Obadiah- (May 11, 2025)

Intro:

what are your thoughts about justice? do you believe you live in a just world? do you believe we truly reap what we sow in this life? going further, do you believe God is truly just?

shattered paradigms-

start with an exiled and dispersed northern kingdom (Israel) 722BC, and now another exiled people in 586BC (Judah). Egypt, Judah, and Babylon where people where

a newly dejected, rejected, hopless people. is our God done with us? is the Babylonian god the true God?

Daniel Block:

Obadiah 2. The Audience

But Jerusalem fell, the Davidic house was cut off, the temple was razed, and the major portion of the population was exiled from the land. For the survivors the spiritual fallout was more difficult to deal with than the physical distress. Nebuchadnezzar’s victory had left them emotionally devastated, raising many questions about YHWH​—​questions of divine impotence, betrayal, and abandonment. Based on appearances, Marduk, the god of Babylon, had prevailed.

why do we have this little book? 21 verses, shortest O.T book? why did God give it to us? a book promising judgement for a little player in the ancient near east-Edom.

GOD IS STILL THE TRUE KING

a people in despair, sitting in their own mess, who witnessed the awful cruelty of seige warfare, being ransacked, raped, pillaged, and even experiencing this at the hands of their distant relative-the Edomites. we look at the world today and think it’s hard to believe this truth, and we live mostly affluent north american lives. these people were living as slaves, in a foreign nation, can you imagine how hard it would be to cling to this truth while you were being mocked for your jewish faith? Psalm 13

can you imagine

Edom-stand in for ALL nations

Day of the Lord-both judgement and restoration

Will there be justice at last?

Yes-why? Because our God is still on His throne and will be forever!

God is sovereign (vs 1-4)

define sovereign

paint picture of Judah in exile-God refuses to be known as a mere tribal deity. to a people suffering and hopeless-come words

Edom-picture of pride of nations-believing they were untouchable (list kingdoms

Daniel 2:20-21, Isaiah 40:15, 21-24

you don’t have to understand how this all works, maybe you refuse to believe it because it makes no sense, can i tell you, it wouldn’t have been believable to Judah either as they were exiled, some sitting in Judah left looking at the desolation, or to those who fled to Egypt, or to those who were taken to Babylon

God see and takes note of injustice (vs 8-14)

he saw Edom’s violence, how they joined in on the pillaging, the gloating of seeing Judah fall, even attacking those fleeing the scene

for us living in North America persecution for our faith seems far fetched but for many of our brothers and sisters this is a daily reality (1 in 7 worldwide, 1 in 5 Africa, 2 in 5 in Asia

Christians killed in Nigeria-Palm Sunday

70 Christians beheaded in Congo

Christians in India

1 Thessalonians 1, Revelation 6

God will hold the guilty to account (vs 15-16)

God’s perfect justice. the guilty will not get away with anything

God will restore (vs 17-21)

We desire fairness, we desire to see the right outcome, we long for happy endings.

we would be right to be frightened at this day if not for Christ.

at the Cross-justice is met, our wrongs, past present and future are paid for as Christ bears them so that