Obadiah, Psalms 82-83

Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament....Obadiah means servant/worshiper of the Lord.  Scholars can't decide if it was written in 855-840BC or 627-586BC.  Here is one commentator's opinion:

 Because of what this book says of Edom and Jerusalem, we can gather a date for Obadiah’s ministry. The only time markers we have in the book are the attack against Jerusalem (Obadiah 1:10-14) and the fact that this passage also seems to indicate that Edom was not under Judah’s rule at the time.

• 2 Chronicles 21:16-17 describes an attack against Jerusalem during the reign of Jehoram (848-841 b.c.) by the Philistines and the Arabians.
• 2 Kings 24 and 25 describe the attack of the Babylonians against Jerusalem in 586 b.c.

i. Probably the better choice is the earlier attack, becauseObadiah 1:10-14 doesn’t seem to indicate that Jerusalem was totally destroyed, as it was under the Babylonian attack. If Obadiah’s prophecy considers this time period under Jehoram (848-841 b.c.), it makes him a contemporary of the prophet Elisha and also makes him the earliest of the prophets, probably beating Joel by a few years. It also means that this Prophet Obadiah may be the same man mentioned in 2 Chronicles 17:7.

This book deals with Justice and Pride.....God says that Edom is going to get what comes to them.  They should have been united because Edom is a descendent of Esau, and he is the brother of Jacob (Israel)...however Edom began by not doing anything (Numbers 32:33) to help Israel and slipped into the sin of pride over Judah's distress....Obadiah 10 and 18 point out that there will be no survivor's of Edom and that has certainly come to pass because there is no Edomite these days.

And dad-gummit, there are two more Psalms!  I keep thinking that we have completed them and they sneak up on me....if nothing else, it points out that Psalms were written very much at different times and not just by David.

Psalm 82 talks about how God is a fair judge...the wicked will get what is coming to them, as is pointed out with the justice God used on the Edomites.

Psalm 83 is the psalmist prayng that God will blow the pagan nations away like chaff from wheat....my Bible says that "sometimes we must be humbled by adversity before we will look up and see the Lord; we must be defeated before we can have the ultimate victory.....wouldn't it be better to seek the Lord in times of prosperity than to wait until his judgment is upon us?"

Images of Petra where the Edomites carved their city right into the rock.  Petra is considered one of the marvels of the ancient world, but is now simply a tourist attraction.