Obadiah 19-21--The Kingdom of the LORD

Obadiah 19-21
English Standard Version

The Kingdom of the LORD
19 Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau,
    and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines;
they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria,
    and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
20 The exiles of this host of the people of Israel
    shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath,
and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
    shall possess the cities of the Negeb.
21 Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion
    to rule Mount Esau,
    and the kingdom shall be the LORD's.

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There is one final topic the LORD wants to discuss with those reading Obadiah's prophecies before the close of the book, and that is the coming Kingdom of the LORD that He is preparing for the righteous that belong to Him.  Last time we talked about the judgment that was being prepared for the unrighteous, but that is not the destiny of those whom the LORD has redeemed and saved and put His Spirit within.

The people of the South (the people of Judah, specifically those living in the wilderness south of Jerusalem) will be given Edom (the land near the Dead Sea.  The people of Shephelah (the Judean foothills in south-central Israel) will receive the lands of the Philistines as their inheritance (the portion of land between Israel and Judah that we now think of as "The Gaza Strip").  

The faithful Jews of the South will rebuild and repopulate the Land of Samaria (the northern kingdom that was judged severely so that they were nearly destroyed by the LORD's hand of judgment).  The tribe of Benjamin will posses the Trans-Jordan region of Gilead (what we call modern-day Jordan).  The exiles will return and possess all the Land of Canaan that was promised to them through Moses and Joshua.  The entirety of the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be filled with their descendants, and they will own all of it.

The LORD will reign from Mount Zion over all the territory of His people, and there will be no competing throne to His in all the Land, not even from Mount Esau.  This is the Messianic kingdom promised to the Jewish people throughout the Old Testament that would last 1,000 years.  This is not a promise to the Gentile believers (note how all the tribal names are given here and division of the Land is made according to what tribe the people belonged to).  Those outside the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob may have a place in this Kingdom too, for there is much more land that is mentioned here that is under the control of Messiah during the time of His Kingdom.  There is all of the kingdoms of Egypt and Assyria for instance that are outside the land promised to the Jews where we are told that God-fearing Gentiles will live and worship the LORD, but they will not live in the Land of Canaan.  We also see promises that all the kingdoms of the world come and pay tribute to the Messiah.  We'll see exactly how this plays out in the future when these events occur, but there is more than enough land for the LORD to give everything He promised to the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and for there to be more than enough room left for those who were brought into the family of God by Adoption.  They will receive an inheritance of their own but they will not rob the "natural born" children of their inheritance.