Obadiah’s message can be found in the book of Obadiah chapter 1

Influential Men of the Bible: Obadiah

Obadiah’s message can be found in the book of Obadiah chapter 1

The prophet Obadiah wrote the book of by the same name without saying anything about himself, so little is known about him. This is the shortest book of the Bible, containing only twenty one verses. The prophet deals with the feud between Edom and Israel.

The Edomites lived in a rocky mountain range south of the Dead Sea. Every now and then they would go and raid Israel’s camp and then run back to their strongholds in the mountains. These descendants of Esau were in constant conflict with the Jewish people, even refusing to allow them passageway through their land. God of course was not pleased. Obadiah predicted that “Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame, you will be destroyed forever”. (1:10). God protected Israel, and punished anyone who opposed them. The Edomites thought that their stronghold was impregnable. They became very arrogant with their sense of security. This was the message Obadiah gave the them from the God: "Listen to this, Edom: I'm turning you to a no-account, the runt of the godless nations, despised. you thought you were so great, perched high among the rocks, king of the mountain, thinking to yourself, nobody can get to me! Nobody can touch me! 'Think again. Even if, like an eagle, you hang out on a high cliff-face. Even if you build your nest in the stars, I'll bring you down to earth." God's sure Word. (vs. 2-4 message bible)

When someone is lead to believe that all is well before attacking or doing someone bad, it is called a false sense of security. This describes the Edomites. So sure of themselves that they continued to do bad things to the children of Israel thinking nobody could stop them. The last time I heard such arrogance was in the case of the Titanic. It was reported that not even God himself could sink this ship. On April 10th 1912 the Titanic set sail from Southampton with 2,200 passengers and crew, four days later the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank. 1500 people died and 700 survived. As well built as it was, the Titanic was still stoppable.

The message of Obadiah serves well to encourage us that God will fight for us. Sometimes people will do you wrong and think that you can’t do anything about it and nobody can stop them. They can do what they want, when they want, to whom they want. You might be experiencing this right now. It may look as if your enemy is winning and things are not going to change, but hold your peace, and let the Lord fight your battle. He will give you the victory!! The same words that God spoke to the Edomites when they came against his chosen people; he speaks to your enemies. “Even if you build your nest in the stars, I’ll bring you down to earth (vs. 4). Your enemies arms are too short to box with God, so don’t worry about it anymore. Your enemy is going down!!