This is the second lesson in a series of lessons on the book of Obadiah. In this lesson I talk about the Biblical context of Obadiah.
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Transcript:
Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. This is the second lesson in a series of lessons on the book of Obadiah. In this lesson I’m going to talk about the Biblical context of Obadiah.
In the first lesson I talked about why Obadiah is in the Bible. Obadiah was originally written to declare a punishment upon Edom. Edom was punished because they stood back and did not help the Israelites when the Israelites were attacked. Furthermore, the Edomites helped to plunder Israel, and for that they were punished.
In this lesson I’m going to talk about the Biblical context. I’m going to show where Obadiah is in the Bible and how Obadiah fits into the overall story of the Bible. Since Obadiah was written about Esau and Edom, I’m also going to show how Obadiah fits into the overall story of Esau and Edom that we see throughout the Bible.
As you know, the Bible is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament tells us about people and events before the time of Christ. The New Testament tells us about people and events during and after the time of Christ. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek. The Old Testament is primarily about Israel. The New Testament is primarily about the church. The Old Testament time period is what we call the Age of Law. The New Testament time period is what we call the Age of Grace.
Let’s take a look at the Old Testament. There are 39 books in the Old Testament. The first five books are known as the Books of Moses. Sometimes we call them The Books of Law. Sometimes we call them the Pentateuch. They are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Those books tell us about events from creation up to about 1400 BC.
The next 12 books are what we call the Books of History. These are Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. These books tell us about events from 1400 BC up to about 400 BC.
The next five books are called the Books of Poetry. These are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Those books contain poems that were written during the events that are recorded in the first 17 books of the Old Testament.
The next five books are called the Major Prophets. They are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Those are prophecies that were written and prophesied during the events that are recorded in the Books of History.
The last 12 books are the Minor Prophets. These are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi. Those contain prophecies that were also prophesied and written during the events recorded in the Books of History.
Obadiah is one of the Minor Prophets. Obadiah lived and issued his prophecies during the time period that is recorded in the Book of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.
Obadiah was written about Edom so let’s look at an overview of what we know about Edom from the Old Testament. There are 39 books in the Old Testament. 23 of them mention Esau and/or Edom. Out of those 23, there are only a couple that give us most of the information about Edom.
The first book we need to look at in order to understand Edom is the book of Genesis. Genesis tells us about the birth of Esau and the beginnings of the nation of Edom.
The Book of Numbers tells us that when the Israelites left Mount Sinai and went towards the promised land, they had to go around the nation of Edom in order to get to the promised land. There was actually a little bit of skirmishing between Israel and the Edomites at that time.
1 & 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles tell us that when David and Solomon were king, they ruled over Edom. So Edom was under the Israelites for a time. 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles tell us that later Edom gained their independence from Israel and they no longer served Israel.
It was during that time period that Obadiah was written. Obadiah was written in response to the fact that when other countries came and attacked the Israelites, Edom did not help the Israelites. Edom helped to plunder the Israelites.
That is the Biblical context of Obadiah. Let’s review why Obadiah is in the Bible. We see that in 1 Corinthians.
1Cor. 10:11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Paul wrote this about the events recorded in the Old Testament. He said the things in the Old Testament happened as examples for us, and they were written down and delivered to us for our instruction. This applies to the book of Obadiah.
Obadiah tells us about things that happened to Edom. Edom is an example for us, something for us to learn from. Obadiah is in the Bible for our instruction.
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