Recently I’ve had an overwhelming feeling that I need to read the very short book of Obadiah. I don’t really know why, but I finally gave in and read it. The synopsis is this: Obadiah is a prophet (which means to speak truth, not necessarily tell the future) to the people of Edom, who are Esau’s descendants. When the Babylonians conquered Israel, Jacob’s descendants, the Edomites did nothing. Well, actually, they did a little more than nothing, they helped the Babylonians. If you know the story of Jacob and Esau, you know they were brothers with a rather ambivalent relationship. (I had to look ambivalent too, it means having mixed feelings, like benevolent and malevolent mixed together, ambi… like ambidextrous, or using two hands.) Therefore, these two nations, Israel and Edom, have a love/hate relationship. But the whole point of Obadiah’s shpeel is that Edom was Israel’s brother. Regardless of their feelings, they SHOULD have joined the fight on their team. Anything less is a heinous crime not only against Israel, but against God, and was worthy of the death and destruction of an entire nation. Notice Israel still exists, at least in some form. Edom… does not.
I’m still trying to figure out what this means and why I had to read it. Hopefully it’s not in preparation for something that is to come. What is the heart of this story?