The Twelve: God has spoken!
The Book of Obadiah
Last week, we began with a question:
Does God care about the details of our lives?
After looking at the book of Amos, it was pretty obvious that the answer is a resounding “yes.”
God does care about the details of our lives. In the Obadiah it becomes even more clear that God cares about the lives of all of His people..
The Overall Message of Obadiah: God will avenge His people
1. The Setup
Obadiah basically means “servant of the Lord”
Obadiah is the shortest book in the OT. It involves Edom and Judah.
The Edomites were descendants of Esau. Judah was the descendants of Jacob.
The details of the conflict between Esau and Jacob goes back many years. All the way to the womb, in fact.
(Genesis 25:22 – The children struggled together within her). The struggle between Jacob & Esau sets the stage to understand what’s going on Obadiah.
• Do you have any enemies?
I mean - legitimate enemies. (not superhero stuff like Superman and Lex Luthor) Did you as a child? Now?Future? Do you plan on making any enemies in the future?
• What about God? Does He have enemies?
John 3:16 - God so loved the world, so how could He have enemies?
To think about the Almighty God, Creator of Everything as your enemy? That’s intense.
2. Judgment Handed Down
Obadiah pronounces God’s judgment on Edom right away, starting in verse 2
• This is what’s coming: Destruction
• The problem is Pride
Edom didn’t really have any worries. They were a prosperous country. They were secure. They weren’t worried about a foreign army invading them. They thought they were ok.
The pride of your heart has deceived you. That’s what pride does. It deceives.
It turns your focus inward. You rely on yourself, because you’re pretty amazing, right? You’ve got it going on.
Pride is essentially thinking something about yourself that’s not true. It also distracts you from what you should know. True things that you should not have forgotten. The Edomites had become secure in themselves.
• The root of pride is saying that we can do without God
The capital of Edom was a basically a fortress, Petra. It’s hard to imagine a safer spot to be than Edom and its capital: Petra.
1. Their Defenses
They thought they couldn’t be defeated.
2. Their Allies
They didn’t realize they would be betrayed. They did not truly understand the hearts of men.
3. Their Wisdom
This is an extension of their pride. We’re smart. We know what’s going on. We know how to handle any problem that comes our way. Edom was known as an abode of human wisdom.
• The Edomites primary sin was pride.
John Stott says: at every stage of Christian discipleship - pride is our greatest enemy and humility is our greatest friend.
Here’s what pride does: it makes you more willing to be offended by things or people.
As you grow in humility, you’ll find less things that offend you.
You’ll understand better what you deserve because of your sins, and how merciful God has been to you,
You’ll be far less offended when someone treats you in a way that you think you don’t deserve because, truthfully, you deserve much worse treatment than you’re getting.
3. Sin & Sequence
Edom and Judah were brother nations.
Their sin was essentially not acting like brothers. “unbrotherliness”
While we don’t think of “unbrotherliness” as something along the lines of murder or adultery, it’s something that God’s Word takes seriously
1 Timothy 5:8 – But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
The Growth of Sin
Sin doesn’t just happen. There’s a pattern. It starts small, then grows. Several things happened in the sequence of Edom’s sin:
1. They Stood and watched
In their pride, they just stood their and watched. You ARE your brother’s keeper. You have a responsibility to others. Especially those in your own family. And I would say “church family” fits here too.
Don’t just stand and watch a brother in their distress.
2. Gloating over their calamity.
They went from standing aloof (distancing) to gloating (thinking about it)
Gossip certainly fits here. (“I have prayer request... did you hear about what’s going on with Bill?”)
3. Rejoicing over their sin.
I’m kind of glad all this is going on. Fun to watch. I’m getting in to this.
4. Boasting
This grows from pride. We rejoice because we think we’re better.
Luke 18:11..14 – The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ ...For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
5. Marched through the gates
Now they’re taking advantage of the situation. Showing up, on the scene - but not to help.
Patting them on the back (there! there!) while looking in their purse.
6. Seized their wealth
They didn’t just show up to gloat in person, but to join in the plundering.
7. Cut them down & handed them over.
In the end, they started actually helping their enemies.
• Actions against God’s people are actions against God.
God cares how His people are treated.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
This includes you. This includes me. All of us have greatly insulted God by our actions.
Christians do this too, right? Kick each other when they’re down. Instead we should be caring for each other
We should be building others up (Ephesians 4:29)and helping to restore them when they have sinned
(Galatians 6:1).
Then, we get to verse 15 –
4. The Day of the Lord
verse 15 – the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head.
When we get to this verse, we must ask a question:
• Who are you?
You are either His Enemy or His Friend
• God’s Enemies
Romans 5:1 – Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
Most lost people don’t think of themselves as enemies of God. They don’t consciously think “I hate God.” They’re not intentionally or actively opposing God, His work, or slam on the Bible. They’re possibly playing the “Coexist” game.
They might think that all roads lead to the same god. They probably think of themselves as “neutral” about God.
• Being neutral is not possible.
If you’re lost - you’re at peace with the things of the flesh. You’re at war with God. Hostile to Him. There is no other option. Romans 8:7 – For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God
God is the enemy of unbelievers. He is angry with them every day. He condemns them to eternal hell. He brings judgment on them. That’s intense.
Does this make sense? If you’re not one of His people, you’re His enemy. You are actively at war with God.
• God’s Friends
The first and most immediate, thing about being saved is that you are no longer at war with God.
You are at peace. Christ not only brings peace, but He Himself is our peace!
The only way you can become His friend is to be saved. It comes by hearing His Word, His promises, repenting, and believing in, relying on, and trusting in Christ alone. Receiving forgiveness. It’s redemption.
Have you though about whether or not you’re God’s friend? If you are His friend, it’s forever.
His friends are those who obey Him. John 15:14-15 – You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends,
Now: God wasn’t finished with the Israelites yet - they were under His judgment, but their fate was a bit different. It all turns in verse 17
• Justice for the wicked and restoration for God’s people
verse 17 emphasizes three things
1. The Day of the Lord means deliverance for God’s people.
For us - Deliverance from sin’s power. It points forward to the day we are physically saved.
The day we have new bodies and aren’t trapped by sin
2. The Day of the Lord will bring holiness for God’s people. Sin will no longer have any sting.
3. The Day of the Lord will bring posession of posessions
• Are you possessing your possessions?
God has promised to supply our every need.
2 Peter 1:3 – His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
All things work together for our good. We have everything we need for life and godliness. We have the full revelation of God (the OT saints didn’t)
Yet we worry. We repeat the Psalm 23rd and quote Romans 8:28. We can’t merely admire God’s truth.We must possess it. We must put it to use. We must more fully trust in God. We need to be growing in our ability to trust in God.
5. The Bottom Line
• Sovereignty - what He said WILL come to pass
Was Edom destroyed? Yes. Edom was destroyed. It was never reconstituted as a nation.
Obadiah’s God is sovereign over all the nations of the earth. They may create temporary chaos by mistreating God’s people; they may seem to get away with things for a while,
but the day of the Lord will come and He will set things right.
• The Lord’s sovereign reign will be firmly established.
every knee [will] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Will there be “those who escape”? Yes - but only in Christ (Ephesians 2:113-19)
• Holiness - Pride is an insult to His holiness
We can’t just think of the “big” sins as those that God hates.
God is very concerned not only with how His people are treated, but also how His people treat others. How His people act. He’s concerned with the holiness of His people.
1 Peter 1:13-16 – Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
• Love - there will be those who escape.
This we know: The day of the Lord will come. It will mean the defeat of God’s enemies, It will mean the restoration of His people, and the establishment of His universal rule.
Nowhere is the love of God seen more clearly than in Jesus Christ.
John 15:12-17 – 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, but I have called you friends, 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you ... whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
1 John 4:10 – In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
• God will rescue His people,
Reflection Questions:
• How would you fare if you were judged the way you judge others?
• What if God let happen to you what you want to happen to others?
• How easy is it for you to spot pride in your own life?
The final question: the most important one:
And while God does care about the details of your life, this is the one detail that matters most.
• Where do you stand?
A friend or an enemy?bWe are all by nature God’s enemies.
Romans 1-3, Ephesians 2, Mark 7
Hebrews 10:26-27 – For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
God’s enemies are those that keep on sinning.
The question is “have you been reconciled to God?”
Soli Deo Gloria!
Rob
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