Obadiah
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Object Lesson: The melted snowman
The Bible is an old book. We know this. The newest book of the Bible is getting close to 2000 years old now. Some people believe that it’s not really relevant any more. We as a church believe that the Bible is God’s word and that it is timeless. What do you do when you run into books of the Bible that seem very much rooted in the historical moment in which they occured? I’m not talking about books like Genesis that tell stories about the distant past but do so as a way to teach us. No I’m talking about books like Obadiah, a prophecy addressed to the nation of Edom calling them out for something they did probably around 3000 years ago. Is this books still relevant for us today as followers of Jesus? Even though the nation it’s written to doesn’t even exist any more? If we believe what the Bible says about itself than we believe that it’s all relevant. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Surely that includes Obadiah, right? Well let’s take a look at this book, the shortest one in the Old Testament I might add, and see what lessons it has to teach us as followers of Jesus.
The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord God has said about Edom:
We have heard a message from the Lord; an envoy has been sent among the nations: “Rise up, and let’s go to war against her.” Look, I will make you insignificant among the nations; you will be deeply despised.
Your arrogant heart has deceived you, you who live in clefts of the rock in your home on the heights, who say to yourself, “Who can bring me down to the ground?” Though you seem to soar like an eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down. This is the Lord’s declaration.
If thieves came to you, if marauders by night—how ravaged you would be!—wouldn’t they steal only what they wanted? If grape harvesters came to you, wouldn’t they leave a few grapes? How Esau will be pillaged, his hidden treasures searched out!
Everyone who has a treaty with you will drive you to the border; everyone at peace with you will deceive and conquer you. Those who eat your bread will set a trap for you. He will be unaware of it.
In that day—this is the Lord’s declaration—will I not eliminate the wise ones of Edom and those who understand from the hill country of Esau? Teman, your warriors will be terrified so that everyone from the hill country of Esau will be destroyed by slaughter.
You will be covered with shame and destroyed forever because of violence done to your brother Jacob. On the day you stood aloof, on the day strangers captured his wealth, while foreigners entered his city gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them.
Do not gloat over your brother in the day of his calamity; do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction; do not boastfully mock in the day of distress. Do not enter my people’s city gate in the day of their disaster. Yes, you—do not gloat over their misery in the day of their disaster, and do not appropriate their possessions in the day of their disaster. Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off their fugitives, and do not hand over their survivors in the day of distress.
For the day of the Lord is near, against all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; what you deserve will return on your own head. As you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and gulp down and be as though they had never been.
But there will be a deliverance on Mount Zion, and it will be holy; the house of Jacob will dispossess those who dispossessed them. Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing fire, and the house of Joseph, a burning flame, but the house of Esau will be stubble; Jacob will set them on fire and consume Edom. Therefore no survivor will remain of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.
People from the Negev will possess the hill country of Esau; those from the Judean foothills will possess the land of the Philistines. They will possess the territories of Ephraim and Samaria, while Benjamin will possess Gilead. The exiles of the Israelites who are in Halah and who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath as well as the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the cities of the Negev.
Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to rule over the hill country of Esau, and the kingdom will be the Lord’s.
So yes, this book is written to Edom, but God knew that you and I would be looking at it this morning. He sees the end from the beginning. And I believe that there are clear timeless lessons in this book. Lessons like the danger of arrogance, learning from Edom’s bad example that we should not give in to pride and think too highly of ourselves. Lessons like the seriousness of sins of omission. The importance of not just avoiding evil, but stepping out and doing the good that God has called us to do. And finally we see in this letter that although it is written for a particular historical moment, God uses it to point to a future Kingdom coming that will last forever.
The Danger of Arrogance
The Danger of Arrogance
Illustration: One of the pleasures of parenting is revisiting your favorite children’s books. I’ve also had the pleasure of being introduced to some new favorites. For instance I don’t think I’d ever read “Yurtle the Turtle” before we read it to the kids, and I quite enjoyed it. It’s a story about a turtle named Yurtle who is the king of the pond, but he decides that he needs a higher throne so he can see more and therefore rule more. So he makes the tutles stack themselves so he can climb on top. Eventually he goes too high and the bottom turtle can’t take the weight and the king comes tumbling down, and his last state is lower than his first.
I think the parable in there is pretty clear, isn’t it? The King let arrogance lead him astray, and he tried to elevate himself above his station eventually leading to his downfall. Tale as old as time as far as I’m concerned. We all know that as Relient K says “pride and summertime come before fall.” And yet, what sin is more common among people than pride? Sometimes it sneaks up on us. We might not try to become a great leader of people, but we might think that we can make up our own mind about what we believe without listening to Scripture or the wise counsel of other believers. We might not look down on people but we might put our own needs first. We might not rebel against God’s authority but we might live our lives without praying and seeking the Holy Spirit as if we are our own masters.
The Bible has some pretty strong words against the sin of pride, including verses three and four of our passage for this morning. Let’s take a look.
Your arrogant heart has deceived you, you who live in clefts of the rock in your home on the heights, who say to yourself, “Who can bring me down to the ground?” Though you seem to soar like an eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down. This is the Lord’s declaration.
The nation of Edom was built into the rocky cliffs. In fact their greatest city was called Petra by the Greeks because it was built into the stone. For that reason they thought of themselves as impregnable. They were safe and secure and even physically above many other kingdoms. So the question “who can bring me down to the ground?” Came naturally to them in their supposed security.
Yet when you set yourself up against the God who created those very rock cliffs, you’ve made a terrible mistake. And really, isn’t God the cure to all pride when you really think about it? The fact that we are created beings and God is the creator should be the best way to put us in our place. He is the one in charge and we are not. He is the main character of the story and we are not. Yet pride is the oldest of all sins. Consider Isaiah 14:12–15, where Scripture gives us a vivid picture of Satan’s pride and downfall.
Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground. You said to yourself, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God.
I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly, in the remotest parts of the North. I will ascend above the highest clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you will be brought down to Sheol into the deepest regions of the Pit.
His sin was arragance. He tried to set himself up above God and he was brought low for it. Then he convinced us to fall for the same thing that he did. When he talks to Eve in the garden, how does he persuade her to eat the forbidden fruit? The one thing God told her not to do? The serpent says this in Genesis 3:5
“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
“You will be like God” he says. Therefore the first sin of mankind was comitted because of pride. We wanted to be like God when we are certainly not God. So then pride continues to tempt us to think of ourselves more highly than we should. Proverbs 16:18
Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.
Let me ask you a question, what became of Edom? Have you ever seen Edom on a map of the world? Is anyone planning a trip to see the world renowned city of Petra? No. Because it’s gone. For all their arrogance they were in fact defeated and their country is gone. So pride came before their fall.
So then we should learn from their bad example and not be prideful. We should instead be humble, following the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul says in Philippians 2:3-8
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.
Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.
So let us hear the call of the Bible to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to, but instead seek to imitate Jesus in putting others first. So we can avoid the same sin that has plagued mankind for all of human history.
But pride doesn’t only show up in the sins we commit—it also shows up in the good we refuse to do. One aspect of what the Bible teaches is sin that is often overlooked is what we call ‘sins of omission’ which this passage also condemns.
Sins of Omission
Sins of Omission
Illustration: Did you know that in legal terms there are two broad categories of laws, called “Positive laws” and “Negative laws”? By far the more common of the two are negative laws, laws which forbid certain actions such as laws against murder, stealing, driving under the influence, and so on. There are a lot of rules about things we are not supposed to do. Less common are positive laws, laws which obligate us to do certain things. They do however exist. These would be laws like the ones that require duty of care for our children, require us to pay our taxes, or require us to report for jury duty.
Similarly in the Bible there are positive commands and negative commands. The ten commandments are mostly negative commands, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, have no other gods before me. Yet the bible has a lot more positive commands than our legal system does. In fact when Jesus was asked what the most important law was He listed two positive commands.
He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
So as believers we need not only be concerned with the things we shouldn’t do, we need to also make an effort to do the things that God has called us to do. The nation of Edom in our passage this morning was guilty of both, but God called special attention first to their failure to intervene when they shoud have.
You will be covered with shame and destroyed forever because of violence done to your brother Jacob. On the day you stood aloof, on the day strangers captured his wealth, while foreigners entered his city gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them.
So God condemns them for standing on the sidelines while another nation attacked Israel. Their sins only grew more violent from there — but the striking thing is that God begins by condemning what they didn’t do. I think the sins of omission are the ones we most often fall prey to. We tell ourselves that as long as we don’t commit adultery and don’t treat people poorly we’re okay. But what example did Jesus give when showing how someone shows love to their neighbor?
In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus tells the story of a man who was attacked and left for dead, and then was left that way by the priest and the levites who passed him. It was the Samaritan who stopped and helped. Maybe the priest and the levite told themselves that they weren’t at fault because they didn’t attack that man and leave him for dead, but what did God say to the Edomites? That they were just like the ones that attacked Israel when they stood and watched without intervening.
Now I want to be clear here about one thing. As followers of Jesus we don’t have to earn our salvation by doing a certain amount of good works. Jesus earned our salvation for us on the cross. Yet we do believe that God calls us to demonstrate our faith in Him and show our love for Him by doing good works. Not just not doing bad works, but doing good works.
So we need to ask ourselves what we can be doing to intervene in the lives of people who need our intervention. How can we avoid the sin of Edom? How can we follow the example of the good Samaritan? We do this whenever we support the homeless as we do through Coldest Night of the year. When we support the women’s shelter through gift cards. When we support rehab facilities. There are tons of ways to love our neighbors as we should, so pray about how God can use you to do His kingdom work in our world.
Although God’s concern in this passage is focused on the actions of Edom and the consequences of their actions, God has bigger concerns than any one nation. That’s why we see the transition to a bigger picture at the end of this book, the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh.
The Kingdom of Yahweh
The Kingdom of Yahweh
Illustration: As human beings we have limits. For that reason we prioritize. I take care of my family church, then my church family, then my local community, province, nation. Somewhere along the lines we run out of resources. God however is not limited, so the entire world is equally His concern.
It can be tempting when we look at the Old testament to get the wrong idea and see God as tribal. But God never forgot the other nations when He chose Israel. All along God promised to bless everyone else through them, and He wasn’t shy about exerting His authority on the nations that do wrong, like in our passage this morning. Yet for a while God made a covenant with one particular nation.
Throughout this time God gave prophecies that showed a day when all these particular kingdoms ruled by human beings would be no more, and the rightful King would ascend to the throne. Even in this short book concerned with the judgment of Edom for their sins we see this bigger plan as the ultimate resolution of the world’s problems. Let’s take a look at Obadiah 15-17
For the day of the Lord is near, against all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; what you deserve will return on your own head. As you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and gulp down and be as though they had never been. But there will be a deliverance on Mount Zion, and it will be holy; the house of Jacob will dispossess those who dispossessed them.
and in Obadiah 21
Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to rule over the hill country of Esau, and the kingdom will be the Lord’s.
We believe as followers of Jesus that God came to earth and gave us salvation from our sins, but that a future day is still coming when He will return and God’s Kingdom will come in a fuller and more literal way. For now God rules in the hearts of those who follow Him, but the day is coming when God will rule the whole world from a throne in His holy city.
When you think about that day suddenly the temporary conflicts and challenges of individual nations start to take on a different context. Now I don’t want to minimize the trials and sufferings of people in the meantime, but think about this future picture and how it changes our priorities. I should do my part to try and contribute to our nation, yes, but Canada is temporary. There’s a Kingdom coming that will be forever.
This is the Kingdom whose coming is described in Daniel 2:44-45
“In the days of those kings, the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever. You saw a stone break off from the mountain without a hand touching it, and it crushed the iron, bronze, fired clay, silver, and gold. The great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is certain, and its interpretation reliable.”
So what does knowing this about our future mean for our present? It means that we can spend a lot of time and effort building our own Kingdoms, but they won’t last. You can’t take it with you as they say. The richest man on earth will one day die and his means will be taken by others.
Canada will not last.
No human government will last.
But the Kingdom of God will.
So which kingdom gets my energy?
Which kingdom shapes my priorities?
Which kingdom do I trust?
So shouldn’t we spend our time and effort investing in a Kingdom that will last forever?
Conclusion
Conclusion
It’s my hope that through preaching through several of the shortest books of the Bible I have demonstrated for all of us just how true the words of 2 Timothy 3:16–17 are“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” The book of Obadiah is no less scripture than any other book. Though you might be tempted to dismiss it as a prophecy against a nation that no longer exists, we’ve seen this morning that it shows us the danger of arrogance and how it can lead to our downfall. We have seen how it teaches a valuable lesson about the seriousness of sins of omission, when we neglect the good that God has called us to do. And finally we see that in this book we get a taste of the future Kingdom that God has promised, one that will (unlike Edom) last forever.
So while we may have covered a variety of topics this morning, each of which have their own applications, I want to leave us with one encouragement this morning. We need to keep pursuing the Bible and keep digging for the truth that God has in it for us. Even in the places that we might have missed before. I tell you I spend a lot of time in the Bible as a Pastor, but I keep finding things I missed before. It’s there for us for the taking if we’ll put in the work to understand it well.
Let’s pray.
