August 29th: Obadiah & Matthew 1:18-25

Alastair Roberts

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August 29th: Obadiah & Matthew 1:18-25

August 28, 2021

Alastair Roberts

The book of Obadiah. The birth of Jesus.

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Transcript

The Book of Obadiah 1. Obadiah's story is a story of a man who was a slave to the king of Egypt. He was a slave to the king of Egypt. He was a slave to the king of Egypt.

He was a slave to the king of Egypt. He was a slave to the king of Egypt. He was a slave to the king of Egypt.

He was a slave to the king of Egypt. He was a slave to the king of Egypt. He was gates and cast lots for Jerusalem.

You will like one of them. But do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune. Do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin.

Do not boast in the day of distress. Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity.

Do not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity. Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives. Do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress.

For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return on your own head.

For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually. They shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been. But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy.

And the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions. The house of Jacob shall be afire, and the house of Joseph aflame, and the house of Esau stubble. They shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau.

For the Lord has spoken. Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephela shall possess the land of the Philistines. They shall possess the land of Ephraim, and the land of Samaria.

And Benjamin shall possess Gilead. The exiles of this host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites, as far as Zarephath. And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb.

Saviour shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Obadiah is a difficult book to get a handle on. It is the fourth of the prophets in the book of the twelve, but historically placing the book presents challenges.

Obadiah verse 17 is seemingly cited in Joel chapter 2 verse 32. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. Presumably then Obadiah preceded Joel.

There are also points of contact between Jeremiah chapter 49 verse 7 to 22 and its description of the judgment on Edom and the judgment of Edom in the book of Obadiah. Some scholars historically have identified the figure of Obadiah with the Obadiah that was over Ahab's household, an Elijah's contemporary. Yet such an identification is incredibly difficult to maintain when we consider other details about the book.

The book speaks of Edom's plundering of Judah and Jerusalem, and the judgment that it would receive in consequence. Given that many texts of the Old Testament speak to Edom's involvement in the overthrow of Judah and Jerusalem, this strongly points to Obadiah being a response to Edom's part in the downfall of the southern kingdom around 586 BC. Judah had already largely lost possession of the Negev, presumably to the Edomites, prior to the final overthrow of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah chapter 13 verse 19 suggests this. First Ezra chapter 4 verse 45 says that the Edomites burned down the temple in Jerusalem, and verse 50 of that chapter says that the Idumeans had taken over much of the territory of Judah by the period of Darius I. By the time of Malachi chapter 1 verses 2 to 5 however, Edom was devastated. I have loved you, says the Lord.

But you say, how have you loved us? Is not Esau Jacob's brother, declares the Lord? Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country, and left his heritage to jackals of the desert. If Edom says, We are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says, they may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called the wicked country, and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.

Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel. Other scriptures single out Edom for judgement in connection with their role in the destruction of Jerusalem. Lamentations chapter 4 verses 21 to 22.

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. But to you also the cup shall pass, you shall become drunk, and strip yourself bare. The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished.

He will keep you in exile no longer, but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish, he will uncover your sins. Ezekiel chapter 25 verses 12 to 14. Thus says the Lord God, because Edom acted revengefully against the house of Judah, and has grievously offended in taking vengeance on them.

Therefore thus says the Lord God, I will stretch out my hand against Edom, and cut off from it man and beast, and I will make it desolate, from Timan even to Dedan. They shall fall by the sword, and I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel. And they shall do in Edom according to my anger, and according to my wrath, and they shall know my vengeance, declares the Lord God.

Ezekiel chapter 35 contains an even more extensive condemnation and declaration of judgment upon Edom. Psalm 137 verse 7 also speaks to the Edomites sins. Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations.

It seems most natural then to read the book of Obadiah as a response to these same events, in which case it needs to be dated earlier than the completion of the book of Joel, but almost certainly after the destruction of Jerusalem, as it is responding to the Edomites actions in Jerusalem's downfall and prophesying reversal. As in other parts of the book of the twelve, the theme of the day of the Lord is an important and prominent one in the book of Obadiah. This great day of reversal would be one in which the Lord repaid the enemies of his people for their wrongs.

The book of Obadiah is introduced as a vision or revelation, a message received from the Lord, and it begins with a report of a summons to battle against Edom, a report that had been spreading among the nations. Edom is condemned to being greatly diminished among the nations and the peoples. They imagine themselves secure, sheltered in the clefts of the rock, presumably referring to the capital of Edom, Sela, which is a natural rocky highland stronghold.

The pride of the Edomites is expressed in their boast that no one would be able to bring them down. However, the Lord is able to bring them down and to humble their exalted pride. Their lofty dwelling is connected with their pride and also with their hubris that they believe that they can raise themselves up to heaven, soaring aloft like the eagle or setting their nest among the stars.

Verses five and six describe the completeness of the sentence that would fall upon Edom. Had they merely been set upon by thieves, they would lose only those things that the thieves wanted for themselves. If there were a great vineyard in which people were gathering grapes, there would be many left over as gleanings.

The Edomites, however, would be stripped utterly bare. Nothing would be left behind. The severity of the judgment falling upon Edom was in large part due to Edom's treachery.

Edom, descended from Esau, had betrayed his brother Israel, stabbing him in the back. Now Edom itself would suffer similar betrayal. It would discover that its allies, and those with whom it thought itself to be at peace, had deceived them.

Even though the Edomites might have shown favour to these people, the people are going to turn upon them and destroy them. Edom prides itself in its might and also in its wisdom. When thinking about the wisdom of Edom, we might think about the character of Job, Job being associated with the land of Azaz, which many have identified with territory within the land of Edom.

Eliphaz the Temanite, a character within the Book of Job, is also from the region of Edom. Edom's wisdom, however, would be confounded and cut off. Likewise, their mighty men would fall by the sword.

Priding themselves in their military might and in the impregnability of their capital, they would find themselves dragged down to earth, and their military might greatly humbled. All of this is on account of the way that they had betrayed their brother Jacob. In verse 11 they begin by standing aloof in the day of Jerusalem's destruction.

However, they don't stand aloof for long, like carrion birds and scavengers, once the great lion of Babylon brought their brother down, they swooped in to take what they could from the scraps. All of this seems to have fed their pride because the prophet goes on to warn them not to gloat. As they had boasted and gloated in their brother's ruin, they would discover that their pride went before their fall.

There is likely some play upon the word Edom in the use of the word calamity in verse 13. Similar plays upon Edom and calamity and blood are found in Ezekiel chapter 35 verses 5-6. By entering into the gate of Judah and looting the wealth of Judah in the day of his calamity, Edom now has Judah's blood upon its hands.

Verse 14 suggests that Edom's involvement was far more extensive. They were complicit with the enemies of Judah, handing over fugitives into their hands. All of this occurred in the day of Judah's calamity, in the day of the Lord as it came upon Jerusalem.

There is, however, another day of the Lord approaching, a day of the Lord which will come near upon all of the nations, a day prophesied by such as Jeremiah who spoke about the cup of the Lord being handed around among the nations. On this rapidly approaching day, they would experience their comeuppance. They would suffer retribution for what they had done.

We find similar statements to those of verses 15 and 16 in Isaiah chapter 51 verses 21-23. Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk but not with wine. Thus says your Lord, the Lord, your God who pleads the cause of his people, behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering, the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more, and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors who have said to you, bow down that we may pass over, and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.

Their sins would now return upon their own heads, just as Judah had done. Edom would now have to drink the cup of the Lord's wrath on its mountain. Verses 17 and 18 speak of the reversal that would follow.

Mount Zion would be the place of a restored remnant who had escaped the earlier disaster. They would be set apart as holy to the Lord and their land would be restored to them once more. Beyond this, the house of Jacob and of his firstborn Joseph would be raised up above the house of his brother Esau.

The house of Jacob would be like a consuming fire, the great agent of the Lord's wrath. The house of Esau, particularly as a political body, would then be cut off. The Edomites had taken possession of the Negev, but now that situation would be reversed.

Those of the Negev would take possession of Mount Esau, and other parts of the land would be restored to the people. Those of the Shephela would possess the land of the Philistines, and the nation would once more expand into the region of Transjordan. This statement of the Lord's vengeance upon Edom might remind us of Ezekiel 25 verse 14.

These concluding verses serve to fit the account of the Lord's vengeance upon Edom into the larger picture of the coming day of the Lord and the broader eschatological framework of the prophets. We should recognise something of a broadening of the frame here then. The frame is not merely upon Edom by itself, but dealing with the nations more generally, and the larger reality of the Lord restoring his people and establishing his kingdom.

Paul Rabe notes the implicitly two-stage process of the final verse, Saviour's going up to Mount Zion and then ruling Mount Esau. He suggests that we think of the Saviours here like the deliverers of the judges. First Mount Zion is going to be and then second its rule is going to spread out, extending the rule of the Lord over the surrounding nations.

And this is all going to be a means by which the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Within the Book of the Twelve, although the successive prophets don't naturally follow from each other chronologically, there are thematic connections. And in this respect, we should probably connect the Book of Obadiah with the end of the Book of Amos in Amos 9 verses 11 to 12.

In those verses, Jacob's brother Edom is seen as the first example of the wider nations. Its remnant is to come under the reign of the Lord, that remnant of Edom becoming the first of the wider nations that would be called by the Lord's name. A question to consider, what are some of the ways in which the kingdom of Edom relates to the people of Israel over the course of their respective histories? Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 to 25.

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.

Matthew chapter 1 proceeds to recount the birth of Christ. Whereas in the Gospel of Luke, the narrative focuses upon the character of Mary and the story of the nativity around her perspective, in Matthew it is Joseph who is front and centre. And Joseph faces a problem.

He is betrothed to a woman who is found to be with child before they come together. Joseph is a righteous man and his intention seems to be to quietly divorce Mary so that she will not be openly shamed. There is an element of mercy here seen as part of his righteousness, that the righteousness exemplified by him is not going to the full measure of what was allowed to him by the law.

He could have put her to an open shame, but he did not want to. But yet, while he is considering these things, an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and assures him that the child is not a result of unfaithfulness, but that he should marry Mary, the child that has been conceived being from the Holy Spirit. She will bear the son, but he will name the son.

The son will be identified as his son. The son will have the status given by his genealogy. The son is being given not just to Mary alone, but to the couple.

And in the Gospel of Matthew, the prominence of Joseph as a character emphasises this fact, that the child belongs to Joseph and the child is a child that he has the privilege of raising as his own son. The fact that the child is conceived and born prior to any sexual union between Mary and Joseph is important. The child does not come from them.

The child comes from God. It's conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit within Mary. This child to be born is a sort of new creation, a child born apart from human relations, a child that is given to humanity in the fullness of time, the one who fits into this genealogy that we've read in the beginning of this chapter, but one who comes apart from the genealogical processes of procreation.

He takes up this legacy of a messy genealogy and all the baggage that comes with it and he comes into it to bring salvation from the sins that this genealogy might bring to our mind. Joseph is addressed not just as someone who must passively assent to what is happening. He should take action.

He should take Mary as his wife and he should later name the child Jesus. He's given that responsibility towards the child and the responsibility that he's given is also to bear a knowledge of the destiny of this child and to ensure that it is realised. In the chapter that follows we see Joseph playing this part.

He is addressed by angels on a couple of further occasions and is responsible for the safety of this child. God has committed an important task to Joseph's hand and he is a faithful and righteous man who will complete it. At this point Mary would probably have been a young teenager and Joseph just out of his teens.

Their marriage would have been arranged by their parents but with their consent. Their situation would not have been particularly unusual. There would have been many other couples in a similar sort of situation.

The angel's appearance to Joseph is also important because Joseph now can bear witness to Mary's faithfulness and to the origin of Jesus. Both of them have independently received messages from God concerning the identity of the son that Mary is bearing. It doesn't rest upon Mary's word alone or upon Joseph's word alone.

Both of them have this truth and they will bear it together as they hold together in raising this son as faithful parents and as a faithful couple. The child is to be given the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. The name means Yahweh saves.

It connects with the name of Joshua in the Old Testament and the connection between Jesus and Joshua is one worth reflecting upon. Joshua takes over from Moses on the banks of the Jordan and leads the people into the promised land. Jesus is the one who takes over from John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan and will lead his people into salvation.

You can also think about the relationship between Elijah and Elisha. Elisha, God saves, God is salvation, is another name that seems very close to the meaning of Jesus in its significance. And as in the case of Jesus from John the Baptist and Joshua from Moses, Elisha takes over the ministry of Elisha having crossed over to the far side of the Jordan.

These characters then I think have very similar patterns to their lives. Jesus is the one who will save his people from their sins. Jesus comes from heaven but he does not just come down out of the blue into the middle of history as one who's an alien to it.

Rather he's one who takes up a history himself. He takes up a people and he identifies with those people. He comes as the heir of a great legacy of failure and sin and covenant breaking and he holds that history as his own and will bring salvation into that situation.

All of this we're told is in fulfillment of what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. In chapter 7 verse 14 of the book of Isaiah he speaks of a young woman who will conceive and bear a son and whose name will be Emmanuel. Now many have debated about the meaning of this text.

Within the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it invited the reading as a virgin. Whereas in the Hebrew it could just be a young woman more generally. Such a young woman might commonly be presumed to be a virgin but that would not necessarily be the case.

So to see this verse as an Old Testament prediction of the virgin birth is maybe to stretch the meaning of that original text which presents a problem for us. What is Matthew doing with this text? He presents it as being fulfilled in Christ and references the virgin conceiving which is an over-reading of the text as we find it within the context of Isaiah. What's he doing? Well it seems to me that Matthew uses the Old Testament not just in a way that has a this means that relationship where there's an Old Testament prophecy, a New Testament fulfillment.

Rather there's more logic of fulfillment as a filling out, a bringing of the text to a greater and higher expression of its meaning. So whereas in the original context it may have been referring to Ahaz's son Hezekiah as the fulfillment of that prophecy initially, there is a fuller fulfillment which we see in Christ in which case the meaning of the Septuagint becomes more foregrounded. This is a virgin that's going to give birth and it's a fuller realization of the meaning of the original text.

Now when the New Testament authors use the Old Testament they want us to go back to the Old Testament and pay attention to the context. In that original context a reluctant Ahaz who's not really going to listen much to the advice of the prophet does not really want a sign but God gives him a sign anyway and this child will be born and before the child comes of age there will be this deliverance that God will come and be present to his people but there will also be judgment and in that historical situation the child is a sign of God's presence. God's presence in blessing and in judgment.

It's a harbing of what's going to happen in the future. Christ's birth then is a similar sort of thing. God is coming being present to his people and things are going to change.

The miraculous birth of this child is a sign that God is with his people and that things are going to change. There's going to be blessing and there's going to be judgment. God is about to come near to his people in this child and as in the days of Ahaz people need to brace themselves.

A question to consider. Why do you think that God told Joseph after Mary had been found to be with child that the child was from the Holy Spirit rather than beforehand when Mary was told?