Sunday School June 27th, Obadiah

Greetings, Sunday School friends!

This morning I hope to get to two different topics, but if we only get to the first, there's lots of summer still ahead of us for straying off our usual path of lectionary-oriented Bible study.

The first topic is the OT book Obadiah. I have a chat sheet to use in class and is added to this blogpost at the end (scroll way down). For now, here's handout information about Obadiah.

עֹֽבַדְיָ֑ה

Obadiah (Complete Jewish Bible)

1 This is the vision of ‘Ovadyah. Here is what יְהוִ֜ה לֶאֱד֗וֹם yehVAH haShem Adonai Elohim says about Edom. As a messenger was being sent among בַּגּוֹיִ֑ם the Goyim the nations saying, “Come on, let’s attack her,” we heard a message from Adonai:

“I am making you the least of all nations, you will be beneath contempt.

Your proud heart has deceived you,

you whose homes are caves in the cliffs, who live on the heights and say to yourselves, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

If you make your nest as high as an eagle’s, even if you place it among the stars, I will bring you down from there.” says Adonai.

If thieves were to come to you, or if robbers by night (Oh, how destroyed you are!), wouldn’t they stop when they’d stolen enough? If grape-pickers came to you, Wouldn’t they leave some grapes for gleaning?

But see how ‘Esav has been looted,

their secret treasures searched out!

Your allies went with you only to the border, those at peace with you deceived and defeated you, those who ate your food set a trap for you, and you couldn’t discern it.

“When that Day comes,” says Adonai,

“won’t I destroy all the wise men of Edom and leave no discernment on Mount ‘Esav?

Your warriors, Teman, will be so distraught that everyone on Mount ‘Esav will be slaughtered.

For the violence done to your kinsman Ya’akov, shame will cover you;

and you will be forever cut off.

On that day you stood aside, while strangers carried off his treasure, and foreigners entered his gates to cast lots for Yerushalayim — you were no different from them.

You shouldn’t have gloated over your kinsman on their day of disaster or rejoiced over the people of Y’hudah on their day of destruction. You shouldn’t have spoken arrogantly on a day of trouble

or entered the gate of my people on their day of calamity — no, you shouldn’t have gloated over their suffering on their day of calamity or laid hands on their treasure on their day of calamity.

You shouldn’t have stood at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives

or handed over their survivors on a day of trouble.”

For the Day of Adonai is near for all nations; as you did, it will be done to you; your dealings will come back on your own head.

For just as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink in turn; yes, they will drink and gulp it down and be as if they had never existed.

But on Mount צִיּ֛וֹן Tziyon there will be a holy remnant who will escape, and the house of Ya‘akov will repossess their rightful inheritance.

The house of Ya‘akov will be a fire and the house of Yosef a flame, setting aflame and consuming the stubble which is the house of ‘Esav. None of the house of ‘Esav will remain, for Adonai has spoken.

Those in the Negev will repossess the mountain of ‘Esav, and those in the Sh’felah the land of the P’lishtim; they will repossess the field of Efrayim and the field of Samaria, and Binyamin will occupy Gil‘ad.

Those from this army of the people of Isra’el exiled among the Phoenicians as far away as Tzarfat, and the exiles from Yerushalayim in S’farad, will repossess the cities in the Negev.

Then the victorious will ascend Mount Tziyon to rule over Mount ‘Esav,

but the kingship will belong to Adonai.

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The Book of Obadiah is an oracle based on a prophetic vision concerning the fall of Edom, a mountain dwelling nation whose founding father by Jewish tradition was Esau, brother of Jacob/Israel. Obadiah describes an encounter with Yahweh, who addresses Edom's arrogance and charges them for their "violence against your brother Jacob".

Throughout much of the history of Judah, Edom seems to have been controlled from Jerusalem as a vassal state and therefore ‘inferior’.

Edomite religion is largely unknown before their conversion to Judaism by the Hasmoneans (140-37 BC). Written evidence suggests the national god of Edom was Qaus (קוס) (Qaush Kaush Kaus Kos Qaws) as Qaus is invoked in the blessing formula in letters and appear in personal names found in ancient Edom. As close relatives of other Levantine Semites, they may have worshiped such gods as El, Baal, Qaus and Asherah. The oldest biblical traditions place the deity of southern Edom as Yahweh, who may have originated in "Edom/Seir/Teman/Sinai" before being adopted in Israel and Judah. Obadiah said that the high elevation of their dwelling place in the mountains of Seir had gone to their head, and they had puffed themselves up in pride and considered themselves invulnerable. Dating Isaiah 34:5-8 shows 8th century enmity between Judah and Edom. Obadiah 1–9 has parallels to Jeremiah 49:7–22. The passage in the Book of Jeremiah dates from the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim (604 BC), and therefore Obadiah seems to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II (586 BC) and the beginning of Babylonian Exile.

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Isaiah 34:5–8

5When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, lo, it will descend upon Edom, upon the people I have doomed to judgment. 6The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood, it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their soil made rich with fat. 8For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of vindication by Zion’s cause.

Jeremiah 49:7-22 (CJB)

Concerning Edom, this is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says:

“Is there no wisdom left in Teman? Have her wise men forgotten how to counsel?

Has their wisdom vanished?

Flee! Turn back! Hide yourselves well, you who live in D’dan; for I am bringing calamity on ‘Esav, when the time for me to punish him comes.

If grape-pickers came to you,

they would leave no grapes for gleaning. If thieves came at night, they would destroy until they were satisfied.

So I, for my part, have stripped ‘Esav bare, I have exposed his hiding-places; he will not be able to hide himself. He is doomed — sons, brothers and neighbors — so that he is no more.

Leave your orphans; I will keep them alive; let your widows trust in me.”

12 For this is what Adonai says: “Those who do not deserve to drink from this cup will have to drink it anyway, so should you go unpunished? No, you will not go unpunished; you will certainly drink it.

For I have sworn by myself,” says Adonai, “that Botzrah will become a ruin and an object of astonishment, reproach and cursing; all its cities will be ruins forever.”

I have heard a message from Adonai: “A messenger is sent among the nations, saying:

‘Gather together, and march against her! Prepare for battle!’

Here! I will make you least among nations, the most despised of people.

Your capacity to terrorize has deceived you and made you arrogant. You make your home in the rocky crags and seize the top of the mountain; but even if you build your nest high as an eagle’s,from there I will drag you down,” says Adonai.

Edom will become an object of horror; everyone passing by will whistle in astonishment at all its disasters.

It will be like the overthrow of S’dom, ‘Amora and their neighboring towns,” says Adonai. “No one will settle there any more, no human being will live there again.

It will be like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Yarden against a strong settlement:

in an instant I will chase him away and appoint over it whomever I choose.

For who is like me? Who can call me to account? What shepherd can stand up to me?”

So hear the plan of Adonai that he has devised against Edom,

and his purpose that he will accomplish against those who live in Teman:

the least of the flock will drag them away; their own pasture will be in shock at them.

The earth quakes at the sound of their fall; their cry can be heard at the Sea of Suf.

Like a vulture he will soar, swoop down and spread out his wings against Botzrah. On that day the hearts of Edom’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

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This morning I hope we can do two things, but if we only deal with the first, that’s okay, there’s lots of summer ahead of us, and we’re taking the summer to wander off our usual lectionary-oriented path into other topics.

First topic this morning is Obadiah (week before last, I invited you to decide what you’d like to study, and you said for me to choose, so for this morning I’ve chosen Obadiah).

First, I’ll give you some background so you know what Yahweh is talking about in Obadiah as we read it.

There is no unanimity among scholars about Obadiah, but there are majority views, and I’ll observe those. The shortest book in the Bible, Obadiah is one or two pages, 21 verses. It’s an oracle, the prophet’s vision of God speaking, all offered as verbatim from God.

Obadiah seems to be dated AFTER the Judeans’ 539 BC return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Exile, 6th century BC. Edom had long been under the vassal protectorate of Judea, and Bible sources, including a few verses from Isaiah show antagonism between Edom and Judea, which you might expect, resentment from the Edomites about being made subject and therefore inferior. During the Babylonian conquest of Judea, Judean military forces protecting Edom were destroyed, and so without that protection, during the Babylonian Exile (looking at the map on your handout), Arab forces pressured the people of Edom out of their desirable high, mountainous land, and they migrated into and occupied adjacent territory that was Judea.

So, when the Judeans return from fifty years of Babylonian Exile, they find that Edomites have overrun part of their former territory, and the Judeans are angry and want them out, but the Edomites are staying. Now here’s the thing: if the Judeans (Israelites) are unhappy and angry, Yahweh is unhappy and angry, because Yahweh is the national God of Israel, who fights for and protects the Jews (the Israelites). Yahweh does not love or fight for or protect Edom, the Edomites have their OWN god, whose name is Qaus or Kaus or Chaus, depending on how you spell it in Hebrew. (Edom’s god Kaus is mentioned in your handout).

Going back to the most ancient religious mythology of the Middle East, the parent God EL, as in Elohim, has seventy sons (with his consort ASHerah), and each son is given authority as the god of a certain nation. Edom’s god is Kaus, Israel’s god is Yahweh. There’s another handout (lifted from Wikipedia) explaining all this in case you are interested, you can read it later, and see how over time EL and Yahweh are unified as Yahweh Elohim (Adonai Elohim later, when it becomes forbidden in Jewish custom to speak Yahweh’s name), it’s really interesting and will take you 20 minutes to read. (Not during the sermon, please).

So anyway, the idea is that Yahweh is angry with Edom, and dictates his oracle, which is the entirety of the Book of Obadiah, declaring hopeless doom for Edom. In it, Yahweh remembers, and is furious with the Edomites for helping the Babylonians overrun Judah and conquer Jerusalem in the battle before the Exile. In fact, that’s the main thing you’ll notice in the oracle (more so than the subsequent Edomite occupation of part of Judea). We’re gonna read Obadiah, in which Yahweh is so angry with Edom.

But before we read Obadiah, I’m going to read a part of the book of Jeremiah (chapter 49, verses 7 - 22) so you can see that Obadiah is not the only prophet who picked up this oracle. It’s in Jeremiah also, though at the end.

Jeremiah was probably dead in his own exile in Egypt by the time Jeremiah’s secretary Baruch and other writers and editors put the finishing touches on the Book of Jeremiah after the Jews returned from Babylonian Exile. So even if Jeremiah himself did not write this part of the Book of Jeremiah, hearing what’s in Jeremiah 49 about Edom helps ratify AND DATE what Obadiah says as post-exilic.

READ JEREMIAH 49:7-22

Now let’s read Obadiah, which is what we’re about today.

O-Vad-YAH: Servant of Yahweh, Slave of Yahweh.

Notice as we read: this destruction is TOTAL and FOREVER. In most OT prophecy, there’s is hope, redemption is promised at the end, through a remnant of the people whom God leaves still alive to make a future comeback. Not so with Edom, these despised “children of Esau” who should have acted as “brothers” of the “children of Jacob/Israel” but were perfidious, contributed to Judea’s downfall to the Babylonians, and (bad, worse, maybe worst of all) as soon as the Babylonians left the Judeans weak, the Edomites moved in and took their land.

Our OT Jewish, Israelite theme is that we will hate these ugly, stupid, hairy, red Edomite Neanderthals forever!! They are our EX-brothers.

Here we go!