24 September

24 September

Obadiah; Jonah 1-4

Obadiah

The only subject of this short prophetical book is the nation of Edom whose hatred for Israel will eventually lead to their total destruction. Edom is the name of Esau's descendants. The nation of Edom lived in the mountains of Seir south of the Dead Sea down to the Gulf of Akaba (Genesis 36:8-9). Esau was Jacob's twin brother. Already before their actual birth God announced that the older son Esau would serve the younger son Jacob (Genesis 25:23). Out of despising his birthright rose Esau's hatred against Jacob (Genesis 27)

Around 300 years later when the Israelites were on their journey from Egypt to Canaan the Edomites would not let them pass through their territory (Numbers 20:14-21). Then 400 years later the Edomites became David's servants (2 Samuel 8:13-14). During Jehoram's reign however the Edomites revolted from under the dominion of Judah (2 Kings 8:20). There were further fights between Edom and Judah under the reigns of Jehoshaphat, Amaziah and Ahaz (2 Chronicles 20:10; 2 Chronicles 25:11; 2 Chronicles 28:17). Edom rejoiced over Jerusalem's destruction in 586 BC (Psalms 137:7; Lamentations 4:21). Only the Babylonians devastated a few years later Edom itself. This is when the Nabathean Empire arose in Edom. During the time of the Maccabees Edom was annexed with the Jewish state by John Hyrcanus. When the Romans conquered Judea,the Idumeans (Edomites) family of Herod reached the royal dignity. Since Jerusalem's destruction in 70 AC the Edomites disappeared from history.

In a future day however Edom will appear again. The nation characterized by un-judged brotherly hatred for God-given blessings will flee from the coming king of the north (Daniel 11:41). But God Himself will punish them afterwards (Isaiah 34:5-8; Jeremiah 49:7-22). The means of God's punishment will be His people Israel (Isaiah 11:13-14; Ezekiel 25:12-14) and this at the beginning of the millennium when the Lord Jesus will have appeared as Messiah already (Isaiah 63:1-5; Ezekiel 35).

Obadiah in his short prophecy over Edom describes the threat of this final judgment and the reasons for it. But at the same time he informs that the day of Jehovah will be a day of general judgment over the nations and a time of restoration for the people of Israel.

Jonah 1

In narrating his own experience on his mission to Nineveh, Jonah intended to teach his people the lesson of the inclusiveness of the divine government, and thus to rebuke their exclusive attitude toward surrounding peoples. The Book naturally falls into two parts. In this first division we have the prophet's account of Jehovah's command, his disobedience, and the divine interposition. Evidently he had no doubt that the command was from Jehovah. The charge to deliver a message to a city outside the covenant, and one, moreover, which was the center of a power which had been oppressive and cruel, must have been startling to Jonah. His attempt to escape was an act of willful disobedience. Outside the path of duty he recognized that he was chargeable to himself, and with a touch of fine, if mistaken, independence, he paid his fare to Tarshish.

His going out from the presence of the Lord did not, however, ensure his escape from the Lord's control. Jehovah sent out a wind which endangered the ship in which Jonah was a passenger. The incidents of the storm are full of interest. Terrified by the storm, and at their wits' end, the crew made every effort to save Jonah's life. However, God, who had sent out the wind, presided over the casting of the lots, and at last Jonah was cast into the deep. There he was received by the fish, prepared.

Jonah 2

In the midst of the strange and awful circumstances in which he found himself, Jonah poured out his soul in anguish to Jehovah. The prayer as chronicled for us consists of quotations from the Book of Psalms. It is exactly the kind of cry which a man familiar with the sacred penitential writings of his people would utter in such circumstances.

Perhaps the most remarkable note about the prayer is its note of triumph. While it is distinctly asserted that he prayed out of the fish's belly, and while all his quotations indicate the darkness and horror into which he had come, taken as a whole it is an expression of absolute confidence in God and in His deliverance.

The probability is that the prayer as recorded expressed the final stage of Jonah's spiritual experience in the realm of darkness. "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine holy temple," is a quotation aptly indicating the period at which it was uttered. In view of the use made by Christ of this experience of Jonah, the prayer becomes all the more interesting, especially in its allusions to what were undoubtedly Messianic psalms.

Jonah 3

Immediately Jonah was again charged to go to Nineveh. There is a fine revelation of the patient grace of God toward His servant in the statement, "The word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time." With a new sense of the authority of Jehovah, Jonah arose and obeyed.

It was a strange and startling thing for Nineveh, this arrival of a man who had been cast into the deep; and it is easy to understand how the monotony of his declaration, that within forty days Nineveh would be destroyed, would fill the hearts of the people with terror. They heard; they believed; they were filled with fear, and repented, from the greatest to the least. Their repentance was answered by the repentance of God, so that the doom was averted and the city spared.

Jonah 4

The final picture of the controversy between Jonah and Jehovah reveals most vividly, through Jonah, the attitude of the ancient people which his story was intended to correct, and Jehovah's care for, and patience with, all sinning peoples, which they so little understood. The prophet went out of the city, and in distress and resentment sat in a booth of his own making to watch the course of events.

Again the overruling of Jehovah was manifest in the prepared gourd, the prepared worm, and the prepared sultry east wind. So great were the anger and anguish of the prophet that he fainted, and asked again that he might die. Jehovah repeated His question, but with a new application, "Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?" He who had been angry that the city was not destroyed, was angry that the gourd was destroyed; and he answered the inquiry by affirming, "I do well to be angry, even unto death."

Thus the last picture we have of Jonah is of a man still out of harmony with the tender mercy of God, and the last vision of Jehovah is of a God full of pity and compassion even for a city such as Nineveh, and willing to spare it if it returned to Him in penitence.