Obadiah

As always, we must recognize a significant portion of the text is parabolic. Yet parts of it we can recognize in literal events in history. Most importantly is the clear lesson how God judges the nations impartially, even when the victim is Israel. Had Edom simply remained aloof from her cousins, she would have suffered precious little. Instead, her bitter war against God’s revealed purpose and will was a war against God Himself. We are hardly surprised so much of this is typical of God’s wrath: The exact kind of evil she brought against Israel was magnified upon her own head.
The literary format is a bill of accusation presented in a law court. The Judge is Jehovah, of course. It is He who sent an angelic runner to announce His sentence against Edom, that all nations should rise up together against her, no one as her ally or protector. Meanwhile, the Judge lectures the defendant.
Edom was known for unspeakable arrogance, trusting in how difficult it was to approach the capital city. The narrow gorge was the only entrance, and there was precious little room to assemble troops in front of the city. No matter, because God Himself was answering her bold challenge. Could the city even fly in the sky, it would not escape His wrath. Were it merely robbers or crop raiders, they would take only what they could easily carry. God would send assaults capable of invading the secret treasuries, leaving nothing. Everyone who had ever been allied would betray them, even while Edom’s food bribes were in their mouths. Her wisest men would become fools, and her most depraved soldiers would fear.
What were her crimes? In the ancient world, blood ties were the substance of all God’s Laws. By His command, all governments were supposed to be blood relations to those they governed. This remains today the single strongest tie between humans in their fallen state. However bad a tribal government could be, it could not possibly be so bad as every other form of government man has dreamed up since then. It was God Himself who declared no one should have significant rule in your daily life who isn’t related to you by blood or covenant. So it should surprise no one the Lord takes particular offense when blood kin are set against each other. Esau was Jacob’s brother; their descendants in the nations of Edom and Israel were blood relations, shared DNA. God would not permit Israel to harm Edom, but Edom couldn’t wait to do anything, small or great, against Israel.
Every time any power rose up to invade Jerusalem, to take plunder and captives, Edom begged — even offered bribes — for the opportunity to participate as her enemy. It was not for the profit, but the sheer and unspeakable spite. This destroyed the fundamental boundaries between nations in God’s Laws. Even when the invaders were hostile to Edom as well, she would volunteer to cut off escape routes for any part of Israel. They dared to drink celebratory toasts to their pagan deities in the very Temple grounds.
Thus, Edom would be driven from her home, so that foreign invaders toast their gods against Edom’s losses until the earth was removed. We know during the early part of the Restoration when some tiny remnant had returned to Jerusalem from Exile, that Arab tribes invaded Edom’s territory. Arabs subjugated Edom completely as slaves and peasants on their own ancient homeland. A couple of centuries later, the Nabateans invaded and drove all of them out. A tiny remnant of Edomites occupied the Negev and portions of southern Judah, only to be subjugated by John Hyrcanus. They were finally absorbed into Judah and disappeared from history before the Romans broke the final Jewish revolt.
Meanwhile, when Messiah comes and brings the New Israel, no one will remember Edom, nor any other enemy of the old Israel. The symbolism of the revived Davidic Kingdom against the hopeless end of the Edomites is God rubbing it into her face.