There are a surprising number of "So what's?" in such a small book written to a pagan nation thousands of years in the past. There is, for instance, a lesson about pride and deception in verse 3. Edom's heart was so proud that it did not have the humility required to look at itself and see the truth. Are you sometimes too proud to examine your life with full honesty?
Edom was self-absorbed, gloating over its high position and the low position of its neighbor. It found satisfaction in putting others down. Edom can become a picture of what God hates in human behavior.
And this little book of Obadiah reminds us that God will vindicate his own people at the coming Day of the Lord. This theme is echoed throughout the New Testament as we are instructed to wait patiently in the midst of trouble for our blessed hope from heaven. In one place Paul writes: "God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you." (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10)
