Obadiah 1:1 - Homiletics

The vision.

The designation sometimes given to the prophet, "the seer," corresponds with language which is in many places employed to denote the act of communion with God, by which the honoured servant was qualified for discharging his sacred office. The process and its results are thus brought very strikingly before our mind.

I. THE REVELATION . There is something to be seen, something which is hidden from the minds of ordinary men, something from which, therefore, the veil must be withdrawn, if the spiritual eye is to gaze upon it. How God makes himself, his character, his purposes, known to those whom he selects for this special privilege, we do not know. But, unless Scripture is misleading and deceptive, such a revelation has taken place. Especially to the prophets, things otherwise unseen, unknown, have been revealed.

II. THE INSIGHT . Unless there is an eye, the light shines in vain; indeed, light is but an undulation of ether which it needs the susceptible optic nerve to appreciate. And in order that God may make his counsels known to men, there must be not only objective revelation, but subjective inspiration. The spiritual faculty needs to be quickened, that in God's light we may see light. The action of the Holy Spirit upon the mind of the prophet brought that mind into a receptive state, so that the Divine rays occasioned human illumination. The prophet saw the mind, the will, the intentions, of the Eternal.

III. THE PROPHECY . Because the spiritual eye discerned the spiritual reality, the seer became the prophet. What his eyes had seen he was thus enabled to communicate for the information, the warning, the encouragement, of his fellow men.