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Sermon: A Message Concerning the World Date: March 26, 2023, Afternoon Text: Obadiah 1–15 Series: Obadiah Preacher: Josh Sheldon Audio: https://storage.googleapis.com/pbc-ca-sermons/2023/230326-AMessageConcerningTheWorld.aac
Well, my apologies, you must remain standing instead.
I supposed to have you sit while you sing so I could have you stand in honor of God's Word.
So forgive me.
I failed to remember to have you sit.
But so without introducing I will simply read the text that we're going to preach from this morning or this afternoon, which is
Obadiah 1 through 14.
It's found on page 7 7 2 if you're using the pew Bible those of you said, oh my goodness.
14 chapters notes 14 verses of a 21 verse book.
Obadiah beginning verse 1 the vision of Obadiah.
Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom We have heard a report from the Lord and a messenger has been sent among the nations.
Rise up.
Let us rise up against her for battle behold.
I will make you small among the nations.
You shall be utterly despised.
The pride of your heart has deceived you you who live in the clefts of the rock in your lofty dwelling who say in your Heart
who will bring me down to the ground?
Though you soar aloft like the eagle though your nest is among the stars from there I will bring you down declares the Lord
if these came up thieves came among you if plunderers came by night.
How you have been destroyed would they not steal only enough for themselves if great gatherers came to you?
Would they not leave gleanings?
How Esau has been pillaged his treasure sought out all your allies have driven you to your border.
Those at peace with you have deceived you they prevailed against you.
Those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you.
You have no understanding.
Will I not on that day declares the Lord destroy the wise men out of Edom and understanding out of Mount Esau?
And your mighty men shall be dismayed.
Oh Taman, so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter.
Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever on the day that you stood
aloof on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and Foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem.
You were like one of them.
But do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune.
Do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin.
Do not boast in the day the day of distress.
Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity.
Do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity.
Do not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity.
Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off the fugitives.
Do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress.
For the day of the Lord is near upon all nations as you have done.
It shall be done to you your deeds shall return on your own head.
Now, please be seated.
Let's pray our Heavenly Father.
We come again assembled before you to again by your spirit declare your word and father.
May your word have good effect.
May your word declare to sinners and saints like the goodness of God and they the words of
my mouth the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight and Useful in this church in Jesus name.
Amen.
So you just heard about two -thirds of the shortest prophecy in the Old Testament.
And it's rivaled for brevity only by a few books in the New Testament.
The book of Jude comes close to this brevity.
It's 25 verses.
Obadiah is only 21 then first and second and third.
John will actually be a little shorter than this book.
But this book despite its shortness decides despite its brevity is a very meaningful and powerful
book if we wonder.
Does God know what I've been through?
Well, most of us would say yes and the hope that goes along with us a Derivative hope of
that is does God know what people have done to me?
Does God know what this world has brought upon me the troubles?
It's brought to me the anguish.
It's given me the harm that has been done to me.
And Will God ever do anything about it?
Well, this was the cry of the people to whom Obadiah preached this short book that we have
these 21 verses.
This book was written.
This prophecy was given to a people who were exiled from their homeland in Israel.
The people were called exiles and they were in Babylon some ten years before Babylon had conquered Jerusalem and
taken the people captive to Babylon now that happened in 586 BC.
You don't have to remember that date.
It's somewhere between six to ten years later while they were in Babylon that Obadiah wrote this prophecy and it
answers the question That I just posed to you.
Is God ever gonna do anything about the harm that was done to them by others?
Is God ever going to judge them?
You know Psalm 137 was also written to these same exiles.
Let me read just the first verse to get some context get some of the feel for some of the emotion that's
behind this book of Obadiah and it was with those people in Babylon and An
emotion an angst a concern that you may have today.
Will God ever do anything about the wrongs that were done to me?
Psalm 137 by the waters of Babylon we wept for there are captors.
Those are the Babylonians for there are captors required of us songs in our tormentors mirth saying sing us one of the
songs of Zion.
Just rubbing it in how they lost their homeland how they had lost their place.
It's like sing us a song of birth.
Entertain us.
Oh conquered ones make us the ones who took you out of your homeland entertained with
your old songs.
And the last three verses that song we won't go through the whole psalm just trying to give you a feel for the Emotions and the
feelings of the people who were there in Babylon to whom Obadiah preached.
We'll get to him in a moment.
That Psalm 137 the last three verses end with a blessing upon anyone who would take the
children of Edom of all people and dash them upon the rocks because of what
Edom did to Judah or Israel.
When they were conquered by Babylon.
Remember Oh Lord against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem how they said lay it bare lay it bare down to its
foundations.
Like the Babylonians saying sing us a song well, here's the Edomites and we'll define
them a little more clearly a few moments cheering the Babylonians on and Psalm 137
would then call the Edomites daughters of Babylon and Obadiah 11 which I just read to a moment.
Oh says for you were like one of them.
Maybe one of the Babylonians and Then the prophecy goes on to tell how God is
going to deal with them for having added to Judah's misery.
Do you ever have that feeling that wondering am I ever going to see?
God take care of those people who've done these things to me.
Does God even know about them.
Well understand something about this book that I just read to you because the answer is this for us.
Because Obadiah was not written to Edom.
It does not tell Edom what their sin was particularly now He had some sins and I read through them and we'll
get to those in a few moments.
But understand in the very opening verse.
Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom.
Not to Edom.
Concerning Edom.
This book was written to Judah.
About Edom.
Okay, that's very important.
But I was not written written to Edom the tormentor, but to Judah the victim and it's a short step.
It's well -traveled by commentators.
I'm not being an innovator here to see in Edom a picture of the world in general and to see in
Judah the church.
So how the world would torment the church?
And bring troubles upon you as a declarer of being of faith in Jesus Christ
the message of Obadiah is as fresh and applicable in 2023 here in Sunnyvale
as it was in about 576 BC there in Babylon.
You see the Lord knows the suffering that we endure at the world's hands.
The Lord knows and we'll do something about it.
We may not see it in this lifetime, but by faith and by a scripture such as this we know that he will.
Now verse 15 is key this morning.
We're just going to go through the first 14 verses and not even every verse.
We're just going to kind of get a flavor for the whole thing but verse 15 is sort of a key for the whole prophecy here
for the day of the Lord is near upon all nations as You have done this speaking to Edom and
this is The speaking to Judah about Edom and what the Lord will tell Edom
what you have done.
It shall be done to you your deeds will return on your own head.
Requires just a little bit of explanation here our ESV in verses 6 and 7 it hasn't in the past tense.
It has it says how Esau has been pillaged that sounds like punishment, right?
They've been pillaged and.
Then verses 12 to 14 sound like present tense, but do not gloat
do not stand.
Well the New King James the New International Version and the New English translation.
They all do a little better job here than our ESV and sort of unusual, but they do.
Not how Esau has been pillaged, but how Esau will be pillaged when this was written.
They hadn't been pillaged yet.
And then not.
Do not gloat or do not stand but you should not have gloated.
You should not have stood and that brings it coincident with Psalm 137 where it talks about what they actually
did.
So what do we have here in this?
Prophecy these 21 verses 14 of which we will look at this afternoon.
Well, the first two verses tell Judah that Edom will indeed suffer at God's hands for what they'd done or
what they had not done.
Edom is going to be conquered.
They're going to be made small.
This is what happened to Judah.
Judah was conquered.
Judah was made small.
It's gonna return on their own head for what they did in Edom
and you might think as I say that.
As we read this prophecy, I think well, you know just taunted them.
Didn't they then they just stand at the roads and and taunt and sort of make fun.
So like kids in the school ground going and and and you got in trouble.
It's obviously a lot more tense than that, but that sort of thing.
It was Edom who did that, but it was Babylon who conquered them.
And it was Babylon who then engaged in this orgy of excess that we discussed last week from Jeremiah 25.
There's violence in this pillage.
They went through.
So Edom is paying dearly for what might seem to be to some of us sort of a petty crime.
Standing by the wayside and just watching them be taken off into captivity
when the Lord's economy.
Edom was like one of the Babylonians.
The way the Lord sees it what they did or what they didn't do made them like one of the Babylonians.
Obadiah calls him a daughter of the Babylonians or it was excuse me.
Psalm 137 says you're a daughter of Babylon.
Obadiah says you were like one of them.
And we need to understand this even today.
That the Lord looks at those who persecute the church.
Remember persecution could be murder.
Persecution you'd be being put out of your home.
This happens in many places in the world.
Persecution could be standing at the water cooler.
And being held in derision because you stand for Christ.
The Lord knows and the Lord will one day bring about his
vengeance upon them.
This is a comfort to those in Babylon, and it's also restraint for us today.
What does the Lord say vengeance is mine saith the Lord.
We cannot execute vengeance and Paul even says when you do well, it's over and
you've left over a place for God.
God's gonna say, okay you wanted it.
It's taken care of there.
Well Edom Transferred themselves as it were from being Judah's brother.
The one with no brotherly love to being a daughter of Babylon.
They were like one of them.
And this is one of the reasons Edom is held in such high accountability.
If you look back in Genesis Isaac had two sons Jacob and Esau.
Well Jacob is the one from whom came the line that became Israel.
In this message we call Israel or Judah means the same thing, but they came from Jacob.
I could Isaac's son well Jake.
Isaac had another son Esau and From Esau came this nation of Edom
which laid just a little bit southeast of Israel.
And that's why Edom in the scripture is called Judah or Israel's brother.
And so there's more accountability for what they did or as we're going to see is very important what they didn't do verse 11
on.
The day you stood aloof.
On the day you stood aloof.
You ever been that situation?
Where somebody could have helped you and they just sort of said a tsk tsk tsk poor person.
I have in my hand a glass of cold water.
I could give you to help, but I won't.
I'm just gonna watch and see how you Muddle on through your your misery here someone who could have come along and
maybe put a couple of bucks in your hand.
So you get something to eat?
Well most of us not been that kind of situation, but you understand what I'm trying to say is those people who just watch.
Could take action, but don't could help but refuse.
They have good they can do, but they don't give a cup of water.
They don't give any solace.
They give three jeers against you sort of like what Babylon did on the day.
They stood aloof.
Like three jeers for the Jews and three cheers for Babylon.
Or they're being held in high accountability.
For the day they stood aloof when Babylon had conquered Judah and Pulled the people out and
marched them off to Babylon and there to be exiles and serve Nebuchadnezzar that King.
You know Jesus's parable of the Good Samaritan really applies here.
It is a Samaritan there who cannot pass by the man in need.
He's not the one who stood aloof.
You recall that first a priest and then a Levite went by.
Well those two had every right and by right I mean right in the strictest sense to go on about their business.
They didn't have to stop and help.
They had things to do.
They're going their way.
But the exercise of that right to stand aloof Made them and the worldly Pharisees who
were listening to Jesus tell the parable the villains.
They became daughters of the robber the robbers who assaulted that unnamed man in the parable.
And they became like one of them you see to do nothing against evil is to give assent to it.
The Edomites knew the excesses that Babylon had committed against Jerusalem.
We spoke about that from Jeremiah 25 last week.
How?
Babylon was sent by God to bring his vengeance upon Judah for their sins against him.
But they went further than God told them they went and took more liberty against Jerusalem
more violence.
And so they became.
So it's so Edom who helped becomes like one of them and Those men in the parable who walked by become like
the the robbers who did the evil against the guy.
To do nothing is to give assent.
To do nothing is to in God's view actively add to the suffering.
In the movie Ben -Hur while Ben -Hur is being marched into the galleys as a galley slave Ben -Hur is given a
drink of water by someone who risks even his life.
Because the Roman guards didn't want Ben -Hur to have water making him suffer more.
And this man you see only from the back gives him a glass of water risking his life against that Roman guard to give it To him.
Well you only see his backside.
And it turns out that that's Jesus, and that's another story, but he did something.
It's fiction.
It's a great scene.
He risks his life to give.
He doesn't stand aloof while this man is suffering.
It was the Samaritan in this the parable who would not stand aloof.
And walk by the man who had been beaten by the robbers.
See when you're able to stand against evil you must.
Edom's going to learn that in the most harsh way.
But when you're able to stand against evil when we can stand against evil you must stand against evil.
When you're able to help those Who are being led off to slaughter we must stop and help them who are being led
off to slaughter.
You know kinship with Babylon cruel and mighty as they were is where passive assent leads.
This is why our principles against abortion for example lead us into the streets even in California where the streets are lined
with Edomites.
Shouting to womb -wrapped babies being transported into death caps something like goodbye child
choice means more Goodbye three cheers for choice.
We can't become like one of them by doing nothing and we don't.
We do something we support the those ministries.
Our dear brother can he hasn't been able to for a while.
But when he can he stands faithfully on that sidewalk and preaches the gospel as people go into the abortion mills.
God says as you have done so will be done to you and he promises eat promises.
Judah the Edom will one day be conquered.
Now for that nation to be conquered must have sounded incredible to the exiles.
Edom was southeast of Israel and it was known for its high crags and mountains and they lived on top of all that in other Words
they had the high ground and any invader who had come to them could be seen from miles away.
And wherever they were gonna come and attack a city in Edom the Edomites could see where they're coming and prepare for them.
It was high very difficult ground to get up.
It would exhaust any army to get there.
They were safe.
They were impregnable all advantage was to eat them.
They had the high ground.
Like general Sam Hood complained when on the second day of Gettysburg He was told to attack Union troops who had that same
advantage of high ground.
He said they don't even need guns to defend that all I have to do is roll rocks down on us.
Well, it was Edom and For the exiles in Judah or in Babylon to hear that
Eden would be conquered and made small.
Would have been incredible.
Who can get up there.
Who can do that?
Well The church said the Lord The Lord
can do anything.
Even took great pride in their lofty Cities and they felt impregnable they felt safe even
against God.
But God says to them the pride of your heart has deceived you.
You who live in the clefts of the rocks in your lofty dwelling who say in your heart who shall bring me down?
The answer is to those who are weeping by the battles, but the waters of Babylon God will.
Just as he called Babylon Babylon against Judah, so he's going to call nations against Edom.
We're going to avoid the historical details, but in less than 200 years Edom was gone
displaced by the Nabataeans and many Edomites took refuge in ironically
Southern Judah and Long after that a man named Antipater
Had a son and he being an Edomite a son named Herod.
So it's rich with irony.
But that's what happened to them in 200 years.
After all those centuries up there being safe and impregnable their pride building up.
They thought they were so wise and God tells the exiles
in Babylon.
He's going to take them down.
Now are we not in the church in the same line of prophecy?
Our Bible tells us that God will make all things new that his enemies will be forever Vanquished and his children
will live forever in a new heaven and new earth.
That Jesus is going to return not meek and mild as in his first advent.
But as a great warrior on a white horse with a bow and he's going to be sent conquering and to conquer.
Someday church.
Those who persecute the church.
Those who have harmed you particularly because you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Will be
avenged by Jesus Christ himself.
And he knows what we've been through.
He knows when you've been beaten for the sake of the gospel.
He knows when you've been rejected.
Our dear brother our fellow pastor Brian.
He's spoken from the pulpit here so I can remind you that he said how he was shunned by his family his family will have nothing to do
with him because he believes in The Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is one day going to make that right.
Just as God tells the exiles in Babylon.
That he's going to make right what the Edomites did against them their brother Did against them,
you know, if there's anything that God despises
it is pride.
The pride of life as the Apostle John says is of the world not of God.
And Edom had grown proud because whatever they did they could retreat to their mountains and whether the revenge.
Well in the end they did not escape.
They are no more.
The world will not escape.
They will be no more.
Don't worry that the world doesn't believe this any more than Edom would have believed it.
Oh.
But I his message was for Judah conquering Edom was.
Edom would not have believed any more than most of our neighbors would believe if you told them what Revelation says.
It's going to happen if they don't repent and believe in Christ.
So church.
We need to hear what God says to us concerning the world around us.
These things that you have gone through the persecutions.
That you've endured the harm that was brought to you particularly because of Jesus Christ here what
God says to us concerning the world.
He says because of the violence done to your brother Jacob shame shall cover you and you
shall be cut off forever.
You see the shame they added.
Back to them upon back to Judah when they were marched away.
Will cover them.
God's gonna turn it around.
Jesus put it this way.
He said for the judgment you pronounce you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.
He's speaking to his disciples, but the principle remains that God will make it right and that
the way we judge It will be judged back to us and the way the world has persecuted us will be measured back
to them.
It's a principle.
Edom didn't tear down Jerusalem's walls.
God did or no God did but Babylon did.
And once they pillaged the city in the temple what happened?
Well these Edomites swooped in like a plague of locusts like hopping lotus like destroying locusts to borrow Joel's
language.
They were like those ghoulish people you see in the movies who stripped the bodies that are dead on the field after the battle
so again.
The Lord knows the trouble the world has put upon us.
He knows those snickers around the office water cooler.
He knows those condescending paths on the head the abandonment you knew because of Christ.
Have you ever felt that sting of?
Tear him down or tear her down.
Have you ever felt that shame that they tried to bring upon you?
Know this that the Lord knows the Lord sees and he takes it as against himself.
And one day the shame poured out on you or at least they tried to put on you.
He's going to be turned into crown with the crown if we remain faithful to Christ.
That's the Babel that the Exiles in Babylon were told that one day.
This would all turn around and that God would make these things, right?
So the Apostle John tells us in Revelation.
That's the new heaven in the new earth.
That's the Saints in the Revelation 6 crying out.
How long the Lord will you not avenge those who've died for the Word of Christ and they're given those white sheets.
They're told just a little longer just be patient because God will do it.
God will send his son and he will make these things, right?
God tells the Edomites the shame will cover them because of the shame that they tried to Increase against Judah
you think the shame they already felt they've lost the battle.
That's one thing.
Their walls of their beautiful city been torn down.
That's shameful.
The temple had been pillaged.
That's even more shameful.
Their daughters and their sons have been taken into service if not killed and trying to defend the wall.
That's shame.
Now they're being marched back to Babylon.
To serve the king shame upon shame upon shame upon shame and here's Edom
bringing more.
In Schindler's List when the people of Krakow and the Jews of Krakow are taken out of their homes and marched down the street.
To go to the concentration camp.
There's their former neighbors throwing stones at them and yelling at them.
And they said one lady who's yelling goodbye Jews.
Goodbye Jews and just heaping on the agony.
Making it as much worse as they can.
What does God say about that?
Well, it's got to say about those who've done this to you or to me or to the church.
You're like one of them the Edomites like a Babylonian.
Those people in Krakow like the Nazis and the people who do that to the church daughters of Babylon.
Know this leave vengeance in God's hands because he will take care of it
one day.
Our shame that we endure for Christ will one day be turned into a crown.
I'll be turning to a crown because of Jesus Christ who endured the ultimate shame on our behalf.
It says in Hebrews 12 to that we are to be looking to Jesus the founding per founder and perfecter of our faith.
Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross?
Despising the shame and is seated the right hand of the throne of God.
He endured the shame of the cross.
He endured a criminal's death.
He endured the worst most shameful death that men could devise or ever have devised
for us.
The shame that was heaped upon you.
Perhaps the shame that you one day heaped upon someone else Lord willing before he came to Christ.
That shame was poured upon him.
He endured that criminal's death.
He hung helplessly in the tree.
He was innocent of wrongdoing in man's or in God's eyes.
And what did they do to him while he hung there?
Was there not an Edomite nation walking past and making his suffering as much worse as they could?
Matthew 27 verse 39 says.
And those who passed by derided him.
Wagging their heads and saying you who destroy the temple and rebuild in three days.
Save yourself if you're the Son of God come down from the cross.
So also the chief priests and the scribes and the elders mocked him saying he saved others.
He cannot save himself.
He's the king of Israel.
Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him.
He trusts in God let God deliver him if he desires him for he said I am the Son of God.
And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
The shame he endured.
Turned out of the glory of God the father will be turned on the heads of those who tried to add to his sufferings as Edom
did Judas and.
As one day God will when he sends Christ due to the world that is so persecuted the
church.
Even we who have not gone through the active and horrible persecutions that happened in so many lands.
We have to take this word persecution.
This shame that they try to bring upon us and we need to make it a little bit smaller than we often do.
You don't have to be murdered your house doesn't have to be torn down.
You don't have to lose your job.
For it to be the kind of persecution the kind of shame that will one day be foisted back upon them by God.
It could be those small things those little digs.
It could be the bigger things, but most of us have not endured those.
Some have most haven't but know that in God's eyes what you suffer of Christ behalf.
No matter how small you may think it is.
It's bigger than you believe it to be in God's eyes.
Well verses 12 to 14 and we don't really have time to go through those in a detail.
Maybe we'll swing back to them next week and pick them up those recount Edom's crimes.
Gloating over Judas demise rejoicing in their ruin boasting over them in
the day of the stress.
And really boasting in themselves.
No one has ever gonna do that to us.
High up in the cliffs and we have this kind of thing happen to us.
We do feel like we want to get back, don't we?
Proverbs 24 17 warns us do not rejoice when your enemy falls and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles.
Lest the Lord see it and be displeased and turn away his anger from him.
You know love is the core characteristic characteristic of the Christian and love does not rejoice in
wrongdoing says the Apostle Paul.
We do rejoice in God's justice.
Proverbs 11 10 when it goes well with the righteous that city rejoices and when the wicked perish their shouts of
gladness.
Gladness at righteousness.
God's righteousness has prevailed not joy at the suffering that the wicked brought down on their own heads.
Even God doesn't rejoice over that.
Because God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked.
God would restrain himself if he could but he can't because his justice doesn't allow for that.
But there are shouts of gladness when righteousness prevails when wickedness is gone.
Well, God's anger had turned away from Judah they were in Babylon they had suffered his
retribution for their sins 70 years of captivity and then he returned them from Babylon back
to the land of Israel as Isaiah had said comfort come from.
My people tell Jerusalem that her warfare is ended and her iniquity is pardoned that she was received from the Lord's hand
double for all Her sins.
He did not forgive Edom.
He took away their land.
He sent them wandering.
He will not forgive the unbelieving world.
He will cut them off forever.
He knows what we suffer.
He knows what you suffer and will suffer and He will one day
Bring the people who caused the suffering the world that intentionally brought it upon us.
It'll be turned back on their own heads.
We as refugees as sojourners as pilgrims in this world as much as were the Jews in Babylon.
Need to hold on to that in faith.
We need to hang on to that restrain our tongues not give back as good as we got.
God will eventually as he did to Edom cut them off forever.
Well, let us rejoice and be glad.
That Christ has pulled us down from our proud heights.
That he has shown us the shame that we deserve, but that he bore for us and
let us rejoice knowing that he sees all that we endure for the sake of the gospel of His name
and that one day he will make all things right.
Amen,
please turn in your.