Welcome to Day Two! Today I tackled the book of Obadiah. If you’re just tuning in, the challenge I have set for myself is to read an entire book of the Bible each day for the next 66 days. Before I began the challenge I set up a pattern, a long book followed by a shorter book. The only time this changes is when I start getting into books that have multiple parts- then I’ll read both sections back to back. Or if I know that I have a busy or slow day coming- then I can swap for a short or longer book as my schedule allows.
Yesterday I started with Jeremiah because it is the longest book and I wanted to start strong. So today that lead me to the book of Obadiah. At first glance it’s a pretty straightforward book. God is proclaiming judgment on the nation of Edom as a result of their treatment of Israel. He accuses them of plundering the land, rejoicing at the fall of Israel and even killing those who were trying to escape.
But one phrase stuck out to me. The end of verse 5 says this:
“Those who harvest grapes
always leave a few for the poor.
But your enemies will wipe you out completely!”
I read it a few times and it sounded familiar. So I went back to Jeremiah and started flipping through the verses I had highlighted yesterday. When I did I found Jeremiah 49:9- which has the EXACT same phrase! As I compared the two chapters there are some remarkable similarities. Both reference Edom’s pride, how they have soared “high like eagles” and how the Lord will bring them crashing down.
Both Jeremiah and Obadiah were prophets of God, and while scholars aren’t entirely sure which Obadiah wrote the book ( there are several listed in Scripture) seeing the clear connection between the two books was awesome.
When I thought about attempting this read through one of my hopes was that I would see connections in Scripture that I had never seen before- and to see my first to books connecting in such a clear way is really exciting! I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.
Since Sunday’s are a very full day, and it’s Father’s Day I’ll be swapping Psalms (which is incredibly intimidating) to the Book of Jude. See you tomorrow!
In Christ,
Karen
Constant Faith 