Believe it or not, I'm going to ask you to turn to the book of Obadiah. You may never have heard, except for maybe on very rare occasions through a Bible survey of some sort, to say, hear the preacher say, turn to Obadiah, but that's where we're going, Lord willing, this morning. But I wanted to mention something I appreciated reading this week. that our pastor posted on Facebook. It was a short thought that he had written, I guess a few years ago, about what goes through the preacher's mind when he's preparing to preach through a book. And I guess if you've not ever been there, you really can't appreciate it, but I'm reading this This thing that Jeff wrote, and I'm thinking, I just would have never thought he would have said this, you know, the anxiety, for lack of a better word. And Schultz actually, my son-in-law, weighed in. He said, been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. But I do. I've approached the pulpit at times with, like, the thought, what makes you think you can preach this? You don't know anything about this. You need to run away before the people find out that you're nothing more than the biggest phony ever. So, that being said, we are God's children. And he leads us down paths. And they're not all the same paths. People can tell you what it's like to be a parent, but until you are one, you can't really understand it. People tell you what it's like to be in the military, but unless you've ever been in the military, you can't really understand what that's like. And then if you've never been in combat, You can't really understand what it's like to be in combat. And as we go down those paths that God has marked out for us, different though they may be, we can't really understand everyone else's path because we've not been there. But one thing we can understand Even though we've not been there Our captain has Now getting to This short book and someone would have said to me a month ago Just sum up what you know about the book of Obadiah, and I'd be like Old Testament minor prophet that be about it And it is it's short In fact, it is the shortest book of the Old Testament. And it primarily deals with God's judgment against Edom, the nation of Edom. Obadiah, the scholars say, means either servant of God or worshiper of God. And they disagree, at least some of them do, about when he ministered, but it makes the most sense to me to think it was during Jeremiah's time because a lot of chapter 49 of Jeremiah pairs up nicely with the book of Obadiah. Now, who's Edom? Well, it was a relatively small nation that was settled by the descendants of Esau, son of Isaac and Rebekah, twin brother to Jacob. Something else I did not know was that Edom has the most judgments against it than any other nation mentioned in the Old Testament. In other words, it is the supreme target of God's wrath. God's got more against this nation than he does any other nation. And as we explore this book, I hope we can get to the bottom of that. But there were hostilities. between the nation of Edom and the nation of Israel. The book can be marked out like this. Verse 1 is the introduction, and then from 2 to 4 is the first message to Edom, and then from verses 5 to 9, the second message of Edom, and then the third from verses 15 to 21 is an announcement of 10 to 14 is the third and then from verse 15 to 21 an announcement of salvation and the judgment day of the Lord And if we want to sum it up very quickly, I would sum it up like this sooner or later All nations and those who dwell in them must deal with the issues of sin and and the certain judgment of God against that sin. I would like to, with your indulgence, read this entire book. It shouldn't take too terribly long. It's only 21 verses long. But the book of Obadiah. The vision of Obadiah, thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom, we have heard a rumor from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen. Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made thee 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 high, that sayeth 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 came to thee, if robbers by night, and look at this little parenthetical statement, how art thou cut off? Would they not have stolen till they had enough? If the grape gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes? How are the things of Esau searched out? How are his hidden things sought up? 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 Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the Mount of Esau may be cut off by the slaughter. For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off forever. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger. Neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Thou shouldst not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Yea, thou shouldst not have looked upon their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. Neither shouldst thou have stood in the crossway to cut off those of his that did escape. Neither shouldst thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress. 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. For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually. Yea, they shall drink, they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been. But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness. And the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble. And they shall kindle in them, and devour them. And there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it. 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. And the captivity of this host of children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath. And the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Seraphat, shall possess the cities of the south. And the saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau. And the kingdoms shall be the Lord's." Let's pray. O Lord, in your Word it says, without you we can do nothing. And Father, we just must confess that we have tasted that and we know that it is true. And now, Father, we just remember some of those wonderful promises that you've made to your people and to your assemblies that you would be there in the midst of them. And Father, we call upon You now to honor that promise that You've made. As was mentioned in that song, it's a charge You've laid upon Yourself. And Father, we only reinforce that as we bring them to You. Thank You for being that sort of God. Thank You for being a God so immense He cannot be contained in this universe. And yet, there is not a trivial care that we can have that You will not bear for us, that you will not accept this trouble from us. We just thank you that you love us that much and that way. Father, we just ask that you would have your way with those for whom prayer has been offered up, that have asked an interest in our prayers, and those that are needy, that are sick, that are troubled and distressed. Father, we do lack so much how to pray, the knowledge of how to pray, but Father, Where we lack, You do not. And where we're ignorant, You are wise. And where we are weak, You are strong. And where we fail, You never do. Father, bless this, that the people here might be blessed. Keep from me that which is unworthy and untrue. And even through the mistakes, Father, I pray that we might see your Son and the salvation that is available and in only Him. Thank you for that. Forgive, I pray. My sin is against you. It's in Jesus' holy name I ask. Amen. To get a background of what's going on with Edom, I think we must go back to where it all started, which would be in Genesis chapter 25. Because Rebecca, mother of Esau and Jacob, had a pregnancy that was out of the ordinary, I guess for the times. In Genesis chapter 25, and beginning reading with verse 21, it says, And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him. And Rebekah his wife conceived, and the children struggled together within her. And she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger." The word for struggled, in verse 22, It's the first time in scripture that we see that word. And the literal meaning of it is crush each other. The boys came from the same parents. But they were night and day. They were polar opposites. Esau and Jacob. Esau. the outdoorsman, the hunter, the man's man, favored by the father, and Jacob, more of an inside guy. And I don't know if it's fair to say that he was a mama's boy, but he was Rebecca's favorite. And they had an uneasy coexistence. I guess that might be understating it a bit. If we go down to verse 30, it says, and Esau said to Jacob, let's go to 29, and Jacob sod-potted. He made a red stew is what he did. And Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore, his name was called Edom, which means red. And Jacob said, sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, behold, I am at the point to die. What profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, swear to me this day. And he swore unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised, or held in contempt, or put away from himself his birthright. Now, as firstborn, Esau would have been entitled to the double portion, primogeniture. And how that would have worked would have been Isaac's inheritance would have been divided, not in half, but in threes. And the elder, the firstborn, the one with the birthright, would get two portions. And the other, Jacob, would have gotten one. But it didn't work this way in this case. You think back to Jacob and his troubles with his father-in-law. You remember how he tricked Jacob into marrying the elder Leah first. And yet, Rachel's firstborn, Joseph, got the double portion because of God's providence. Two tribes came from Joseph. So Esau despised his birthright. But afterward, he became enraged, and he swore to kill his brother Jacob. Well, mom heard about this, and you know she sent Jacob to live with her brother Esau to seek a wife and he stayed gone about 20 years. Then if we continue on, we see in Genesis 32 that as Jacob is coming back to the land that God promised to give Abraham, we find that he is troubled and he's concerned about what's going to happen When Esau meets him again, and he prays, I love that prayer, and we're not going to take time to read it, but I love that prayer of Jacob's in Genesis 32. He comes right out and says, deliver me from my brother Esau, for I fear him. He'd stayed gone about 20 years, but as you know the story, he and Esau had a peaceful, if uneasy, reunion. You know, Jacob had prepared a present, a pretty good-sized present, to make peace with him. And he bowed to him, you know, and he did obeisance. And they met in peace, but they didn't really stay close. I can only find where they met again at the funeral of Isaac. And in Genesis chapter 36, Verses 6 through 8 says, And Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all the persons of his house and his cattle and all his beasts and all the substance which he had got in the land of Canaan. And he went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob, for their riches were more than they might dwell together. And the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle. Thus dwelt Esau in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom. And as I said, Edom means red, Esau means hairy. So Esau is Edom. But there's hostility. There was hostility among the household of Isaac. There was hostility later between the nations of Edom and Israel. Because when the years of wilderness wanderings were expired, Israel was coming to occupy that country. that God had given them. And Edom was right in their path. I'm going to go a little bit further and go to Numbers chapter 20 and verse 14. It says, And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us, how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians vexed us and our fathers. And when we cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt. And behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border. Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country. We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards. Neither will we drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the king's highway. We will not turn to the right hand or the left until we have passed thy borders. You know, that sounds like a pretty fair proposal to me. But the king of Edom didn't think so. It says in verse 18, Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword. And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the highway, and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it. I will only, without doing anything else, go through on my feet. And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people and with a strong hand. Thus, Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border. Wherefore, Israel turned away from him. So, Israel was forced to detour because of the animosity shown by the Edomites. But what really did the Edomites in, and what is really the subject of the book of Obadiah, is how they behaved during the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. It seems as though the harsh treatment that they gave Israel and the lack of familial affection really angered the Lord. Even with their high mountain location, and their thriving industries of mining, metalworking, and pottery, and even with the wisdom and philosophy they were known for at one time, God is going to bring them down. And it cannot be stopped. Because when God says, I, the Lord, will do this, it will be done. He does all His pleasure. He does all His counsel. He has His way in the heads and the hearts of human beings among men and nations. Somebody got Danny a globe for his birthday. He loved it. He took it to school. I would have liked to have been in the show and tell. But you can look all over that globe and you're not going to find Edom. It's not there. Because Scripture cannot be broken. Back in Obadiah, he has a vision. Obadiah has a vision. Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom. Basically the rest of the book is the words of God. vision about Edom. And it appears it begins with an unidentified envoy, we. We have heard a rumor from the Lord. And an ambassador is sent among the heathen. A messenger with a message is sent among the nations. And the message is, make war with Edom. Now, Paul would later tell the Athenians, you know, that God made man, God made nations. He put them and established the boundaries and all of that. And he uses nations as he will. He had called the heathen to war on other occasions. In a certain amount of irony, we have in 1 Kings 11.14, and the Lord stirred up an adversary under Solomon, Hadad, the Edomite. He was one of the king's seed in Edom. Stirring up an enemy against his own people. 1 Kings 11.23, and God stirred him up another adversary, Rezan, son of Elodiah, which fled from his lord, Hadadezer, king of Zobah. He does that. He used some means to put in the minds of those in charge what to do. Of Cyrus, he said, I held his right hand. I led him. He did my will. He brought the Assyrians against Israel because he does what he wants to do. And as we were reminded, not only in Sunday school, but the kids' song, God is good, and he does good. Verse 2 begins the first part of the message of God toward Edom. He says, I'm going to make you small. I'm going to make you small among the nations. And they weren't a big nation, but they occupied a very strategic place. They had the high ground. If you know anything about the military, battles, or history, the high ground is a good place to be. Really hard to attack somebody who's situated above you. Sometime if you ever make it to Chattanooga, just go to the Lookout Mountain and just kind of imagine the Union Army fighting their way up the sides of that mountain to the Confederates up on top. I was there and I don't know how they ever got there. Because the high ground is an advantage. But God said, it's not going to be an advantage for you when I'm done with you. I'm going to bring you down. Now, if David was doing this, he would probably right now have a really neat picture of the ruins of Petra, the capital city of Edom. They're spectacular ruins, just basically carved out of a rock. But it's amazing what those ancient people did. And their location was advantageous to trading. Did you notice King's Highway along the King's Highway? Well, the King's Highway was a real thing. It went from Africa up through the desert, through Canaan, Up into Mesopotamia, and it was a trade route But all this was about to be taken away because God said you're going to be made contemptible You know that's about One of the most difficult I don't know what to call it, an emotion? Situation? To be held in contempt is a hard thing. To be looked down on with contempt is rough. It hurts. But God is going to do that to them. They had been much sought after in the past. But they were going to have very soon a huge drop in their standing. According to Proverbs 6 17 pride heads up the list of things aided by the Lord The pride of your heart verse 3 has deceived you We are subject to deception in pride It can lead us down bad paths and Edom had pride in what they saw as their advantages. Abundance of material, strong allies, good location. And even had they not verbalized it, their thought was, who will bring us down? Thus saith in his heart, who shall bring me to the ground? We are above everybody. We're above all. Apparently, satisfaction with self is dangerous ground. Do you remember Pharisee that we see in Luke chapter 18? He's praying next to a tax collector in the temple. Now I don't know how you picture that going down. But I kind of picture it like this. They are in the inner court. There's sacrifice going on. And they're praying. And the Pharisee says something like, Lord, I want you to join in this little admiration for myself that I've prepared. I'm so glad that I'm not like everybody else. I'm so glad I'm above everybody else. I'm so much better than this tax collector who's standing next to me. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all I possess. And he's very, very secure in himself. I mean, he's watching this animal being slaughtered, and he's happy with who he is. On the other hand, the publican has no self-deception about the sort of person that he is. First of all, he's despised for being a traitor. And he's looking at this animal being sacrificed. And he won't lift up his eyes to heaven. Remember? I should have turned there and read it. He wouldn't so much as look up. But he smote upon his breast, and as he's looking at this animal being sacrificed, I think he's thinking, you know, that should be me. I should be dying for my sins. The animal didn't sin. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Or, God, be propitiated to me, the sinner. God, be appeased through this sacrifice for me. And he exercises faith. And what does Jesus say? One of those men went home safe. And it wasn't who you thought. It was that despised public. Because he saw that God needs to be propitiated to him. And God needs to be propitiated to us. If we want to go to our house justified, we have to deal with Jesus Christ. Because without Jesus Christ and saving faith in Him, we have no hope. God says, you're high now, though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence from there Will I bring thee down? Sayeth the Lord. I was pretty sure, as I read this, that if I typed in to the Google search engine, highest flying bird, eagle would pop up. But some sort of bird from the vulture family did. The eagle is a very high-flying bird. And you have to look up a long way to see where the eagle soars. And people that lived in the valley, if they'd look up to the stars there in Edom, they would have had to look past the homes that the Edomites had carved for themselves in the mountain. They would be between you and the stars. You had to look up to see them. God said, that's not going to be any problem for me. No matter what we do, No matter how ingenious we may be, God is able to have His way with us. There was a time in the history that we looked at this morning where Esau said, I have no use for God. The one with the birthright meant that that person dealt with the spiritual duties of the family. Esau knew that. And he had no time for that. That might interrupt something that he would rather be doing. Like hunting, fishing. So he put Jehovah aside. He viewed his birthright with contempt. God is not going to let that go. And even though they look to be inaccessible, turns out they weren't. God is going to bring them down, and he has set his mind on doing just that. and who will be able to stand in the day of God's wrath.