Obadiah and Daniel 11:43-12:1 (an experimental paraphrase)

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

13 February 2011

 

The Middle Age rabbis interpreted Obadiah with various methods of prophetic interpretation. Some thought it was preteristically indicating to events way back in the history of Israel or at the Babylonian Exile. Others thought that it was stretching a bit further to the time of Titus. Still others, like Malbim, considered the interpretation of the data of the book to be all the way to the very end time of the appearance of two messiah's and the war of the Gog and Magog. Malbim would place the events thus further than our own in 2011.

It is with the help of Daniel 11:43-45 and the continuation of events in Daniel 12:1-2 that we reconstruct the following present-time attachment of events in both Daniel and Obadiah.

The following view is exentric the view of this interpreter and does not belong to any denomination including the Seventh Day Adventist church. Readers need to know that and furthermore, in all denominations, this part of the prophecy in Daniel 11 is considered to be a gray area since no-one knows how they should be interpreted. Of course the preterists would like to throw everything at the door of Antiochus Epiphanes, but that view of the heathen writer Porphyry, was already convincingly rejected in the commentary of Jerome on Daniel in 396 CE.

In the light of this researcher's special view of the connection of Daniel 11:36 with the USA and not France (Uriah Smith) and the connection of Daniel 11:40 with 911 and the fall of Saddam Hussein as King of the North and the connection of friendliness with Jordan in 11:41, and the yearly military budget to Egypt since Nixon and Sadat in June of 1973/4, therefore the Libyan change of heart of Ghaddafi is in 11:43 and the change of heart in Sudan, Darfur, and Somalia (ancient Ethiopia in the days of Daniel in 537 BCE), therefore Iran is featured in Daniel 11:44 with Iraq again(?) and in Daniel 11:45 trouble will be on the temple mount after the USA will move their embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem [between the two seas], and when the USA sit down [come to its end and no one for him] then a Time of Trouble will inaugerate under the Third World Power dominion led by China, Catholicism and Islam(?) which would last only 9 months [Micah 5:2] before the Messiah will come, the Second Coming or Advent as Adventists and other Christians are waiting for it.

It is in the light of the above interpretation of Daniel 11:36-12:2 that we present a scenario of the End Time with information that Malbim did not have since we also feel like him that Obadiah was shown what will take place in our own time.

The following paraphrase of Obadiah is with the intent to read it through this researcher's eyes.

Readers are cautioned that events may not be correct and that the interpretation may not be correct. For now, this is the reading.

A note on the Wikileaks and the power of the USA, it will only make them stronger not weaker. Furthermore, Wikileaks only proves that the USA is transparent and the Arabic belt revolt currently against their dictators since they wish to have a government similar to the USA where everything is open. The Facebook and Twitter revolution in Egypt and Tunisia and Algiers and Yemen are only because they wish to follow the template of the USA. The papacy is also a powerhouse in the world since they are 1 billion people. The papacy and its structures are wealthy for a long time and is currently the richest religion on earth. It is the most powerful religion on earth. Not a structure of the United Nations is not navigated by them as the list of affiliations on their www.vatican.va shows. For Seventh Day Adventists it was throughout their interpretational history until today the fulfilment of the role of the first and second beast of Revelation 13 and is current since the Holy Roman Empire 538-1798 is the first beast and the succesor or second beast is the USA who will heal the deadly wound of the first beast and cause everyone to follow the first beast. Money will be involved in times of economic turmoil and no one will be able to buy or sell unless they have the mark of the beast which is 666. It is not digital but the term VICARIUS FILII DEI which counts in Latin to exactly 666 but which is the title of the papacy as "representative of the son of God" on earth. The Egyptian revolution is currently not undoing Daniel since Egypt is controlled by the treasury of the USA as the verse is saying since 1.3 billion dollars yearly were given to them for their military, a military that took over Friday from Mubarrak the dictator, ousted out by the people of Egypt.

 

Experimental Paraphrase of Obadiah [historicistic and presentistic]

1. The vision or video that the Lord showed to the prophet Obadiah around 850 BCE in the days of Elijah the prophet: So said the Lord God concerning the USA empire [Edom was interpreted as Rome by Rashi but Rome was Babylon in Revelation and Babylon was also Niniveh according to cuneiform tablets, thus Niniveh [Assyria] was Babylon, Babylon [Babylonia] was Babylon, Shushan [Medo-Persians] was Babylon(? no evidence), Athens [Greek empire] was Babylon(? no evidence), Rome was Babylon, Holy Roman Empire 538-1798 was Babylon, and therefore we conclude that the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, the USA empire is also Babylon (New York?).

"We have heard news from the Lord and a messenger has been sent among the nations, "Arise and let us rise up against the Americans[911?] in war".

 

2. Behold I have made you small among the nations, you are very despised. This refers to the day the USA will come to its end 9 months before the coming of the Messiah on the clouds of heaven when the Time of Trouble will inaugurate.

 

3. The wickedness of your [American] heart enticed you, who dwell in the clefts of the rock with their armies, whose habitation is high, who says to himself "Who will bring me down to the earth?" "Is there a nation that will bring our military down?

 

4. If you go up with NASA like an eagle, and if you place your nest or space lab among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord.

 

5. Did the Third World countries come upon you after you come to your end (Daniel 11:45), did plunderers of the night? How were you silent? Will they not steal till they have enough? If vintagers came upon you would they not leave over some gleaning grapes?

 

6. How the USA [Esau = Rome = Babylon] was searched out, how his hidden things were revealed by Wikileaks in 2010-2011?

 

7. Until the border all your allies escorted you like in Revelation 18, your friends enticed you, yes prevailed against you, your food they lay as a wound under you, there is no discernment in them as is explained also in Revelation 18 with New York(?) as the city experiencing problems.

 

8. Shall I not in that day, which is still future way beyond 2011, says the Lord, destroy the intellectuals of the USA, and the discernment from Pentagon?

 

9. And your mighty men shall be dismayed. O dwellers of the Southland [Iran] since the USA will wage war with Iran in future according to Daniel 11:44 and that is south of Assyria and Iraq or Babylon. In order that every man be cut off from the Pentagon by slaughter? Whether this fits into the Iran war episode that is future is not sure here?

 

10. From the violence of your brother Israel, shame shall cover you USA who's baby is Israel, and you shall be cut off forever as also Daniel 11:45 indicates at the end. The reason is that history has come to an end and the Messiah comes during the Time of Trouble so that forever means there will be no more USA empire and soon neither any other.

 

11. On that day [when you forgot Israel] you stood from afar, on the day strangers captured its possessions in East Jerusalem and other areas, and foreigners came into its cities, and on Jerusalem these foreigners cast lots to take what belongs to Jewish people, and you [USA] too are like one of them. USA is suppose to be the brother of Israel but sell out Israel left right and center.

 

12. And you should not have looked on the day of your brother on the day of his being delivered, and you should not have rejoiced about the children of Jerusalem [= Judah] on the day of their destruction, and you should not have spoken proudly on the day of distress.

 

13. You should not have come into the gate of My people [worldwide persecution] on the day of their misfortune, you too should not have looked at their affliction on the day of their misfortune, and you should not have stretched out [your hand] upon their possessions on the day of their misfortune. The scope is here worldwide since the Time of Trouble like there never was in Daniel 12:1 will be a time world wide when their will be a global persecution against faithful people who keep the law of God and keep His sabbath. It is during the 9 months of severe trouble on earth before the Messiah comes vertically.

 

14. And you should not have stood by the gap to cut off their fugitives, neither should you have delivered their survivors on the day of distress during the Time of Trouble of Daniel 12:1.

 

15. For the Day of the Lord over all the nations at that point will be close, as you have done shall be done to you, your recompense shall be returned upon your head.

 

16. For as you drank on My Holy Mount as is indicated in Daniel 11:45 when the USA and an international force will come to the Mount to protect it, shall all the nations drink constantly, and they shall drink and be stunned, and they shall be as though they were not. The cup of the wrath of God is given to them to drink. In Revelation drinking with the harlot or false church is a big problem and the USA will be instrumental in uplifting the papacy as focus in the last day events.

 

17. And on Mount Zion when the Messiah comes as Michael in Daniel 12:1 vertical with the lowering of the heavenly Zion or heavenly Jerusalem, the good shall be taken refuge there and there shall be a remnant, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob's faith, shall inherit those who inherited them.

 

18. And the house of Jacob or Spiritual Israel shall be fire for the angels and the Lord/Jesus coming on the clounds of Heaven shall be so bright that they cry, Lord cover our eyes from the brightness by rocks falling on us. And the house of Joseph, also Spiritual Israel in the past, shall ignite them and consume them at the second coming of Christ. And the USA shall have then at that time no survivors, for the Lord has spoken.

 

19. And the inhabitants of the Southland who were the driven out faithful in history shall again inherit Edom and the inhabitants of Gaza and they shall inherit the field of Ephraim and the field of Samaria or the West Bank and Benjamin with the inhabitants of Gilead in Transjordan. It is then that the promises that were made to Jacob and Joseph will be fulfilled exactly when evil is destroyed and Zion came down from heaven.

 

20. And this exiled faithful remnant of spiritual Israel worldwide who are the Canaanites as far as Zarephath [Germany and Spain according to Ibn Ezra] and the exile of Jerusalem which is Sheparad shall inherit the cities of the southland. Of course, after the millennium of Revelation 20 the Lord will again make a new heaven and new earth and resettle Spiritual Israel from the heavenly Zion or heavenly Jerusalem on this new earth and all promises specifically made to individuals by the Lord in the past will be fulfilled one by one.

21. And those who are saved shall ascend Mounth Zion or heavenly Zion to judge the USA [of the end-time scenario of course post-2011] and all evil people who are not saved for a thousand years. It is the confirmation judgment since the investigative judgment is now on since 1844 and will conclude with the beginning of the Time of Trouble. After the confirmation judgment for a 1000 years, the executive judgment will be or Hell and after that the making of a New heaven and a New earth.

And the Lord shall have the kingdom.

 

Criticism

Although this scenario is suggested for Obadiah, look at all the inconsistencies especially the rendering of Southland and also the words mountain of Esau.

This is at most experimental written from a Seventh Day Adventist historicism method of interpretation. Historicism means that historical documents should back up the conclusions or suggestions, something that is not present here and thus many of the events remains to be seen or will never happen as surmised here.