Huge Hope: Major Power in the Minor ProphetsSample

God’s justice doesn’t always look like what we think justice should look like. That plays out in lots of ways, but in the book of Obadiah it plays out in the prideful being brought down to size.

Not everyone is equal, but in Obadiah we see a nation get brought low because they lorded their military might over a weaker opponent. First, they did nothing but watch while someone else did the dirty work. Then they made fun of those who were being oppressed. Then they helped do the oppressing.

It was a slippery slope of pride and they fell all the way down it. They got drunk on their own power and God made sure they hit rock bottom.

In Obadiah, God reveals Himself as one who is on the side of the downcast, who will bring about justice in His own time, to save and redeem those who call on Him, and bring them up out of their dire circumstances to live with Him.

The final verse offers this interesting tidbit: “Those who have been saved shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.”

Who’s doing the ruling here? The saved, or the Lord Himself? Even in this single verse, we see the way God does things: He saves us, He sets us up, and He makes sure we have the opportunity to remember who is God and who is not.

That’s God’s justice. Let it roll.