The Pulpit Commentary — Obadiah — Section 37

regularity, and cloe.mess. These words of the first verse suggest two thoughts concern- ing God and be.d men. L THAT Goo Ill.AKES A REVELATION OONOEBNING BAD Ill.EN. Here is a revelation concerning Edom, the enemy of God and his pMple. Isaac had two sons by Rebekah- Esau and Jacob. Esau was called Edom, "red," in memory, it is said, or the red pottage for which he sold hie birthright (Gen. xxv. 30). Observe: 1, The forms of the revelation. (1) As a msion. "The vision of Obadiah." 'l'he prophet was a seer. The Eternal revealed himself to the eyes of his soul. He who would be a true minister of God must see the thing before he speaks it. "That which we have seen and handled," says the apostle. Man has other eyes than those that are in his forehead. He has a faculty for seeing the imisible e.nd the eternal; this distinguishes him from the brute. (2) As a report. "We have heard e. rumour from the Lord." The word "rumour" me.ans "report." "We have heard a report from Jehovah." He heard as well as saw. 'l'he soul Las ears to catch the echoes of eternal thought, God in times past spake to the fathers by the prophets; and now, as in ~Iden times, speaks by symboL~ and sayings, by appealmg to the eye and the ear. 2. 'lhe character of this revelation-a message, " An ambassador is sent among the heathen." Did he mean by the ambassador, himself, or any other prophet or prophets, or some celestial minister? It does not ' matter. The message is the thing-a message from Jehovah to the nation. God sends his messages to the nations in many ways and by many agents. 3. The su·b:ject of the revelation. " Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle." The object of the message was to stir up the Assyrians, and afterwards the Chaldeans, against Edom. But our proposition is that God makes a revelation concerning bad men; and the subject of that revelation embraces at least two things. (1) That their sins will ruin them, This the Almighty has revealed over and over again in the Bible, and in every chapter of human hi.story and ex:perience. The burden of all is," The wages of sin is death." (2) That evangelical repentane-e will save them. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isa. lv. 7). These two subjects are the great burden of God's revelation to bad men. II. THAT Goo PUNISHES BAD lllEN BY BAD lllEN, He now sent a messenger amongst the nations. What for? To stir up the Assyrians and Chaldeane-both bad people- to wreak vengeance on corrupt Edom. Why does he employ bad men for this awful work of retribution? He could do it without any secondary agency at all, or, if he chose to employ any instrumentality, could use the forces of nature and the monsters of the forest alone to do the work; why employ bad men to punish bad men, fienJ. to punish fiend? By doing so: 1. He reveals in the 'ITWSt powerful way to the victim the enO'l'mity of his sin. The torture which his fellow-man brings on him he is made to feel is but a slight stroke of that fiend of depravity which has set his own soul against his Maker. 2.. He reveals his own absolute power over the workings of the human heart. Thus he maketh "the wrath of men to praise him," etc. (Ps. lxxvi. 10). He makes even the devil himself to carry out hie will But though God employs bad men to punish bad men by rapine, plunder, and bloody wars, it is not by his instigation; they act by their own free wilL He is not the Author of evil. .All good proceedeth from him, and all evil is overruled by him for the order and blessedness of the universe. The devil is not less a devil because he inflicts the penalties of justice on men.-D. T. Ver& 2-5.-Pride. "Behold, I have made thee email among the heathen: thou art greatly despised. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee," etc. These words may be taken as suggesting and illustrating one of the chief sins of all sinners, viz. pride, that which poets tell us "peoples hell and holds its prisoners there." The words suggest three facts in relation to pride. L TBA.T THE llOST DESPICABLE PEOPLE ABE OFTEN THE Ill.OST DISPOSED TO PBlDB, Edom, which is charged with the sin of pride, is here described as " small among the heathen" and "greatly despised." Not only were they a small people, small C?m- paratively in numbers, wealth, and influence, but despised. They became contemptible in the estimation of their contemporaries. Small things and small men are not always despicable, for God made the small as well as the great. It is the moral character that creates and deserves conteII!pt. Niw, small and despicable as were these Edomite1, 1-21.J 'l'HE BOOK OF OBADIAH. 33