"Then the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions" (Obadiah, verse 17).
What a strange expression! How can you "possess" what you already possess?
he prophet is thinking about Israel. That nation had received some stunning promises from God (for example, Deuteronomy 28:9-13). What astonishing prosperity God offered Israel! In the mind of God, everything he had promised already belonged to the people, but they had never seized their inheritance. Sometimes through unbelief, sometimes through cowardice, sometimes through ignorance, or for another reason, they had left the splendid promise of God unclaimed. But one day, said Obadiah, that will all change, and Israel will at last fully possess its own possessions.
The church is like Israel. God has given us immense benefits. Christians are the owners of those blessings, yet they don't possess them. We live as though our property were not ours, as though we still have to buy God's gracious gifts by our own works, as though they have to be earned instead of received joyfully by faith.
The opening chapter of this book does two things: it presents three of the benefits that we Christians are called upon to "possess" by faith; and it lays a foundation for the chapters that follow, for the basic theme of this book is how you, by faith, can "possess your own possessions!"
