Redemption in Obadiah

C. S. Lewis wrote, “There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. . . . The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility” (Mere Christianity, 109-112).

The book of Obadiah is about God's wrath against the sin of human pride and the oppression of Israel by Edom, their close relative from Esau. God said, “The arrogance of your heart has deceived you, the one who lives in the clefts of the rock, on the height of his dwelling place, who says in his heart, ‘Who will bring me down to earth?’ Though you make your home high like the eagle, though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord. (Obad. 1:3-4).

We see in Obadiah God's judgment and God's redemption. God's judgment will come on Edom. ““For the day of the Lord is near for all the nations. Just as you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head” (1:15). However, redemption will come for Jacob. “But on Mount Zion there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. And the house of Jacob will possess their property” (1:17).

Ben