Book of Obadiah - Vs. 17-21 (11/06/2022)

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All righty, guys. Good morning. I'm ready to get this thing wrapped up.

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I think we'll be able to today. Y 'all want to turn to Obadiah 17.

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I'm going to read the last two verses that we ended last week with to get us started.

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One of my favorite parts of the book so far, verse 18, we kind of tackled at the very end of last week, so we ran through it somewhat quickly.

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So I'd like to kind of start there again and rehash a couple of things based on just some of the conversation we had at the end of last week's lesson that was fun.

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So we'll start at verse 17, though, if you guys want to turn there, and then we'll move through it.

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We just finished up last week. We finished up the third section, which was all about, you know, the day of the

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Lord, God's wrath on not only the Edomites, but all the heathen, as we discussed.

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And just those couple of verses, 15 and 16, there was just a ton of stuff there that summed up how crazy that time is going to be when, you know, we went through a historical timeline of different time periods where the

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Edomites were punished already in our past historical timeline, but then it segues right into what's to come even for us in the future and how the

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Edomites are involved there. So that was the third section, and then at the very end of last week, we kind of touched on the beginning of section four, which is the last kind of natural section of the book of Obadiah there that's all about basically

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God ushering in his people into the millennial kingdom after the great day of the

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Lord takes place. And so that's where we're at today, and by all reason, we should finish up Obadiah.

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So verse 17, it says, But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

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And so last week, we just talked about the awesome contrast that it is there because we just finished talking about the total destruction of Edom, and then there's the total deliverance of God's people right there, and of course, that was

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God fulfilling one of the most ancient promises he's ever made to his people, which of course is them taking possession of the entirety of their land, which is really cool.

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And again, we talked about that quite a bit last week, but it's all about, you know, he's keeping his promises, he has his timetable, he has his own perfect timing, and in this case, it involves a very big conclusion to just the whole story that is our history, of course, and so that's all awesome.

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And then verse 18, and this is the one that has some really cool stuff in terms of God working not only for his people, but also through his people.

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Verse 18 says, And the house of Jacob shall be afire, and the house of Joseph aflame, and the house of Esau for stubble.

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So there's, again, more contrast. The Edomites have already been destroyed, or at least already talked about their destruction, and now here we are talking about them one more time, and it's in contrast with the fact that the house of Jacob, the house of Joseph will be aflame versus the house of Esau for stubble.

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And they shall kindle in them and devour them, and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, for the

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Lord hath spoken it. So there it is, there's the conclusion to the Edomites' history on this earth right there.

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So you have Jacob in verse 18, that's kind of representative of the southern kingdom, and then

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Joseph the northern, and so, you know, we knew there was this separation in kingdoms way back when, and Ezekiel prophesied that the kingdoms would be reunited again, and here it is.

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This is these kingdoms being reunited, and it's specifically, at least the beginning portion of it, to destroy

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Edom, like a flame easily consuming the stubble, as it puts it. So again, this is a little bit of review from last week, but what's cool here is we're learning in verse 18, and in a passage that we're going to rehash one more time, we read it last week in Zechariah, but the children of God, God is actually going to be using his kids, the

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Israelites, to take part in the battle in the very end, like the, you know, the battle of Armageddon, as it's happening, and this is something that I had never seen before, and I talked to you guys last week about how cool it was, because as a kid,

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I always pictured, you know, the Lord has returned. We're in our glorified bodies. We're there as kind of witnesses or observers of what he is doing or about to do, and then the battle will be in his hands, but in verse 18, it gives us a little bit of information in Obadiah here that at least the

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Israelites, those that are still, you know, on the earth, and we'll kind of flesh this out in a little bit, are going to be there taking part in the battle themselves, physically taking part in that final battle as Israel is about to be fully restored, so if you guys, we're going to read this again.

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We did it last week, but if you want to go to Zechariah 12 really quick. This is so neat. I wanted to,

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I wanted to include this one more time as we wrap up Obadiah today.

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Zechariah chapter 12, starting in verse 1, it says,

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I'm sorry, the burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him.

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We talked about last week how it's just cool, sets the tone there. The context begins with the greatness of God and the fact that he is, of course, our creator as it segues into to verse 2 here.

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Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling into all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege, both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

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And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

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So again, we're talking about the battle of Armageddon here, and we read a couple of weeks ago that in Revelation, I think it's 16, when the spirit, these evil spirits that come out of the beast, they go into the minds of all of the leaders of the earth, all of the kings of all the nations to tell them to go to battle and to essentially, you know, come together to obliterate the

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Israelites once and for all. And so that's what this is referencing right here, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

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Even in that scenario, God is setting up the stage here for Jerusalem to be a burdensome stone.

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Verse 4 says, In that day, saith the Lord. All right, so pay close attention to how it starts here.

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In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness, and I will open up mine eyes upon the house of Judah and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.

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So Jesus is coming back. He is back at this point. He has descended from heaven.

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All of the nations of the earth are gathered. They are encircling the Israelites, God's people, in preparation to obliterate them once and for all.

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The devil, of course, has his hand all over it and, you know, together with every attempt he's ever made to obliterate the people, whether you go back to the days of Esther, so many times before nations came in to destroy

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Jerusalem. Obviously, the Edomites tried their best to do so with a number of foreign nations earlier in the book of Obadiah when it's still talking about some of the historical stuff that's happened.

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And then you fast forward to more modern history, of course. You got World War II. All these cases where the devil tried everything in his power to obliterate the people of Israel.

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Here is his last go at it. So he gathers every nation. They're encircling the people of God, but God is coming back.

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Jesus is in the sky, and he smites them with astonishment. He smites every horse with astonishment and every rider with madness.

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So he is doing that, right? And, of course, that's what we all, you know, we picture that when we picture Armageddon.

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We picture Jesus coming and fighting these battles. But then it gets really interesting. In verse 5, it says,

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And the governors of Judah shall say in their hearts, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the

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Lord of hosts their God. In that day will I make the governors of Judah a hearth of fire among the wood and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left.

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And Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place even in Jerusalem. So Jesus is back.

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He begins the battle, but then the Israelites kind of pick it up where he left off, so to speak, and they start fighting their enemies that are literally encircling them to the point where they are like a hearth of fire among the wood, it says.

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They shall devour all the people round about. So it'll be like a perfect victory for them.

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The very people that were on the short end of every attack made by Edom, all of what we read already earlier in this study and many other nations, of course, will now be the very instrument that God uses to punish

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Edom and, of course, the rest of the heathen that are involved here, all the rest of the nations.

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The house of Jacob and the house of Joseph will be as fire to the stubble when they execute God's wrath in the last days upon Edom.

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And so basically, that's kind of where we left last week off, and then Dad threw in a couple of additional thoughts at the very end that I wanted to rehash a little bit and kind of go through the sequence of events here because, again, for me, this was somewhat new.

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I'd never seen this before where the Israelites are going to be in hand -to -hand, like, physical combat with Jesus in the sky and the rest of us behind him and, you know, battling it out, literally avenging the blood of their ancestors.

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It's really cool stuff. And so I'm gonna go kind of through a sequence here and include some thoughts that Dad threw in at the end of last week that just rounded it out even better.

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So here's kind of the sequence of events upon the Lord's return that involves this story that we just read, which is

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Obadiah 18 as well as that passage in Zechariah. So number one, obviously, the great tribulation happens, and the great day of the

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Lord that we read about in Obadiah 15 and 16 takes place upon his return. And again, verse 15 in Obadiah is talking about the great day of the

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Lord. So that's him returning. It's like lightning from the east to the west, and of course, as we learn in the

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New Testament, when Jesus is telling us how all this is going to play out, the elect will be gathered together to meet him in the clouds.

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Matthew 22, 34 tells us about that. The third thing that happens is as Jesus is returning, as his elect are gathered around from the four corners of the earth and are now with him in the sky, we are in our glorified bodies.

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Remember the passage that says, look up for our redemption, draweth nigh, talking about us basically experiencing the fullness of our salvation.

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So at that point, we're in our glorified bodies with him. Okay, so while that's happening though, all the nations of the earth have already gathered and encircled the remnant of Israel, and they are prepared to annihilate

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Israel once and for all. And that's Revelation 16, 16. That's the one we read a few weeks ago where these evil spirits went to the minds of all of the heathen kings, all the leaders, and told them to encircle the people.

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The fourth thing that happens here is with us now in our glorified bodies. So the church age, the saints, we are now in our glorified bodies, and we're following closely behind Jesus.

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All he does is he speaks, and the bloodshed of Armageddon begins, and Revelation 19, 15 talks about that, and Zechariah 12, 4 talks about that, what we just read, when he's saying,

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I will smite all the horses with astonishment. So he begins the battle, right? The bloodshed begins at that point.

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He tells us in Zechariah that he will smite every horse with astonishment, and every rider with madness, and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.

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So he is initiating it to a grand degree there.

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Then the fifth thing that happens, though, which is where we're at here in the passage we just read, while Jesus and even us in the air with him put everything in disarray for all of these heathen armies around us.

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And this is the part that Dad threw out last week that was cool to me, because I started it by saying that, in my mind, our inner glorified bodies were in his army, but we're more so observers watching as Jesus does it.

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But what Dad pointed out was, if you think about it, the way he talked about it is kind of analogous to Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, where Paul looks up, and he sees

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Jesus, and all the guys behind him just hear this, who knows what the noise sounded like, a loud noise, and they see a bright light.

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They're totally confused. They have no idea what's going on, but Jesus, I mean, Paul is literally having a conversation with Jesus, same person, the same thing that's happening.

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So Dad was like, it might, you know, it'll be a similar event, most likely, whereas Jesus is coming down, his entire army, which is us, are behind him, and the enemy is not going to know what's going on to some degree.

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They're going to think it's some kind of strange, you know, perhaps some celestial event or something, some crazy storm.

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It's going to be putting, we, along with Jesus, are going to be putting them in disarray, just because they're going to be so confused by what's happening.

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So I thought that was kind of a cool thing that Dad included last week, because it's not like we're just passive observers.

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We are going to be taking a part in it, even if we're not literally fighting or shedding the blood of the enemies of God ourselves, we are going to be taking part in it.

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So that was kind of a cool thought that Dad threw in last week. So that is happening. We're putting everything in disarray, along with Jesus, for all the heathen armies.

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Then, while they are in disarray, the governors of Judah, as it says in that Zechariah passage, will take part in the fight and avenge their people's blood.

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It says they shall devour all the people round about. So it's going to be a perfect battle, perfect victory, probably no casualties, no fatalities on their side of the battle, but they're going to devour everyone around them, on the right and on the left, as it puts it in verse six.

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I know this is a super, you'll love this, Dave. This is going to be a super corny example.

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Lord of the Rings, remember in the Return of the King, it's the last battle, and Frodo and Sam haven't done their thing yet.

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They're battling Gollum over in Mount Doom, and they haven't yet thrown the ring into the lava. Aragorn and the army are literally encircled by all the orcs, remember?

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It looks like this tiny little army surrounded by, I don't know how many, multiple millions, hundreds of thousands of orcs around them, and they have no idea what's going on.

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Sauron doesn't even know that he's about to meet his final end. They just assume this is about to be an absolute annihilation of this final army, and then

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Middle -earth will be Sauron's forever, right? Then Aragorn, even though the ring hadn't been destroyed yet, decides, we're going to go ahead.

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We're going to do this battle. We have a tiny army. We are totally surrounded. It was literally this little circle of an army with a massive army encircling them, and they begin the fight, and they start pushing them back, and then the ring is destroyed, and then it's like they were practically undefeatable at that point,

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Aragorn's army, and then they were able to win the battle, so that's kind of what I picture, like this tiny little army, and yet they were able to go undefeated in this battle, the biggest battle in the history of humanity,

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Armageddon, and they're able to do it with no casualties, and it's because of Jesus being in the air with all of us behind him, putting everyone in disarray.

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It's really awesome stuff, so that was Obadiah verse 18, and that was new to me.

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I thought how cool that was. I never realized that the Lord was going to ... It makes total sense, though, because what does

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Dad always say? It's like the first family business. He wants to do things with us and through us. It's very rare that he takes things 100 % into his own hands.

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You have to remind me, Dad. You did a study once on kind of the amount of time that takes place in between the big miracles, like the parting of the

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Red Sea, and the really crazy stuff, the really supernatural. It's like every 600 years, something like that happened throughout the

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Old Testament. It was pretty rare. Every other thing that was happening, he was working through his prophets. He was working through his people.

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That's obviously true for us in the church age. As we know, all the sign gifts ceased back when the apostolic age ended, and so from that point forward, like the last 2 ,000 years, most of what

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God has done, obviously he can still heal. He can still do these amazing things, answering our prayers, all these things, but he does the large majority of his work through us, and it's no different even in the

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Battle of Armageddon. We're in our glorified bodies. The Israelites that had not been saved yet because they were still missing the

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Messiah, they aren't saved until after they look up and they see Messiah in the clouds, and at that point, we have already been quote -unquote raptured.

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We're in our glorified bodies. We're behind him. Then they get saved, and they realize that is our king, and now we're going to win this thing, and so they are still in their physical form as we are today.

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Who knows what kind of weaponry they're going to be using at that time, but again, God is going to use them in a physical way to defeat the enemies of the

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Lord and of course them at that point too, so I got really excited when I realized that.

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I was like, is that what Obadiah is really talking about, and so I pulled up some commentaries. They had some parallel passages like the

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Zechariah passage, and it was awesome. So Obadiah 19. So that is happening now.

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The Battle of Armageddon has taken place, and through the governors of Judah, the battle has been won, and now we start ushered into the millennial kingdom here in Obadiah 19.

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And they of the south shall possess the Mount of Esau. Okay, so that's cool right off the bat. So we're about to take possession of the promised land in full for the first time in all of history, and the first thing it mentions is they of the south, the

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Israelites that were dwelling in the southern portions of that, I guess, part of the Middle East, they will take possession of the

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Mount of Esau, which is where their enemies so proudfully, you know, exalted themselves for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, and mocked the

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Israelites at every turn, and as we know, killed them any opportunity they had. Well, now

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God's people possess that land, and they of the plain of the Philistines, and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess

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Gilead. So here's a big moment, because what happens here is

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Obadiah is now affirming, he's prophesying still out in even our future, but he's affirming one of the most ancient prophecies that we see with a little bit more detail, as it tells us the people of the southern kind of desert portion of Israel now inherit and inhabit

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Edom themselves. So go to Numbers chapter 24 for a second, and let's take a closer look at this prophecy that was made by a guy named

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Balaam way back in the days of Moses, Numbers 24, and just to kind of set the context, we'll start at verse 1, and then we'll skip down a little bit.

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It says, Numbers 24 1, and when Balaam, and we all know the story of Balaam, right?

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So, you know, he's like this kind of, he's in it for the money, and he has been literally paid by the heathen to go prophesy against God's people and curse them.

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So that's the kind of guy we're dealing with, but he goes to do that, and it says, and when Balaam saw that it pleased the

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Lord to bless Israel, not to curse them, but to bless them, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness.

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And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes, and the

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Spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his parable and said, Balaam, the son of Beor, hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said, he hath said which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the

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Almighty falling into a trance, but having his eyes open. So that's just to set the context a little bit.

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So we're dealing with otherwise, you know, it's just some guy that's working with enchantments, getting paid to go, you know, prophesy, and he was paid in this case to go curse the people of God.

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Instead, God turns him around, he opens his eyes to let him see that actually these people are blessed people, and unlike other times, he didn't turn to his enchantments, but he says that he saw the vision of the

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Almighty. Okay, so then what happens is he goes back, and the heathen king is all upset because he didn't curse the

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Israelites, and Balaam is like, how could I have? You didn't see what I saw. Literally, you know, the

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Almighty himself was showing me a vision. Okay, so now, so that's kind of the context. So now go to verse 15 of that same chapter, and here's where we get this prophecy that Obadiah just, you know, reaffirms, re -solidifies for us in verse 19 that we just read.

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So, Numbers 24 15, it says, And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said, he has said which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the

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Most High, so this was an inspired vision that he was given, which saw the vision of the

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Almighty falling into a trance, but having his eyes open, I shall see him, but not now,

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I shall behold him, but not nigh, there shall be a star, I'm sorry, there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.

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Who is he talking about? This is Balaam back in the days of Moses prophesying about Jesus coming, and he shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy the children of Sheth, and Edom, here's the prophecy that Obadiah has just re -solidified for us, and Edom shall be a possession.

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Seir, that's Mount Seir, the same place, also shall be a possession for his enemies, talking about Edom's enemies, and Israel shall do valiantly.

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So, all the way back in Numbers, in the times, in the days of Moses, was it prophesied that the

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Edomites would be displaced, and that God's people would take their place in that specific geographical location,

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Mount Seir, and it says, out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city, and so Obadiah 19, when it says, and they of the south shall possess the

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Mount of Esau, it's the same event that Balaam was talking about all the way back in Moses, and other prophets spoke of the exact same event, the exact same time,

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Isaiah 11, 14, it talks about God's people taking the Mount of Esau, in Amos 9, verse 11 through 12, talks about the same thing,

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God's people taking the Mount of Esau. So, the Edomites, they met their end, and the place that they boasted in terms of their strategic advantage is now the home, or part of the home of God's people, so just all the details obviously are so cool there.

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Going back to verse 20 of Obadiah, it says, in the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the

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Canaanites, even into Zarephath, in the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.

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All right, so what's happening? They are advancing, they are,

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God's people are essentially taking possession of every corner of the promised land at this point.

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The exiles that were sold into captivity, they will return and possess the land as far north as Zarephath, if you're looking at the map, that's like way up there, so again, you're seeing the people of God migrate into the whole of the promised land.

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At the beginning of the millennium, the Israelites will return to their land from other far foreign lands that they are all currently inhabiting as we speak, and their territory will be expanded.

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Katie, you remember that Sunday School Lesson of Brother Otis, you texted us all about in Joshua, where he was like, they've only ever occupied 10 % of their land.

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You have Joshua go in, and Joshua is an awesome book. I mean, the Israelites were about as strong as maybe they ever were at that point in history.

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They go in, and they start conquering, they start taking over things, but in Brother Otis, in our archives, if y 'all want to go listen to it, he did verse by verse through most of Joshua, not the whole book, but most of it, and in his first Sunday School Lesson, he was talking about the fact that the promised land consists of about 300 ,000 square miles, and at the time of Joshua, which is when they were like really conquering, they had only obtained about 30 ,000 square miles, so like, you know, roughly 10 % was all they've ever occupied of all of the promised land, but at the time that Obadiah speaks up here in verse 20, they're going to obtain all of it, and of course, that Zachariah passage that we already read,

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Zachariah 12 and verse 6, it ends with talking about the fact that after the battle, they are going to go in there and start occupying the promised land, so that's really cool, and then here's the final verse of Obadiah here, and this is a really cool one because, again, just something, just another interesting reminder that God, even in the

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Millennial Kingdom, when He is on earth ruling from the throne of David, still works through His people.

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Verse 21 of Obadiah says, and saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the

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Mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's, so that's how

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Obadiah ends there, and in this last verse, it's telling us that from Jerusalem, these quote -unquote saviors will govern the people who now occupy the mountains of Esau, what's really cool, guys, is that that word, the

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Hebrew word for saviors there is the Hebrew word yashah. It's the exact same word that's used in judges when the

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Israelites cry to the Lord, and He says, I will send you a deliverer, and then it goes on to name the judge,

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Othniel or whoever, and all of the judges. It's the same word, so what this is telling us here is that He's bringing the judges back in the

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Millennial Kingdom. He's going to be using the governors of Judah, the same ones that fought that physical battle, now ushered into the

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Millennial Kingdom. It says, and saviors, or you could say deliverers, shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the

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Mount of Esau, so these saviors or these deliverers will be basically an upgraded version of the judges that were in Israel during the days when it was just a pure theocracy.

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There was no king yet. God was the king, but the Israelites would mess up.

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They'd get themselves in a bad situation. They would start to have a foreign enemy come and start killing them off or whatever, and they would cry to the

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Lord, and then He would send them a deliverer, and it would be whichever judge He rose up at that time, and so this is going to be like an upgraded version of those guys.

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He's bringing the judges back, but obviously we know the book of Judges is pretty great. Joshua is awesome, and you're like, if the story ended here, it wouldn't be that bad of an end, and then

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Judges comes, and they start messing up left and right. Really weird transitionary period before God does bring a king, but He's bringing those judges back, so in Judges, just as one example, if you look at Judges 3 and 9, and it says,

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I will bring a deliverer, that's where you'll see that same word that's used, Hebrew word that's used in Obadiah 21 when it says saviors, and what's really interesting about that Hebrew word is it means to save, so that's where the translation saviors comes from, but it also means to be delivered, so that word carries both the person doing the saving and the person being saved.

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It can be applied to either of those people. I don't know where the significance is there. I mean,

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I'm sure there is because you're thinking about the fact that these are human beings that God is using, again, as tools to judge, to deliver, and yet the same

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Hebrew word that's used to describe these guys, it could also be applied to the people being saved. We obviously know that Jesus will be the one exercising total authority on the throne.

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Ultimate sovereignty will be His alone, as we know, but He will have these deliverers or these judges that will literally be judging the

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Mount of Esau, and again, working with the

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Lord in the Millennial Kingdom, doing a specific purpose, a specific job that He has for them, so that's how

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Obadiah ends there is reminding us, all right, this is what your enemies have done to you.

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This is what I'm going to do about it, but guess what? I'm going to let you, I'm going to include you in the avenging of all of the evils they've ever done to your people, then

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I'm going to usher you into your kingdom where you will occupy 100 % of your land that I promised thousands of years ago, because I keep my promises, and you will be with me as judges, kind of ruling the territories, making sure everything's in tip -top shape,

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I guess. I mean, again, we're in the Millennial Kingdom. It's not like Jesus needs any help as He rules from the throne, and He will be ruling with a rod of iron, and yet He's still going to have,

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He's still going to be working with and through His people, even at that time, and so with all the wicked nations now destroyed and Edom cut off,

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Israel will be restored from captivity, will possess all the land originally promised by God to Abraham, and the

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Lord will reign over the earth. Israel will be destroyed, I'm sorry, He'll reign over the earth. Israel will be restored.

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Edom has been destroyed. Israel will be restored as a nation, as we can read in verse 17 of Obadiah, and she will occupy the land as we saw in verses 18 through 20, and she will be ruled by her king, the

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Lord Himself, in verse 21, but they are going to have some specific jobs themselves, even at that time.

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So, we still have a little bit of time, but just to kind of conclude the study here.

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So, going all the way back, through Obadiah, we're kind of given this really great reminder of what happens to those who reject

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God's word. So, we know that there is a difference between God's people and the heathen.

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We know there are sheep and there are goats, but everyone will be judged according to the same word that is given to all of humanity, and so Obadiah gives us a reminder of what it's going to look like for those who are given the word but who reject it, and instead indulge in the spirit of pride, which is something that God hates.

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The same spirit that caused Lucifer to exclaim, I will be like the Most High, was the same spirit that caused that pride to swell up in the hearts of the

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Edomites and throughout the heathen, all throughout human history, even to the point of today, that those around us that are flaunting their pride left and right and not holding it back, not feeling anything but virtue when they do so, which of course is one of the definitions of calling good evil, evil good.

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Pride is literally something that God calls evil in some of the New Testament passages,

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I think it was 1 Peter, where Peter is laying out certain characteristics that are considered the most wicked, the most evil.

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You've got fornication there, you've got murdering in there, blaspheming. Pride is thrown in there too, so calling good evil, evil good.

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They're flaunting their pride. It is now a virtue that is calling evil good, and it's that same spirit that was within Lucifer when he committed the first sin ever and said,

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I will be like the Most High. When iniquity was found in him, that iniquity was pride. We're reminded that there will be times when our enemy around us seems to be prospering far more than the children of God are, and this is a really important thing to remember too, because in the earlier verses of Obadiah, they are enjoying their geographical strategic locations, they're enjoying the allies they have made around all their borders.

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Remember, they are totally surrounded by allies. They had no enemies on their border, and that's like as good as it gets. Their allies were the ones surrounding them.

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They had this awesome location in Mount Seir, which we now know is known as Petra, so an awesome, really strong stronghold of a place.

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They have material wealth, they have a lot of wise men in their capital of Temin that are ruling the people.

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There was a lot contributing to this pride that they had, and so there are times where we're going to look around and we're going to see where it seems like our enemy is prospering way more than we are, than the children of God are, to the point where we may even ponder why did the wicked prosper like David did in Psalm 73, and in many other psalms as well, but as we know, that's not the end game, and the prophecy of Obadiah encourages us to remember that God cannot be mocked in the end, and neither can we as his people.

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As the Apostle Paul tells us, for whatsoever a man soweth that he shall also reap, in Galatians 6 -7, so I mean this is what we saw with the nation of Edom.

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They sowed a very specific seed, that being of course the spirit of pride, but also the violence and the evil actions and the evil attitudes that they had toward God's people, and they reaped what they sowed.

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They did, and when we went through that whole historical timeline that you guys may remember a few weeks ago, they reaped it then, they will reap it one more time in the very end as well, because there's still a remnant of Edomites.

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The blood of Esau is still alive and well to this very day. It's not necessarily a fully fledged nation anymore, but the

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Bible tells us they're going to be there when all the nations are gathered. They're going to be one of the first ones in line thinking, let's take one more stab at this and try to destroy our brother

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Jacob. So they reaped what they sow, they will reap what they sow again, and the heathen around us, we need to be reminded that they look, they seem like they're prospering now, but the end hasn't come just yet.

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We're reminded that God of course is just, and that vengeance will be his in the end to such a degree that we can't even imagine the destruction of those who hate us, and more importantly, hate the

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Lord. We kind of talked about that, I think it was last week, maybe a week before that, but it's hard to even put into words what that destruction will look like when we were talking about the day of the

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Lord. It's going to be an absolute nightmare, but like even that, again, there's no way to put it, there's no way to word it in a way that will do justice to what that day will look like to the heathen, to those who have hated us, who have hated the

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Lord. It's going to be absolutely terrifying, and it'll be the worst day in all of history for them, but the flip side of the coin is it'll be the greatest day for us, and it's the day we look forward to the most, because that's when we'll get to be glorified.

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So we can't even imagine the destruction, but nor can we imagine the joy that we're going to experience, so that's kind of the other side of the coin there, is we are ushered in, ushered into our promised land, because it is extended to us through Abraham as well, with Jesus ruling over us.

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So we're reminded of all these things in this short little book of Obadiah. Obadiah is historical. It's a study of real nations whose actions carried real implications, as we have already discussed.

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They have already been wiped out in many aspects. They have already reaped what they sowed to some degree, and they're not a nation at the moment, so we know they were hit pretty hard in that a lot of Obadiah's prophecy has already been fulfilled, even though it's not totally over just yet.

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So that's one thing we can get from Obadiah for sure in studying this book, but it's also applicable to us in a couple of ways, and so we'll kind of wrap it up and end with reminding ourselves why is this, how can this study be applicable to us today and not just a book about some ancient nation that as far as we know isn't even around anymore as a nation.

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Well, number one, it can be applicable to us in a broad sense, because it represents the attitudes and even the actions of the collective heathen around us to this very day, which is,

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I mean, we don't really need to be reminded of that specific part because it's so blatant around us.

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Like I said, I mean, it's at least the attitudes are at this point flaunted to such a degree that it can be depressing, like we can literally be down.

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I know I certainly was. Rewind a few months ago when

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I was reading Obadiah and kind of started this study on a personal level before it became everything we just went through.

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One of the reasons was because I was like that, you know, it's describing the Edomites in those first few verses, and that's a lot of what

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I feel like I see right now, and it just, it is so, it's so depressing. It can bring me down sometimes.

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Those actions, those attitudes are not fun to have to deal with, but the part that we do need to be reminded of more so maybe than that, because that part is all around.

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The part we do need to be reminded of though is ultimately how God handles that, how he handles the attitudes and how he handles the actions, and number two, it's applicable to us specifically, man, there's a passage that I forgot to include in here to wrap this thought up, but it's applicable to us specifically on how strong our, on an individual level, how strong our flesh is as it wars with our soul, as Peter tells us in 2 .11,

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because, and dad, you might have to help me with this in a second to find this passage, because we found it. It's in Hebrews, but Edom or Esau can be a physical picture of our flesh, and Israel or Jacob can be a picture or representation of our new man, and so when we see this combative relationship between Esau, the

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Edomites, Israel, Jacob, yeah, all of that is physical. That's real history. It's going to continue all the way to the millennium, but it's also a physical picture of the inner battle that we face in every moment of every day, our flesh and our new man, as they battle each other out, and so it's a reminder that we have victory over that battle, too.

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The physical battle, yes, but also the spiritual battle, and we can gather both of those just from the study in Obadiah.

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Now, dad, what's funny is that you can read every commentary out there. Everyone talks about how

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Esau represents the flesh, Jacob represents the spirit, but it's really hard to find, it was really hard finding a passage, like actual scripture, that says that, and dad and I were having this conversation.

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We're like, well, is that one of those things where it's kind of just a type that we kind of projected, thank you,

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Dave, on that picture just because it makes sense? Like, you know, logically, I guess you could kind of deduce that that's a good physical picture of that, and so we were like, can you actually say that Esau is representative of the flesh?

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Well, dad, you found a passage in Hebrews, and you read it to me at your house, and it was kind of that funny passage, if you recall, because some of the

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Greek words that it was using to describe Esau as the man in his lineage was like, whoa, like, you know, these are pretty rough people, and it made it pretty clear that that can be a picture of our flesh, and I don't know if dad will be able to find it or not.

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I'll certainly find it. I can't let me pull it over really quick.

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What'd you say, 16? Yeah, I think this was the passage, dad.

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I'm going to read this, and you kind of point out to me what you saw that day at your house, so it's talking about Esau being a warning, and Esau being like a physical picture of something here, and it says, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, for ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears, and I can't remember which word it was there, dad.

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The profane, I don't remember. I think it was the word profane. If you look at the Greek. Right.

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Or fleshly. In other words, he's prioritizing. Yeah, he's prioritizing what the flesh wants.

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He sold his birthright, which represented his spiritual inheritance for some food, so he was prioritizing the physical way over the spiritual, and so this is, dad kind of landed on this a few weeks ago, and maybe this is where all the commentators get the idea that Esau represents the flesh as a physical picture of our flesh, because that Greek word is carrying the connotation that he deliberately stepped on the threshold that represented kind of the physical desires of man rather than the spiritual, and so anyway, so there's a couple of things, a couple of ways you can apply obadiah in the broad sense of the evil actions and attitudes of the heathen around us and how

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God handles it, as well as a picture of the war within ourselves of the flesh and the spirit, which we can fight, of course, hand in hand with Jesus, and that battle will ultimately be won for good when he returns.

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So that is obadiah. Do you guys have any thoughts? What are your takeaways, Katie? What are the takeaways?

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You guys have anything you'd like to add before we close up here? Sure. ...are

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used to unite, right? So you're not about restoration of the language in that story.

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We see God restore man, of course, and that's through the power of Jesus Christ, and we see him in this story restore the

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Israelites to their land, and then you brought up the idea of judgment.

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It's cool if you think about it at that part that you said where it means saved and also to be saved.

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Yeah. We haven't seen the concept of judges being restored. Right. That's what's happening,

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I think, is that you see God say, all right, this is how it's supposed to work as judges, because the judges messed things up back then.

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Right. So now you have Jesus over it, and you've got the judges being on your part, and I think it's a picture that concept of judges being restored, is everything, you know, nothing is about the restoration of God's people, and so it's just another thing that God is restoring, and so there's just tons of restoration.

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And it's such a 21 verses in total. Think about the amount of restoration it talks about in such a concise manner, like it's just jam -packed full all of that.

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I mean, again, the way he handles the heathen, but how he restores his people, and the part that you just said about like he's restoring the judges, because he initiated that at one point in history, they messed it up.

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I mean, it's like he's saying, look, guys, you had a chance at one point in time talking to his people to be ruled by me as your

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God, and to allow your conscience based on the laws that I gave you to lead the way, and they started to mess up a little bit, so he incorporates judges within that as well.

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So now it's God is the king. Again, as a theocracy at that time, God is their ruler, which was unique probably throughout the whole rest of the world.

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All the other nations, of course, had a king, which is one of the reasons why the Israelites were whining later, and were like, give us a king as well.

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Everyone else had a king. They didn't need one, because their king was, they had a king, but he was a spiritual,

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I mean, he was the creator of the universe. So it's like the best case scenario. He brings in the judges, and they still fail.

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So then you fast forward, and he restores the judges, and he's like, this is how it's going to work. This is how it was supposed to work.

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Let me show you. But of course, that time, he's going to be ruling physically with a rod of iron as well.

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So yes, he saw as a picture of, you know, the enmity against Jacob.

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So you've got the sheep and goats, and that's a picture of it, and it's like that enemy is the king.

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But also in the movies, what happens, you find out there's a sequel, because there's a more ancient enemy to be fought.

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Well, that enemy's gone. That's going to be Isaac and Ishmael from the end times perspective. It's going to be those students that are going to come against each other as well in the end times, you know, that you're talking about.

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Right. So it kind of looks forward to... Like the Assyrian, yeah. That is crazy.

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Well, every enemy of God's people that has ever existed will be back for the grand finale.

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The Ishmaelites, the Edomites, it's crazy. And those physical lineages is what the devil uses as one of his instruments.

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So that's a great, you know, a great point there. So it's like God, like talk about closure, because the way he wraps up the story is he brings all of these ancient enemies of his people back.

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Where are they now? I mean, I know like geographically, you know, the bloodlines are there, but like where is the

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Ishmaelites? Where are the Edomites? He brings all of these ancient people back just so that in addition to, you know, returning and sending the

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Antichrist and the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire, well,

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I guess the beast is the Antichrist, the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire and, you know, taking out the heathen. He's additionally bringing back those ancient enemies so that he can wipe them out all over again, just for additional closure.

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And again, he's using his people to take them out along the way. So it's just like, I mean, talk about epic, right?

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So there's a lot of great stuff in the ending of Obadiah there. You guys have any other thoughts before we close this one out?

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Oh man, that would be an awesome movie. Of course, we'll get to live the whole last half of this story ourselves in our glorified bodies, of course.

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So it'll be, that'll be awesome. Well, where did Matt go? I was going to ask him to close his prayer.

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Dave, would you mind dismissing us? Sure. Amen. I guess

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Matt can take Winston now in his defense. He's not just, he's not just a wall.