Loop around on 'Th-th-th-tha-tha-tha-that's all, folks!'

Today’s Palestinians are the modern-day descendants of the ancient Edomites found in the Book of Obadiah, which gives a prophetic account of “the last days.”

The same people who’ve carried an old hatred dating back to the days of Abraham in the Book of Genesis will play a key role in the assault against Israel during the tribulation.

“It’s fascinating how this little one-chapter book has so much in it about, well, not current events, because the things going on today in the ‘dispensation of grace’ aren’t the prophetic program, but before the tribulation can start, there are things that have to be in place,” says Richard Jordan.

“All the prophecies about Israel being in the land, for example, have always been there, and Bible-believers have believed them, but then when you see it happen, you say, ‘Well, that’s not the fulfillment of prophecy, but it certainly looks like a stage-setting!’ So as the stage is set, you can begin to see with some of these passages, ‘Oh, it’s going to look like THAT when it happens!’

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The Book of Obadiah begins, “The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.”

“That’s this conspiratorial confederacy that’s been gathered out here,” explains Jordan. “They don’t declare war; they’ve just got it in their heart. In Psalm 83, Israel’s believing remnant knows about it, and are praying, saying, ‘Lord, there’s this 10-nation confederacy out here that hates you.’

“You see, they understand what the perpetual hatred is and that it’s not just about the personality of the Israelis. This is a spiritual battle; a spiritual movement, a religious component propelling what’s going on and so it’s, ‘They hate the covenant you’ve made with us and they want to wipe us off the earth as a nation.’

“The thinking is, ‘Let’s go out and destroy the Abrahamic Covenant!’ The core issue in the Promise--in the blessing that Esau despised Jacob because of--is that Israel, No. 1, has a right to exist and No. 2, they have a right to exist in that land that God gave them.

“God had promised, ‘I’m going to make you a nation, I’ll put you in that land and I’ll work through you to bless everybody else.’ These folks (in Edom) say, ‘No, we ought to have that. We’re the first-born. The first-born gets the position,’ and at this point in the tribulation, that perpetual hatred from down the ages comes to a head. Obadiah is there to point out, ‘Hey, that rumor’s out there; here’s God’s response.’

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“Obadiah verse 2 says, 'Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.' This is a description of what’s going to happen to Edom as they do this. In Psalm 83 is a list of those 10 nations, all of which are immediately adjacent to Israel.

“Palestine came from the Philistines and the Romans literally named the land after Israel’s enemies. You have this group of Arabs whose home land is really over south of the Dead Sea in Edom, but they’ve been supplanted and, instead of being relocated into their home land, they don’t have a state there . . . this is the tabernacle of the Edomites and they are put at the head of this Confederacy.

“God's saying, ‘I made you small and insignificant, you don’t even have a home land, but your pride has allowed you to be deceived by the other members of the confederacy.’

“How that comes about is fascinating. That’s why in verse 7 Obadiah says, ‘All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.’

“They’re literally using these Palestinian refugees as the case in point to fight against the borders of Israel. They’re using the Palestinian refugees as the spear head, the front to accomplish the purpose of destroying the nation Israel.

“The Edomites have been tricked into that kind of a thing; they’ve been deceived by the other Arab nations into doing this because of the ‘pride of thine heart.’ Obadiah 1:3 says, 'The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?'

“In other words, God’s saying, ‘In your heart you’ve exalted yourself. From that place, where you’re dwelling in this lofty position, you think you’re IN, but I’m going to bring you down from there and destroy you.’

"So there’s this thinking process behind the Edomites that God's really out to destroy.

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Obadiah and the Book of Jeremiah have almost identical verses in places because both are contemporary to the Babylonian captivity and look at the near-captivity and the far-captivity.

Talking about the Edomites, Jeremiah 49:16 reads, “Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.”

“Obadiah says ‘the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee,’ but Jeremiah says it a little differently, so in Jeremiah, it isn’t simply the pride of their heart but it’s the terribleness that’s deceived them and then he describes where that thinking process comes from,” explains Jordan.

“You see how the first part of that word ‘terribleness’ is the word ‘terror’? When we think of the Palestinians today, we think of the word ‘terror,’ and you see connections immediately.

“The fact of the matter is the world’s lived with this kind of stuff all of its career. We make a mistake as Americans to think everybody else is like us. The fact is there are very few other people like us. Most of the world is not anything like America. We’re becoming like the rest of the world, is what you’re watching right now.

“People talk about terrorism, and in my youth what you watched in the Vietnam War was a bunch of rag-tag rebels shooting from behind trees, bringing to its knees the world’s most powerful military. That happened before when a bunch of rag-tag rebels shooting from behind trees brought the world’s most powerful military to its knees; it was called the American Revolution.

“Guerilla warfare is how we won the American War of Independence. That’s the way that’s done and terrorism is a tactic to try to terrify people and make them shrink back.

“These folks in Jeremiah are using terror tactics that come out of the pride of their heart. They think they are justified in doing what they’re doing and they’re doing it because they have a thinking process whereby they have the right, and their terrorism is inspired by a deceptive group of people using them to accomplish a common purpose.

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“When Israel is carried off into captivity in the 5^th course of judgment, the Edomites are there, watching it, going, ‘Hee-hee, get ’em! They deserve it! Hit ’em again for us!’ They don’t just say, ‘Hey, glad you’re going’; they go in and plunder and rob them.

“Even the ones Nebuchadnezzar didn’t get, the Edomites tattle, ‘Here, now they’re hiding over here!’ So full and complete was their hatred of Israel that they wouldn’t let any of them try and escape. In Obadiah chapters 11-14, he details things about what they’re going to do.

“Something to remember in the phases of that 5th course, identified in Daniel, is that the 1st course (the Babylonian captivity) and the last phase of the 5th course are correspondents.

“It’s like it loops back and that’s why you’ll read about, for example, the Assyrian. The Assyrian, which is a picture of the Antichrist, took the northern kingdom of Israel into that 5^th course.  So things that happened back there are a rehearsal for what’s going to happen over here (in the future).

“In these minor prophets like Obadiah, you’ll be reading, and you’ll say, ‘Well, that’s history.’ No, that’s really . . . the old prophecy preachers used to talk about how the ‘horizon of prophecy would blend together.’ That’s why what you’re reading historically is a prophetic picture and type of this stuff that’s coming.

"When it talks about how ‘the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee,’ the message to the enemy is, ‘Listen, your freedom, your sense of rectitude in going out and terrorizing people, coming up to the borders of Israel and terrorizing them, comes from a deception; some bad thinking.’

“Who are they? ‘Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock whose habitation is high.’ All of that verse is literal; it’s real. The Edomites lived in a mountainous territory, but there’s also a metaphorical, symbolic sense representing a kingdom.

“Do you ever sing that song from Down South about, ‘Oh, safe to the Rock that is higher than I, My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly’?

"In Exodus 33:18, Moses says to God, ‘I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.’ Moses is saying, ‘You say you’re going to go with me. Show me. I want to see your glory.’ And God says to Moses, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.’

“The passage goes on, [20] And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
[21] And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
[22] And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
[23] And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

“That’s a powerful passage because there’s two important things God just told Moses. He says, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before thee,’ and the next chapter He does that. The glory of God.

“You talk about a rainbow with the refracted light where you see all the different elements of the light. It’s not just a white-shining light; it’s that light demonstrated in all of its facets. The glory of God is the manifestation of all of who He is, of His character, His essence, what He’s like, how He thinks. When you proclaim the name of the Lord, you’re proclaiming who He is.

“That idea of dwelling in 'the cleft of the rock,' the song writer talks about having God’s protection there. It’s a description of being under divine protection, being put in a place of safety where harm doesn’t come to you.

“The Edomites' attitude about their dwelling is they dwell under a divine umbrella of protection. You see, there’s a habitation on high up there where the stars are. Who were stars in the Bible? They represent angels. These guys (from Edom) see themselves as being in a position of divine protection and exaltation into the realm of spiritual things.”