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1. Vision of Obadiah

¹ The vision of Obadiah.

This is what the Sovereign LORD says about Edom—

We have heard a message from the LORD:
An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Rise, let us go against her for battle”—

    ² “See, I will make you small among the nations;
   you will be utterly despised.
³ The pride of your heart has deceived you,
   you who live in the clefts of the rocks Or of Sela
   and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
   ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
⁴ Though you soar like the eagle
   and make your nest among the stars,
   from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
⁵ “If thieves came to you,
   if robbers in the night—
oh, what a disaster awaits you!—
   would they not steal only as much as they wanted?
If grape pickers came to you,
   would they not leave a few grapes?
⁶ But how Esau will be ransacked,
   his hidden treasures pillaged!
⁷ All your allies will force you to the border;
   your friends will deceive and overpower you;
those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.
   but you will not detect it.

    ⁸ “In that day,” declares the LORD,
   “will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,
   those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?
⁹ Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified,
   and everyone in Esau’s mountains
   will be cut down in the slaughter.
¹⁰ Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
   you will be covered with shame;
   you will be destroyed forever.
¹¹ On the day you stood aloof
   while strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
   and cast lots for Jerusalem,
   you were like one of them.
¹² You should not gloat over your brother
   in the day of his misfortune,
nor rejoice over the people of Judah
   in the day of their destruction,
nor boast so much
   in the day of their trouble.
¹³ You should not march through the gates of my people
   in the day of their disaster,
nor gloat over them in their calamity
   in the day of their disaster,
nor seize their wealth
   in the day of their disaster.
¹⁴ You should not wait at the crossroads
   to cut down their fugitives,
nor hand over their survivors
   in the day of their trouble.

    ¹⁵ “The day of the LORD is near
   for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
   your deeds will return upon your own head.
¹⁶ Just as you drank on my holy hill,
   so all the nations will drink continually;
they will drink and drink
   and be as if they had never been.
¹⁷ But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;
   it will be holy,
   and Jacob will possess his inheritance.
¹⁸ Jacob will be a fire
   and Joseph a flame;
Esau will be stubble,
   and they will set him on fire and destroy him.
There will be no survivors
   from Esau.” The LORD has spoken.

    ¹⁹ People from the Negev will occupy
   the mountains of Esau,
and people from the foothills will possess
   the land of the Philistines.
They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,
   and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
²⁰ This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan
   will possess the land as far as Zarephath;
the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
   will possess the towns of the Negev.
²¹ Deliverers will go up on Or from Mount Zion
   to govern the mountains of Esau.
   And the kingdom will be the LORD’s.

Here the Prophet says, that there are in God’s hand ministers, the labor of whom he employs to preserve his own people. He alludes here, I have no doubt, to the history of the judges. We indeed know that the people of Israel were often so distressed, that their deliverance was almost incredible; and that yet they were also delivered in such a way as to have made it evident that the hand of God had appeared from heaven. Since this then was well known to the Jews, the Prophet here reminds them that God had still in his hand redeemers, whenever it might please him to gather his people. God then shall send preservers, even as he did send them formerly to your fathers. They had indeed found true by experience what the Prophet says here, not only once, but more than ten times. This then ought to have served much to confirm this prophecy.

Ascend then shall they who will judge the mount of Esau, — who, being endued with the power of God and his authority, will execute judgment on mount Seir and on the whole nation, and will avenge the cruelty which Edom had exercised towards the children of Abraham.

But this passage shows, that Christ came not to be the minister of our deliverance and salvation in an ordinary way, but that he became our savior in a special manner; so that he stands alone in that capacity: and this is a very strong argument against the Jews. They confess that the Messiah would be the Redeemer of his people, but they ascribe this office to him in a general way, as they do to David and other kings. But it certainly appears from this passage, that the Messiah would not be of the common class, for saviors would be under him as his ministers. This the Jews dare not to deny, though they grumble: for it would be absurd that he should be one of their number. Since then he was sent to be a Redeemer and Savior in a way different from others, it follows that he is not man only, but that he is the Author of salvation. It would indeed be easy to reply, “Why do you speak to us of many redeemers? Do you not hope for one Savior? If God will commit this office to many in an equal degree, why are there so many glorious promises respecting the Messiah? Why are we ever reminded of him alone? Why is he alone set forth to us as the ground of our salvation?” It hence certainly appears that Christ is to be distinguished from all others, and that others are saviors under his authority; and such were the apostles, and such are all at this day, the labor and ministry of whom God employs to defend and support his Church.

Now he adds, Jehovah’s shall be the kingdom. But as it is certain, that it was God’s purpose to rule among his people after having restored them, in no other way than by the power of Christ, the Prophet, by saying that the kingdom of Christ would be Jehovah’s, means, that it would be really divine, and more illustrious than if he had employed the labor of men. But two things must be here observed by us, — that God himself really rules in the person of Christ, — and that it is the legitimate mode of ruling the Church, that God alone should preside, and hold alone the chief power. Hence it follows, that when God does not appear as the only King, all things are in confusion, without any order. Now God is not called a King by way of an empty distinction: but then only is he regarded a King in reality, when all submit themselves to him, when they are ruled by his word; in short, when all creatures become silent in his presence. To God then belongs the kingdom. We hence see that the Church has no existence, where the word of God does not so prevail in its authority, as to keep down whatever height there is in men, and to bring them under the yoke, so that all may depend on God alone, that all may look up to him, and that he may have all in subjection to himself.