The Book of Obadiah

Have you ever wondered why the Jews are still around but all these other

Old Testament people groups are not? I mean, there's no more Edomites, there's no more

Amalekites, but the Jews are still here. Why is that? Well, let's open up to the book of Obadiah and hopefully we'll find the answer.

But this is the section of the Old Testament known as the Minor Prophets. So the book of Obadiah is after Amos, but before Jonah.

So if that helps, but Obadiah is one of those books that really doesn't get a lot of attention.

Some people never even heard of it or didn't know it was in the Bible. It's the smallest or the shortest

Old Testament book, but it's a brief prophecy about the destruction of Edom, the nation of Edom.

So the Edomites were descendants of who? Esau. Esau, right.

Esau was called Edom. Edom means red, and there's some debate over why he was called that.

Most think he had red hair, but he also sold his birthright for red stew or red pottage.

But either way, Esau was called Edom and Esau was the twin brother of Jacob or the man

Israel. And of course, these twin brothers were the sons of Isaac, the son of Abraham.

So God made a covenant. I think most everybody knows this. God made a covenant with Abraham and then confirmed the covenant with Isaac, even though Abraham had another son,

Ishmael. And Ishmael did. You know, that kind of creates problems when you have two sons and one is chosen over the other.

And after that, Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau. And God confirmed the covenant with Jacob and changed his name to Israel.

But God did not confirm the covenant with Esau. And there was this division, this rift, and the two brothers did not get along, to say the least.

But from all these different men, you get the nation of Israel, but you get all these other people groups, the

Edomites, the Ishmaelites, and then other relatives like the Moabites.

Moab was the son of Lot, Abraham's nephew. So all these groups in the Old Testament, most of them stem from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

They're relatives. But over time, once Israel was established in the land, these surrounding tribes turned into what?

They turned into Israel's enemies. So they had to fight off the

Edomites or the Amalekites or the Moabites. So the reason I'm doing this study is because there were a couple requests.

Somebody wanted me to cover the story of Obadiah in the book. Somebody asked if I could cover the current events with Israel versus Hamas.

So I'm trying to kind of do that all in one lesson because, as you know, the

Jewish people probably are the most persecuted group throughout history. I think that's safe to say.

And there's a lot of anti -Israel sentiment throughout the world, especially in the

Middle East. I mean, that, there's an extreme hatred towards the

Jews in the Middle East. But people have been hating on the Jews forever, right?

I mean, this has been going on a long time and it's all over the world. But for a long time, the United States was one nation that really supported

Israel and the Christian church, evangelicals, especially supported

Israel. But now we're seeing that starting to change. And many Americans are now becoming anti -Israel, especially younger people.

And as I talked about today in a YouTube video covering a story from the

Christian Post, a lot of younger born -again Christians, evangelicals, are actually becoming somewhat anti -Israel.

So this is kind of a concerning topic. But let's look at what the

Lord says here in the book of Obadiah. Because Israel has a covenant with God.

God is going to protect them. But the Edomites, there's no covenant with Esau.

So look at, just to kind of establish that, look at verse 18. I just want to jump ahead to this one verse for a moment.

Obadiah, there's only one chapter, but verse 18, it says, the house of Jacob, so this is the children of Israel.

The house of Jacob shall be a fire and the house of Joseph, a flame. But the house of Esau shall be what?

Stubble. And they shall kindle them and devour them and no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau for the

Lord has spoken. So the book of Obadiah is about the destruction of Edom.

So God, through the prophet, is prophesying the destruction of the Edomites.

There will come a day where the Edomites will just be no more. They will cease to exist. Will that ever happen with the

Jewish people? No, never. It can't happen because God made a promise to them.

Therefore, they will forever be established in the land. We believe that.

And that's partially why we tend to be supportive of Israel. But again, not all

Christians believe that because of this thing called replacement theology where some

Christians think God is totally done with Israel and they've been replaced by the church. But we'll talk more about that in a moment.

Let's begin with verse one. So we'll just go through the pertinent information here in the book.

Book begins, verse one, 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 nation saying arise and let us rise up against her for battle.

So this tells us the letter is not just Obadiah's opinion.

Obadiah received what from God? A vision. So God is speaking directly to Obadiah through this vision.

Therefore, Obadiah is a prophet. I mean, if God speaks to you, that's what makes a person a prophet.

God giving them revelation. So when you write that revelation down, what's that called?

Inspired scripture. Okay. We don't know when Obadiah wrote.

Many commentators believe it was written somewhere around the sixth century, right after Babylon destroyed the city of Jerusalem.

Remember Babylon came in, destroyed the temple, took the Jews away captive. So right after that happened, the

Edomites took advantage of Israel and they basically ransacked the

Jewish cities and they took the plunder and they really took it. They almost joined in with the

Babylonians to attack, you know, their brother. And God was very angry about that.

And that's probably what provoked this prophecy. So what they did to the children of Israel, God says, because you did that to my people, you will be destroyed from the face of the earth.

That looks like what's going on here. Look at verse two, behold, I will make you small among the nations and you shall be greatly despised.

Were the Edomites despised? Now, the Jews were supposed to be kind to them, but I think one application of this later on, the

Edomites, there is another word for them later on in history, a few hundred years later, they became known as the

Edomians. And there was one man who was especially hated, who is an Edomian and who is that?

King Herod, the man who tried to kill baby Jesus. He was essentially an

Edomite. So that's, that's true. They kind of became a byword for that reason alone.

Verse three, look at verse three. This is a reference to how the Edomites not only lived in the mountains, the high terrain, they also had a high view of themselves.

And you know what the Bible says about that. People who are prideful have a high view of themselves.

What does the Bible say? Pride goes before what? Destruction. Proverbs 16, verse 18, look at verse three.

The pride of your heart has deceived you. Speaking to the Edomites, you who dwell in the cleft of the rock whose habitation is high.

You who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground, though you ascend as high as the

Eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there, I will bring you down, says the

Lord. So if God says he's going to bring someone down, guess what?

They're going to fall. They're coming down. Daniel 2, Psalm 75, talk about how

God raises rulers up, right? He raises up nations, raises up rulers, so he can do what?

Sometimes he does it so he can tear them down, and God certainly does that. So the short answer to all of this, what's happening, the

Lord is going to bring down Edom. The simple answer is because of their sin, their pride.

But I think it's mostly how they treated the children of Israel, and this should be kind of a lesson for any nation who decides to persecute or attack the

Jews. God's going to take you down. Just in the past century, everyone knows of this one nation, this one group that tried to eliminate the

Jewish people, and they kind of have that, who am I talking about? The Nazis.

Yeah, the Nazis, and they kind of have that reputation of just being the most evil people ever, and God certainly wiped them out, although I guess there are a few people who still hold to that ideology, but not many.

But there is no way they were going to be successful. God was going to tear them down for what they did.

Okay, so just to remember that for later, how people view

Israel and how they treat the nation of Israel, God is going to remember that.

So why is the Lord going to wipe out the Edomites specifically? Skip ahead to verse 10. God tells us, verse 10 says, for violence against your brother

Jacob, meaning the violence against Israel, shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever.

We could probably spend the next half an hour looking up Bible verses that go over how they mistreated

Israel, just to kind of touch on a few things. If you take notes, you write this down,

Genesis 27. The man Esau, you remember he threatened to kill his brother.

So the individual Esau wanted to kill Jacob. And even though they kind of reconciled to some degree later in life,

I mean, that hostility continued at the very least between their descendants. Also in the book of Numbers, chapter 20, when

Israel was wandering through the wilderness, I mean, they were in a real tight spot at this one time, and they wanted to pass through the land of Edom.

So they asked the Edomites, will you do us a favor? I mean, we're your brother, will you just let us pass through?

And what did Edom say? They wouldn't allow it. So that was never forgotten about.

So over time, things kind of built up, the hostility built up. And by the time Babylon attacked

Judah, look at verse 11. This describes what they did. In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried captive his forces, when foreigners entered his gates, that is

Jacob's gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were as one of them.

But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother, in the day of his captivity, nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress.

So basically what they did after the Babylonians came in,

God's like, I'm going to make you pay for doing that. Incidentally, who remembers after 9 -11, this was shown on the news, you know, the twin towers were brought down.

And I just remember one of the news, I forget if it was ABC, NBC, they showed a celebration like on the streets of,

I don't know what country it was. Iraq. Yeah. The Muslims there, they heard that America was attacked and they threw a big party.

So all the Americans were mourning 9 -11, but over there they were rejoicing. Well, that's kind of what happened here.

Babylon came in, destroyed the city. The prophet Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet, you know, the book of lamentations.

He's writing that just sad over what happened, but the Edomites were like, yes, this is, this is a great thing.

And they loved it. They took advantage of it. So God never forgot that. And again, that's probably what provoked this prophecy.

And then just following along in the book here, verse 15, there's a focus shift to the distant future with the day of the

Lord. Look at verse 15. It says for the day of the Lord upon all nations is near. So it goes from the destruction of Edom now to talk about like end time events.

And if you remember when we went through the book of revelation, we talked about this period, we call it the tribulation, right?

The day of the Lord, the tribulation period. This is when all nations, according to Zechariah, do what?

They come against Jerusalem and that end times one world government under antichrist.

They're going to try to, once again, wipe out and eliminate the Jewish people. I mean, they want to kill all believers in Christ during that time, but especially those

Jewish believers. And what does God do to that final, you know, one world system,

Babylon is destroyed and then the antichrist beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire.

So, you know, we just get this clear picture of how God feels about people who, who hate his, his chosen nation,

Israel. Okay. Uh, this section starting in verse 17 is called

Israel's final triumph. It says, but on Mount Zion, so that's the bad news.

Every nation is going to move against Jerusalem and they have all these enemies, but on Mount Zion, there shall be deliverance and there shall be holiness.

The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And these next verses again, speak of the doom of the

Edomites. Do the Edomites exist today? Who's met a Jewish person?

Who has met, or you know, some Jews, you ever met an Edomite?

I don't think so. So, I mean, that's just, uh, that, that says something, right.

Um, but all of this long story short, we'll end with this, with the overview of the book.

God is going to fight for his people, uh, in the day of the Lord, in the end times.

And we see how the book ends. Verse 21, this is speaking of the millennial kingdom.

It says, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. And of course, where is the headquarters of the kingdom?

Well, it's Israel, it's, it's Jerusalem. So in, in the millennium, this is going to be like the center of the world.

And this is why we support Israel. This is why we don't want to be against them because God is for them, even though they're living in unbelief and God has, and I believe still is chastening them.

Um, we, we know their future, so God is going to restore his people and the kingdom shall be the

Lord's. Okay. So from this point on, if you want to raise your hand, any, anything up until this point?

Yes, Marcus. There are thousands and thousands of messy Jews, so you can't just say they, you can't classify all

Jews as being apart from God. There's thousands and thousands. Right.

Yeah. And this is what, what Aaron said, because you see this in the old Testament, God speaks about them as being in rebellion or in unbelief.

That does not, that never means every single individual, like in the days of the

Elijah, the prophet, the nation was being led by Ahab and Jezebel. The nation was apostate.

Even Elijah himself said, I'm the only guy left, right? And God had to remind him, no, there's still 7 ,000.

So we have to make a distinction between the nation being an unbelief, but that doesn't mean every single

Jewish people or every single Jewish person is an unbelief. So obviously there are

Jewish Christians today, but yes, let's turn to Genesis chapter 12 just to establish the basis as to why

Israel exists today and Edom doesn't. It's the same reason why

Israel ultimately will be saved during the millennium and the other nations won't be.

It's because of God's covenant promises. And we, as a church, we believe in the covenants of the old

Testament, the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant. These are covenants made with the children of Israel and they're,

I believe, unconditional. So the idea that Israel was somehow replaced or God just said, okay, you're done and you're cut off forever.

I mean that it's such a serious subject. And I mean, I know I realized today the average

Christian is like, well, this isn't a salvation issue. This is a secondary issue. So who cares what people believe, you know, your salvation isn't dependent on it.

So it's no big deal. If somebody doesn't think there's a future for Israel, wow, that's the way most people think.

But if you're consistent, if you really believe that it turns God into a liar. So technically if you're consistent about it, replacement theology should be a heresy, but it's not considered a heresy.

So that's just to let you know how strongly I feel about this. This is a big deal, okay?

Because it's God's character is really at stake if you're saying that he's not going to keep his promise to his chosen people.

What are some of the promises made to Israel in the old Testament? Does anyone know?

Can anyone think of a promise? Yeah. Promise made to Abraham that he'd make his descendants like the sand of the seashore.

Okay. And that's come true, of course. Before we read

Genesis 12, there's one prophecy in Ezekiel. It says that the

Lord is going to open the graves of the Israelites. They're going to be resurrected and they will be restored to the land as one nation, no longer divided as two.

There will be one nation, the people resurrected, and they will have one king over them.

So think about when Ezekiel was written, has that ever happened from the time Ezekiel wrote up until now?

Have the children of Israel ever been resurrected? Like people have come out of the graves and there's one nation, one king?

No. I mean, unless you spiritualize it and, you know. No, because when Jesus came back to life, the grave was open and dead people were raised.

That's true, but they weren't established as one nation with Jesus reigning as king because they rejected

Jesus. So the prophecy in Ezekiel 37 and many of the prophecies in the old

Testament have not yet been fulfilled. So either God is, again, either God is a liar.

His word has failed, or they're going to be fulfilled in the future. So that's why it's so important that we believe in a future for Israel, because in effect it would make

God a liar if it doesn't, if it doesn't happen. Okay. And along those lines, one more thing,

Matthew 19, 27 through 29, Jesus himself said, in the regeneration, when the son of man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me, the apostles, you will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

So even Jesus himself talked about the resurrection and how the nation would be restored.

Who's going to be the king? Jesus. I mean, even David is coming back and he's going to be like a vice regent, it looks like, and the apostles will govern the 12 tribes in the regeneration.

So even Jesus believed this. So this, you know, pre -millennial view is actually the view that Jesus is expressing here.

All right. Let's read from Genesis 12. This is really where it all starts. This idea of a set apart nation, a set apart people, it all comes back to Genesis 12.

Can I get someone to read verses one through three? Go ahead.

Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Okay. Now you can say that that promise is given directly to Abraham.

So those who bless you and curse you applies to him. Well, it's been understood that it applies to his descendants, the children of Israel, because obviously they're part of that.

God promises that there'll be the land, and then later the people, and then God promises a king.

So as Christians, most of the time when we talk about covenants, you know, we all know of the new covenant.

We are in what covenant right now? We're in the new covenant. And the promise to us is salvation, eternal life, a home in heaven.

But the promises originally given to Abraham and to his descendants were earthly promises.

Okay. And this is why the land matters. Okay. Most of us probably are not all that concerned with the plot of land and, you know,

Asia or Africa. You know, what people group takes over this land doesn't really matter to us that, but Israel matters.

Okay. The land matters because God made promises about the land. And you see that in this passage, does everyone agree?

You see the land promise. Okay. So let's just go over this for these verses.

Verse one. Now the Lord had said to Abraham, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

What land is this? The land originally called what Canaan. And then over time, we know it today.

What do you call it today? You guys don't call it Palestine. I thought everyone calls it

Palestine. Here's a question.

What is the Bible? Call it. It does call it Canaan, but Israel, can we agree

Israel? So where does that, where does this Palestine thing come from? Yeah.

So, you know, if most people today call the land, they refer to the land as Palestine.

And if you look at it, nobody's a hundred percent sure where the term Palestine comes from, but Marcus is right.

Most of the evidence points to Palestinian is actually a derivative of Philistine.

That one is connected to the other. So the land of Philistia and the land of Palestine, that that that's kind of where you got the word.

And it's interesting, Philistia, where the Philistines lived, that's known as the

Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip is Philistia. So back in the

Old Testament, Israel, you know, under King David, you know, with Goliath and the Philistines, here

Israel is fighting this people group from that same strip of land right now.

It's like Hamas. They're the new they're the new Philistines, the

Palestinians and Hamas. It's the same area. And some would argue that they may even be descendants of, you know, who knows?

It's hard to track, but it's definitely the same plot of land. Does anyone find that?

I find that interesting. Verse two, God promises to Abraham, I will make or Abram at this point, meaning father and then

Abraham, father of many nations, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing.

Has God done that? Yes, he has. And here's the part we want to focus on. Verse three,

I will bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

And that last part is a reference to Christ and the gospel. The whole world has been blessed by the seed of Abraham, who as far as a singular seed is

Christ himself. But what about this? This statement, I will bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you.

This is really why we believe it's important to be,

I'll just say it, to be pro Israel. Is every, is every church out there pro

Israel? Nope. A lot of churches just don't care. They're not pro Israel.

They're not anti Israel. There are some churches that are anti Israel who's seen anti Israel protesters in the last few months.

Yeah, there's, there's a lot and it's a growing number. A lot of churches though, they just don't, they don't care like the

Israelites. It's like talking about, you know, Pakistan or the Afghanis or something.

It's just like, it's, it's totally irrelevant to them. They don't see any future for his. Why is

Israel irrelevant? Because they have bought into this thing called replacement theology.

The Jews have been replaced. They don't think there is going to be, you know, end time events with the tribulation and the, the revival among the

Jews and a millennial kingdom where Jesus rules and reigns from Jerusalem. They don't think any of that's going to happen because they're all millennial or post millennial.

And listen, we can be, we can have fellowship with people who have different views. Okay. But, um, if that's your position, you, you find the nation of Israel to be irrelevant.

So there's no point of being pro Israel, but we're pro Israel because we believe that God, I mean, they are still his chosen people.

They've been set on the shelf, so to speak for this age. Uh, but God has a future for them.

If we really believe that Jesus is going to rule and reign from Jerusalem, I mean it matters what happens over there.

Does everyone understand why we support Israel? You'd be hard pressed finding a nation in the old

Testament that was against Israel, that God was really for them. Can you think of a single example of someone who's anti -Israel and God was on their side?

When has that ever happened? You know,

God used other nations to take them down, but then God judged Babylon. So it just, it doesn't work out.

So that's the reason why we support the nation of Israel because God, they're his covenant people.

I mean, we are too in this age, the church age, we are the chosen people, but that doesn't eliminate them.

So that's why we are pro Israel. Why would you be anti -Israel? I mean, this is one of those things like the past two weeks we talked about, uh, people who believe in theistic evolution and an old earth.

We talked about people who believe in a localized flood and deny the world. And I'm, I'm like struggling to find any good reasons why

I would hold to this view or this view. It's the same with Israel. I'm, I'm struggling to find a reason why

I would be anti -Israel. Why would I join these protesters and be anti -Israel or as a pastor, a

Christian pastor to say, no, I'm, you know, I support the Palestinians. There are pastors who support the

Palestinians in where we live, Western mass. Maybe there's probably more pro

Palestinian pastors than pro Israeli pastors, I would suspect. Why is that?

So I can't, I can't find a good reason. Can you tell me why do you think this exists?

Yes. There is this narrative that I see even on the conservative or Christian side that there are elites who are

Jewish who have a lot of money and control, say Hollywood or news media or things like that, that I just see an anti -Israeli sentiment.

I know that Kanye West kind of was canceled after he said things and others, but maybe that's true.

What type of narrative they try to put out there? So everyone is familiar with what she's talking about.

I mean, there are people that are against, you know, the Jews because they claim that they run the pornography industry and they run, you know, they're basically causing all the problems in our country today.

And they're, you know, the secret cabal of bankers and they're really, you know, and most people would say that's anti -Semitic and that's terrible.

Even if you bought into that, it shouldn't make you against the nation. Even if there are some bad, there's bad people in every, you know, whether it's white, black,

Jewish, you know, Gentile, there's bad people in every group. So that isn't really a reason to be against the nation of Israel.

I don't think. Even if you were to believe that. Yeah. That entire mindset is literally just got an entire nation to agree to the internment of six million

Jews was to blame them. They have all the money. They're the reason the nation is falling apart.

They're the immoral ones. They, Hitler turned them into other. And that's what's happening here.

And it's been going on since World War II. My grandmother used to tell stories of how she'd stand up to answer a question in class and they'd say, there's

Shylock, I'm for her pound of flesh. Sure. The anti -Semitism in this country has been around for longer than I've been alive.

And it's growing back again now as more and more Holocaust deniers continue to spew their rhetoric and to basically call anyone who claims that the

Holocaust did happen a liar. Okay. And so what ends up happening is that they start listening to the

Palestinian viewpoint and the Palestinians aren't very good at causing mayhem and playing the victim.

And so that's what they're hearing. They're not hearing the side where the Jews are simply defending their people.

They're hearing, oh, well, they attacked this hospital. They don't mention the fact that there were weapons underneath the hospital.

Yeah. The Palestinians, the terrorist groups, they use civilians as human shields.

And they use double state to hide it. Right. So when Israel retaliates, if they're going to kill a general, he's hiding out in a crowd.

So yes, they use propaganda. But the main reason I'm hearing, the reason people are anti -Israel is because of anti -Semitism.

That's kind of the answer I've got. Marcus, you have? We need to be just as careful to remember that God loves

Palestinians as well. And we can't do this they business with anything.

There's many, many Palestinians that are living peacefully in Israel and in London and in lots of places in harmony.

In grocery stores, you see Palestinians and Israelis shopping side by side, being polite to each other.

And my experience was the Palestinians are very, very open and receptive when you sit down with them and share the gospel.

And we had one Palestinian living in the house with us who had an Arabic and Hebrew Bible side by side that he read.

So we can never classify any group of people. Well, I mean, this is one of the problems that when you talk about something, you have to use, like, what do you say?

You say the word they, oh, you hate all Palestinians. Listen, I hope people know this or would give me the benefit of the doubt that when

I say, you know, I'm pro -Israel, that doesn't mean that I want all the

Palestinians dead. I mean, I would hope people don't think that or assume that. We're talking about nations, though, right?

Who does the land, based on the Bible, because if you don't believe in the Bible, this is all a moot point.

Why would you even listen to what I'm saying? But if you believe in the Bible, whose land is it? It's God's land.

Who did God give the land to? Children of Israel. Does it belong to the

Palestinians? It doesn't, if you believe the Bible. Okay, so for the cause, for the nations, we support

Israel. That doesn't mean we're against, because there's a lot of Palestinians, innocent civilians, stuck in between, kids, we feel for them, obviously.

That should go without saying. But anti -Semitism is one big thing. Here's what

I think is one big reason. It's what I call the new secular religion.

This belief system that it is a religion, like we have our,

I've explained this before, we have our creation story with Genesis, they have their creation story with evolution and the

Big Bang. We have our end times, the book of Revelation, they have their view of the end times.

The world's going to end with climate change or global warming. We have our view of marriage, they have their view.

We trust in God, they trust in government. The secular religion is real.

It's a belief system that's basically taken over. And part of that new secular religion, there's actually a lot of Jewish people who think this way too.

All sorts of different people think this way. Being anti -Israel is just part of it.

It's instinctive. I think this anti -Israel sentiment, it's a spiritual issue.

Being part of this religion, it's just part of it. I knew a friend growing up, he was a socialist.

He's not some low -information voter who just goes along with the bandwagon. He understands it all and he's an atheist.

He worked on the Bernie Sanders campaign and he's a true believer in the secular religion.

I like the guy. I consider him a friend, although we don't hang out much anymore. But my point is, he's supporting.

Last time I knew, he was supportive of the Palestinians. It's just like instinctive, where as a

Christian, you're just going to be inclined to support Israel.

If you're secular, you're going to be against Israel. I really believe it is a spiritual thing.

Why is that? Because on some level, they understand they're against the

God of heaven and on some level, they understand they're God's chosen nation and that's why they are against them.

Whether they would admit it or not, I really believe that's the spiritual root of all of this anti -Israel sentiment.

You can disagree with that if you want. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Marcus? Israel is mentioned well over 2 ,000 times in the

Bible. Often times, it is said the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

They make sure that they say Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob so that you get the right generational line down there.

Ishmael's not in there. Esau's not in there. Where's Jacob? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Yes? I was just going to say, going back to what you mentioned about the bandwagon, I do think that that plays a role into it because I've seen some of the videos where they ask them why they're there protesting and they have no idea.

All it takes is a group to set the narrative and people just follow along with it.

Yeah. It's like college kids. I guess there I go again, categorizing all college kids.

Kids that are protesting on the college campuses, a lot of these kids, some of them, they're not terrible.

They're not anti -Semitic. Some of them, they really don't know why they're there.

They're just following along. They're getting such a one -sided rhetoric.

Can you blame them? They heard the story on the internet how Israel sent a missile into this village and all these

Palestinians died and they feel for them, which you should feel for the innocent civilians. But they're not hearing the other side because who's the aggressor with this war?

This is just a fact. This war between Israel and Hamas, who started it?

Hamas started it. Hamas is a terrorist organization. This is just a fact.

I'll end with this. Why I'm supportive of Israel, I've explained all that from a biblical point of view, but just practically speaking, the goal of the nation of Israel, what the

Jewish people want, is they want to live in peace. They don't want to have to worry about sending their kid off to school and then being blown up in some terrorist bombing.

They just want to live in peace. That's their goal. What's the goal, not of the

Palestinian people, but their leaders. Back in the day Yasser Arafat.

What's their goal? They want to drive the Jews into the sea. They want to wipe them out.

They want to wipe them off the face of the earth. That's their goal. Can there be peace between this nation?

Even if one side wants peace and they work for peace, at some point this probably will end and they'll sign some peace agreement or whatever.

Until the next time. They're going to break it. Because they don't want peace. They want the

Jewish people eliminated. But, God's word says, just going back to Obadiah, the

Edomites because they were against the children of Israel, the Edomites no future.

So, if a person doesn't repent and trust in Christ if they're going to be anti -Israel there's no future for them.

But God will establish his people in the millennium, 1 ,000 years,

Jesus ruling and reigning from Jerusalem. So, that's why we support why