Obadiah (Exploring the Bible)

It is said that ‘the best things come in small packages’ and certainly the book of Obadiah bears that out. Weighing in at just twenty-one verses, it is packed full with good things: rich theology, powerful imagery, unsettling challenges to our thinking and living, and huge promise for the triumph of God’s purposes. Obadiah uses key biblical themes such as mountains and brothers, the kingdom of God and the day of the Lord; he challenges his hearers and readers by what he says about malice, pride and complacency; he encourages God’s people with the promise of their sure inheritance; and he raises wider matters of justice, spiritual warfare and the international spread of the kingdom of God. Furthermore, like all the prophets, Obadiah over and over points us to the kindness and justice of the Lord Jesus Christ and to the greatness of what he has done for us.

David Field lectures at Oak Hill Theological College in London and is a member of Enfield Evangelical Free Church. After reading theology at Oxford, David worked taught in a theological college in Nigeria for three years and then gained a PhD from Cambridge on the thought of English Puritan, John Howe. He was pastor of Horsley Evangelical Church for five years and immediately before beginning teaching at Oak Hill he had four years in the commercial world as a headhunter. David is married to Sue and they have three daughters. His other loves include the novels of John Buchan, Everton Football Club, and early mornings.