The MAJOR & MINOR Prophets - The 16 Writing Prophets Of The Hebrew Canon

eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, · says the LORD (vss. 3-4). µ

Finally the downfall did come. By 312 B.C. an Arab people, the Nabataeans, had displaced the Edomites from Petra. The Edomites then moved to occupy Idumaea; the name the Greeks gave southern Palestine. During the Maccabean period they were subdued and brought under Jewish law and circumcision. In 47 B.C. Julius Caesar appointed Antipater, an Idumaean, procurator of Judea. 8 Strangely, the Edomites who had survived fought with the Jews against the Romans, but Jerusalem was taken and burned. According to Baxter, ´7KH VXUYLYRUV WRRN UHIXJH DPRQJ GHVHUW WULEHV LQ ZKLFK they became absorbed; and Origen, in the third century A.D., spoke of them as a people whose name and language had altogether perished. Thus, the sentence on Edom was H[HFXWHG DQG 2EDGLDK·V SURSKHF\ IXOILOOHG µ 9 More than any other nation mentioned in the Old Testament, Edom is the VXSUHPH REMHFW RI *RG·V Z rath : Ps 83:5-18; 137:7; Isa 11:14; 21:11-12; 34:5; 63:1-6; Jer 49:7 22; Lam 4:21-22; Ez 25:12-14; 35:1-15; Joel 3:19; Am 1:11-12; 9:11-12; Mal 1:2-5 Notice the connection between national pride as well as Satan ·V SULGH in Ez 28 and Isa 14. T here are a number of valuable lessons to be learned from Obadiah. It i VQ·W MXVW WR label greed and cruelty as wrong, although things of that nature are abhorrent to God and Esau certainly reaped what he sowed. Being one of the first of the writing prophets, Obadiah and his message reflect an attitude of God that will be foundational for the rest of the written prophecies. All of the SURSKHWV VHHPHG WR UHDOL]H WKDW *RG·V SODQ ZRXOG EH XQIROGLQJ VHFWLR n by section, covenant by covenant, era by era, and the divine objective must ever be kept in mind. Eventually, God will have a people that will truly be a shining kingdom of beauty, free of satanic influence and stain-- God and His people in perfect unity and purpose. 7KH SURSKHWV ZHUH *RG·V YRLFH WR WKH VXFFHHGLQJ JHQHUDWLRQV VRPHWLPHV WKH\ were successful in their efforts to promote righteousness, sometimes they were martyred for their proclamations. Sometimes, they themselves did not understand all that the LORD was attempting to say and do. $IWHU VHQGLQJ ´0\ 6HUYDQWV WKH 3URSKHWVµ D favorite expression of the LORD), only to see them undergo various degrees of rejection, God took a final step and sent His beloved Son, THE prophet of prophets, Jesus the Messiah and our Lord. Both Jews and Gentiles joined in crucifying the holy One. After ascending to heaven, Jesus then sent the Holy Spirit upon His followers, the Church made up of both Jews and Gentiles who commi W WKHPVHOYHV WR *RG·V REMHFWLYHV 1RZ ZH DUH VWLOO PRYLQJ LQH[RUDEO\ IRUZDUG WR ILQG *RG·V SHUIHFW SODQ IXOILOOHG ² God and H LV SHRSOH ILQDOO\ IUHH RI $GDP·V VLQ DQG 6DWDQ·V influence. Is There a Lasting, Permanent Message in This Book?

8 Herod the Great, who sought to kill the baby Jesus, was an Idumean. Thus we trace the trail of blood all the way from Esau to the murderus attempt to assassinate the Son of God. 9 Baxter, Vol. 4, p. 141.

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