When it all falls down...
"Obadiah announces Edom's downfall to Babylon, which is an image of how God will bring down all arrogant and violent nations."
He makes nations great and destroys them. He enlarges the nations and leads them away. (Job 12:23)
Some of the reasons why nations fail according to scripture in Obadiah:
1. National pride
2. Nations fail because they put trust in allies, experts, and advisors who don't know YAHUAH.
3. Nations fail because they attack the people ("My People") of YAHUAH ELOHIM.
Is America and nations around the world dying due to these things which go against YAHUAH?
Watch our overview video on the book of Obadiah, which breaks down the literary design of the book and its flow of thought. Obadiah announces Edom's downfall to Babylon, which is an image of how God will bring down all arrogant and violent nations.
Below is an a teaching video of Dr. Randall D. Smith of Great Commission Bible Institute. He gives a walk-through highlighting the reasons why nations fail. I believe it will bless you! Thank you Prophet Hartsel for sharing this Brother with me!
RISE AND FALL OF NATIONS
2002 July-August
History shows us that great nations rise and fall. Babylon and Greece have fallen. The Roman Empire has come and gone, and will rise once more. Is it possible that the United States, like so many superpowers of years past, could be turned to ashes? What lessons can we learn from history, and from Scripture?
You can know the future from Bible prophecy. You can know the broad outlines of world history, and what will happen to the great nations of this 21st century! There is a God in heaven who is working out a great plan here on earth. He is giving human beings and human civilization six millennia to experiment with religion, science, government, business, education and social institutions. God is allowing human beings to go their own predictable, carnal way of selfishness, war, and violence, but He often intervenes in order to teach lasting lessons of life and death.
The Book of Obadiah is an oracle concerning the divine judgment of Edom and the restoration of Israel.[1] The text consists of a single chapter, divided into 21 verses, making it the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible.[2]
In Judaism and Christianity, its authorship is attributed to a prophet who lived in the Assyrian Period and named himself in the first verse, Obadiah. His name means "servant of Yahweh".
In Judaism, Obadiah is considered a "later prophet", one of the "Twelve Prophets" in the final section of Nevi'im, the second main division of the Tanakh.
In Christianity, the Book of Obadiah is classified as a minor prophet of the Old Testament, due to its short length.
The book of Obadiah is based on a prophetic vision concerning the fall of Edom,[v.1,4,18] a mountain dwelling nation[v.8,9,19,21] whose founding father was Esau.[v.6][Genesis 36:9] Obadiah describes an encounter with God, who addresses Edom's arrogance and charges them for their violent actions against their brother nation, the House of Jacob (Israel).[v.10]
The western half of ancient Edom is the Negev desert all the way to Eilat, all part of modern Israel. The eastern half is possessed by the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. In the days of Obadiah, the Edomites lived along the cliffs and mountaintops of the arid land south of the Dead Sea, all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea. There was very little in the way of arable land, so the Edomites made their living supporting (and controlling) the main caravan route between Egypt and Babylon that passed through their whole land.
Throughout most of the history of Judah, Edom was controlled absolutely from Jerusalem as a vassal state. Among the region's great powers, Edom was held in low regard. Obadiah said that the high elevation of their dwelling place in the mountains of Seir had gone to their head, and they had puffed themselves up in pride. "'Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,' declares the Lord" (Obadiah 1:4, NIV).
In 597 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II sacked Jerusalem, carted away the King of Judah, and installed a puppet ruler. The Edomites helped the Babylonians loot the city. Obadiah, writing this prophecy around 590 BCE, suggests the Edomites should have remembered that blood was thicker than water. '"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 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."' (Obadiah 1:11, 13 NIV)
Obadiah said in judgement God would wipe out the house of Esau forever, and not even a remnant would remain. The Edomites' land would be possessed by Egypt and they would cease to exist as a people. But the Day of the Lord was at hand for all nations, and someday the children of Israel would return from their exile and possess the land of Edom.
Scriptural parallels
The exact expression "the Day of the Lord”, from Obadiah 1:15, has been used by other authors throughout the Old and New Testaments, as follows:
For other parallels, compare Obadiah 1:1–8 with Jeremiah 49:7–16.
The overwhelming theme found in Obadiah is the destruction of the enemies of God's people[citation needed]. Unlike other prophets who call the hearers to repent before they fall under judgment, Obadiah's message is one of inevitable doom as a consequence of previous actions. A Christian with a knowledge of the New Testament of the Bible would say that although God's grace and forgiveness abound in such situations, because God is just there are consequences for opposing God and God's people. Obadiah shows that judgment falls even within the family of God, as Israel and Edom descended from twin brothers, Jacob and Esau. His purpose[citation needed] was to make it known that according to his God, if members of the same family were to treat each other in the same manner as Edom treated the Israelites, they too may be subject to the wrath of God. In relating to theme of Obadiah, it is important to underscore the “punishment” theme this book outlines against Edom. W.J. Deane and J.R. Thomson write this conclusion, “The Book of Obadiah is occupied with one subject – the punishment of Edom for its cruel and unbrotherly conduct towards Judah...”[5] One can link this idea of punishment to one of the major prophets “Ezekiel” who “...interprets the exile to Babylon and the destruction of Jerusalem as deserved punishments for the sins of those who themselves committed them.”[6] Verses 3–7[7] in Obadiah explain to the reader the reason for the punishment theme, “Confidence in one’s power, intelligence, allies, or the topographical features of one’s territory is often mentioned as an attribute of those who foolishly confront the Lord and are consequently punished.”[8] Although destruction is vital to understanding Obadiah, it is of note to understand the destruction being a consequence of action.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Book of Obadiah
Notes on Obadiah 2015 Edition Dr. Thomas L. Constable:
Obadiah wrote to announce coming divine judgment on Edom, and to give the Israelites hope by reminding them of the future that God promised them. "Prophetic oracles against foreign nations, though full of the language of doom, are also implicitly messages of hope for God's people. Such oracles look forward to a time when the predicted demise of the nation under attack will open the way for the restored, purified Israel to blossom once again as the flower of all God's plantings. "Obadiah's message fits this pattern and in some ways even typifies it."12 "What would be a single oracle against a foreign nation in one of the other prophetic books has in Obadiah become an independent book."13 Most authorities see Edom as typical of all the forces arrayed against Israel and Yahweh.14 . Some scholars also see Edom as a type of the flesh, and Obadiah as a prophecy of its eventual destruction.15 "In a sense Obadiah is a miniature profile of the message of all the writing prophets."16 "Edom . . . was tenaciously and rather constantly hostile from beginning, i.e., after the exodus, to end, i.e., after the exile. This factor would itself be enough to cause such a small nation to receive such regular, even prominent mention in prophetic oracles against foreign nations. But Edom's prominence as an enemy was additionally noteworthy because of its historical position as a brother nation to Israel (Gen 25). There are, then, at least three factors that made Edom so prominent among Israel's enemies that it could sometimes function virtually as a paradigm for all of them: (1) the sheer chronological length of its enmity as alluded to in Ezek 35:5; (2) the consistency and intensity of its enmity (as in Obad 10-14); (3) the 'treasonous' nature of its enmity (as in Amos 1:11). No other nation quite shared these characteristics.
There is much to glean from the Prophets all throughout the scriptures. The Book of Obadiah gives insight into the character of YAHUAH and His righteous judgements. I pray that you are blessed and dive into this study as we are literally seeing the judgements of YAHUAH on many nations and it has started with the Body of Christ! (1 Peter 4:17)
Shalom,
Prophet Brandon
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