that James wrote, the plan for our group was to follow the advice James gave to “look to the prophets” (James 5:10).  However, the study of one of those prophets led us into a different direction.

Before explaining that change of plans, we first looked at “The vision of Obadiah…concerning Edom.” (Obadiah 1:1).

The Minor Prophets

The book of Obadiah is the shortest of the twelve books that conclude the Hebrew Scriptures.  Those twelve are commonly called the Minor Prophets.  That name probably came from Augustine[1] because those books are considerably shorter than the other, more familiar prophets, such as Isaiah or Jeremiah.  The scrolls for those short writings “were bound together in a single volume because they were so small.  As separate scrolls some of them might otherwise have been lost.”^[2]  That collection was commonly called “The Twelve.”  The designation “minor” indicates only their length, not their substance.

Obadiah

Obadiah, the shortest of all the prophets, was selected to begin our study.  (You can read the entire book in just a few minutes.)  Since even that brief book contains a number of unfamiliar terms, we used “Obadiah – People and Places” as a reference to understand more of what the prophecy was about.

The focus of the prophetic words of Obadiah was the nation of Edom.  The Edomites were descended from Esau (Genesis 36:1, 9), the son of Isaac.  Esau had a twin brother, Jacob, later named Israel (Genesis 32:28).  The complicated relationship between those twins was beyond the scope of our discussion, but the details are spread through Scripture (Genesis 27-33, Romans 9:13, etc.).  Obadiah is about one specific incident between the descendants of the two brothers.

One person in our group asked the question, “Were the Edomites Jews?”  The consensus of our discussion was that their ancestry traced directly back to Abraham and Isaac, so the Edomites certainly had that connection.  However, “Esau gave up a legal right of lifelong value for the satisfaction of a moment”[3] (Genesis 25:27-34).  Esau’s indifference to his family (he “despised his birthright”, v. 34) severed his direct ties to his Jewish heritage.  That severance set the stage for Obadiah’s prophetic word in later generations.

A History Lesson

There is a significant back-story before we examine exactly what Obadiah prophesied about Edom.  When Israel was traveling from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of God’s Promised Land, they needed to cross through land controlled by the Edomites:

¹⁴ Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that we have met: ¹⁵ how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. ¹⁶ And when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. ¹⁷ Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from a well. We will go along the King’s Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.” ¹⁸ But Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through, lest I come out with the sword against you.” ¹⁹ And the people of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.” ²⁰ But he said, “You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force. ²¹ Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory, so Israel turned away from him.
Numbers 20:14-21 (emphasis added)

When the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt, the Edomites denied them passage through their land.[4]  Later, as the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land, they may have remembered that incident that presumably caused them a longer and more difficult journey.  But even after that refusal, “God commanded Israel to treat Edom as family:”^[5]

You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother
Deuteronomy 23:7 (emphasis added).

That brotherly, familial relationship is highlighted by the sharp contrast in the immediate context in the preceding verses (Deuteronomy 23:3-6).  No such mercy or kindness was to be shown to other nations who had equally maltreated the Israelites leaving Egypt.

³ “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, ⁴ because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt…”
Deuteronomy 23:3-4a

The relationship of family made all the difference.  Even if the family had been separated for generations, the blood ties were still there and were important.  God views His people as family, and He takes His family very seriously.

Broken Family Ties

What happened to change the brotherly tolerance that God had commanded?  The Israelites were not to “abhor” their brother Edomites.  How did that change to the scathing denunciation from Obadiah?

Our discussion focused on just five verses (Obadiah 1:10-14).  Our group made several observations about that passage.

• Obadiah’s accusations point out the family relationship of “brother” (v. 10, 12).
• The word “day” occurs ten times in those five verses (v. 11 twice, v. 12 four times, v. 13 three times, v. 14).
  • • “Day of disaster” occurs three times in verse 13.
• Numerous words reflect the extent of Edom’s aggression against his “brother Jacob” (v. 10a).
  • • Violence (v. 10)
    • Looting along with foreign invaders (v. 11)
    • Gloating over misfortune and calamity (v. 12a, 13c)
    • Rejoicing over destruction (v. 12)
• The Edomites were even so treacherous as to hand over escaping refugees to the enemy (v. 14).

Edom crossed the line from intentional neglect to active abuse and joining the enemies of Israel.  From the repeated word “day” it seems that Obadiah had a particular incident in mind.  The prophecy is difficult to date precisely.[6]  But whether Obadiah was a witness[7] to the Assyrian or Babylonian invasion (or some other disaster), his point is clear.  Edom actively supported Israel’s invaders.  “Although their father, Esau, was Jacob’s brother, the Edomites repudiated this ancient blood tie with God’s people and instead participated with the nations in Jerusalem’s destruction.”[8]

That repudiation of the “ancient blood tie” climaxed the process that Esau started generations before when he trivialized his birthright.  “Beyond the pride…what is the sin of Edom?  It is a manifest display of lack of brotherliness.”[9]

Lack of Brotherliness

Notice all the references to family when Scripture describes the people of God:

• Moses appealed as brother to pass through Edomite lands (Numbers 20:14)
• Even after that rejection, God commanded Israel not to hate Edom because “he is your brother” (Deuteronomy 23:7).
• Only when the Edomites actively attacked “your brother Jacob” [Israel] did God bring judgment on Edom (Obadiah 1:10, 12).

Obadiah illustrates how seriously God takes His family.  He is our Father.  We often fail to recognize the weight of this reality.  The Edomites give us an example of how seriously we should view this family connection.  Obadiah describes the actions of a thief or a grape gatherer – both leave something behind (v. 5).  He draws the stark contrast with God’s judgment of Edom – there will be nothing left (v. 6-7).  History testifies to God’s action:  “The written records and monuments of the Edomites have perished.”[10]

From Obadiah to Philippians

But how did a beginning in Obadiah result in a study of Philippians?

Consider several circumstances:

• When the Minor Prophets became the focus of our study group, I chose not to follow the order the books appear in the Old Testament, not to study the books chronologically. I suggested we start with Obadiah simply because it is the shortest of all the prophets.  I thought that a short book, probably taking only one of our weekly discussions, would provide some “momentum” to go on to the rest of The Twelve.
• I have read a couple of books[11] on the church as the family of God by Joseph Hellerman. I found another title by the same author at the library and decided to skim through it, assuming that the same themes I had seen in his other books would be repeated there.  Instead, this book (Embracing Shared Ministry) provided a whole new perspective on the cultural setting Paul was facing when he wrote his letter to the Philippians.
  • • Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, intentionally subverts the social values of the dominant culture in the Roman colony at Philippi in order to create a radically different relational environment among the Philippian Christians.^[12]
• About six months ago, two churches merged together. Our study/discussion group is a part of that combined congregation.  As our merged gathering has worked on building relationships, the emphasis on relating as family in a “radically different relational environment” is an exciting option.

Those combined conditions (picking the shortest prophet, finding a new book, growing in a church merger) together seem providential.  The family emphasis from Obadiah, and the insights from Hellerman’s book, and the combination of congregations provide an opportunity to grow in our relationships.  May the study and application of Paul’s letter to the Philippians spur us into the ultimate unity Christ desires,

that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:21)

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[1] Jack P. Lewis, The Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Baker Book House, 1966), 11.

[2] John Phillips, Exploring the Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Kregel Publications, 2002), 7.

[3] Leon Wood, A Survey of Israel’s History (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1970), 66.

[4] Charles L. Feinberg, The Minor Prophets (Chicago:  Moody Press, 1952), 125.

[5] Charles L. Feinberg, The Minor Prophets (Chicago:  Moody Press, 1952), 125.

[6] John Phillips, Exploring the Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Kregel Publications, 2002), 120.

[7] John Phillips, Exploring the Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Kregel Publications, 2002), 121.

[8] Robert B. Chisholm, Jr., Interpreting the Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), 117.

[9] Jack P. Lewis, The Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Baker Book House, 1966), 94.

[10] Jack P. Lewis, The Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Baker Book House, 1966), 91.

[11] Joseph H. Hellerman, When the Church Was a Family:  Recapturing Jesus’ Vision for Authentic Christian Community (Nashville:  B&H Publishing Group, 2009);
Joseph H. Hellerman, Why We Need the Church to Become More Like Jesus:  Reflections about Community, Spiritual Formation, and the Story of Scripture (Eugene, Oregon:  Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2017).

[12] Joseph H. Hellerman, Embracing Shared Ministry:  Power and Status in the Early Church and Why It Matters Today (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Kregel Publications, 2013), 11.