Obadiah 1:21

In summary, those who would deliver the Jews to their divinely intended destiny would ascend Mt. Zion and would judge Mt. Seir (cf. Judges 3:9; Judges 3:15). Edom would not prevail over Israel, but Yahweh would prove to be sovereign (cf. Judges 3:1). His kingdom would extend over the whole Promised Land, even the part that Israel’s enemies formerly occupied and the people who formerly opposed them. The conquest of the land that Joshua began but did not finish will be complete then. Thus Obadiah’s prophecy, this tale of two mountains, ends on a climax with Yahweh’s kingdom dominating all the nations and with Yahweh as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (cf. Revelation 19:16; Revelation 20:4). The verse is clearly messianic.

"None of the prophets has a more exalted close than this. . . . No man-ruled empire nor any nation of this world will endure forever. All will one day be merged into that eternal kingdom over which the Lord Jesus Christ will reign in solitary glory." [Note: Gaebelein, pp. 46-47.]

Amillennial interpreters understand New Testament references to Israel as references to the church. They see the fulfillment of Obadiah’s prophecy not in the restoration of Old Testament Israel to future sovereignty in the Promised Land but in the final victory of the church over all her enemies. [Note: E.g., Stuart, p. 422; Keil, 1:378; and Allen, p. 172.] Premillennialists reject this "replacement theology" (the church replaces Israel in God’s program) because we believe when God said "Israel" He meant Israel. It is incorrect, we believe, to conclude that because Christians are the spiritual seed of Abraham the church is the spiritual seed of Israel.

As the nation of Edom opposed the Israelites, so the Edomites of Jesus’ day (Herod the Great and his successors) opposed Jesus Christ and His followers. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who proved to be the fulfillment of all that the nation of Israel was to be, became the personal focus of Herod’s hostility, who tried to kill Jesus in His infancy. Yet Herod was unsuccessful. Likewise all the enemies of Israel, and of Israel’s Messiah, will be unsuccessful in doing away with the Savior and will experience destruction themselves for trying to do so.