Obadiah

I don't know if you knew this but the Myosotis genus of flowering plants looks like this. I don't know if you knew that. The reason that I know it is because I'm a botanical expert. Not a true story. I am a not a botanical expert. I actually have a death thumb. Some people have a green thumb. Mine is a death thumb. The reason I know this is because I looked it up on Google, but, the truth is, is that it goes by a different name. These flowers are called forget-me-nots, right? You probably heard of them. You may have given them to somebody as a gift or something like that. But, they're called forget-me-nots. Now they have a little bit of, like, lore or fable associated with them, because you kind of wonder, "Well, how did they get that name? "How did you get the name forget-me-nots?" And there's a variety of different, like, little fables that go with it. The kind of God version of that story, which some people like to tell, is that God was walking around the garden, and he asked this group of beautiful blue flowers what their name was, and they said that they didn't know. And they said they had forgotten what their names were. And he said, "Well, I'll never forget you," and so thus they were called forget-me-nots. Now remember that was not preaching. That was fable that was just made up by people who had to tell you how this got a name, right? I have no idea how it really got the name forget-me-nots as a flower, but the world that we live in, we use a variety of different gifts, and we talk about them as forget-me-nots. They may be just little small gifts that we give to somebody, and it may be to remember them or to remember something. We call it a forget-me-not gift. But we have to remember that really forget-me-nots are flowers. Like, when you look this up, that's what you'll find. That these are actual flowers that are in gardens. Now that said, if the Bible was a garden, if I could kind of use all of these kind of illustrations simultaneously, if the Bible was a garden, there would be books in there that we have a tendency maybe to skip over or look past, but they would be calling out to us to say, "Hey, forget-me-not. "Remember me. "I'm also in here," because what we know is that God has not forgotten anything in his garden. That everything that is in the garden of the word of God, God has made sure that it was put there. So sometimes we will go by books and passages in the Bible, and we will just pass by them forgetting that we need to smell them, forgetting that we need to enjoy them, forgetting that we need to acknowledge that they're there and understand the truth that they would give to us. And Obadiah is one of those books. Now, you're probably wondering to yourself, "Now where is the book of Obadiah?" And there was somebody who told me in the last gathering, they said, "If somebody would've said, 'Your life depends on this question. 'Is Obadiah a book in the Bible?'" They said, "I probably would've gone to be with Jesus." They literally said that to me, and I was like, "Hey, I understand." So they not only didn't know that it was in the Bible, they clearly had never read it, and that's okay. That's why we're doing this series that we're doing, right? And so, if you're trying to find the book of Obadiah, and I want to encourage you to get there, it's very simply tucked away between Amos and Jonah. Did that help you at all? If not, then just use the Table of Contents, so that you can find the book of Obadiah tucked between Amos and Jonah. Some of you know where Jonah is, because we spent a month in that book recently here teaching through it. And so, all you'll have to do is look right next door to it, and you will find Obadiah. Just go left from Jonah, and you'll find Obadiah, all right? It's a one chapter book. And we're going to cover the entirety of the book today. You're saying, "How long are we going to be here?" Not any longer than three-and-a-half hours. It's going to be a short message, all right? We're going to be here a short period of time. Just the same time we're normally here. And it's one chapter as a book. As you know Obadiah is called one of the minor prophets. They're not referred to as minor because they're less important. They're referred to as minor because they have less content. The major prophets like Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are much longer. There are dozens and dozens of chapters in there, and here we come to one of the minor prophets, and it has one chapter. It literally has 21 verses, that's it. So if you're going, "Hey, what chapter are we in?" The only one that's there. And so, if I reference a verse, it's in this chapter, I promise you. And it is a book that's written to a demoralized nation of Israel/Judea. You remember that the kingdom had been segmented. That it had been divided after Solomon. And now you have the northern kingdom Israel and the southern kingdom Judah. And so, you've got, kind of Israel/Judah, that's in a demoralized state, because they're going to be attacked and are being attacked by Babylon. And we'll get to that in just a moment. But now that I've given you a running head start to find the book of Obadiah in your own Bible or on your digital device, let's look at how it begins in verse number one. It says, "The vision of Obadiah. "This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom. "We have heard a message from the Lord. "An envoy was sent to the nations to say, 'Rise, let us go against her for battle.'" Now before I dive in here, I would remind you that the book of Obadiah is set up like a number of the other, kind of, books of the prophets, particularly the minor prophets, and it's set up as a covenant law case structure, covenant lawsuit structure. In other words, it's as if God is making a pronouncement as a judge against that which is standing in opposition to him, and he's declaring through an oracle, or a prophecy, or a vision through his prophet what's going to befall a certain nation that's hostile to them, or maybe what's even going to befall Israel or Judah, right? So this sets up kind of like a law court, kind of, environment, where God has said, "I remember my covenant, "but I also remember what else is going on. "And now I am standing as a judge pronouncing judgment." But before we get too far into the weeds here, let's ask some simpler questions about what's going on in this text, right? There's two things that are mentioned in verse number one. It says, "It's the vision of Obadiah," and then it says, "And it's concerning the nation Edom." So let's start with just Obadiah. Who is Obadiah? Obadiah is a prophet of God, and that's all I know. That's it. Literally, that's all I know. He's a prophet of God. His name means servant or worshipper of the Lord, so I know what his name means, but anybody can find that out. Well, what else about him? No idea. Zero. I do not know, and you don't either, not just because I don't know, because we don't know, right? Obadiah's a very, very common name in the scripture. There are 12 or 13 Obadiahs in the Bible. I say 12 or 13. It's 13 if this Obadiah is not one of those Obadiahs, right, and we don't think that he likely is. Some argue that he is, but likely he's not. So who is this Obadiah? He is a prophet of the Lord. Are you okay with just understanding he's just a prophet of the Lord? Because what we don't have is we don't have, with some of these other arenas or environments, some of the prophets, like for instance Jonah. "Jonah, son of Amittai," that's how it starts, and you're kind of like, "Okay, cool. "I know, he's the son of this guy." We don't have any son ofs in this one, right? It's just we got Obadiah. What else? He's a prophet of the Lord. That's what we know, and he got a vision. What else? That's it, so can we move on? Everybody good with Obadiah? He's a prophet of the Lord. That's all we know, and that's where we're going to stop. Well, what about this nation? It says, "This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom." Maybe you've heard of Edom. Maybe you haven't heard of Edom. That's okay. It's mentioned a lot in the Old Testament. In fact, Edom was kind of a small nation. It wasn't particularly powerful, and a small nation. Do you realize that this nation by itself was actually mentioned more than virtually every other nation in the Old Testament, except for the superpowers? The superpowers were Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. Those were the big superpowers of the Old Testament, and outside of those Edom is mentioned as a hostile nation to Israel/Judah more than any other nation, and that seems kind of unique to me. Here's what I do know. That Judah is really resentful of Edom. And if you're saying to yourself, "Is this whole message "going to be like a historical survey?" It's not I'm giving you some context, and then we're going to takeoff, all right? Edom is still resentful over what happened. I mean, I'm sorry, Judah is still resentful over what happened in 840 BC when Edom actually assaulted the nation of Israel and Judah, okay? They're also not happy about what happened in the late 500 BC, like 587 BC, because that's when Babylon attacked Judah and Israel, and Edom went, "Cool, we're glad. "We're fine with that," and they were actually complicit in Babylon. Babylon was the one doing the bad work, but Edom was complicit in the work of Babylon taking over Israel and Judah, and bringing them into the Babylonian captivity. So you can understand why Israel and Judah has a sense for not really appreciating Edom very much, in terms of what they do. And I think the book of Obadiah is written around that time, the time of the Babylonian conquest and what Edom did in the Babylonian conquest. Now, that said, the strife goes back way further than the times that I just mentioned to you. The strife goes way further than 840 BC. It goes way further back than that. Because once you learn what Edom is and where Edom came from, you start to go, "Oh, okay, I think I understand the strife now." You see, Edom is the land of Esau. Does anybody remember that name Esau? Esau the twin brother of Jacob, right? Isaac and Rebekah had twins, and it was Jacob and Esau. And, by the way, neither of them were particularly great guys. Jacob's name means deceiver or supplanter, right? And Esau he sold his birthright for a pot of porridge. What is he doing? But he didn't just sell his birthright because he was really hungry. He actually was selling out his family, because he basically rejected his family, rejected his family's God. And, in fact, in Genesis chapter 26-ish... Don't quote me on that. I think, I'm close to it. Genesis chapter 26 you can read about Esau marrying pagan women, so he's denying his family. He's denying the God of Israel. He's denying the family name. And he's marrying pagan women, and he's kind of off on his own. And, by the way, he's also not a fan of Jacob, because Jacob ended up getting the birthright that he had sold himself out for. And now he wants to kill Jacob, right? These are twins by the way. I don't know if any of you are twins. Hopefully, it didn't go like this. But Jacob and Esau there's a lot of strife between the two of them. Now eventually when we read in the book of Genesis, there is a partial or a temporary reconciliation, which is a beautiful scene to be able to behold, but it's not permanent. It's temporary, because there is continued strife down the line with the lines of Jacob, which becomes Israel, and the line of Esau, which becomes Edom. So Israel ultimately gets in captivity to Egypt, right? You remember that? But Esau's line, Edom, establishes itself as its own country, so it's well-established when Israel is in captivity. When Israel gets out of captivity, and they're making their way because God raised up Moses, and is leading them out, and now wants to lead them toward the land of promise, Israel gets attacked by a man named Amalek, the Amalekites. Do you know that he is a product of the Edomites? That he's actually in the grandson lineage of Esau himself? And Exodus 17 tells us that he makes an attack on kind of the backside of Israel as they're walking through the land. By the way, Israel asked if they could crossover Edom's territory to be able to get where they're going to the Promised Land. And it makes sense because Edom was located on the other side of the Dead Sea, which is where the country of Jordan is now. And that's where they would've come through to get to the Promised Land. And they asked if they could pass by. What do you think Edom's response was? "Sure, we love you." No, here's what it says in the book of Numbers. "But Edom answered, 'You may not pass through here. 'If you try, we will march out, 'and attack you with the sword.' "The Israelites replied, 'We will go along the main road, 'and if we or our livestock drink any of your water, 'we will pay for it. 'We only want to pass through on foot, nothing else.' "And Edom answered, 'You may not pass through.' "Then Edom came out against them "with a large and powerful army. "Since Edom refused to let them "go through their territory, "Israel turned away from them." So you can see the strife goes way, way, way back to Jacob and Esau, and now we're reading about this land of Edom, which is the line of Esau that is always in conflict with the line of Jacob as the people of Israel and Judah. Now I realize that some of you in your minds are going, "Okay, wait a minute, "so the line of promise, "of God's promised and his election "is the line of Jacob, right? "Israel/Judah, right, the line of Jacob, "and then he's rejected the line of Esau, "which is the Edomites. "So, why did God choose Jacob "and not choose Esau's line? "Why did God do that," you're wondering. Or maybe you weren't. But you're now wondering because I said it. Well, Paul actually tells us very clearly in the book of Romans. Here's what he says. "Not only that, but Rebekah's children "were conceived at the same time "by our father Isaac. "Yet, before the twins were born "or had done anything good or bad, "in order that God's purpose in election might stand, "not by works but by him who calls, Rebekah was told, 'The older will serve the younger.'" Now you're thinking to yourself, "Wait a minute. "I just read that with you, and I'm not sure if I do know "the reason that God selected Jacob instead of Esau." Real simple. God's sovereign, and he gets to choose. End of discussion. God has sovereign purposes, and based upon those purposes, he chose. Notice he chose before they were born and before they'd done anything good or bad. It wasn't based on their merit. It was based on God's choice. So God, in his sovereignty, chose the line of Jacob to be the line of promise, and the line of Esau or Edom, even though he gave them a place to live, they were not the line of promise. Now that said that's a set up to the book of Obadiah. We've spent time now in one verse. You're going, "You said you were preaching the whole book today. "Are you serious?" I am. We spent time in one verse because we had two things we needed to clear up. Who's Obadiah? He's a prophet of God that's all we know. And who's Edom? That's the line of Esau, and there's been strife forever. Everybody clear now?

- Yes.

- Okay cool. Now we're getting to be experts in the book of Obadiah. Here's what I've done with the book. I've divided it into two sections, with two great truths that I think we should be able to grab hold of. Here's the first truth that we need to grab hold of that Obadiah teaches us. God is a Faithful Judge. This is the first great truth that the book is teaching us, is that God is a Faithful Judge. In fact, listen to verse number two. It says, "See, I will make you small among the nations. "You will be utterly despised." God is going ahead and saying at the very beginning, "This is a prophecy concerning, "or a vision concerning Edom, "and here's the deal. "I'm going to make you small among the nations, "and you're going to be utterly despised." It's as if the Faithful Judge has spoken. He has declared it. This is what is going to happen. And then he starts to explain to us why. Why is he judging them in this way? The Faithful Judge, first of all, the Faithful Judge judges pride. And this is what we're going to see in the life of Edom as a nation. He judges pride. And, you know, pride's a funny thing, isn't it? Because pride sometimes is something that we think of with people who are narcissistic and arrogant, right? "I'm awesome. "Look how good looking I am," all that kind of stuff, right? There are a few people in the world that are that way, but most people are smarter than that. They don't do stupid stuff like that. They may be painfully prideful and painfully narcissistic. Some of them can't keep it to themselves, but some do. But pride shows up in different forms if you haven't paid attention. For instance, the pride of position. This is what I think Edom was dealing with as one of the roots of pride that God was going to judge. It's the pride of position. Listen to what verses three and four say. "The pride of your heart has deceived you Edom. "You who live in the clefts of the rocks "and make your home on the heights. "You who say to yourself, 'Who can bring me down to the ground?' "Though you soar like the eagle "and make your nest among the stars, "from there I will bring you down," declares the Lord. Edom thought because of their position, that they were secure. Now you're saying, "What kind of position is that?" Well, it was a geographical position. Right on the other side, pay close attention here, right on the other side of the Dead Sea is the country of Jordan. And there's a place there that's really famous that you may have heard of called Petra. Anybody heard of Petra before? Okay, zero people have heard of Petra. That's fine. Fantastic, it's not as famous as I thought. Petra's on the other side. It's this massive rock cliff, and it's where the Edomites were. It's the place that God had actually given them. And they've got this huge kind of fortress almost. And they thought because of their position of where they lived geographically, that they were safe. That there was not going to be any harm befall them, but they failed to understand that God says, "I don't care where you are. "I will deal with you as I see fit. "And you can be on the highest clefts of the rock. "You can be up where the eagles soar, "and if I want to bring you down, "I will bring you down." And just reminder, citizens of the United States and Canada, just a reminder that regardless of how strong we think we are, regardless of the posture that we think we have, regardless of how we think we stand in the world and our position, if God wants to deal with us, he will do it, and there is nothing that will stop him, because God is no respecter of position. So the pride of position. But there's also the pride of association. The pride of association, verses five through nine teaches about this. It says, "If thieves came to you, "if robbers in the night, "oh, what a disaster awaits you. "Would they not steal only as much as they wanted? "If grape pickers came to you, "would they not leave a few grapes? "But how Esau will be ransacked. "His hidden treasures pillaged. "All your allies," watch this, "all your allies will force you to the border." He's talking about Edom right now. "Your friends, Edom, "will deceive and overpower you. "Those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, "but you will not detect it. "In that day, declares the Lord, "will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, "those of understanding in the mountains of Esau? "Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified, "and everyone in Esau's mountains "will be cut down in the slaughter." You see, here's what God is saying to the people of Edom. "You have built your associations with Babylon. "Babylon's coming in to destroy Israel and Judah, "and you think that somehow, "based upon your association with Babylon, "that you're going to be fine, "because you've allied yourself with the bully. "You've gotten yourself now in with the empire, "and you feel like you're strong as a result of that. "But let me tell you what's going to happen to you, Edom. "The very Babylon that you've allied yourself with, "they're going to destroy you. "You're going to come alongside "and be complicit in what they're doing "as you watch your brothers, Israel and Judah." And quite literally it's like brothers, isn't it? Because it came from twins and then separated. "You're going to watch your brothers "and all this happens to them. "And you're going to be complicit in all of that, "and you're going to be like, 'Yeah, this is awesome.' "But by the way, you've allied yourself with people "who are going to turn on you, "and they're going to destroy you." And by the way, that's exactly what happened. That is historically exactly what happened. Edom's friends became Edom's enemies all at one time. God judges pride. The Faithful Judge he will deal with pride. But you know what else he'll deal with. He'll judge violence. The Faithful Judge is the one who judges pride, and then there's this pride that leads to violence. Look at what verse 10 says. "Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, "you will be covered with shame. "You will be destroyed forever." You see, God is serious about what is happening to his people. God pays attention to what happens to his people, and he is holding Edom accountable for their violence. That violence shows itself in a number of different ways. First of all, in a violent complicity, a violent complicity. Let me show you what I mean by that in verse number 11. It says, "On the day you stood aloof "while strangers carried off, "Judah or Israel's wealth, "and foreigners entered his gates, "and cast lots for Jerusalem, "you were like one of them." Like one of who? Like Babylon. Like Babylon who's coming in to destroy. "You were just like them, "and you were complicit in this. "You stood a side when you knew "what was happening to your brothers. "You knew what was going on, and you stood aside "and just were complicit in this violence." See complicity is when we know something, and we don't do something about it. We're complicit in that. It's not when you don't know something that you can be complicit. It's when you do know something for sure, and they knew that Babylon was coming for Israel, coming for Judah, and they didn't do anything. They were complicit, right? The reason that I don't have to guess about their heart posture, the reason I don't have to guess about Edom's heart posture, is because the psalmist talked about it. When Babylon came in and began to destroy everything and destroy the temple, the psalmist said this in Psalm 137:7, "Remember Lord what the Edomites did "on the day Jerusalem fell. 'Tear it down,' they cried. 'Tear it down to its foundations.'" They wanted Jerusalem destroyed, and so the violent complicity that they are involved in, God sees it, and the Faithful Judge is going to deal with it. There was also a violent gloating. Watch this. Verse number 12 and 13. "You should not gloat over your brother "in the day of his misfortune, "nor rejoice over the people of Judah "in the day of their destruction, "nor boast so much in the day of their trouble. "You should not march through the gates of my people "in the day of their disaster, "nor gloat over them in their calamity "in the day of their disaster." I'll tell you this. The day and age of gloating is upon us. We live in a world presently that loves to gloat over the misfortune of others. And what's being said here very specifically that I think we need to pay attention to, is that God is saying to Edom, "You are gloating over the destruction "that is befalling your brother." Now, obviously they had been separated for quite sometime, but the root comes back to Jacob and Esau. "And you are rejoicing. "You're gloating over their misfortune." I would just remind us all that there are people sometimes in the world that we live in, that call themselves believers that really love gloating over what is befalling their brothers and sisters. It's failure porn, and it's the world that we live in. Everybody wants to hear really bad stuff and bad news about everybody else. I would just remind you that gloating over the misfortune of others, gloating over the destruction or trouble of others, is not what we're called to. Yes, there needs to be accountability for things that have been done wrong in the body of Christ. Yes, if leaders have been wicked, or gross, or thievery, or stealing, or whatever, yes, they need to be accountable there. But gloating is not something that we should be involved in because it just signals our lack of humility. And here God says, "I'm dealing with, as a Faithful Judge, "the pride that leads to violence, "violent complicity, violent gloating, "violent looting." I mean, this is just really straightforward here in verse number 13. It says, "Nor seize their wealth "in the day of their disaster." They're gloating over the bad things that are happening, and then they're stealing from them after that. It's awful. And then there's a violent betrayal. Verse 14, here's what it says. "You shouldn't wait at the crossroads, Edom, "to cut down their fugitives, "nor hand over their survivors in the day of trouble." This is a really bad scenario that's painted for us of what Edom is doing to Israel and Judah. Now where did it come from? Where'd it come from? I'll tell you where it came from. It came from a root of bitterness that had been there all along. In the line of Esau a root of bitterness. That ultimately was godless. Let me explain why I mean that. Because the writer of Hebrews tells us that. That's why I know. I'm not guessing here. Here's what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 12. "See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, "and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble "and defile many. "See that no one is sexually immoral "or is godless like Esau, "who for a single meal, "sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son." You see, what happened was there was a root of bitterness in Esau's life, and, by the way, he had rejected his people and his people's God. There was a godlessness, and there was a bitterness that had led him to these kinds of things. And the Faithful Judge says, "I see it all, and I will deal with it all." And then what the Faithful Judge does in verses 15 and 16 is he sums up his judgment. He says, "The day of the Lord is near for all nations. "As you have done, Edom, it will be done to you. "Your deeds will return upon your own head. "Just as you drank on my holy hill, "so all the nations will drink continually. "They will drink and drink "and be as if they had never been." In other words, "What you've done to them, "it's going to happen to you." That's what God says. I just want to remind you, folks, the Faithful Judge does not look passively when the world around treats his people like this. The Faithful Judge doesn't look at that passively, and doesn't say, "Oh, my, "I'm never going to deal with that." Oh, he's going to deal with it because he's a Faithful Judge. But do you know what we have to be reminded of? That he's the judge not us. That's what we needed to be reminded of. Because did you know this? That God had actually instructed Israel not to hate Edom? In Deuteronomy chapter number 23, it says, "Do not despise an Edomite, "for the Edomites are related to you." And then he says, "Do not despise an Egyptian "because you resided as foreigners in their country." In other words, here's what God's saying to the down-and-out people of Israel and Judah. "I'm a Faithful Judge. "I know what Edom's doing. "I know what all is happening to you, "and I'm going to make it right. "I'm going to bring justice. "I'm going to do all this. "You can't do it yourself. "I'm going to do it, so trust me. "Trust me. "I'm the one who brings justice, "and you can count on the fact "that I haven't missed anything." God a Faithful Judge. But, the second big truth out of the book of Obadiah is that God is also as an Faithful Deliverer. So he's a Faithful Judge. But he's also a Faithful Deliverer. Why do I know that? Well, because what we kind of understand in verses 17 through 20 is that he remembers his promise. That's what I don't want you to forget. God remembers his promise, and he made a promise to Abraham that his people would have a land. And God hasn't forgotten that promise. Look at what it says in verse 17 and following. "But on Mount Zion will be deliverance. "It will be holy, "and Jacob will possess his inheritance. "Jacob will be a fire and Joseph a flame. "Esau will be stubble. "And they will set him on fire and destroy him. "There will be no survivors from Esau, the Lord has spoken. "People from the Negev will occupy the mountains of Esau, "and people from the foothills will possess "the land of the Philistines. "They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria, "and Benjamin will possess Gilead. "This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan "will possess the land as far as Zarephath. "The exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad "will possess the towns of the Negev." This is what we are being reminded of in this passage. That God remembers his promise. "I know that they've taken over all of this. "I know that they've kind of been violent to you. "I know that their pride has led them to this. "But trust me on this. "I'm not just a Faithful Judge "that will deal with all of this, "but I'm a Faithful Deliverer. "I remember my promise, "and I'm going to make sure that I fulfill it. "So not only am I going to remember "the promise I made to Abraham "that you're going to be a people "that are going to have a land, "and this is going to be yours, "but I also did not forget from Abraham's seed, "Isaac and Rebekah, and the promise "that I made about their kids." Do you remember it? It's in Genesis chapter 25. "Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife "because she was childless. "The Lord answered his prayer, "and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. "The babies jostled each other within her, "and she said, 'Why is this happening to me?' "So she went to inquire of the Lord, "and the Lord said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb, 'and two peoples from within you will be separated. 'One people will be stronger than the other, 'and the older will serve the younger.'" The older was Esau. The younger was Jacob. And even though Esau and the Edomites have now consorted with Babylon, and this is all happening to Israel and Judah, God says, "I haven't forgotten my promise about the land, "and I haven't forgotten my promise about the people. "That the older will serve the younger." God's a Faithful Deliverer. He remembers his promise. But he also provides a deliverer. This is a beautiful last verse in the book of Obadiah. You're going, "Wait a minute. "We're about to finish the book of Obadiah." You're right. The beautiful last verse says this. "Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion "to govern the mountains of Esau." Watch this last line. "And the kingdom will be the Lord's." What a beautiful phrase this is. "Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion "to govern the mountains of Esau, "and the kingdom will be the Lord's." And do you know that as the Babylonians held the Israelites and the Judahites in captivity, that God raised up deliverers? Ezra, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, and they were able to go back, and they were able to build the wall back around Jerusalem. They were able to reconstruct the temple that had been destroyed, Solomon's temple. Now they called it Zerubbabel's temple. It was smaller. It wasn't as beautiful and ornate, but it was still there. And they were able to come back into the land. God provided a deliverer just like he promised in his prophecy through Obadiah. So, this is a small book, but there are two great truths that come out of here. That God is a Faithful Judge and God is a Faithful Deliverer. But listen. The story of Obadiah is the small story hinting at the big story. That's what the book of Obadiah actually is. It's not just a historical chronicle of what has happened, even though that's exactly what has happened. It's also a reminder to us of what is going to happen. There's a bigger story at play with the line of Jacob, and the line of Esau that we haven't fully seen play out yet when we're in the book of Obadiah, but Obadiah is giving us a hint. You see, if I took you all the way back to Abraham as I told you, God made a promise that through Abraham, there would be a people, and that people would have a land, right? This was the great promise in Genesis chapter 12 and Genesis 15, a great promise to a people that would have a land. There was another promise that God made to Abraham, and it's this. "That your seed will rescue the world. "Your seed, Abraham, will rescue the world." And so then there was Abraham, right? He and Sarah couldn't have kids, and then they did. And they had Isaac. They called him Laughter, right? Isaac, then Jacob. Jacob had a bunch. Joseph being one of those, right? And then, ultimately, this people of Jacob called Israel, were in captivity in Egypt, remember that, for a very long time. God raised up a deliverer of sorts named Moses among the people of Israel, and he leads them now out of the bondage of Egypt on the way to the land of promise. But on the way to the land of promise, it took a little time. Do you remember that? Forty years in the wilderness, and while there, wandering in the wilderness, something very unique happened. There was a prophecy by a man named Balaam. Balaam's prophecy in the book of Numbers says this. "I see him, but not now. "I behold him, but not near. "A star will come out of Jacob. "A scepter will rise out of Israel. "He will crush the foreheads of Moab, "the skulls of all the people of Sheth. "Edom will be conquered. "Seir, his enemy, will be conquered. "But Israel will grow strong. "A ruler will come out of Jacob "and destroy the survivors of the city." You see in this prophecy, we're told that a star is going to come out of Jacob. And that star that comes out of Jacob is going to be able to establish a kingdom. Well, we see how that was fulfilled in part in David, the king that was prophesied about. David, the king that was prophesied about, had an incredible kingdom where he established these things, conquered the Edomites at that point and established his kingdom. But that wasn't the finish of what was being said here. What was being said here certainly was fulfilled in David, but it was actually still looking forward. Because there was one that was coming through the line of David, through the line of Jacob, who would be the star. The Messiah, the Lord Jesus, you see when he's born, what's above him? A star, and it was pointing to the star of Jacob that was actually in the manger itself. But I don't know if you remember this. When he was born in Bethlehem as the King of the Jews, as the Star of Jacob, there was somebody who was not happy at all with this new birth. Do you remember his name? Herod the Great. And do you know who Herod was? Listen. An Edomite. An Edomite. Now you have the confluence of the line of Jacob and the line of Esau face-to-face again. And what does Herod the Edomite do? He understands the same sins of his fathers. He is guilty of the pride of position. "I am the King of the Jews. "There will be no other King of the Jews." He was guilty of the pride of association. "I'm in league with the Roman Empire, "and so I am a powerful force." That pride led him to violence. "I want all of the children "that are male under two-years-old "to be extinguished from Bethlehem." But I don't care if you have power, or the pride of your position, or your association. God, the Faithful Judge and the Faithful Deliverer will do as he pleases no matter what your position, no matter how much power you think you have. And so the Great Deliverer, delivered the deliverer, Jesus. Got him out without being killed. He was sent to Egypt for a time. He came back began in his adult life to minister the gospel after he had grown in favor and stature with God and man. And now he was preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. But eventually he would be betrayed, and when he was betrayed, he was arrested. And he found himself now as an adult ministering the grace of God to the world standing before another Herod, Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas was guilty of complicity with Rome, and was also guilty of gloating over the Lord Jesus Christ and the condition that he was in. But Jesus Christ even though he was delivered to a cross, he was delivered to a cross so that our deliverance from sin would be true. This was the glory of what God was doing in the person of Jesus Christ, and what we see is we see that this deliverer who died for our sins, even though the sin of Edom was still pervasive in the face of the Star of Jacob, we see that our deliverance was satisfied because of what Jesus did on the cross. And the one who is a deliverer is also the judge. He's both. Paul actually talks about this when he's writing to the Thessalonians. He talks about the idea of what God is going to do in his justice, and he puts Jesus at the center point of that. It's a sobering passage, and I want you to listen to it carefully. Very carefully. Paul says, "All this is evidence "that God's judgment is right, "and as a result you will be counted "worthy of the kingdom of God, "for which you are suffering. "God is just. "He will payback trouble "to those who trouble you, "and give relief to you who are troubled, "and to us as well. "This will happen when the Lord Jesus "is revealed from Heaven in blazing fire "with his powerful angels. "He will punish those who do not know God "and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. "They will be punished with everlasting destruction "and shut out from the presence of the Lord, "and from the glory of his might on the day "he comes to be glorified in his holy people, "and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. "This includes you, "because you believed our testimony to you." This is a sobering passage, that the deliverer, Jesus, is also the judge. And we better remember very clearly that, as the book of Obadiah ended, so too will it end when Jesus comes. The kingdom will be the Lord's. In fact, in the book of Revelation listen to what it says in Revelation 11. "The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, "and there were loud voices in Heaven, which said, 'The kingdom of the world has become 'the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, 'and he will reign 'forever and ever and ever!'" This is the testimony of the beauty of the gospel of Christ and from the book of Obadiah, this is the truth that jumps out to us. But let me ask you a question. Based on these great truths, I wonder if these truths are an encouragement to you or a warning? It's one of the two. If you walk with Jesus and you've been faithfully walking with Jesus, but you've been a little demoralized, because the world that we live in incessantly and oppressively is pushing on us an agenda that at its heart is demonic, that stands in opposition to God and his word, that mocks God, that mocks Christ, that mocks the people of God. If you've been demoralized, that you've seen friends of yours who claim to follow Jesus who have really kind of punched out on all of that, and now gloat over missteps or mishaps that happen in the body of Christ, and love to point and love to gloat over the hardship and the trouble that their brothers or sisters are facing, I want you to remember something, friend. Justice will come. You don't have to bear the weight. You don't have to think you're the bringer. Because the one who is a Faithful Judge, he sees everything. He knows everything, and he will bring to light those things that have been hidden in the darkness, and he will deal rightly and justly. Even if it's not on our time table, justice will come because we have a Faithful Judge, who is also our Faithful Deliverer. But maybe, maybe this is not so much an encouragement to you as it is to some of us, because we're encouraged in this dark world to keep pressing on. We're encouraged because we know that the Faithful Judge will deal rightly with things, and that he is the deliverer of his people, and what he said is true. It always has been and always will be, and so we can in the midst of this dark world, in the midst of the heartache, and the demoralization that we see, we can still be lights in the midst of the darkness. We can be encouraged as the people of God, but maybe for some of you this wasn't encouragement. This was a warning. That warning is this. It's that no matter how much you think that you don't need him, because you have a position, because you have some resources, because you have some stuff, because you're well-connected, you're friends with these people, or these people, or these people, and it's kept you from getting speeding tickets, or it's kept you out of trouble business-wise, or it's kept you whatever. And you think to yourself, "I'm good. "Like I've surrounded myself "with a bunch of powerful people, "and I myself am a person of position." I would just remind you that there is no position you can hold. That there is no association you could have that could thwart the justice of God. I would encourage you to humble yourself and to seek the mercy of God, because God will not be mocked, friends. God is a Faithful Judge. But he's also a Faithful Deliverer. The God, "Who so loved the world that he gave his Son, "that whosoever believes in him will not perish, "but have everlasting life," sins forgive, life made new, eternity secured, this is the hope that we have in Christ. But you, maybe you've just been living your life for a while. You come to the church, and then you checkout. You're not engaged. You're not involved. You just kind of come. Some of you are watching online you know why? Because you're lazy. Because you're lazy. Not all of you. Some of you are sick. Some of you are long distance. Some of you are just lazy. I'll tell you where laziness will lead you to. Not anywhere you want to be. Laziness does not lead to sanctification. The writer of Hebrews tells us that over and over and over again. And you can't be involved in the one another's of the life of the body of Christ, by not being engaged with one another in the body of Christ. You can't do it. By the way, I love you. But I love you enough to speak the truth to you. And just because you're here, don't think that God has gone, "Oh, you're here." No, because some of you are here, but you're not here. You sleep, because the word of God, you're dead to it. You're just dead to the word. You don't listen to receive life. You check-in as if you're somehow getting extra brownie points with God. God sees every bit of it. Every bit of it, your life and my life, there's nothing hidden, not one thing. So just because you showed up, you didn't do God a favor. We've got to know that he is a Faithful Judge. He sees it all. But he's a Faithful Deliverer. And if you've never been in a place where, listen, where you've turned from trying to trust in yourself in your position, in your power, and your stuff and all of that stuff, you've got to recognize none of that will save you in the day of God. None of it. And good luck with pleading that. "Yeah, but I knew so and so. "I showed up to The Chapel a couple of times. "I'm friends with so and so. "I had these things. "I gave a couple bucks once in the offering." Well, congratulations. God's just going to go, "Oh, my bad. "I had no idea I was dealing with "somebody so powerful, so incredible." Friends, we better fling ourselves on the mercy of a God who has done everything on his end to reconcile us to himself. Out of love he's done this. But when you reject the love he's shown in the person of his Son Jesus Christ, and as the book of Hebrews says, "When you trample underfoot the blood of his Son, "you will stand before him stuck in your sins, "and you are condemned already," and rightly so, because he is the just judge. I don't say that because I have anything on you. I'm one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. God is faithful to deliver us if we turn from our sin and put our trust in him. So whether you're here or you're watching online, I would encourage you not to be trusting in some idea of religion to save you. In some idea of, "I've checked in, and now God..." No. Some idea of, "You know what, I don't really need church, "but I'll just watch Jerry online "and just have my coffee and all that." If you think that that's what the life in God is like, I would urge you to repent and fall upon the mercy of God, because God does love you. God desires to shape you into his image. And even if I say sometimes hard things because I'm talking out of the Old Testament with a hard prophet, with a hard prophecy, know this. God says hard things in order to save us into the beauty of relationship with him. So know that you're loved, but know that God is just. And he's a Faithful Deliverer.