Obadiah: Introduction

We have no idea who was the prophet Obadiah. We cannot match him to any other Obadiah who appears in the historical narratives. Nor can we precisely determine his dates, because there are four similar events which match what he condemns in his prophecy. Edom’s final perfidy was during the Babylonian conquest and destruction of Jerusalem. Of course, Babylon turned on Edom a couple of years later. Sometime later the Nabateans invaded Edom as the new rulers.
What matters most is the message itself. One of the most ancient customs among humans has been the utter necessity of treating blood kin somewhat better, with much greater forgiveness and flexibility than other humans. Granted, when someone makes themselves your enemy, it won’t matter if it’s your brother. Still, Jacob took nothing Esau didn’t throw away. Nor did it matter how he got it, because God Himself revealed Jacob was the chosen, so Esau had the obligation to step aside. Instead, Esau’s descendants treated Jacob’s with a particularly raw and bitter hatred above all other nations on the earth. In other words, only God’s patience prevented Him wiping Edom from human memory until very late in the game, when He was about ready to remove Israel from her favored position once and for all.
Christ closed the Covenant of Moses. Just a century or so before that, the Edomites were absorbed into what was left of Israel, the kingdom of Judah. Edomite King Herod, having married into the Judean royal family, usurped the throne by killing all rivals. His sons are the last known Edomite blood in history, disappearing when Rome finally crushed Jewish revolts.