Read 160.) Obadiah, the first of the writing prophets. With Obadiah, we commence the reading of the 16 prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible. There are 4 major prophets, and 12 minor prophets. Obadiah being but one chapter, and only 21 verses, is the first of all the writing prophets, and is a minor prophet. Of perhaps keenest interest, right off the bat, is that Obadiah, writing about 850 BC, is not even prophesying primarily of either the northern kingdom of Israel, or the southern kingdom of Judah, but is, rather, foretelling of what will become of a neighboring nation to their south, that being Edom. Edom participated in what is recorded in II Kings 8:2-22, and II Chronicles 21:16+17, which provoked this response from the Lord in Obadiah. Edom’s prophesied fall came about when Babylon swept through the land about 250 years later.
This is NOT to say that being minor, of few verses, and not even about Israel, that there is little to be noted here. The Bible seems to prophetically speak of 2 more specific periods of time in the future. This particular study of the Bible is called Eschatology, or the study of Last Things. We often refer to it as the End-Time Scenario. The Last Days of planet earth, as we know it, would appear to conclude with a brief 7-year period of unprecedented disaster, catastrophe and judgments of the Lord upon it; to be followed by the most unprecedented blissful and blessed period, the duration of which will be 1,000 years, known as the Millennium, or the Millennial Kingdom. This will be that period which follows the Return, or Second-Coming, of Messiah, Jesus Christ, to the Earth to establish His reign upon it. These things are the specific topics of the book of the Revelation at the very end of the Bible.
What we look for, are those clues and passages that appear to strongly suggest that the prophets were writing specifically about either one or the other of those last two time periods. There are incredibly particular and obvious tip-offs. By means of these, we can know that those time periods will actually come to pass, and something more of just what they will really be like! Did Obadiah speak of these things? Yes, he did!
Verses 15 and 16 speak to the 7-year period of Tribulation, when all the armies of the nations on earth will be destroyed in and because of Israel. Verbal clues have to do with the expression, “The day of the Lord,” and references to “all the nations.” Verses 17 and 18 speak right to that time when Messiah returns and commences His Kingdom over all the earth. The closing verses tell of the expansion of Israel’s borders, in the time of the Millennial Kingdom, to finally include all those lands that the Lord had first promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the very beginning. Israel will finally possess all its Promised Land in the Kingdom of the Lord. It’s part of what the Book is all about!
ForeverKingdom,
Harold F Crowell
ForeverKingdom's Blog 