Ensign: The OTHER Obadiah's Story
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3
AN ENSIGN ON THE
MOUNTAINS 15 August 2014
It looks like Obadiah's story -- such as it is from the Old Testament book of prophecy bearing his name -- has been on my mind a lot. Last week's was a repost of an Ensign from this past March, and before that it was part of a series I'd written on the minor prophets (that series of prophetic books from Hosea to Malachi which rounds out the Old Testament) a month or two before my daughter Sarah was born eight years ago. There's something to hear and we need to hear.
I wanted that as an introduction to a less familiar Biblical character, also named Obadiah, who "feared [in our sense of 'honored', not 'was terrified of' -- D.] the LORD greatly" and was in the position, as we read in 1 Kings 18:3-4, as the head or governor of King Ahab's house to act in the king's name. Most of us who remember reading about Ahab as king of Israel usually remember him as the vicious tyrant who smacked down God's prophets wherever he could find them.
But the older I get and the more I read the stories I grew up with, the less black and white the characters in them are; virtually no one is entirely good or entirely bad. Consider verse four: For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) JEZEBEL, the Tyrian princess whom Ahab had married to cement a political alliance, was the one ready to smash God's people flat.
And being queen of Israel, she could do that. My best guess here is with Jezebel giving the execution orders, Ahab was still in charge but he unofficially turned a blind eye to what Obadiah was doing. Of course if he were caught at it, he'd have to be put to death, but there was still some small whisper of the God of Israel in Ahab's heart. But he was weak about doing something about it; heck, it was Jezebel three chapters later who talked Ahab into having Naboth killed to get his vineyard!
AND it was the prophet Elijah -- one of three people in Scripture who left the earth without dying first, and the one for whom an empty seat is still left at every Passover meal -- who took him to task and revealed God's consequences for what he'd done as much as what as he allowed to happen a few chapters later. What we make happen and what we allow to happen; can we say that either sin is greater? Not to God nor should it be to us.
So when Elijah appears to Obadiah in the third year of a God-ordained drought -- which he predicted in the previous chapter, and again Elijah seems to just appear out of nowhere -- as Obadiah himself is trying to find enough grass for the royal horses and mules (see verses five and six) and he's told to go tell Ahab that Elijah himself is coming ... he's a mite on edge. For Ahab has been looking for Elijah himself through much of the then-known world these last three years.
If someone came up to Ahab and said they found Elijah, after this thorough search and all the searchers affirmed they could not find him (interpret verse ten's "[Ahab] took an oath of the kingdom and nation"), Ahab and Jezebel would likely wonder what else this person hid from them, if they didn't kill him first. So Obadiah was understandably fearful of that; three times in verses nine, twelve, and fourteen Obadiah refers to his own fear that Ahab shall slay him.
Obadiah fears Elijah the man of God will vanish again when he goes to tell Ahab that he found him. But it's ELIJAH who tells Obadiah twice during their conversation to "Go, [and] tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here" in verses eight and eleven. When Obadiah says this himself in verse fourteen, even with the caveat that Ahab his lord would slay him -- resigned to that -- and goes to do what Elijah the man of God tells him to do anyway, it's what matters. It sets God's plan in motion.
For that plan, please read the rest of the chapter.
But the older I get and the more I read the stories I grew up with, the less black and white the characters in them are; virtually no one is entirely good or entirely bad. Consider verse four: For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) JEZEBEL, the Tyrian princess whom Ahab had married to cement a political alliance, was the one ready to smash God's people flat.
And being queen of Israel, she could do that. My best guess here is with Jezebel giving the execution orders, Ahab was still in charge but he unofficially turned a blind eye to what Obadiah was doing. Of course if he were caught at it, he'd have to be put to death, but there was still some small whisper of the God of Israel in Ahab's heart. But he was weak about doing something about it; heck, it was Jezebel three chapters later who talked Ahab into having Naboth killed to get his vineyard!
AND it was the prophet Elijah -- one of three people in Scripture who left the earth without dying first, and the one for whom an empty seat is still left at every Passover meal -- who took him to task and revealed God's consequences for what he'd done as much as what as he allowed to happen a few chapters later. What we make happen and what we allow to happen; can we say that either sin is greater? Not to God nor should it be to us.
So when Elijah appears to Obadiah in the third year of a God-ordained drought -- which he predicted in the previous chapter, and again Elijah seems to just appear out of nowhere -- as Obadiah himself is trying to find enough grass for the royal horses and mules (see verses five and six) and he's told to go tell Ahab that Elijah himself is coming ... he's a mite on edge. For Ahab has been looking for Elijah himself through much of the then-known world these last three years.
If someone came up to Ahab and said they found Elijah, after this thorough search and all the searchers affirmed they could not find him (interpret verse ten's "[Ahab] took an oath of the kingdom and nation"), Ahab and Jezebel would likely wonder what else this person hid from them, if they didn't kill him first. So Obadiah was understandably fearful of that; three times in verses nine, twelve, and fourteen Obadiah refers to his own fear that Ahab shall slay him.
Obadiah fears Elijah the man of God will vanish again when he goes to tell Ahab that he found him. But it's ELIJAH who tells Obadiah twice during their conversation to "Go, [and] tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here" in verses eight and eleven. When Obadiah says this himself in verse fourteen, even with the caveat that Ahab his lord would slay him -- resigned to that -- and goes to do what Elijah the man of God tells him to do anyway, it's what matters. It sets God's plan in motion.
For that plan, please read the rest of the chapter.
David
P.S. I write this
weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address
book, and I hope to be an encourager to action too! If you find that
I'm not or you want me to get lost, just let me know -- thank you!
Thank You, Lord,
that we can come to You in prayer and that You provide for all our
needs, even when we don't know what they are. We pray for the peace
of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.
Thank You, Lord, for
everyone in leadership and service, both here and abroad. Thank You
for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray
that we all seek and have a blessed week. Amen.
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