Book of Obadiah - Vs. 15-18 (10/30/2022)

Well, I'm just going to start walking through some of what we did last week to lead into where we dropped off because

we dropped off at kind of the halfway point of last week's lesson.

So, we started talking about, obviously, we're in Obadiah 15, and

we only got through half of that verse.

And the specific part that we were focused on was, again, it's Obadiah 15.

It says, for the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen.

So, first, we looked at that phrase, the day of the Lord, and we saw the

significance there from, well, from a couple of angles.

One, we started with Peter

during his servant at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, talking about that same day that

Obadiah is talking about.

And he described it, of course, as this great and notable day of the Lord.

And he was quoting specifically a passage in Joel, which is another parallel passage.

It's interesting how many of the minor prophets, if not all of them, talk about this specific day.

I remember as a kid, Revelation was my favorite book, just because it seemed so out there.

And I loved the idea that it was talking about things that hadn't happened yet, even in my future.

I thought that was cool as a kid.

And then, got a little bit older, and when I realized that Daniel was talking about the end times too, I was like, whoa, that's crazy,

because Daniel happened a long time ago.

He was talking about that.

And then, eventually, Ezekiel was talking about it.

And then, Zachariah, and then you start realizing, of course,

pretty much all the major prophets, and all, if not, or many, if not all, of the minor

prophets talk about it as well.

So, you have all of these parallel passages that are connecting, and you can glean new information from it.

So, we read that Joel passage last week that Peter was quoting.

Then, we went to Matthew and looked at Jesus's description of what that day will be like.

And then, we looked at the first mention of that phrase, day of the Lord.

We went all the way to Isaiah chapter 2, where it specifically talks about that day being reserved for the

proud doers, which, of course, is no coincidence, and seems

specifically of interest, given that we're in Obadiah, and talking about the

Edomites that, of course, exhibited that terrible problem,

that spirit of pride.

And so, it was interesting that the very first mention of this day ever is specifically talking about bringing the proud doers low, humbling the

proud doers, and that the Lord will be the only one exalted on that day.

So, that was all really cool stuff.

And then, we got to the phrase, all the heathen, in that same verse in Obadiah, where the day of the Lord is near

upon all the heathens.

And so, we determined that this, of course, is talking about the second coming of the Lord.

It's not a near prophecy that Obadiah was giving us information about.

It was, in fact, a very far prophecy that hasn't even happened in our timeline yet.

And it's going to be a day when all of the collective non -Hebrew heathen, that's what we

eventually were able to determine based on the specific words used, are going to be gathered together.

And then, Revelation 16 .14 says, let's see here, for they are the

spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth.

These are the same heathen we were talking about, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great

day of God Almighty.

And, of course, that is the great battle of Armageddon.

So, from there, we went through this kind of linear secular historical

timeline to say, all right, well, obviously, there's quite a few things talked about in Obadiah up to this point.

Which of these things have happened yet on an historical timeline, or in the historical past?

And what are the things that are to come?

And so, we went through all of that that is recorded in Josephus'

work, The Antiquities of the Jews, where he talks about the specific points in time when the Edomites were

attacked.

The first case being by their own allies, the Nabateans, who became the great stone carvers of Petra.

Then, they were later exiled and were absorbed by the Edomians, where they lived up

until all the way through Jesus' lifetime, even after.

In fact, we also talked about the fact that Herod, the very quote -unquote Jewish king that killed all

of the children trying to kill the Messiah, was a descendant of proselyte Jews,

that being the Edomians.

So, King Herod was an Edomite.

He had Esau's blood running through him when he was killing all those children trying to stop the line of the Messiah.

And there's no coincidence there.

And then, ultimately, 70 AD was when the Romans ruled by,

or I should say, the particular squadron or whatever it is that was controlled by

Titus, came in and they took out, basically

obliterated what was left of the Edomites, or they were now known as the Edomians.

And at that point, they kind of faded throughout history.

So, that was just a quick summation of last week, but again, we're picking up right where we left off.

So, I wanted to kind of go through all that.

So, at this point, we get at this particular point in the Book of Obadiah, there's a transition that

starts taking place, which moves us again beyond the historical reality of the

Edomites, which is what we covered in detail at the end of last week, as an ancient nation and what they specifically

did to God's children, to then looking again at the totality of the heathen, as is talked

about in verse 15, from times past all the way into the future.

And, of course, God's punishment of the Edomites for what they did extends all the way to the same heathen

that we're dealing with today, which was ultimately why we started this book in the first place.

And so, we can learn a lot about both what the heathen are capable of and specific things that we might

unfortunately have to look forward to in the future.

But the good news is ultimately with how the Lord deals with it, and that's kind of the good part that we're dealing

with now.

We covered just the first half of verse 15 last week, and we're going to continue with that here.

And so, again, the question is, how does the Lord handle it

exactly?

What is, how important is it to him to fix this

problem that his children have been dealing with since the beginning practically?

Certainly not too long after the fall, certainly after the time Abraham

is on the scene and his lineage begins populating specific

areas to eventually take over the promised land and all that good stuff.

Of course, eventually you get Jacob and Esau, and that's where things really pick up.

So, how important is it to the Lord to take care of that for us?

Well, in Obadiah, in this verse, the Lord is reminding us of something

when he talks about the great day of the Lord and that it is going to be coming down on the Edomites as well as the

rest of the heathen.

He's reminding us of a very specific promise and something that he promised going all the way back to

the days of Moses when Moses was still leading his people prior to his death,

before they ultimately went into the promised land for the first time.

And what's interesting about it is the promise that was given from God through Moses was

reaffirmed in Romans with Paul.

So, we know that this promise extends to us as well, but let's go ahead and take a look at the very first time this

promise is given.

And we got quite a bit of reading to here about, you know, a little over 10 verses.

So, y 'all go over to Deuteronomy, if you will, Deuteronomy 32, and

we're going to be reminded of a very specific aspect of

how God handles things and something that we need to be reminded of ourselves when we're faced with these kinds of

battles and trials and all this kind of stuff, because we can get pretty upset about it.

We can want to take matters into our own hands in some cases, possibly.

Certainly, that has been the case throughout history, just, you know, by virtue of our human nature.

But let's read this here and see what the Lord has to say about taking care of the heathen for us.

Deuteronomy 32, let's start at verse 31.

It says, For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah.

Their grapes are grapes of gall.

Their clusters are bitter.

Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps.

Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my treasures?

To me belongeth vengeance.

And this is the promise that we're given that, again, extends all the way up to us here in the New Testament as

well.

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense.

Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things

that shall come upon them make haste.

For the Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth their power is gone

and there is none shut up or left.

And he shall say, Where are their gods?

Their rock is whom they trusted, which did eat the fat of their sacrifices and drink the wine of their drink

offerings.

Let them rise up and help you and be your protection.

See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me.

I kill and I make alive.

I wound and I heal.

Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

For I lift up my hand to heaven and say, I live forever.

If I wet my glittering sword and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine

enemies and will reward them that hate me.

It's interesting that he used that phrase because we talked about that phrase several lessons ago at this point.

I will reward them that hate me.

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh, and that with the blood of

the slain and of the captives from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.

Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and this is what we have to look forward

to ourselves, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land and to his

people.

Okay, so this is why we don't need to worry about the heathen raging around us as we learn

in so many places.

All the way, I mean obviously this is something that David talked about, something that that he was depressed about pretty often,

but it's something, it's a problem that we're dealing with as well ourselves, so we don't need to worry.

We don't need to get too stressed out, too depressed when the heathen are raging, or the the

turmoil that they will put us through because God's promise to quote avenge the blood of his servants was

extended to us all the way into Romans, and in Romans 12 19 is when Paul quotes

that same passage in Deuteronomy, and lets us know the same is true for us in this age as well.

The day of the Lord has so much wrapped into it, but one of the things of course is the day that he has been

telling us about, and that we have been looking forward to for so long, which is when the vengeance will be his.

Now of course there are going to be times when he punishes his enemies, when

he spews certain people out of their land because of their gross sins or whatever

it may be, but in terms of it being a, you know, the

said and done event that wipes out all of the people that hate him, hate his children, persecute us, want to kill

us, all of these things, that is certainly wrapped into this great day of the Lord that Obadiah

verse 15 has been talking about.

So with that being said, let's move right on back to Obadiah.

Yeah, to Obadiah.

We'll continue 15 and move into 16 as well.

Let's see here.

So I'm just going to read the whole verse now.

Verse 15, for the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen.

As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee.

Thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

So that's the end of verse 15 there.

And remember we looked at that passage in Psalm.

It was Psalm 31 -23 a few lessons ago where he said he would render a reward

to the proud doers.

And so that phrase is repeated here to kind of reaffirm that concept.

Obadiah is going deep on the theme of God's wrathful, and now we know second

visitation on the heathen of the earth.

So this is when he's coming back for the second time, and Obadiah has moved beyond prophesying

what's going to happen to the Edomites throughout history, which of course for us has now already taken place,

and we reviewed all that a minute ago.

He moved beyond that into the grand finale of how

God takes care of the heathen and restores of course his people.

Obadiah 16 says, for ye, I'm sorry, for as ye have drunk upon my holy

hill, my holy mountain rather, so shall all the heathen drink continually.

Yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

Here's another quote.

I quoted this guy earlier in the study, but one of the

commentaries I was reading was by a guy named Charles Feinberg.

He had a really cool, really concise, but thorough

commentary on Obadiah, and this is a quote.

This is a quote from him about that verse that we just read.

He says, quote, as the seed of Esau have held their wild carousals with the conquerors

in the captured city of Jerusalem in their time, so shall all these nations drain to the

dregs the cup of calamity and the wrath of God, which of course is what verse 16 was just

laying out for us.

They're all in Jerusalem on his holy hill, on his holy mountain, getting drunk, celebrating

the total destruction of God's people, and what

is told in verse 16 there and what Feinberg is kind of,

you know, really building up is the fact that while they had their time of celebration, of

drinking, of being merry, of again celebrating the total destruction of God's people, they are about to

drink of the cup of God's calamity and the wrath of God, and so that begs the question, of course, what is this cup of

calamity?

What does that look like exactly?

Because again, this is just another component that is wrapped into this ultimate finale for the heathen,

and we get even more information about the

severity of God's punishment of his wrath and just how much he

takes into his own hands, how devastating he's going to return the

favor essentially on these people, on the heathen.

If y 'all want to go to Jeremiah for a second, we'll talk specifically, we'll look at a passage specifically talking about this quote, cup of

calamity, that Obadiah is referring to as well as Feinberg here

in that comment from his commentary.

Jeremiah chapter 25 and starting in verse 15.

Again, this is just really, really hitting home how crazy this day is going

to be for those who have been persecuting God's people.

Verse 15, for thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me, take the wine cup of this

fury at my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it.

Okay, so that's a pretty epic start there.

Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and essentially what we're about to find out is that

the nations whom I give this cup to drink, they have no choice.

They made their choices early on, and now they are going to reap what they sowed, and they don't have a

choice at this point to drink of this cup.

They drank of their cups of wine of celebration on my holy mountain, so now they will drink

this cup that I will give them, the cup of this fury at my hand.

Verse 16, and they shall drink and be moved and be mad because of the sword that

I will send among them.

Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand and made all the nations to drink.

I like how at first it tells us you will give this cup to the nations that I will send,

and then in verse 16, I'm sorry, verse 17, I take the cup of the Lord's hand and made all the nations

to drink, and to whom the Lord had sent me.

In a second, it's going to basically tell us all, it's not going to leave any heathen nation out.

It's going to be all of them.

Verse, let's see, verse 18, to wit Jerusalem in the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes

thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, and hissing, and a curse, as it is to this

day.

Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people, and all the mingled people, and all the kings of

the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and let's see here, Eshkelon,

and Ezra, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, and then go

figure, verse 21 here, Edom is thrown into the mix, and Moab, and the children of

Amon, and the kings of Tyrus, and the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles, which are beyond the sea.

That's an interesting phrase, isn't it, dad?

Verse 23, Dedan, and Tima, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners, I mean, he's not leaving anybody out.

This is the, again, the totality of the heathen, and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the

mingled people that dwell in the desert, and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes, and

all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, in all the kingdoms of the world.

So, he's not holding back here.

He kind of implied that there was some exclusion in verse 15, and at this

point realize, no, actually, there is no exclusion at all.

He's being very, he's being very inclusive of, in terms of giving this cup

of his fearing to all the heathen.

All of the kings of the world, which are upon the face of the earth, and the kings of Shishak, shall drink after them.

Therefore, shalt thou, therefore thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord of hosts,

the God of Israel, drink ye, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of

the sword which I will send among you.

And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup of thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, best saith the Lord of

hosts, ye shall certainly drink.

They don't have a choice.

For lo, I begin to bring evil on the city, which is called in my name, and should ye

be utterly unpunished, ye shall not be unpunished.

For I will call for a sword upon the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts.

Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, the Lord shall roar from on

high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation.

He shall mightily roar upon his habitation.

He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

When noise shall come even to the ends of the earth, for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead

with all flesh.

He will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, evil shall go forth, evil shall go forth, from nation to nation,

and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth, and the slain of the Lord shall be

at that day, from one end of the earth, even into the other end of the earth.

They shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried.

They shall be dung upon the ground.

Now a whole lot is covered in that passage.

For one, obviously Edom is right in the middle of it.

So there is our reference back to Obadiah, in talking about their ultimate end, as they drink the

cup of this calamity.

But for our benefit, every other heathen nation is mentioned as well.

And I say to our benefit, because again we're dealing with the same problem, that the people of Judah dealt with when the Edomites were,

in all of their terribleness, taking part in their destruction.

And so this passage here, it covers a lot of things.

And there's, and God is specifically talking about some of

his people who turned away from him as well.

But by the end of it, I believe it's talking about this great day of the Lord.

At the end, once again, I mean those last like four verses seem to make it pretty clear.

And it's again talking about a time, a period in time when not a single one of these nations

will be able to refuse to take the cup of his wrath as

a, what's the word I'm looking for here?

They can't refuse to take from the cup of his wrath because they got what they're asking for, essentially.

That's not the way I want to phrase it, but they reaped and now they will sow.

And again, they're not going to be able to refuse it.

There were a couple of verses there that mention that when this cup is given to them,

they will plead to not take of it, but they won't have a choice.

So those nations will be so completely destroyed when Jesus returns to the earth, it'll be as if they had never

existed.

And unlike, if you guys remember Brother Bill talking about Nineveh earlier this

year, he mentioned how the book of Nahum is prophesying against

Nineveh and they were ultimately destroyed.

And for centuries, people assumed that the books of Jonah and Nahum talking about

the city were just, I guess, fictional.

I can't remember the exact history that Brother Bill went into, but essentially they believed it was just

biblical tales.

And for the sake of pulling a story out of it and all this stuff until the turn of, I believe,

the 19th century, maybe even been the turn of the 20th century, there were some archeological

findings that basically uncovered the entire city of Nineveh.

And what they determined was that it did exist and that it was destroyed.

And they realized that it was destroyed to such a degree that that is one of the reasons why it was so hard to find for centuries.

Well, that's interesting in and of itself, but unlike Nineveh, these nations are going to

be so destroyed that there won't be any archaeological findings of them after the fact.

They're going to be totally, totally wiped out.

And I mean, I struggle to find a phrase that is worthy of describing

exactly how much they will be destroyed.

It'll be as if they never existed.

As the passage said a second ago, there won't be, you know, there won't be any

remnants left of it.

And within all those nations, Edom is going to be a part of it.

And that's one of the reasons why, again, this passage, I believe most of it is talking about the second

coming as well.

That passage we just read, Jeremiah, because Edom was included, they haven't been utterly destroyed yet.

And we'll get back to that as well as we move forward.

So because even though Edom ceased to exist as a nation when the Romans conquered Edomaea, which was part of our kind of historical timeline

last week, some of the Edomites' descendants will again populate their land one more time in

the future.

And we get that in Obadiah, because again, they're being prophesied against all the way

forward into the second coming of the Lord.

But there's another passage in Daniel.

It's Daniel 11 .41.

I'm not going to read it, but it's another passage that's talking about after the great tribulation, as the great battle

of Armageddon is coming, the nation of Edom is mentioned there too.

So they're going to be around again, which is kind of crazy.

They were essentially wiped out by the Romans in 70 AD, but the blood of

Esau is still alive and well, even to this day.

And at some point, some of those parts that the

lived, some of the geographical location where the Edomites once lived there,

they'll live there again, and they are going to be part of this great day.

Now, let me see here.

I think I might skip some of that.

I might get back to it if I have a little bit of time, but I'm going to keep moving forward for now.

There's a really interesting thing in the Hebrew for the word Edom.

I'll go ahead and cover it, because it's just kind of interesting.

It doesn't make a whole lot of difference in the study, other than it's just one more

reminder of how the Lord is in all the details, I suppose, because there's a lot of irony in the fact that

Edom will drink of this cup of calamity, and that

they will eventually take part in such a calamitous end to such a strong degree, because their own

name means calamity in the Hebrew.

And the reason it, the reason that, I

believe, well, actually, let me keep going for a second, because their name doesn't, Edom doesn't mean calamity.

Edom means red, but when I was reading one of the commentaries for,

you know, this study way back when I first started this, way back in July, I'm reading one of these commentaries, and I came across this,

this little, just one little sentence right in the middle of this whole thing, and it read

the Hebrew for, quote, calamity, the word calamity, as in verse five of Obadiah,

is Ed, similar to Edom, which is the Hebrew for Edom.

And that was all it said, like it was just that sentence, and then he moved on.

I was like, well, that's kind of interesting.

So the Hebrew word for calamity is similar to the Hebrew word for Edom.

So I wanted to kind of see exactly what those similarities were.

So I wanted to look into that just for fun, and after looking into the Hebrew a little

bit myself, I found that when you, when you take the actual Hebrew letters and place them side by side,

what happens is, when you're looking at the comparisons, the words, the first two

letters of both words are exactly the same, but there's one additional letter added to the,

to the word that is Edom, and that, you know, and if you guys remember,

well, I don't, the McKees, you guys may remember this, and Zach and Robin, hopefully you guys will get to hear Brother Myron one of these

days.

I'm sure he'll come back one of these days soon, but this awesome guy, Brother Myron, goes all the way back with

my parents long before I was born, family, friends, but he's an awesome preacher and stuff, and he gets super

into the Hebrew sometimes, and it's really cool, and he'll pull out some stuff like where the Hebrew is basically pointing directly to Jesus,

which, of course, is no surprise to us, but it's just really, really cool stuff.

Well, he was telling us about the significance once of just adding and taking away a single letter in Hebrew totally

changes or adds a lot of meaning to a specific word.

So you have these two words side by side.

They, they, the first two letters are identical, but you add one more letter to, to what spells out Edom,

and it's the Hebrew letter mem, and that letter is an individual letter means mother, and

so, you know, you, you could, it's interesting because you can assume that the

Hebrew word for calamity, and Dad and I were talking about this a few weeks ago, the Hebrew word for calamity would have existed

prior to the nation of Edom being established.

Well, the nation of Edom, they were, they were a pain to a lot of people around them.

They eventually established some allies and things of that sort, but they were a pretty brutal nation, and so,

and so when this name was given to them, it was actually a secondary name to Esau.

It was given to Esau as a secondary name when he was still alive.

It's interesting that when you combine the letters that spell out calamity with the final letter in that word,

you eventually, you, you basically get to mother of calamity, and again, this, this

nation was so brutal, they caused a lot of calamity to other nations throughout their existence, especially

the, the children of Israel, and so again, there's a lot of irony baking in the fact that they are going to be

basically living, or basically meeting such a calamitous end themselves, and so I just thought that was interesting.

I don't know, maybe like, maybe that is, you know, looking, I don't

know.

It does, there's no whole lot of takeaways from that other than it's just kind of neat that that is how the language spells

out in Hebrew, and of course, the Lord ultimately is the one in control of all the details, and so there's no, there's

no coincidence there.

The mother of calamity eventually will meet the calamitous end that we've been reading about up to this point, and their total humiliation

ending with a, again, utmost calamitous end foreshadows what the Lord will do to all the

nations who have mistreated His people in a really similar fashion, so if we

consider kind of what we've learned so far in the earlier verses of Obadiah, we can see

that the Lord's judgments of Edom correspond with the crimes that Edom has committed themselves.

What the Edomites have done to God's people, as it tells us, will be turned on their own head,

and so just to kind of conclude that the section that covers verses 15 and 16, we start to see some

of these, some of these things that correspond with each other in the sequence of God's judgments in all of it,

so you have Edom that looted Jerusalem, and verse 13 of Obadiah,

thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity,

yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in

the day of their calamity, so again, they are causing the calamity here, but eventually the calamity will be turned on

their own head, so they looted Jerusalem in verse 13, so God brought looting upon them.

Earlier in Obadiah, it says, how are the things of Esau searched out?

How are his hidden treasures, I'm sorry, how are his hidden things sought up?

So eventually they will be looted, and that's reaffirmed to Jeremiah as well.

Next, Edom killed all the fugitives of Judah that attempted to escape, and they did that in verse 14.

It says, neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway to cut off those of his that did escape,

and so what happened because of what they did there is Edom eventually is slaughtered, as the Lord tells

us in verse 8 of Obadiah, shall I not in that day say that the Lord even destroyed the wise men out of Edom in

understanding out of the mount of Esau?

Even their mightiest warriors were cut off early on, and that right there, what's interesting is,

so basically the way the book of Obadiah is structured is it starts with Obadiah's pride, then it talks about

some things that the Lord is going to bring upon them because of their pride.

Then after that, it starts going into some of, it reminds us again some of the things that

they did that caused the Lord to basically retaliate, and so the way

it's structured is you can read kind of what they did later in the book of Obadiah and then go back in the earlier

verses that we read like way back in the beginning of the study and see how all of these things are corresponding.

They handed over the survivors to the enemy in verse 14.

We already read that one, and so the Lord brings Edom's own allies in to expel

them out of their place, and that we learn that in verse 7, when the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the

border, the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and that eventually is going to be,

as we learned last week, the Nabataeans that come in.

They were welcomed in the gates.

They were eating together, and then they turned, killed all of their guards, killed all of their generals, and the Nabataeans eventually expelled the

Edomites, so that happened.

Edom rejoiced over Judah's losses.

In verse 12, it says, but thou should not have looked on the day of thy brother, reminds us of the

connection there between Esau and Jacob, in the day that he became a stranger, so they rejoiced

over Judah's losses.

It says later that they boasted over their destruction, and so then what does the Lord do?

He covers them with shame and destroys them, which we learn in verse 10.

It says, for thy violence against thy brother Jacob's shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off

forever, and then ultimately, which is what we just kind of finished up talking about, Edom is brought

back as a nation, even in our future, to take part in God's ultimate judgment of

all the heathen, where their reward will be turned on their own head, and the calamity that they caused the people of God

will be returned, I say a hundredfold, but again, I mean, you can't really describe

it.

It's on an infinite scale, perhaps, of how devastating it's going to be for these people.

Again, bringing in the whole concept of they're reaping what they have sown, so that's kind

of the end of the third section of Obadiah, kind of the natural third section that's talking about the day of the Lord,

and we're about to move into section four, which is a really cool section in and of itself, because it

turns our focus away from, okay, you had the heathen, you have the persecution they have caused on my people,

here's what I'm going to do about it, and now here's what I'm going to do with you, talking about his own people, which of course,

as we'll see, because it's talking about something that has yet to happen, we will be included in, which is really cool as well.

I don't know if you guys have any comments or anything.

We still have a little bit of time.

Do you have anything back there, dad, on the comment thing or the chat?

Well, it's really interesting stuff, and again, I'm hoping we can kind of use a lot of what we

just covered in that section, specifically talking about the day of the Lord.

It's kind of a reference point for some future studies I'm hoping to tackle,

because again, so many of the minor prophets, all the major prophets are talking about it as well, and just give us a little bit

more detail in different ways as we move forward.

So let's go ahead and move on to verse 17.

We'll cover maybe perhaps even a couple more verses, and then we'll close this one out.

So this whole section in the remainder of the book of Obadiah, the last, I don't know, four or

five verses, are all about now God's people possessing the promised land.

The heathen persecuted us.

God answered, and now he's going to usher us in to the place

that he has prepared for us all along, and of course that was to his people, but us by extension

through the Abrahamic and all that good stuff.

Obadiah 17 says, but upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance.

So we just finished talking about the epic nature of Edom's destruction, and now

verse 17, but upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness in the house of Jacob

shall possess their possessions.

So talk about contrast.

You have Esau's total destruction in verses 15 and 16.

Now you have Israel's total deliverance, which is what they're experiencing here.

It says in Mount Zion, which is kind of synonymous with Jerusalem based on some other passages,

other parallel passages I was reading.

You have Jerusalem here.

They had been desecrated.

It had been desecrated by Edom, which we learn in verse 13 of Obadiah.

The men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not for the sea.

Oh, that's weird.

I'm reading Jonah.

How did I do that?

My page turned.

What was that?

Verse 13.

That was hilarious.

I was like, wait a second.

Did not cover this.

Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate in the day of their calamity, looked on their affliction the day of calamity,

put your hands on their substance the day of their calamity.

So they were totally desecrated by Edom, but despite that,

despite having been desecrated, the holy and promised land will be occupied by the house of Jacob.

And a total, total turn of events, a massive turn of events, which of course,

it just makes for such an unbelievable story, let alone our eventual history here.

So this is a reminder that not only does God keep all of his promises, because that is one of the most ancient promises ever made,

that they will occupy their land, the promised land.

Not only does he keep his promises, and in this case, again, one of the most ancient ones ever, but they are also delivered in

his perfect timing.

And this is important for us because again, this comes back to how is this book of Obadiah applicable to us today.

It's important for us to remember that because oftentimes his perfect

timing in this case, it's going to involve a very climactic

conclusion, which of course was ordained from the beginning.

And it was specifically for his glory.

I mean, come on, we're talking about the second coming here, him being ushered in to his kingdom to rule

with all of his people.

It's specifically to his glory, but also for the joy of his people as well, who have persisted through all of the

tribulations that preceded the glorious day, which is his second coming.

We said it last week, but it's going to be the worst day in all of human history for the heathen.

It's going to be the greatest day in all of human history for his people.

And it's all been mapped out that way because of the amount of glory that's

going to be exhibited.

It's going to all be worth it.

All of the tribulations that we may go through, all of the tribulations and calamity that our ancestors,

that the saints of the Bible, of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and all of the martyrs over the last 2000 years,

anything that we could go through in the next generations, all of that will be worth it because it's all within his perfect

timing.

And it's going to be a glorious end that, of course, will point to him first and foremost, but it's going to bring all of the

joy that we could ever imagine to us.

And so the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

Really great contrast between what's going to happen to Edom and what's going to happen to God's people.

Verse 18 says, in the house of Jacob shall be a fire, in the house of Joseph a flame, in the

house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them and devour them.

And there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau for the Lord has spoken it.

Dad, just make sure my watch is right.

It's 10 till, right?

Okay.

Okay.

So this is really interesting and I'll probably end with this verse here because

Obadiah is kind of all over the place.

We've already talked about what Obadiah did.

We've now talked about what the Lord did, telescoping all the way into the second coming.

Now we're talking about God ushering in his people to the promised land, but here Esau is back once again, except in a

little bit of a different context.

The house of Jacob in the house of Joseph will be like fire, like a flame to the house of

Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them and devour them.

And there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau for the Lord has spoken it.

This is a really interesting concept because this is something I've never thought about before, certainly never seen

before.

And what happens is you have Jacob, which is represented kind of like

the southern kingdom.

You have Joseph, the northern kingdom, they're going to be reunited.

And that is talked about in Ezekiel chapter 37, that whole story is laid out, the

reuniting of the kingdoms.

And they will destroy Edom like a flame, easily consuming stubble.

Now, what it appears here to me, and this is the part that was really cool, like new to me that I had never seen before, but it

appears here both in verse 18 of Obadiah and in a following passage that we'll read here in just a

second.

And again, we'll end with this, that the children of God will actually physically take

part in at least a portion of the final battle before Jerusalem is restored.

Now, dad, growing up, I remember you telling me about how, you know, Jesus comes back and what

happens prior to that is we basically go up into the clouds with him.

We get our glorified bodies, right?

And he descends upon Armageddon to fight the armies and we're there with him.

But in reality, we're not even needed.

We're more going to, even though we're his army, we're going to be more observers because he's going to take care of all of it, right?

And I mean, to some degree, that absolutely is true.

But this gives us, this is telling us that some of God's people, specifically

the Israelites, the reunited kingdom, are actually going to physically take part in some of this battle too.

Well, first of all, it tells us right here in verse 18, we're talking about the people of Esau in the future.

Jacob and Joseph will be a flame to Esau for stubble and

they will devour the remaining of the house of Esau.

But go over to Zechariah really fast and this will be where we end as well.

This is another passage that gives us a hint that the Israelites are actually going to be fighting some of the battle alongside

Jesus.

And I don't know if it's only specifically against Edom, which would be kind of interesting because it's almost like

God is allowing for the blood feud to reach its

final course.

I don't know if it's going to be like if Esau is going to be the sole focus of the house of

Jacob and the house of Joseph, or if they'll be taking part in all of it.

I'm not sure about that.

But let me read this really quick and then we'll call it quits for the day.

Zechariah chapter 12 and the first six verses.

So it starts with, the burden of the word of the Lord for Israel,

sayeth the Lord, which stretches forth the heavens and lay at the foundation of the earth, informeth the spirit of

man within him.

So it's starting with just the greatness of God.

Verse two, behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling into all the people around about.

When is, like you already start to kind of get an idea of what's happening.

All of the people are surrounding Jerusalem at this point.

And as we'll move down is why I believe this is happening.

Jesus, I believe, is descending at this point.

The armies of the entire world are surrounding Jerusalem.

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

against Jerusalem.

The nations of the earth are in siege surrounding God's people.

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.

So at this point, it becomes a little more clear.

All the people of the world are gathered against it.

This is talking about the big finale here.

Verse four, in that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse.

So it starts here with the Lord fighting the battle, the great day of Armageddon, I

believe.

In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness, and I will open mine

eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness

and the governors of Judah.

So now here are the people that the house of Jacob, the house of Joshua, I'm sorry, of

Joseph that we just talked about in verse 18 of Obadiah.

The governors of Judah shall say in their heart, the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of

hosts their God.

In that day will I make the governors of Judah like 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, and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.

What do you think about that, Dad?

Do you think I'm overlooking something here, or is this

Judah taking part in the physical battle as well

alongside the Lord?

Right?

Sure.

Right.

So

they

don't

have glorified bodies yet.

Verse 4, the Lord shall smite the horse, every horse.

The Zechariah chapter was 12,

and then we read the first six verses.

Chapter 4, I mean, sorry, verse 4 is when it says the Lord will smite every horse.

It says all the nations here.

Right.

And at this point, presumably, they see the Lord because He has done His thing first.

So they're saved now, right?

They see Messiah.

Right.

But they don't have glorified bodies, so they're physically down there with swords or their weapons.

Right.

Right.

Well, this is cool because I'd never, like, I always think about us, the

Lord coming.

We are, you know, quote unquote raptured.

We have our glorified bodies, and then we're observers of the great battle of Armageddon.

But I've never thought about the Jews that aren't glorified yet because they weren't saved until they saw Him physically.

At that point, the rapture's already happened.

And then they're all saved based on what Paul tells us.

And so the Lord still has a physical army on the ground that is going to be fighting.

And it says, and let me just read it one more time.

In verse 18, Esau will be there.

So the Israelites, the house of Jacob, will have vengeance on what Esau has done

for all of human history, practically.

I mean, obviously, right now, the Edomites are not really anywhere to be found.

But for thousands of years, that struggle that started in the womb all the way through, at least after Jesus was alive,

they get a little bit of themselves almost.

It's like they get to avenge their blood that was spilled in the past.

And I'll read this verse one more time, and then we'll pray and be done.

And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble.

So it specifically points out Esau.

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

spoken it.

And this is in the context of the day of the Lord taking place already.

And that was Obadiah 18.

So pretty interesting stuff.

Well, we, I think we only have a little, we only have a few verses left.

We probably will be able to finish this thing up the next time.

But that little part was super, super interesting to me.

And, oh yeah, go ahead,

sorry.

Sure.

Right.

Right.

Right.

Right.

Right.

Right.

Right.

Right.

Sure.

Right.

Well, and

Right.

In the fighting itself.

Right.

Well, right.

Do they need to?

Perhaps not, but he uses them as a tool, as an instrument for part of the destruction.

And I've also never thought about that last thing you said in terms of like, they're not going to know what's going on in the sky.

Like I always think, okay, Jesus is descending.

Everyone sees it.

Some people believe in some get scared and, and, and hate them all the more for whatever reason, but perhaps

it's more like a Paul on the road to Damascus thing where everyone except for him just sees beaming light.

That's so bright.

It's painful.

They have no idea what it is.

They're just freaked out.

Whereas he, right.

Really interesting.

Well, I took up way too much time.

Uh, so I'll go ahead and dismiss this, but I, uh, appreciate everyone coming this morning and, um, yeah, I'll pray real

quick and we'll be done.

Dear only father Lord, thank you so much for this wonderful morning.

You blessed us with this great day so far.

Thank you for bringing us all together.

Once again, this week, we ask you to please continue to protect, um, Katie, Dave, Mimi, pop, pop, and all the kiddos is there

on the road as we speak, heading back, um, bring them home safely to us.

And that we ask you to continue to be with all the services today.

And we ask all these things in your name.

Amen.