The book of Obadiah is one of the smallest books of the Bible, and often overlooked. Just because it’s small doesn’t mean it is any less important than other books contained in God’s word. Today we will do a short overview of this small book, and touch on why it’s important to us today.

If you are interested in doing a free bible study on the book of Obadiah, you can find it on our Short Bible Studies page.

OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK OF OBADIAH

Below is a breakdown of the book of Obadiah. I have divided the verses into sections, to help you understand the flow of the vision that God gave to Obadiah.

Verses 1-9: Overview of Edom. How God feels and His plan.

Verses 10-14: What God has against Edom.

Verses 15-16: God’s warning.

Verses 17-21: God’s Judgement.

WHO EDOM AND JUDAH ARE

People of Edom are descendants of Esau.
People of Judah are descendants of Jacob.
Genesis 25:19-34, 27:1 – 28:8.  They were twins that were at odds with each other. Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, his younger brother, for food. Later on, Jacob tricked their father Isaac, with the help from his mother, into giving him Esau’s blessing.

Since birth Esau and Jacob were at odds; their relationship was strained to put it nicely. Eventually, later in life their relationship was mended. But there descendants, as seen in this book, never put that strained relationship in the past.

THE VISION

The book of Obadiah was a vision that God gave to Obadiah concerning Edom. This vision contains the past and present actions of Edom and what the future holds for them.

PRESENT

God tells Edom about their current attitude, and then a warning of how the surrounding people feel about them. You can read about this in verses 1-9.

PAST

Edom treated Judah awful to put it nicely, they plundered, slaughtered and betrayed them. You can read about Edom’s actions towards Judah in verses 10-14.

FUTURE

This future is the destruction of Edom, and the restoration of His kingdom, which includes restoring Judah (the line of Jacob). Some of this vision may not be fulfilled yet, some believe that this won’t happen until Jesus returns. You can read the future part of this vision in verses 15-21.

APPLICATION

There are many ways that we can apply this bible history to our current lives. I believe if we don’t learn from the past, we will no doubt repeat it. From this we can learn that we can not run from our sins. God see’s and knows all, and will punish us for those sins if we do not repent of them. We can also learn that God wants His family to love and support each other! The more you read and study this book the more you will be able to apply what you have learned to your present life.

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If you want to learn about becoming a child of God, and what that means you can read our post titled What is Salvation? and God’s Promise of Salvation.

We hope you search our website, Christian Fellowshipping, for more encouraging ways to fellowship with God and other believes.