While Edom thought they dwelt secure in their own mountain fortress, God promises that His own holy mountain would be the actual place of safety, security, and most poignantly, salvation (v. 17). Christ is not only the means of judgment in Obadiah, but He is also the fortress of salvation for all those who come to God for safety. It is a beautiful picture of the work of Christ, not only as supreme judge of the world, but as the place of refuge and salvation for the people of God.

Perhaps you’ve passed over Obadiah more times when flipping through your Bible than any other book in Scripture. It’s a third of the way through the Minor Prophets and it’s only one chapter consisting of only 21 verses. But if you have not read it, pause now and read through it before continuing. This little book, a prophecy against the nation of Edom, is a gem. It is thoroughly encouraging to the beleaguered Christian and thoroughly exalting to Christ. But to understand how it is, we first need to understand the context and content of this little diamond.

The nation of Edom consisted of the descendants of Esau, as the book makes clear. God refers to them as the brother of Jacob, certainly drawing our minds to the very conflict between the patriarchs of the two nations: Jacob and Esau. As Israel settled in the land of Canaan, the descendants of Esau had settled in the mountainous regions to the East. They famously built their cities and strongholds in the caves and hidden crevices of the rocky spires, the most well-known being the city of Petra.

The sin of Edom as condemned by God in the short book is two-fold. First, God condemns them for the “pride in your heart” (v. 3), thinking themselves invulnerable and safe. Indeed, enemy attackers would be forced to traverse single-wide passageways through the rocks in order to attack, and so the cities of Edom were seemingly impenetrable. Though they think that they soar among the stars as eagles, God promises that their highly defensible geography was no match for His vengeance.

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