OBADIAH: Petra

Another Babylonian prophet is the voice of Obadiah. The one thing that stands out about this prophet being different is the intended audience. Obadiah is directed at the people of Edom. For those who might remember the stories of the Torah, they would recognize the people of Edom as the descendants of Esau. This means that the audience of the book of Obadiah are — in a sense — the half-brothers of the people of Judah. And this will make a difference as we read the book today.

The Edomites eventually became known as the Idumeans of later history. This nomadic people did things in history that, to this day, astound us. It would be far from the scope of this blog post to expound on the Idumeans, but it’s important to note that many of the things they accomplished confound historians to this day. One of those things, relevant to the book of Obadiah, is the fact that one day, this nomadic people decided that they didn’t want to be nomads anymore. They began to settle down and almost immediately started building rock fortresses that are so stunning in their construction that it’s impossible to imagine a group of ancient spice traders built them.

One example of this is the famous city of Petra, seen in the picture below.

 Amazing. It helps us hear some of the context of Obadiah when we read:

“See, I will make you small among the nations;
    you will be utterly despised.
The pride of your heart has deceived you,
    you who live in the clefts of the rocks
    and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
    ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ ”

Long story short (not that it has to be; Obadiah is the shortest book in the Hebrew scriptures), God’s main concern has been — brace yourself, this may come as a surprise — the way they have treated their neighbors. In this case, the neighbors have been the people of Judah, being slaughtered by the Babylonians.

“In that day,” declares the Lord,
    “will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,
    those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?
Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified,
    and everyone in Esau’s mountains
    will be cut down in the slaughter.
Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
    you will be covered with shame;
    you will be destroyed forever.
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.
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.
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.
You should not wait at the crossroads
    to cut down their fugitives,
nor hand over their survivors
    in the day of their trouble."

At this point, I would make a couple observations. Even though we have stopped talking directly about the tension between the two stories of Samuel/Kings and the Chronicler, it would be worth our time to notice that justice continues to be the concern that consistently pops up throughout the prophets. While idolatry has certainly not left the building as a topic of discussion, the story of God continues to center around how we treat those around us. Do we SEE those in trouble? How do we respond to those in need? How do we treat our neighbors? Can we forgive the past?

Not only this, but it would also be healthy to notice that these expectations are only held for God’s people. There is a universal expectation that God has for all of humanity. There is an expectation that we would treat everyone with a certain level of respect, hospitality, and generosity. And God holds this to be true for His partners, as well as the people of Edom, as well as all nations.

Injustice is not how God has created the world to work.

Injustice belongs to the order of Death and Death does not belong in God’s good creation. So it stands to reason that the prophet Obadiah continues to be a voice that reminds us of the things that are “the most real” in our world. If God would expect the Edomites to treat their half-brothers with a certain level of respect, then it must be true that the squabbles between brothers (or half-brothers) can still be solved with forgiveness and grace. Apparently, the invitation continues to be that we trust the story and lay down our lives on behalf of those around us. Apparently, God continues to look for partners, even outside the parameters of labels of “God’s people.”

I’m betting that the same would be true today.