#DailyDevotion Jesus, the LORD, Becomes King
Ob. 17 But on Mount Zion there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. The people of Jacob will get their own possessions again. 18 The people of Jacob will be a fire, and the people of Joseph a flame, and the people of Esau will be straw. They will burn and consume them, and no one will be left of the people of Esau” because the LORD has said so. 19 People in the South will take Esau’s mountains, and those in the lowlands will take the Philistines. They will repossess the territory of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will take Gilead. 20 This army of Israelite exiles will possess that of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath. And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will take the towns of the South. 21 Those who bring deliverance will go up on Mount Zion to rule over Mount Esau. And the LORD will be King.
This section of Obadiah definitely is an eschatological (end days) prophecy. Mount Zion, Jacob, and Jerusalem are stand ins for the Church and the New Heavens and New Earth. For the Church is Israel. It is the continuation of Israel anchored in Christ Jesus. Esau stands for all the nations here.
If you look at Revelation 19 in particular you see the nations coming to wage war against the Church and the Lamb. All of God’s holy angels accompany the Lamb who then wipes out all those who have come against Him and His Church. And so it is here also. The Church becomes a fire and Esau (the world) becomes as straw. There will be nothing left of them. Now this is just one image of the Last Day. This does not exclude the general resurrection of the dead and the great white throne judgment. For even if they are all wiped out, they will stand before Jesus in His body and He will separate the sheep from the goats and cast the goats into the fire to be tormented with the angels that rebelled against God.
The New Heavens and New Earth, the New Jerusalem, are pictured here as a repossession of the land of Israel the LORD had promised Abraham and his descendants. Jesus promised the meek would inherit the earth.
Now most important is the phrase, “And the LORD will be King.” Of course the LORD has always been King over all creation. Some of creation rebelled against Him. The LORD was King over Israel in Deut. 33:5. The Israelites rejected the LORD being their King in 1 Sam. 8:7. The Jews rejected Jesus, who is the LORD, as King in John 19:15. Pilate recognized Jesus as King when He posted the charges against Him on the cross, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” So Paul writes in 1 Tim. 1, “17To the everlasting King, the immortal, invisible, and only God, be honor and glory forever. Amen.” Again he writes in 1 Tim. 6, “ 15At His own right time God will show Him to us — He, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16Who alone cannot die, Who lives in a light to which no one can come near, Whom no one has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and power forever. Amen” So the LORD Jesus is the King of Creation. We do not see Him being King now but at the end of ages every knee will bow and confess Jesus Christ is LORD. Everyone and everything will be subject to Him, even as they all are now, unaware of it. Then we shall see it.We will see everything subjected to Him, even as we now, by the Holy Spirit subject ourselves to Him.
Heavenly Father, may we ever subject ourselves to Jesus, Your Son, as our King, so when we see His reign appear, we may live and reign with Him forever. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.