Obadiah

There once was a young Lawyer from California who decided to visit his friend in Texas. His friend decided to take him on a trip do a some hunting out in rural Texas. As they went out the lawyer on the trip was able to shoot a duck and it fell to the ground on the other side of a fence. Just as the lawyer was about to hop the fence to retrieve his duck an old farmer pulls up and looks at him and says, “what do you think your doing?” The lawyer says well I shot that duck so was going to retrieve my duck. The farmer looks at him and says, “that ducks on my property its my duck now.” The lawyer feeling slightly incredulous and annoyed said “you listen here, I am a great lawyer and if you don’t let me get this duck I will sue and own your land.” The farmers say around here we settle things using the Texas Three Kick Rule. It’s very simple I kick you three times, then you kick me three times and we keep going until someone gives up. Last man standing gets the duck. The lawyer sizes up the old farmer and says, “I can take this old man let’s do this.” The farmer’s kick is right in the groin, immediately as the lawyer is bent is over in pain he just about the takes the nose off, and for his third kick as the lawyer is on the ground in pain is a shot right to the kidneys. As the lawyer is laying on the ground in pain he hears a chuckle and glances over and see his friend laughing at him, and he thinks to himself I cannot let this stand. So, he muster’s all his anger and says, “all right now its my turn.” To which the farmer replies, “that’s OK you can have the duck.”

I think this little story is an excellent example of the type of relationship that we are going to see in our study today. Our study today is going to be on the book of Obadiah. If you want to turn, there in your Bible’s, I’ll give you a little background on the book before we get started. Obadiah was a prophet of God whose name means Servant or Worshiper of Yahweh, and that concludes all that we know about Obadiah. We don’t know anything else about him, we don’t know his father or even when he lived. From the clues in the text, we believe that the book was probably written sometime between 585 and 580 B.C. which would make Obadiah a contemporary of Jeremiah. However, this is just our best guess and some people have argued that this book takes place up to 200 years earlier.

Now Obadiah is one of the 12 minor prophets who make up the end of the Old Testament and whenever I tough on any of the minor prophets there is something that I like to point out. We do not call them minor prophets because they are less important, less valuable, or less inspired than the major prophets. This isn’t like baseball where the minor prophets just were good enough to make it to the major prophets. The reason we call them the minor prophets is because what they wrote was shorten and more compact than what the major prophets wrote and Obadiah, he takes this to heart. His book is the shortest book in the Old Testament at 21 verses and in the original language it has only 440 words.

Let’s read the first 11 verse of Obadiah.

The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom (We have heard a report from the Lord, And a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying, “Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle”): Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You shall be greatly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, You who dwell in the clefts of the rock, Whose habitation is high; You who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ Though you ascend as high as the eagle, And though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down,” says the Lord. “If thieves had come to you, If robbers by night— Oh, how you will be cut off!— Would they not have stolen till they had enough? If grape-gatherers had come to you, Would they not have left some gleanings? “Oh, how Esau shall be searched out! How his hidden treasures shall be sought after! All the men in your confederacy Shall force you to the border; The men at peace with you Shall deceive you and prevail against you. Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap for you. No one is aware of it. “Will I not in that day,” says the Lord, “Even destroy the wise men from Edom, And understanding from the mountains of Esau? Then your mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, To the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau May be cut off by slaughter. “For violence against your brother Jacob, Shame shall cover you, And you shall be cut off forever. In the day that you stood on the other side— In the day that strangers carried captive his forces, When foreigners entered his gates And cast lots for Jerusalem— Even you were as one of them.

The Book of Obadiah is a book that foretells God’s coming judgement on the people of Edom. The destruction that God’s promise is startling. It is complete and utter destruction. God’s says you would preferred to be robbed because at least then they would left something for you but there will be nothing left of Edom. Several questions probably come to mind when thinking about this but the first one I want to look at is how did it come to this? What is it that lead to God bringing this punishment down on Edom, and to answer that let’s retrace the history of Edom’s relationship with Israel.

Their relationship starts over a thousand years earlier in Genesis 25 when Jacob the father of the Israelites and Esau the father of the Edomites are about to be born. Esau was the firstborn and listen to how the Bible describes him at his birth in Genesis 25:25. It says, “He came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over, so they called his name Esau.” Which sounds like either a really mean nickname or Rebekah and Isaac were not great with names. I mean he is described as hairy, so they call him Hairy. Jacob on they other hand they name him “he who supplants.” These two boys are completely different. Esau was a great hunter while Jacob wasn’t, he is described as mild.

One day Esau is coming home from a hunting expedition in which he caught nothing, so he is very hungry, and he sees Jacob cooking some stew. He says give me some stew. Jacob seeing Esau in a state of weakness decided to take advantage of this situation to get something out of it. Jacob says, I’ll give some food if you give me your birthright. Now what is this birthright that Jacob wanted. Well, it gave three things, first it meant you got a double portion of Dad’s stuff when Dad died. Second it meant that you would become the next patriarch of the family. You would now be the one in charge of the family. Thirdly and this specific for this family the promised linage of the Messiah would come from you. Esau traded all of that for a bowl of stew. This is a terrible trade and it’s why the Bible says that Esau despised his birthright.

Now when the time comes for the birthright to actually be given you will find that Isaac is on team Esau and decides that he is going to give it to Esau. Now Rebekah is on team Jacob and so she has a plan to get Jacob that blessing. So, she convinces Jacob to deceive his blind father in giving him the blessing by pretending to be Esau. Now Jacob spots a problem with this plan in that Esau is as name suggests hairy is in own words smooth-skinned. So, the moment Isaac touches him the game will be up, but Rebekah has an answer. She puts on Jacob goats’ skin so that when Isaac feels Jacob, he will feel the goat’s skin and believe that it’s Esau. This just makes me question what did Esau look like so that when you touch Goat’s skin makes you go that Esau. The plan works and when Esau finds out he is furious and promises that he will kill Jacob for this. Jacob upon learning about this is forced to go into exile for 20 years.

Now Jacob and Esau do reconcile eventually but the damage has been done. For twenty years, Esau’s family had heard about the cowardly, deceptive Jacob who stole what rightfully belonged to Esau, and Jacob’s family had heard for twenty years about the vengeful and terrible Esau who forced their father into exile and when he came back greeted him with 400 armed soldiers. So, while the hostilities may have started with Jacob and Esau is now beyond them continue all the way done throughout their history. I will give a few examples throughout their history. Numbers chapter 20 Israel is about to enter the promised land and they ask for permission to go through Edom’s land. Edom response is to send the army. In 2nd Samuel 8 David conquers the Edomites and occupies their land. Also, when David does, he kills all the males of Edom. In 1st Kings 11 when God is raising up enemies for Solomon one of those, he raises up is an Edomite. All of this comes to a head in 586 B.C. When the Babylonian armies under Nebuchadnezzar complete destroy Jerusalem. Edom’s reaction to this is put very blunting in Psalms 137:7 where it says, “Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom The day of Jerusalem, Who said, “Raze it, raze it, to its very foundation!””.

However, the real question is why is God bringing this punishment down on Edom. Yes, they have this long history of conflict but what was the final act that was them going a step too far. Now the text gives several sins that Edom committed but the one I want to focus on is found in verses 12 and 13. “But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother In the day of his captivity; Nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Juda In the day of their destruction; Nor should you have spoken proudly In the day of distress. You should not have entered the gate of My people In the day of their calamity. Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction In the day of their calamity, Nor laid hands on their substance In the day of their calamity.”

The phrase should not have gazed is missing some context. What it means it that they are looking with malicious satisfaction. One thing to note is that God considered Edom and Israel to be brothers as it said at the start of verse 12. So what God sees here is that when Edom’s brother is going through it worst day Edom doesn’t do anything to help but instead stands on the sideline and enjoys their suffering. When people are going though a hard time and sit on sidelines and don’t offer to help them the Bible calls that a sin. You might be familiar with the Bible Verse “Be sure your sins will find you out.” We often use this verse to refer to the fact if you are being deceptive or your secret sins will eventually come and while that is an accurate interpretation the original context is a little different. The original context of Numbers 32:23 which is where this verse if found is the Israelites are about to cross the Jordon River to enter the promised land and the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh are going to stay on the side of the Jordan River they are currently on. However, as part of the agreement for them staying they had to supply troops to assist the rest of the tribes of Israel in securing the land for their inheritance. If they did not help their brothers in securing their inheritance Moses says to them “Then take note, you have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.” If you see a brother or sister in trouble and do not help God takes note of that and considers that to be a sin.

Let me give a real life example of what this looked like. There once was a group of three school children. Student A would always bully and insult student B. However, Student A was extremely clever and would only do it in the presence of Student C in order to keep it from becoming public and thus getting in trouble. When this did come out both Student A and Student C was punished and when student C complained about how this was unfair since they did not do anything the reply was and that’s the point. You knew what was going on and you knew it was wrong and yet you didn’t do anything to either stop this or even report it so that it could be stopped by the teachers. That is the point that the Bible is getting at when you see someone in trouble or hurting and you don’t do anything God is not happy with your inaction.

Some other examples from the Bible really quickly. Job when he running all the possible sins that he could have committed in order to bring about his calamity he considers this possibility in Job 31:16-23. He asks himself did not provide for the poor or help the widow or fatherless. No, Job did come to their aid, but this is something that he asked himself. Proverbs, 24:17, 18 “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; Lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him, And He turn away His wrath from him.” This is what Edom did. They were rejoicing when their enemy, Israel fell. God is watching and he will see it and will displease Him. Finally how about the words of Jesus in Matthew 25. If you remember our scripture reading from earlier about the sheep and the goats who sit on his left and right hand. What separates those on the left from those on the right? It’s how they treated people who were need.

The book of Obadiah promised the total of destruction of the Edomites. This came to fulfillment in 70 A.D. We remember that for the Jewish Rebellion that resulted in the destruction of the Temple, but what we often don’t mention is that in a twist of irony this time the Edomites came to Israel aid. However, it was too late and they died alongside their Jewish brethren. However, even in this I see the mercy of God because after the decree for their destruction in Obadiah God still gave them 600 years to repent. My question for you is what are you going to do with the time God has given you? God is watching and is looking to see what you are going to do. Are you going to be someone like Job who is faithful caring for the needs of people in need or are you going to be like the Edomites who when they saw their brother in need rejoiced and did nothing to help them.