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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Obediah 1:17 - 1:21
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The Deliverance of God's People
v. 17. But upon Mount Zion, in the midst of the Lord's Church, shall be deliverance, the congregation of such as are saved from the judgment of destruction; and there shall be holiness, that is, Mount Zion would be a sanctuary, no longer to be desecrated by the enemies; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions, people from all the nations of the world being added to the Lord's congregation.
v. 18. And the house of Jacob, Judah, as representative of the Church of God in the Old Testament, shall be a fire, through the burning zeal of God which lives in His believers, and the house of Joseph, the northern tribes in their believing representatives, a flame, and the house of Esau, the nation of Edom as type of all enemies of the Lord, for stubble, and they shall kindle in them and devour them, for all the enemies of the Lord's Church will eventually be destroyed; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it, and His Word is certain to be fulfilled in every instance.
v. 19. And they of the South, the members of the tribe of Judah, shall possess the mount of Esau, according to the prophecy which states that the Messiah would dwell in the midst of His enemies, and they of the plain, the Lord's people of the southwestern plains, the Philistines, another tribe and country hostile to the Lord; and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, the territory of the northern kingdom, and the fields of Samaria; and Benjamin shall possess Gilead, the country east of Jordan.
v. 20. And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, the very ones who had suffered on account of the hostility of the enemies, shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath, or Sarepta, a city in the extreme northern portion of the country, within the boundaries of Phoenicia; and the captivity of Jerusalem, the captives from the capital, which is in Sepharad, either Sardis or Sparta, shall possess the cities of the South, the names being given only as representative of nations nearby.
v. 21. And saviors, men who would bring the deliverance of the Lord, shall come up on Mount Zion, appearing in the Church of the Lord as His messengers, to judge the mount of Esau, as typical of the entire heathen world; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's; for Jehovah's Kingdom of Grace will be established throughout the world. The entire paragraph evidently sets forth the marvelous deliverance of the people of the Lord from the oppression of all their enemies and their preservation in the Church of the Messiah, which, from being the Church Militant here in time, will merge into the Church Triumphant in eternity.