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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-skates/obadiah/
Of Obadiah. Try finding that. Obadiah comes after the book of Amos, if that helps. Obadiah chapter 1 and we'll go to verse 1. Division of Obadiah, thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom. We've heard a rumor or a report from the Lord, same word as Isaiah chapter 53, who had believed our report.
And an ambassador is sent among the heathen. Arise ye and let us rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made thee, Edom, small among the heathen, thou art greatly despised. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.
Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock whose habitation is I, that saith in his heart, who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.
If thieves come to thee, if robbers by night, how art thou cut off? Whom would they not have stolen till they had enough? If the great gatherers came to thee, would they not have left some grapes? How are the things of Esau searched out?
How are the hidden things sought out? All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border. The men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee and prevailed against thee. They that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee.
There is none understanding in him. Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom? And understanding out of the mount of Esau, and thy mighty men, O Timon, shall be dismayed to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.
Now notice the next couple of verses. For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame hath covered thee and thou shalt be cut off forever. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, that is thy brother Jacob's forces, and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.
And God took note. 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. Verse 17. But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
Verse 19. And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau, and they of the plain the Philistines, and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
That's looking forward to a day of recovery in Israel. For the sake of time, verse 21. And saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. What a wonderful note for the little book of Obadiah to end on.
I confess I have often passed over this little book, but set in its context, it has a message of challenge, as we have been hearing already, and a message of encouragement, as we also have been hearing already.
It is the shortest book in the Old Testament, and you'll notice, just a cursory reading, judgment is being pronounced upon this nation of Edom. But it does end on that bright note in verse 21, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.
Now, tomorrow morning, in the goodwill of God, we'll be looking at Psalm 22. We'll not read the verse, but that psalm will end with a note like this, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations.
The dark valley of Calvary, where the Savior labored and toiled to secure our redemption, he will see of the soul, and he shall be satisfied, and there is coming, brethren and sisters, an everlasting kingdom that will never be shaken and will never pass away.
So Obadiah will make that note here. We do live in a world that's filled with human pride and wickedness, and as we take note of the news from day to day, things are not getting any better. The darkness seems to be deepening, the confusion, the chaos seems to be getting worse and worse.
I think we're maybe in the last days, huh? Yeah. One wonders where it will all end. Can things really get any worse? But we are thankful for this, brethren and sisters, that God is on the throne, and he will remember his own.
It is encouraging to know that his truth and his kingdom program are marching on through the annals of history and in the day in which we live. Now the little book divides itself readily for us in this way.
We have the word of the Lord in the first 14 verses, and it is justice on Edom, justice on Edom, the word of the Lord. Verses 15 through 18, we want to note that we have the day of the Lord brought in, the day of the Lord, and it's extending to justice on all the enemies, all the enemies that are round about.
And then finally in verses 19 through 21, it is the kingdom of the Lord when justice will be established here on earth. So the little outline of the book. Now in verse 1, Obadiah is given a vision, and he records that thus saith the Lord God.
Now the word Lord is Adonai, and the word God here is Jehovah, all right? So thus saith the Lord God. That is a title for God in action. Genesis chapter 2 and verse number 4, in the day that God created the heaven and the earth and on down you read about the Lord God.
He is the one that was active in creation. So here is the sovereign Jehovah who remains still sovereign over the nations until eternity dawns and his purpose is fulfilled. Now as believers, our hope for our future is in such a God, one who is sovereign and one who is in control and he is acting even now in history and his purpose will ripen fast.
Now what does he say? He says concerning Edom, that is the descendants of Esau. You remember Esau? For one morsel of meat he sold his birthright and he suffered a crippling blow that day that marked him for the rest of his life.
He represents a man after the flesh, that's Esau. A man who is dominated by the flesh, who motivates him, it motivates him and we remember as well as we have been reminded, brothers and sisters, the flesh is in each one of us, still there and we remind our hearts that it is not one bit improved by salvation, not one bit.
The flesh is still the flesh and it needs to be judged and we cannot afford, as we have been hearing again, to give it free reign in our lives. You give it an inch, it'll take a mile. You go to the edge, you'll fall right over.
That's it. So Edom was, they were descendants from Esau, a man after the flesh. You know there's another nation that was mentioned earlier on in our Bibles again that pictures the flesh and indeed this, the originator of this nation was a grandson of Esau, Amalek.
You remember in Exodus chapter 17, Israel have been redeemed, they've come out of Egypt and they've come to the place where the Lord commands them to camp and yet there's no water there. Imagine that.
But that was the occasion of the smitten rock and the water that flowed, picturing the Spirit of God indwelling the believer when we were redeemed, when we trusted Christ and then came Amalek. Then came Amalek and he was there to battle, he was there to fight, and it was only because of the intercession of the man that was on the hill with his hands held up that Israel prevailed.
And then Moses, you remember, built an altar and he called the name of that altar Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord My Banner. It was only in the strength of the Lord that the battle with Amalek, the flesh, can be dealt with only in the strength of the Lord.
Now what was the problem really with Edom? Well we come to it in verse 3. It was Edom's pride. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee and thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock whose habitation is high that saith in his heart who shall bring me down to the ground.
I googled this one, I mean googled earth, and it's interesting to notice the terrain that lies to the south of the Dead Sea and to the southeast of the Dead Sea. Take a look at it sometime. Rugged, rocky cliffs, and in that kind of terrain Edom had their fortresses up there where there was no cover for any enemy that was approaching.
They couldn't cover, find covering trees or anything like that, and there they were and they felt so secure, so invincible, and their place could never be brought down. They were indifferent to any threat and they were full of pride over it.
Maybe we've been sitting here this morning and so far we've dodged the bullet. Oh, maybe you don't even have a computer. God bless you. Maybe you don't have a smartphone. Maybe you don't game. Maybe those things have no appeal.
But what about this thing of pride? God hates it. God hates it. And Edom was full of it. And you and I with the flesh still in us are so vulnerable to this very thing. Notice God's attitude to it. Verse 4, Fence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.
God is against pride. Pride. We've been hearing from our brother John about the need for overseers. You know one of the qualities of an overseer, according to Paul's writing to Timothy, is this. Not a novice, lest he being lifted up with pride, he fail and fall into the condemnation of the devil.
Who said I will be like the most high? Well, what kind of overseer would ever say that? Hopefully none. But what about the idea, well, I'm a young fella and I know what this assembly needs. And if only I could get on the oversight, I would sort the thing out.
And I would make a few changes around here. I'm the man for the job. Not a novice, lest he being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. I don't need to comment further, do I?
On that one. Pride will come in a number of different packages. And it's seen here in Edom. I want to notice first of all pride of possessions. Edom was actually on a major trade route, I understand, that ran from the south up to the north.
And as a result, historically its merchants had become wealthy. But the Lord would see to it that Edom, in their pride of heart, would actually be left with nothing. Notice verse 6. They will be completely searched and plundered.
And the metaphor is brought in of a thief. If a thief comes into your house, well, he's not going to clean the whole house out. He might leave something. Or there might be a few grapes left if it was a vineyard and so on.
And they wouldn't strip everything. But, says God to Edom, they would be completely left without treasures. And I think that was fulfilled according to Google Earth. If you look at it, there's not much there.
All right? Now, you and I live in a country, whether it's the U .S. or Canada. Good to see the Canadians here too. And Paul, again, would caution the wealthy. 1 Timothy 6 .17. Not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God.
Now, here's the challenge to our hearts. There's nothing wrong to have a bank account. There's nothing wrong to have an investment portfolio, to have property and so on, so forth, or a big farm or a good farm and all the rest.
That's great. But here's the question. Does it have me? Does it have me? Is it interfering with my life for God? Is that where my trust is? You know, the U .S. has on its currency here and there somewhere in God, we trust.
But this nation has long since trusted in God, ceased to trust in God. Now, as believers, we trust in God's salvation. Great. But what about even now in our lives? Where do we find our security? Is there a living, vital dependency upon our God?
Or are we full of self-sufficiency, lay at a sea in conditions, eh? A danger, another spiritual danger for us to watch out for. Then I come now to verse 7, and I'm writing over this pride of possessions, pride of possessions, or sorry, position, position amongst their peers.
All the men of thy confederacy, all the men of thy confederacy, the men at peace with you. You see, Edom had friends. She thought she had friends. And the Lord is predicting now that these are going to turn against Edom.
Now again, to our young folks and to all of us, human relationships are important, but human relationships can disappoint us. Whether it's a regular friend, whether it's a spouse, whether it's a boyfriend or a girlfriend, brothers and sisters, even in the assembly, they can disappoint us.
And that's often a test in an assembly setting when there's disappointment, maybe for just cause of failure that you've observed in some of the believers. What do we do? Up and leave the assembly? Would that not be an indicator if we did that?
Would that not indicate where our trust was? What the focus of our attention was? It was in people instead of in the Lord, in the Lord. People can disappoint us. Let us rather have that peace of soul and that trust in the Lord and peace of mind, leaving it with him.
Situations we can't touch and we can't fix. We can leave it with the Lord so that we can boldly say then, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what men shall do unto me. So they had pride in position in terms of among their friends.
Then, pride of perception. Verse 8, Edom was smart, you know. She had her wise men. Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom and understanding out of the Mount of Esau?
Edom was known for its schools of wisdom. It had the intelligentsia of the day, the academia of the day. And Edom was there and they had it all and they were proud of it. It was a cosmopolitan mix of people apparently, a sophisticated people.
And you and I have been reminded already how that academia and science today are worship. Follow the science. And while knowledge is a good thing and university and college are fine, we need to be careful too.
Because without God in it, knowledge puffs up and godly wisdom does not come from academia or scientists. Let's be clear on that. Brilliant minds have often produced and promoted agendas that are nonsensical and downright ungodly.
And notions today out there in the university world where they can't tell whether a person is a man or a woman and all that kind of nonsense. Our universities, colleges and even into high school are affected by it.
So what is a student going to do? Well we would suggest this, that in all your studies you make sure that you give time to study your Bible. The Bible has something to say about this matter. Psalm 119 verse 98, thou through thy commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies for they are ever ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation. If you and I are in our Bibles, in the word of God, studying it, applying it to our lives, taking it in, being receptive to it, allowing it to direct our thoughts, our thought patterns, our opinions, take it from the word of God and that will on biblical authority make you wiser than your teachers.
There was also the pride of power, verse 9, and thy mighty men, they had strong vigorous valiant men, shall be dismayed for to the end that everyone in the Mount of Esau may be cut off from the slaughter.
And history would record how that later on the Nabateans, they came in, they deceived the Edomites, they went to a party within the fortress and then they turned on the guards and so on and Edom was later brought down.
Now let me jump down to verse 15 to the day of the Lord. For the day of the Lord is near unto all the heathen as thou hast done it shall be done unto thee. What had they done? It's in the context of the reaction to an attack upon Jerusalem where they helped forward the attackers and they captured those that were fleeing and they delivered them up to their attackers and so on.
So they helped forward the attack upon the people of God, upon Jacob, their brother, and the Lord took note of that. So he says now, as thou hast done it shall be done unto thee, thy reward shall return upon thine own head.
That reminds me directly, we've been in the book of Revelation in our Bible reading in chapter 18 and the verse number 6 we read how that Babylon, and it crosses over there in those early chapters, in those early verses of that chapter from religious Babylon and it's moving on into commercial Babylon, okay?
That's the context where you find this. Reward her even as she rewarded you and double unto her, double according to her works in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double. Now what's that got to do with us?
Well Obadiah tells us the day of the Lord is near. We are living in days at the very end of the day of grace and after the Lord returns for his church, the rapture, the day of the Lord, and by divine intervention, this world system that's all around us in which we have to live and exist is going to come crashing down and over that period of seven years in the tribulation progressively there will come salvo after salvo of judgment down upon this world and the whole thing is literally for the fire.
Now brethren and sisters that we fixed our eyes on that, that we're living in a very temporary situation right now, just in the moments prior to the coming again of our Lord Jesus to the air and the day of the Lord is near.
It would give us a right perspective on things and that's the whole point of prophecy in our Bible, to enable us to be impacted by the fact that this world is passing, this is not permanent and you and I are headed on into an everlasting kingdom that will never be shaken and the important thing is this from our existence, the important thing is this, how much we have done for the person of Christ or how like Christ we are.
That's the point. You'll read about that and I commend to your study 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 that is anticipating the manifestation of the Lord Jesus when he comes in his power and his glory in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's just around the corner and Paul's prayer for the saints then is this, that they would be counted worthy of the kingdom and that is purchased now by our faithfulness to Christ. The degree to which you and I will be counted worthy in that everlasting kingdom won't depend upon our bank account now but it will depend upon how much we have done for the person of Christ and how much you and I have reflected him in our lives down here.
It will be reflected then in glory to one degree or another and it will be a reflection upon his glory. Now think of it, is he worthy of maximum glory? I'm asking my own heart, is he worthy of the maximum glory?
Well you and I have something to contribute to that by how we live now because he's going to be admired then in them that believe in that day. So there's the challenge for our heart and the kingdom of the Lord shall come as we've been reminded here from the little book of Obadiah and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.
We trust the Lord will further bless the word to our hearts.