Obadiah The Prophet Essay, Research Paper

Prophet & # 8211 ; One who utters divinely divine disclosures

That is how the word prophesier is defined in Webster? s lexicon, but a prophesier is much more. A prophesier is person who is chosen by God to convey his message to the people ; a jobber between God and his people. A prophesier is person who God selects as the incarnation of himself. Person that people will listen to. Person with a presence. Now the Prophetss did non all lead perfect lives, but they all had a bond with the Lord that could non be matched. The Prophets were holy people but they were in no manner God-like. They were low people that lief served their God. This sum-up of a prophesier is what most people believe the prophesier Obadiah was like.

Obadiah, the shortest book in the Old Testament consisting of merely one chapter, is the dictum of day of reckoning against an ancient and long-forgotten state, the land of Edom. It was written in 587 B.C.E, after the devastation of Jerusalem. But there is more to this book than that. The Bibles have that ability of looking to be one thing on the surface, but on a deeper degree, giving rich and mighty hoarded wealths. This is decidedly true for the short, but meaningful book of Obadiah.

We know really small about Obadiah except that he was one of the minor Prophetss. There is a mention to a prophesier Obadiah in the yearss of Elijah and Elisha and there is some idea that possibly he is the same adult male. The name Obadiah was a really common name among the Hebrews though, and it is really likely this is non the same prophesier, for in this book Obadiah mentions the twenty-four hours when Jerusalem was destroyed, captured by the foreigner ground forcess, and that occurs long after the clip of Elijah and Elisha. So most Bible observers believe the writer of this book was a modern-day of the prophesier Jeremiah, the last of the Prophetss before Israel went into imprisonment.

The name Obadiah means & # 8220 ; the retainer of Jehovah ; & # 8221 ; He fulfills the place of a retainer. He comes and does his work and slices into the background ; he delivers his message and he is gone. That is about all we know about the adult male behind this book.

The book of Obadiah tells the narrative of two states, the state of Israel and the state of Edom, the state to the South of Israel that is now normally referred to as the Negeb. Through this ancient land of Edom the Israelites marched as they came into the land of Israel out of the imprisonment and bondage of Egypt. As they came into the land they had trouble with the Edomites ; they were enemies of Israel from its really beginning.

I have come up with what I think is a really equal and meaningful theory about this book. I think this is a narrative about these two states, but behind that is a narrative about two work forces. Every state in the Bible is a elongated shadow of its laminitis, and the two work forces behind the states Israel

and Edom were duplicate brothers from Genesis, Jacob and Esau. Jacob was the male parent of Israel, and Esau, his twin brother, became the Father of the Edomites. In the narrative of these states you besides have the drawn-out narrative of these two work forces, Jacob and Esau. God, in a sense, has made these two into the size of states. As the prophesier discusses this you can see that the narrative of these two work forces continues ; Israel is still Jacob and Edom is still Esau.

Jacob and Esau were in changeless struggle. We read in the book of Genesis that even before they were born, they struggled together in their female parent & # 8217 ; s uterus. That struggle marked the lives of these two work forces, and the lives of their posterities, the two states of Israel and Edom.

In Genesis, Jacob was Mother & # 8217 ; s favourite and Esau was Dad? s favourite, and at that place was one ageless struggle between these two work forces, which did non stop with their deceases. The states carried on this same struggle, and all the manner from Genesis through Malachi there is the menace of battle and unbroken struggle between them. In the book of Malachi ( Genesis records the beginning of these states ) , the last book of the Old Testament, God says, & # 8220 ; I have loved Jacob but I have hated Esau. & # 8221 ; ( Mal. 1:2 ) . God has taken these two work forces and the subsequent states that came from them, and used them through the Bible as a consistent image of the struggle between the our lives and our spirit ; Jacob and Esau, Israel and Edom.

Edom ( and Esau? s ) job is pride. The pride of your bosom has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the stone, whose home is high, who say in your bosom, & # 8220 ; Who will convey me down to the land? & # 8221 ; Though you soar aloft like the bird of Jove, though your nest is set among the stars, thence I will convey you down, says the Lord. { Ob 1:4 } Here God tells Edom that its pride is false and that it has blinded them from God, Edom? s pride stood in the manner of them accepting the Israelites, merely as Esau? s pride stood in the manner of him demuring Jacob. Edom starts acquiring cocky and believes that it is untouchable, but that idea is halted when God claims that no affair how high up Edom is, He will convey him down.

Obadiah was non a ocular prophesier. He was non a public talker. No 1 truly even cognize who he was or when he lived or what he looked like, for all we know he could hold been a adult female. But one thing is for certain & # 8211 ; he has one of the most powerful books in the Bible. God conveys to Obadiah all emotions, love, choler, forgiveness, and he tells the people this consecutive frontward. This book is short and austere. God gets right to the point by stating the people fundamentally his ultimate message ; follow me and believe in me and goodness shall come to you ; nevertheless if you do non follow me and doubt me, I will hold no love for you. The book of Obadiah is little and can be easy passed over, but in my sentiment this book is more than worth the clip it takes to read it.