Pulpit Commentary on the Kingdom in Obadiah

Obadiah 21: “The kingdom will be the Lord’s.”

“What fullness of brightest morning glory after a long night of blackest darkness! The kingdom longed for, the kingdom prayer for, the kingdom promised, the kingdom prophesied of, shall be the kingdom come.  The kingdom. Not many kingdoms, but one. Now there are many, and these diverse from each other, and often at war one with another. The Prophet Daniel spoke of this when he said, ‘The Lord God shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.’  The fulfillment is presented to us in Rev. 11:15, ‘The seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, ‘The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.’

‘The kingdom shall be the Lord’s.’  Now the world lies in the wicked one. The kingdom is Satan’s. Look at its sins, its miseries, its darkness, its degradation, its ruin. The kingdom is Satan’s. See the heathen world bowing to wood and stone…Look at the vast millions carried away by the Mohammedan delusion. Turn to the multitudes hardened by Jewish infidelity. View so-called Christendom, with teeming myriads rejecting the truth. See also the millions that have not so much as the profession of any religion. Is not Satan the prince of this world? Is not the great enemy of souls usurping the seat of power? …As we think of the infidelity and ignorance which stalk abroad in the professing Church and in the world; as we think of war and bloodshed deluging the earth; as we think of nations discomfited by the frailties of human governments; as we think of the Church torn by contentions; as we think of Rachels weeping for their lost ones; as we think of the tears which bedew the cheeks of orphans and widows; as we think of the sorrows in our hospitals; as we think of the bitter poverty in our large cities; as we think, too, of the groans of the poor brute creation; and as we think of the sad partings, the great disappointments, the strong animosities, and the cruel wrongs common to earth; — shall we not pray for the fulfillment of our text? Shall we not cry, ‘Thy kingdom come’? Shall we not exclaim, with St. John, ‘Come, Lord Jesus; come quickly’? It is a cry for the end of toil, the end of suffering, the end of tears, the end of temptations, the end of sin, the end of gloom, the end of darkness, the end of death. It is a long cry for the song of heaven to be heard, ‘Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of God, and the power of his Christ.’ It is an earnest longing to join in the Hallelujah chorus of the great multitude, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigns!’

‘The kingdom shall be the Lord’s.’ …The kingdom of glory shall come, and shall have no end. In closing our study of the Book of Obadiah, let us carry with us the sweet echoes of its last words. May the Holy Spirit, in all the vicissitudes of earth, keep us in mind that ‘the kingdom shall be the Lord’s’! Before long, and he shall come whose right it is to reign. In the interval before the advent let us be alive to our duty.”