As an introduction to the Lord’s Supper in church today, my pastor read and shortly discussed the implications of Genesis 22:9-13 in light of Christ’s death on the cross. Testing and confirming Abraham’s faith is certainly a major component of this scene, but just as God was after a metaphor for Christ’s work when Moses struck the rock rather than speaking to it (1), so God was commanding a metaphor about His Son’s work through Abraham and Isaac.
“Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”
Notice that I included verse 14, because I read further after pastor stopped. In the NASB, which I read, there was a footnote before the last two words, “be provided”. The center notes read, “Lit. [literally] be seen” (2). I wondered, “What was seen?” They saw “a ram caught in the thicket by his horns.” (v.13) As I shared this thought after service, a brother pointed out that Abraham had earlier said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” (v.8) Was he wrong, since it was a ram? No, God did provide (see) a lamb, as John the Baptist says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) But in the immediate context, God did provide a ram, which had been a lamb of course. A ram is strong, as indicated by its horns (3). The thicket involves entanglement, thorns, and suffering.
Here is the metaphor, as I saw it anew. The powerful Son of God, the same one who “will shatter kings” and “drink from the brook by the wayside” (4) in power and victory, willingly becomes caught (incarnation) in the thicket of our sinful world, so that He would be God’s provision/sacrifice for mankind. God saw to “sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin” (5).
Abraham bound Isaac and placed him on an altar on the Mountains of Moriah (6), where the temple was later built, and where Christ Jesus was much later nailed to a cross. Thus, “In the mount of the Lord it will be seen,” our provision for a sin debt we could never repay, fully paid by our victorious Savior. Praise the Lord!
- Numbers 20:8-13
- It may seem very odd that the same word could be translated “provided” or “seen”, but in the immediate context of Abraham’s (and don’t forget Isaac) need and naming of the place, it is a legitimate translation (see also Deuteronomy 33:21). Conversely, when something needed is “seen”, it is at hand and provided. Also, KJV, GNV, and WYC translations render the word as “seen”.
- Numbers 24:8; Daniel 8:6-8
- Psalm 110:5,7: Drinking from the brook seems to be a metaphor for the warrior refreshing himself after victory, almost in defiance of the downed enemies.
- Romans 8:3
- Genesis 22:2; 2 Chronicles 3:1
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Hard Words
Posted in America, Consequences, Cultural commentary, Day of the Lord, General, God's Word, Judgment, Metaphor, tagged Cup of Wrath, Day of the Lord, End Times, Judgement, Obadiah on November 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Why did God include Obadiah in the Scriptures? Afterall, the judgements cited are repeated in Jeremiah 49, though who is repeating whom is not known since the date of Obadiah’s writing is uncertain. The book is very short, fewer verses than Jude, though a few dozen more words. Its purpose at the very least is to introduce or reiterate and confirm the judgements determined for Edom and clearly delineate why.
Verses 15-17 are key to the book:
“For the day of the Lord draws near on all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you.
Your dealings will return on your own head. Because just as you drank on My holy mountain,
all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and swallow and become as if they had never existed. But on Mount Zion there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. And the house of Jacob will possess their possessions.” Obadiah 15-17
God is making use of Edom as an example of how He deals with any and all nations that tamper with His Chosen People. Edom and Israel are closely related by blood, history, proximity, and interaction, but Edom is treated identically to any unbelieving nation that harms Israel and will receive the same treatment at the hand of God. At this level it seems straightforward.
The understanding of God’s determination turns on the metaphor of drinking. Jeremiah 49:12-13 says, “For thus says the Lord, “Behold, those who were not sentenced to drink the cup will certainly drink it, and are you the one who will be completely acquitted? You will not be acquitted, but you will certainly drink it. For I have sworn by Myself,” declares the Lord, “that Bozrah will become an object of horror, a reproach, a ruin and a curse; and all its cities will become perpetual ruins.” From the context it is obvious that the cup that Bozrah, the capitol city of Edom, will be forced to drink is not pleasant. It is a cup of judgement. The Lord more clearly defines the nature of this cup in Jeremiah 25:15-16: “For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.” The cup is for Babylon, but verses seventeen and following tell of the many other nations who will have to drink it.
The tenses of the verb in the Obadiah verses cited above arrested my attention. In order they are “drank”, “will drink”, and “will drink”. Understanding that Edom will drink of God’s judgement and that all nations will likewise partake, is, as I said, straightforward. But what is it that Edom “drank”. Is God from His eternal, non-time bound perspective speaking of Edom’s future judgement as though it has already happened? I think that the detail of the passage says otherwise.
“As you have done, it will be done to you.” (v.15) In the metaphor of “drink”, I believe that the passage is saying that as you, Edom, did harm to My People, I, God, will do harm to you. How had Edom drunk? Verse 10 says, “Because of violence to your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame, and you will be cut off forever.” Then the prophet lists the things that they should not do which they later did when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. The cup that is drunk is one of wrath. Edom got their fill of scoffing, looting, enslaving, and cutting down escaping Israelites. They would receive the same punishment and more from God since they would “become as if they never existed” (v.16), like the nations.
The application to the United States as one of the nations is obvious. God will not ignore the many evil things that America has done and is doing to many peoples including their own. To name but a few, recall our proxy wars, setting up tribes (Taliban for instance) and turning around to destroy them, broken treaties, the many ways we poison our food, water, air, and soil for profit, sex trafficking, and abortion. Persecution of God’s People, the Church and the remnant of Israel, by America has begun and will intensify. God will not turn a blind eye concerning all of this evil. We will be judged like all the other nations who have not acknowledged Him and have hurt His People.
The judgements listed in Obadiah for Edom and the nations are further tied to the day of the Lord which includes God’s blessing of Israel. It is hard to sort out what parts of what verses refer to Edom and Jerusalem in the past and which are reserved for the future but based on the immediate and wider context of eschatological Scriptures, God is not done with Israel or the nations. And it is abundantly clear when the last verse of Obadiah says, “The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will be the Lord’s.” (Obadiah 21) Take note of similar statements at the end of Joel 3, Amos 9, Zephaniah 3, and all of Zechariah 14, not to mention numerous times among the “major” prophets. The day of the Lord is a time of setting things right by fulfilling promises for judgement of sin and completing all of the blessings God has promised but not yet fulfilled. God be praised for His infinite knowledge, righteousness, and power. He has made known what His plans are for mankind.
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