• Title Page
• Pentateuch
• History
• Poetry
• Prophets
  • Lesson 23: Introduction to the Prophetic Scriptures
  • Lesson 24: Joel
  • Lesson 25: Jonah
  • Lesson 26: Amos
  • Lesson 27: Hosea
  • Lesson 28: Micah
  • Lesson 29: Isaiah
  • Lesson 30: Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Obadiah
  • Lesson 31: Jeremiah
  • Lesson 32: Ezekiel
• Post Captivity Prophets
• Gospels, Acts
• Pauline Epistles
• General Epistles

The Vision of Obadiah

Obadiah, in all probability, received and delivered his vision at a much later period than the other seers grouped together in this lesson, but for convenience sake he is classed with them. Some think his period is shortly after the conquest of Judah by the Babylonians, and just before the conquest of Edom by the same world-power.

“Of all the nations who afflicted the Jews, the chief were the Assyrians, the Chaldeans and the Edomites; and three of the prophets were commissioned specially to pronounce their destruction. Nahum foretells the destruction of the Assyrian; Habakkuk, that of the Chaldeans, and Obadiah the destruction of Edom.”

As Dr. Angus remarks, Israel had no greater enemy than the Edomites, though they were then close relatives.

“They were proud of their wisdom, (Obadiah 8), and of their rocky and impregnable position, (Obadiah 3). But the prophet foretells the uncovering of their treasures, and rebukes their unkind treatment of the Jews, their kinsmen, in rejoicing over their calamities, and encouraging Nebuchadnezzar utterly to exterminate them (Psalm 137:7); for all which an early day of retribution was to come; ‘As thou hast done it shall be done unto thee’ (Obadiah 15).

“But the chosen race themselves had just been carried into captivity; the Holy Land was deserted; and the chastisement denounced against the Edomites might therefore appear not to differ from that which had already inflicted upon the seed of Jacob. The prophet, therefore, goes on to declare that Edom should be as though it had never been, and should be swallowed up forever, while Israel should rise again from her present fall; should repossess not only her own land, but also Philistia and Edom; and finally rejoice in the holy reign of the promised Messiah.”

Jeremiah

The next of the Major Prophets after Isaiah is Jeremiah, for the history of whose times we must refer to II Kings 21-25. The last of the kings of Judah in Isaiah’s time was Hezekiah, one of the very best kings Judah ever had, but he was succeeded by his son Manasseh and his grandson Amon, both of whom were men of a different stamp and in whose reigns idolatry