Taking a break from New Testament letters, today I’m looking at the minor prophet in the Old Testament called Obadiah.
A big theme of the Obadiah’s written down prophesy, which forms the smallest book in the Old Testament, is that of schadenfreude. This is “pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune” according to the dictionary.
Historical background to Obadiah
According to the scholar Daniel I. Block in the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament, the prophesy given to Obadiah is:
…best dated to the exilic period, specifically the period between the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC and Edom’s demise at the hands of the Babylonians in 553 BC. The terminus a quo (earliest possible date) is established by the image the prophet paints of Jerusalem and her population. Verse 11 speaks of a city that has been invaded by foreigners … and its wealth carried off; competing forces were casting lots for the booty.
So this is the moment when vast numbers of Judeans were forcibly removed from their homes and deported to Babylonia.
But as the Neo-Babylonian Empire seized power in the region, Judah’s southern neighbour Edom has a big case of schadenfreude. Block writes:
… the Edomites appear to have been opportunists, switching sides whenever it seemed advantageous. According to Jer 27:1–11, as recently as 594–593 BC the Edomites had been part of an international coalition including Moab, Bene Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon, which sent emissaries to Jerusalem to get Zedekiah [king of Judah] to join them in rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar [king of the Babylonian dynasty]. However, when Tyre, Bene Ammon, and Judah launched the rebellion, Edom … withdrew from the alliance. By withdrawing, Edom secured its own existence and apparently received permission from Babylon to expand its territory in the Negev [part of Judah].
The Edomites were descendants of Issac, one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites. Edom would be the last of the eastern Mediterranean kingdoms to be abolished by the Neo-Babylonians. According to Yigal Levin of Bar-Ilan University:
we have no specific evidence of wide-scale deportations from Edom, the collapse of Edomite society was so complete … the name Edom totally disappeared from the area east of the ʿArabah [an area south of the Dead Sea].
The prophesy given to Obadiah
God spoke to Obadiah in a vision intended for the people of Edom. The prophesy reads (verses 10-14, NLT):
Because of the violence you did
to your close relatives in Israel,
you will be filled with shame
and destroyed forever.When they were invaded,
you stood aloof, refusing to help them.
Foreign invaders carried off their wealth
and cast lots to divide up Jerusalem,
but you acted like one of Israel’s enemies.You should not have gloated
when they exiled your relatives to distant lands.
You should not have rejoiced
when the people of Judah suffered such misfortune.
You should not have spoken arrogantly
in that terrible time of trouble.You should not have plundered the land of Israel
when they were suffering such calamity.
You should not have gloated over their destruction
when they were suffering such calamity.
You should not have seized their wealth
when they were suffering such calamity.You should not have stood at the crossroads,
killing those who tried to escape.
You should not have captured the survivors
and handed them over in their terrible time of trouble.
It is worth noting that the next book in the Bible – which was written perhaps a couple of hundred years earlier – is Jonah. And in that book, Jonah gets annoyed because he goes to Nineveh, a place of great depravity, delivers a prophesy that Nineveh will be overthrown, that causes the Ninevites to repent and God forgives them. So the prophesy there is a warning if they carry on in their current trajectory.
Anyway, here in Obadiah, we learn that the Edomites were really enjoying the fact that their brothers in Judah were being persecuted. Along with gloating, they also joined in with the pilfering of Jews’ possessions. And, militarily, they were helping the Neo-Babylonian Empire out.
Despite the malicious enjoyment they experienced, It didn’t help them, because their own country suffered a similar fate.
Jesus’s instruction is completely the opposite. He said:
…love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.