safe in God’s presence

But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape,

and it shall be holy,

and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.

Obadiah 1:17

The only safe place in the midst of God’s sweeping justice is to be close to His presence. Those who would worship God would find this to be true. This was true for the Jews who had been taken to exile as Obadiah declared this things (Obadiah 1:12-14). This would be true as God prepared to wipe the Edomites off the map in judgment of their hatred of Him and His people. They would be treated as they had treated Israel (Obadiah 1:15).

Yet there was this promise for protection for Edomites who would repent. If they rejected the hatred of God and instead turned to worship the Lord, if they found shelter in God’s presence by coming to His temple on Zion, they would be spared. And history knows this to be true. By the time of Jesus, Edomite converts had intermarried with returned Jewish exiles for generations. Herod the Great and his sons were the most notable examples of this. God kept converted Edomites alive just as He promised here.

This promise of shelter in God’s promise and protection in His worship is picked up on and applied to Christ in the book of Hebrews. Christians have come to “mount Zion” in Christ, to live in the worship and presence of God (Hebrews 12:22). Jesus Himself is our temple, a fact He spoke of Himself when He prophesied that the temple of Herod the Great would be torn down, but that He “would raise it up in three days” (John 2:19-21). In Christ we are safe. Faith in Jesus is our escape from the inevitable judgment God brings on all sin. Jesus is our worship, our hope, our Mount Zion, our possession, and our Savior!