Obadiah 1:10 For [thy] violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off forever.

In my first year in Bible College the upper classmen put on a program for the new freshman.  They had a sketch where a student played a reporter interviewing students impersonating the faculty.  When they came to the Old Testament Professor, Dr. Goldberg (who was Jewish), he announced that he was teaching a 5 credit hour semester class on the Book of Obadiah. When asked if he could teach such a small book (28 verses) for 5 semester hours he said: “Well, it will be hard, we will only scratch the surface, and my secretary is bringing the syllabus out now.  A student came out struggling with a 3 foot high stack of paper.  When the freshman laughed, the student impersonating Dr. Goldberg grabbed the mic and said: “You can laugh, but it is true.”

To understand this book you really need to study the history of Edom from the time of Esau to its final destruction by the Roman general Titus in 70 A.D.  The Edomites, as we all know, are the descendants of Esau, the old boy who sold his birthright to his brother Jacob. The family settled in what is now the Sinai Peninsula and bordered the Kingdom of Judah in the South.  Our first major encounter is when the Hebrew children were making their way to the promised land through the Edomite territory during the Exodus.   They had to take a longer route as Edom threatened to destroy them if they passed through.  They later went to war against King Saul and prevailed over him.  Forty years later David and Joab made short work of Edom and they became a vassal state to Israel.  Sort of like Puerto Rico is to the United States.  Israel appointed its governors and leadership.

When the civil war between Israel and Judah broke out, Edom was spun off and they appointed their own king.  When Jehoshaphat tried to re-establish their control over Edom by appointing a king, the leadership appealed to Ammon and Moab and the three kings prepared to march against Judah.  This is the story where Jehoshaphat ordered his army to just worship and God caused confusion to fall on the camp of the three kings and they destroyed each other. God would not allow them to personally kill their own brethren.  War again broke out under Jehoram and Edom was partially defeated, but never again subdued by Judah.  God had a history of trying to unit the two brother nations, but it was never to be.

Now we get to the occasion of Nebuchadnezzar who attacked Judah from the South, and  of course to do that they had to pass through Edom.   Verses 1-11 tell us what happened.  Rather than unite with their blood relatives to defeat Nebuchadnezzar, they joined up with him and the combined force ransacked Jerusalem. For this, God prophesied through Obadiah that they would cease to exist, which was fulfilled after 70AD.  Here is the twist, Edom did finally come to the aid of Israel during the Roman Jewish wars and they were wiped out in the process,  too little too late we often say.

Here is the rest of the story. The Talmud teaches that Obadiah was an Edomite himself who converted to Judaism.  He was the Obadiah who served under King Ahab and Jezebel and protected the 128 prophets.   He was a confidant to Elijah and because he risked his life to protect God’s prophet, God made him a prophet as well.  He went to his people and prophecied warning them of what would happen if Edom sided with a Godless nation against their blood relatives.  His mission was to once again plead for peace between the brother nations.  He failed and the nations failed.

I see this message of Obadiah as a warning to the church.  Edom was of the same family heritage as Judah, descendants of Isaac and Abraham.  They had different beliefs and doctrines yet they were still of the same family.  They were warned to not rejoice when their brothers in Israel came under God’s judgment.  They not only rejoiced but joined in on the destruction.  As a result Edom’s destruction was total while Israel lived on.   The message is one of unity.  If we are all of the same family of Christ joined by the common blood of Jesus Christ, we have a real obligation to not do violence against those who may differ with us in doctrine or theology, and not to rejoice in their defeat or even to participate in their destruction, lest our fate become worse than theirs. Well, of course no good Baptist will do violence against some Pentecostal for speaking in tongues.  So the book of Obadiah does not really apply to us, right?  We are certainly not as bad as Edom. Yet, if it is that one word which is rendered as violence causing us to ignore the book of Obadiah as relevant to us, then look again at that word violence. It is the word chamas in Hebrew which comes from a Semitic root for an ancient word which means ill-gotten gain. It is gain received at any harmful expense of another, no matter how innocent or minor that harmful expense may seem. There have been preachers who have built platforms by condemning those of a different doctrine, many who have used their platforms to destroy the ministry of another preacher who had a doctrine a little different than theirs using that destruction to enhance their own position. Many years ago there was a famous Bible teacher who destroyed the ministry of another Bible teacher by revealing an adulterous affair. Rather than seek to restore that brother he used it as an opportunity to destroy a competitor.  Not too long after that this very same Bible teacher himself was caught visiting a prostitute. That is chamas. But if you even secretly rejoice at the fall of another brother, perhaps one who is serving on a worship team and ends up in a  hospital giving you your chance to perform for the congregation, this too is chamas. You are just like Edom if you ever joined in the destructive gossip about another believer and destroyed their reputation for you are doing violence or chamas to your brother or sister.

There is a flip side to this as well, perhaps you are a victim of a brother or sister who has committed chamas against you and were deeply hurt by their pious stand against you. Perhaps you even received the left foot of fellowship because of some wrong (or perceived wrong) you committed rather than being loved and supported by your brothers and sisters to help restore you.  Perhaps their treatment of you was so terrible you had to leave.  Perhaps you are even now considered poison in your church community for some “failure”.  You are off in your corner hiding under yon rock from whence you came licking your wounds, angry and upset over the way you were treated.  God is softly speaking to you in the book of Obadiah telling you, “Calm down, take a deep breath, I still love you and that is all that really matters. Vengeance is mine I will repay.” Romans 12:19.

Obadiah’s message is a call to peace among the brethren, being good neighbors who will help and support each other.  God will handle the differences and smooth them out to His perfect will. If we are indeed living in last days, the message is all the more important to be at peace with those who also love and worship Jesus and not let some minor doctrinal interpretation or jealousy cause violence or chamas to come between us.

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