Summary
In Obadiah, ESV Expository Commentary, Max Rogland helps us preach a short book with weight. He keeps the argument moving, sets the text in its covenant setting, and shows why the Lord’s justice is never a side theme for the church. Volume 7.
We are guided through the structure with clear signposts, and we are repeatedly brought back to the main point of each unit, so we do not turn a few verses into a grab bag of ideas.
Why Should I Own This Commentary?
We should own this volume when we need help handling judgement language with reverence and pastoral steadiness. It encourages careful reading, then moves us toward proclamation that comforts the oppressed and warns the proud.
The exposition is pitched for preaching. We are helped to trace key threads, to keep the book’s logic in view, and to land applications that are shaped by the text rather than by current controversies.
For training, it models how to treat a small prophetic book as Scripture that forms the church, not as an odd appendix to the Old Testament.
Closing Recommendation
We recommend Obadiah, ESV Expository Commentary for pastors and teachers who want a mid level guide that is alert to context and ready for the pulpit. It is especially useful when we want our sermons to hold together both the Lord’s righteousness and his refuge for his people.
As pastoral next steps, we can visit the Bible Book Overview, browse Top Recommendations, and use the Reformed Commentary Index to build a wiser working library.
Max Rogland
Max Rogland is a North American Old Testament scholar and pastor of the contemporary era, serving within a Reformed Presbyterian context.
He has written on Old Testament interpretation and has contributed to major commentary projects, with particular interest in how the Old Testament’s later books read and reuse earlier Scripture. Rogland helps preachers attend to language, structure, and canonical placement, so that sermons arise from what the text is actually doing.
He is valued for careful exegesis joined to pastoral sobriety, which is especially helpful when texts are complex or emotionally weighty. Recommended titles include his contributions to the ESV Expository Commentary, studies in Old Testament intertextuality, and his work on reading wisdom and poetry well.
Theological Perspective: Broadly Evangelical