Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Obadiah 1:15-21
The Day Of YHWH Will Result In The Carrying Out Of God's Judgment And Will Bring About The Vindication Of God's People (Obadiah 1:15).
But what they had overlooked was that one day YHWH would call them to account, as he would all nations. Each nation would have its ‘day of YHWH'. For Edom it would come soon. As they had done, so it would be done to them. When they themselves were invaded they would find none to sympathise. And the same would happen in one way or another to ‘all the nations'. Just as Edom would drink of YHWH's vengeance because of how they had behaved towards Judah, so would all the nations continually. They would drink it to the full so that their very names would be wiped out. They would be as though they had never existed.
But those who escaped of the house of Jacob (the people of God) would come out of the situation on the other side and would possess their inheritance, and would themselves be the fire that burned up Edom, something finally fulfilled when the remnants of Edom who had taken shelter in Idumaea, southern Judah, would forcibly be circumcised and have to become Jews (under John Hyrcanus in 2nd century BC). The remnants of Edom were no more.
“For the day of YHWH is near on all the nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you.
Your dealing will return on your own head.”
The prospect of a ‘day of YHWH' or possibly better ‘a time of YHWH' (yom cannot be restricted just to mean ‘day') is common in many of the prophets. It was based on the certainty that in the end the nations would be punished for their behaviour and for their refusal to accept YHWH. For Edom it would come in the not too distant future (as also described in Isaiah 34). They would first lose their land and then finally be absorbed by the Jews. But all nations would have their ‘time of YHWH'. And it was approaching. It was ‘near'.
“For as you have drunk on my holy mountain,
So will all the nations drink continually,
Yes, they will drink, and swallow down,
And will be as though they had not been.”
And in that time, just as Edom had drunk on YHWH's holy mountain, figuratively if not literally when they feasted in rejoicing at Jerusalem's demise (although if it was at the time of the exile they might vindictively have followed up Jerusalem's destruction by partying in the ruins of Jerusalem itself), and would then have to drink equally deeply of the bitterness of YHWH's vengeance (see especially Jeremiah 25:15; Psalms 75:8; and compare Isaiah 51:17; Ezekiel 23:31; Habakkuk 2:16), so would all nations have to drink to the full of His anger. In the end there is no escape for any.
So the ‘day of YHWH' is a term which covers all the times when YHWH would bring to bear His anger on different nations at different times. It was a recognition by the prophets that one day in one way or another all nations would be brought to account, and it would solidify into the idea of a final day of judgment on the nations.
“But in mount Zion there will be those who escape,
And it will be holy,
And the house of Jacob will possess their possessions.”
But the one nation which would come through all this satisfactorily would be ‘the house of Jacob'. For them there was hope. A remnant of them would survive and would be re-established in Mount Zion, and mount Zion would again be holy (see Isaiah 4:3), and the house of Jacob would possess its inheritance.
A partial fulfilment of this undoubtedly happened in the rebuilding of Israel after the exile, when many exiles returned to join up in the land with those who had remained faithful to YHWH and a new nation, and then a new Jerusalem, was born. It was they who in fact would ‘devour Esau' when the Edomites who had fled to southern Judah and settled there were forced to become Jews at the point of the sword by John Hyrcanus. But it also contained within it the general certainty of the continuation of the people of God, although even the prophets did not realise quite how the new Israel, the Israel of God, would take possession of the world, not by sword, but by the word of God (although Isaiah 2, among others, makes it clear). For in the coming of Jesus, Who was Himself ‘the true Vine' (John 15:1), a new Israel would be formed who would take God's salvation to all so that from all nations there would be those who would respond, forming together the new Israel of God (Galatians 6:16; Romans 11:17; Eph 2:11-22; 1 Peter 2:9; etc), the new ‘congregation' of Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18).
“And the house of Jacob will be a fire,
And the house of Joseph a flame,
And the house of Esau for stubble,
and they will burn among them, and devour them,
And there will not be any remaining to the house of Esau,
For YHWH has spoken it.”
The final demise of Edom (the house of Esau) will take place at the hands of the house of Jacob. While the people of God will burn brightly, Esau will be the stubble consumed in its flames, until none of Esau are left. Edom will simply be swallowed up into the people of God (which as we have seen took place under John Hyrcanus in 2nd century BC).
‘For YHWH has spoken it.' Such a comment about YHWH's effective word regularly comes in the middle of a prophecy. See especially Amos where similar phrases occur regularly.
“And they of the South (the Negeb) will possess the mount of Esau,
And they of the lowland the Philistines,
And they will possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria,
and Benjamin will possess Gilead.”
“And the captives of this host of the children of Israel, who are among the Canaanites,
Will possess even to Zarephath,
And the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad,
Will possess the cities of the South.”
The triumph of the people of YHWH is finally depicted as they will expand outwards from the areas to which they have been restricted, or will even take possession of the land of their captives, while those exiled in a far off place will return to take possession of the cities of the Negeb, so badly treated by the Edomites. Thus Edom's rejoicing over Judah's demise has been premature.
As a result those of Israel/Judah who live in the Negeb will expand southwards to take possession of Mount Esau, those of Israel/Judah who dwell in the lower hills (the Shephelah) will expand westward to take possession of Philistia, others will take possession of the countryside of Ephraim and Samaria, and even Transjordan will be repossessed. Benjamin were (anciently) conveniently situated for the task.
Furthermore those who were exiled among the Canaanites north of Israel/Judah would take possession of the land where they were held captive. Zarephath was south of Sidon on the road to Tyre. And even more emphatically those who had been exiled to far off Sepharad would return to take possession of the cities of the Negeb (the very cities which Edom had sought to appropriate). Sepharad was possibly Sardis, capital of Lydia in Asia Minor, known in Persian times as Sfard. It may be identifiable with the Saparda of Assyrian inscriptions. But this is not certain. What is certain is that it indicted some far off place where there were exiles from Judah/Israel.
The whole picture is of Israel resettling their land and expanding, something which remarkably came to fulfilment in the intertestamental period. While Edom sank without trace, the people at whose demise they had rejoiced would rise again.
In the end, however, the ‘country' which the people of God seek is a heavenly one. When Abraham and his descendants looked for a city and for a country they were not seeking an earthly one but a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:10). Thus the final fulfilment of these promises will be in the new heavens and the new earth.
“And saviours will come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau,
And the kingdom will be YHWH's.”
And what is most important to the prophet is that YHWH will no longer have rivals. He alone will reign and will be worshipped. The syncretism that was such a running sore throughout the Book of Kings will have gone for ever, And the people of God will worship the one true God as their great Overlord and King. The kingship will be YHWH's.
And this would be accomplished by ‘saviours'. Those who would cause the people of God to triumph. Initially this would be the Maccabees and those who followed them, who would re-establish Israel/Judah, but finally it would be the Apostles who as the foundation of the new Israel would take God's word, first to their fellow-Jews, (establishing the new chosen Israel among the old, the Israel within Israel of Paul - Romans 9:6), and then to the nations, who would become a part of that new Israel, by the spreading of the good news of the Kingly Rule of God. And that triumph will take in the mount of Esau. God's people will be triumphant.
But the final fulfilment of these prophecies awaits the new heavens and the new earth in which dwells righteousness, where YHWH will be supreme (Revelation 21-22).