CHAPTER ONE

 

 

1:3:  “dwellest in the clefts of the rock” = In regards to “dwellest in the clefts of the rock,” the cities of Edom, and among them Petra, the capital, in the Wady Musa, consisted of houses mostly cut into the rocks.  The statement, “whose habitation is high,” is referring not only to the height of their dwellings, but back to “The pride of thine heart.”  And all pride is deceptive.  The Lord threatens Edom with war, because He has determined to reduce and humble the nation, which now, with its proud confidence in its lofty rocky towers, regards itself as invincible.  Verse 3 only contains a consequence, which follows from what was decreed in verse 2.  Edom will be unable to avert this fate:  its lofty rocky castles will not preserve it from the overthrow which has been decreed by the Lord, and which He will carry out through the medium of the nations.

 

The Edomites were proud of their wealth and riches, which they had obtained through robberies.  Our Lord promises to set the record straight, even here upon earth.  The Edomites inhabited the mountains of Seir, which have not yet been carefully explored in detail.  They are on the eastern side of the Ghor (or Arabah), stretching from the deep rocky valley of the Ahsy, which opens into the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, and extending as far as Aela on the Red Sea, and consists of mighty rocks of granite and porphyry, covered with fresh vegetation, which terminate in the west, towards the deeply intersected sand-sea of the Ghor and Arabah, in steep and lofty walls of sandstone.

 

These mountains are hardly accessible, therefore, on the Western side; whereas on the Eastern side, they are gradually lost in the broad sandy desert of Arabia, without any perceptible fall (see Burckhardt in “v. Raumer’s Pal.” pages 83-84 & 86; and “Robinson’s Palestine,” ii. page 551ff.).  They also abound in clefts, with both natural and artificial caves; and hence its earliest inhabitants were Horites, i.e., dwellers in caves; and even the Edomites dwelt in caves, at least to some extent.

 

Jerome observes on Obadiah 1:6:  “And indeed. . . throughout the whole of the southern region of the Idumaeans, from Eleutheropolis to Petra and Hala (for this is a possession of Esau), there are small dwellings in caves; and on account of the great heat of the sun, since it is a southern province, subterranean huts are used.”  However, not the strength of its mountain-fastnesses, strong though they were, deceived Edom, but “the pride of his heart.”

 

That strength was but the occasion, which called forth the “pride.”  Yet, it was strong in its abode, for even our Lord, as it were, admits it to them with His statement:  “Dweller in the clefts of the rocks, the loftiness of his habitation.”

 

The heart has its own language, as distinct and as definite as that formed by the lips, mostly deeper, often truer.  It needeth not the language of the lips, to offend God.  Since He answers the heart, which seeks Him, so also He replies in displeasure to the heart, which despises Him.  “Who shall bring me down to the earth?”  Such is the language of all self-sufficient security.  Edom probably, under God’s “who,” included God Himself, Who to Edom was the God of the Jews only.  Yet, men now, too, include God in their defiance, and scarcely veil it from themselves by speaking of “fortune” rather than God; or, if of a coarser sort, they do not even veil it, as in that common terrible saying, “He fears neither God nor devil.”  God answers all such thought.  Let us not think ourselves free from such thoughts of superiority.

 

1:6:  “searched out” = See my Obadiah 1:3 Note.

 

1:15:  “the heathen” = That is, those mentioned below in my verse 16 Note.

 

1:16:  “shall be as though they had not been” = “I saw that the slave-master would have to answer for the soul of his slave whom he has kept in ignorance; and all the sins of the slave will be visited upon the master.  God cannot take the slave to Heaven, who has been kept in ignorance and degradation, knowing nothing of God, or the Bible, fearing nothing but his master’s lash, and not holding so elevated a position as his master’s brute beasts.  But He does the best thing for him that a compassionate God can do.  He lets him be as though he had not been; while the master has to suffer the seven last plagues, and then come up in the second resurrection, and suffer the second, most awful death.  Then the wrath of God will be appeased.”  1SG:193.

 

“Jesus makes an atonement for those who died, not receiving the light upon God’s Commandments, who sinned ignorantly.”  1SG:163.  See John 10:16.

 

“Among the heathen are those who worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is never brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish.  Though ignorant of the written Law of God, they have heard His voice speaking to them in nature, and have done the things that the Law required.  Their works are evidence that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as the children of God.”  DA:638.