The message in Obadiah actually gives us the keys to the Kingdom!
Obadiah is a very short book of the Bible. It was Obadiah’s assignment to give voice to God’s word of judgement against Edom. We know nothing about Obadiah except that he was one of two prophets (Jeremiah the other) that delivered a word of judgement against Edom.
This is an indictment of Edom’s cruel injustice to God’s chosen people, the Israelites. This can be traced back to the twins Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25-36). Jacob was the ancestor to the people of Israel, Esau the ancestor to the people of Edom. They never got along and had a long history of war and rivalry. Even when Israel was taken into exile, first by the Assyrians (721 B.C.) and later by the Babylonians (560 B.C.), Edom watched and then participated with gladness (along with the Babylonians) to see her old relative get beat up!
The Edomites lived in a rocky, mountainous region south of the Dead Sea which was scarcely accessible to attacking armies and they had become complacent about their security, confident and proud that no one could hurt them. But as we know from God’s Word, Pride goes before a fall! Their pride and their unrelenting attack on God’s chosen people would be their downfall. Hence the Babylonians (the very people they had helped) turned against them and so devastated them that they ceased to be a nation.
The tables have turned! Now Israel rules over the Edomites. But rather than vengeance and continuing the cycle of violence they are presented as taking over the reins of government and administering God’s justice justly.
The message in Obadiah gives rise to hope! No matter how long a family or national legacy has been in existence, it is never too late to break a cycle of broken relationships and repression by walking in the opposite spirit! We see this Kingdom Key in Ephesians 4:28 ESV: "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need." You cannot “only” stop the behaviors in order to birth a new legacy and future. Is the thief no longer a thief when he is in between heists? No! He must stop the stealing and then put his hands to work in honest labor and then share with others. Healing and wholeness begins when we start walking in the opposite spirit, a Kingdom key that can be applied to our personal life and for our Nation!
May God bless you as you walk in the opposite spirit for His Kingdom!