Please take your Bible and turn to the book of Obadiah. Now, Obadiah is one of the small books found in the Old Testament. And Obadiah, as you may recall, was one of the prophets. Now, the prophets were broken into two, into various categories. The larger categories were called the former prophets and the latter prophets. The former prophets primarily the focal point of when one was a former and one was a latter, was around the time that monarchy came to Israel. If you remember, for a long time, the people did not have a king, but they begged and they begged and they griped and they griped and said, we want a king like all other countries, all other nations. And God granted them their wish. Now sometimes God, or rather I should say, God granted them their request. Sometimes God will give us things that He knows are not quite the right thing for us. Like in the case with Israel. If God had His way, He would want to be the monarch. He would want to be the ruler of Israel. Now he is sovereign, he is in control, but in our lives sometimes, in the lives of some perhaps of your children, or of your nephews and nieces, or perhaps you know someone that has small children, part of a learning process is to let that child, let a child make some type of mistake. You as a parent, you as an adult, as an aunt, an uncle, as a cousin, may know that something may not be exactly right for that child, but if they learn from their mistake, that could be a benefit. And here, if you remember, during the time of the former prophets, there were no king. And the pivotal point is Samuel. And so, during the time of Samuel is when we have Saul introduced as king. And then Saul passed off the scene. We have David and David's son, Solomon. And shortly after Solomon's sons come, there is a kingdom that's divided. We have Judah and Benjamin. dividing with the other ten tribes. The other part of the prophets are called the latter prophets. So the former prophets were put at the pivotal point in time when the monarchy came to Israel, and the latter prophets are those prophets after that time period, during the monarchy and so forth. Now the latter prophets are broken up into two groups. They are broken up into two major groups called the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, those four men the Holy Spirit used to give us what are known as the Major Prophets. Now the reason why, and there is another group, the last twelve books of our English Old Testament I mean, the English Old Testament, are called the Minor Prophets. Primarily, the reason why they're called Major Prophets is because of the length and also the scope of the prophecy. And the Minor Prophets are relatively shorter by comparison to the Major Prophets. And the first prophet, not in order of the books they appear in the Old Testament, The first prophet, that is, the minor prophets that ministered was Obadiah. He was the first one of the minor prophets that spoke, that God spoke to. Now, when we think of a prophet, looking here in the first part of the book, a prophet is someone who takes God's message and proclaims it. Now, when God's message is proclaimed, no matter when it is proclaimed, whether it's today, tomorrow, next week, whether it was last month, last year, 100 years ago, 1,000 years ago, or seven to eight hundred years before Christ, it's still God's Word. And we have to understand what God was trying to communicate to the people of that time and also how that applies to us. We know from the book of Corinthians that the things in the Old Testament were written for our examples. That way we can look at them and we can learn from them. Remember when we discussed about a child, how they learn from their mistakes? how Israel, how they had to learn from their mistakes. Well, the whole point of the Old Testament is so we can learn from someone else's mistakes. We don't have to experience the mistake ourselves, but we go up there, we study the Old Testament, and parts of the New Testament, and wherever there's a mistake being made, wherever someone goes off track, and does not do what is God's way, but does something that is their way, we can learn from that mistake, and that's what it's written for. Now, if we look at To introduce the idea that God communicates to the prophets, we know from 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, and also from the 1 Peter passage, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. We know from the 1 Peter passage that holy men of God speak as they were moved. Now how did God communicate his truth to some of the prophets? Either through dreams or through visions. God communicated to Abimelech in a dream, to Jacob in a dream, to Laban in a dream. In Genesis 37.5 we know that Joseph had a dream. We have Solomon in 1 Kings 3.5. He had a dream that God was communicating to him. Indirectly, God was communicating to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 2. In Matthew chapter 2 verse 12, the wise men, if you remember, God warned them in a dream, and Joseph, the husband of Mary, was also warned in a dream in Matthew chapter 2. Now, as far as visions are concerned, God appeared to Abraham in a vision, in Genesis 15, verse 1. In 1 Samuel 3, verse 15, God appeared to Samuel in a vision. Nathan the prophet had a vision in 1 Chronicles, chapter 17. Jeremiah had a vision in his book, the book of verses, named in chapter 14. So did Ezekiel in chapter 7, and Daniel in chapter 2. Micah in Micah 3, verse 6. Nahum in Nahum 1, verse 1. Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2, verse 2. Zechariah in chapter 13, verse 4 of his book. Ananias, the one that God used to cure Paul of his blindness in Acts 9-10. Peter in Acts 10-17. Paul in Acts 18-9. He refers to a vision that he had on his road to Damascus. And John gives an account of a vision that he had in Revelation 9-17. And so here we have God communicating his truth to people. Now, part of the support for God's communicating this is found in Numbers. Numbers chapter 12, I believe it is. Let me just see if I can verify that. I'm sorry, Numbers chapter 24. We'll get back to Numbers 12 at a later time. Turn briefly to Numbers chapter 12, I mean Numbers 24, and this is primarily to lay some groundwork as far as what is occurring here with these visions and these dreams. Numbers 24, it's one of the first five books of the Bible. The Holy Spirit used Moses to pen. And this will give us an overview of what the purpose of a prophet was. Now there were good prophets and there were bad prophets, and the bad prophets, their prophecy did not come true all the time. And so you know they were an evil prophet when their prophecy did not come true, did not come to pass. But in Numbers 24, the whole, there's three chapters, I mean three paragraphs in Numbers 24. And really the whole chapter should be examined, but the first paragraph is from verse 1 to verse 10, the second paragraph is from verse 11 to verse 14, and the third paragraph in Numbers 24 is from verse 15 to the end of the chapter. Now, I'm going to just point out two verses. Now, the whole context needs to be taken into account. the account with Balaam, and the whole situation, the context, but these particular verses will explain to us how prophets got their, or give a description, give a definition of what a vision is. Verse 4 of chapter 24. He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open." So there, we are trying to distinguish what a vision is versus what a dream is. For a vision, the eyes are open. And again, in verse 15 of the same chapter in Numbers, we have a very similar verse, and he took up his parable and said, Philem the son of Beor has said, and the man whose eyes open hath said, verse 16, he has said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance, but had he his eyes open. So a vision, when a prophet had a vision, or when anybody had a vision, any of those people we listened to had a vision, Their eyes were open, but they saw a vision. Versus a dream, the eyes were shut, and God communicated to them when their eyes were shut. So turning, perhaps before we go back to Obadiah, there's a few other things, other groundwork that must be laid. In Numbers, chapter 12, we're still in Numbers. We see the purpose, we see the introduction of prophets and of what they do. Numbers 12 and verse 6. Incidentally, the word division appears 73 times in our English Bible, and dream appears 61 times in the English Bible. But in Numbers 12, verse 6, the scripture says, And he said, Hear now my words, if there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream. So this is how God communicates truth to the prophets, through a vision and through a dream. And again, in Joel chapter 2, Joel is one of those other minor prophets, comes right before Amos, right after Hosea. Joel 2.28. This also is repeated in Acts 2.17, this verse. That's here in Joel 2.17. Let the priests and ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give thine inheritance, to reproach that the heathens should rule over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Now, I'm sorry, verse 28 of Joel, not, I read verse 15, verse 28. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. And so here, the groundwork is being established to give credence to the prophets. That God communicates to his people through the prophets. Now today, the title of the message is, Abraham's Wicked Grandson. Now, if you remember who Abraham was, he was that person, that individual that God chose. And God made a very special promise to Abraham. He said, Abraham, I'm going to make of you a great nation. And God said, you and Sarah will have a son of your own. Now unfortunately, this is something we can learn from an example. Abraham's faith was weak. Sarah's faith was weak. And so they took it upon themselves to try to work out God's plan in their own strength. And so what Sarah suggested was, well why not have, since I'm Old, and she defined old, maybe she didn't use the word old, but she used some word that's synonym of old. She said she was 90 years old, approximately. And she said, here's my handmaid, Hagar. Have a son, have a daughter, or rather have a son by her, and he can receive and be the blessing that God was talking about. But that's not what God meant. God said Sarah and Abraham will have a son, not Abraham and Hagar. And so we have Ishmael being born. And eventually God did give Abraham a son. His name was Isaac. His name means laughter, because that's what Sarah and Abraham were doing. They were laughing and saying, this is not possible. And so Ishmael, if you remember, he had 12 sons of his own. And Isaac had two children. Jacob and Esau and so this is how we get the wicked son of Abraham Esau and Jacob and the twelve sons of Ishmael were the grandsons of Abraham But I'm talking about this morning one particular grandson of Abraham is being discussed here in Obadiah And that is Esau. We know that Esau, in Genesis 25, if you recall, Esau sold his birthright to his brother, Jacob. Esau means herring because of the pottage, the lentil soup. was reddish in color, he was known as Edom from then on, and that means red, Edom. So Esau and Edom, when you hear that they go together, they're the same individual. Another account that we recall in Genesis 27, when Jacob came and he stole the blessing of Esau. And here, Esau, he responded to that. Now, in the other parts of Scripture, in Romans and Hebrews, we know God chose one over the other. He chose Jacob over Esau. In Hebrews, it says, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. It was a choice that God made. And today, corporately, God is making a choice. He's choosing the instrument of the Church. And someone who is not in the Church is not a part of Christ. And here Obadiah, starting at verse 1 of Obadiah, the scripture states, The vision of Obadiah, Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom, We have heard a rumor from the Lord, An ambassador sent among the heathen. Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle. Now similar language appears in Jeremiah 49.14. I'll just read the verse to you, you don't need to turn there. But in Jeremiah 49, verse 14, the scripture states, I have heard a rumor from the Lord, an ambassador sent out unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle. That was Jeremiah. Very similar to Obadiah here. Obadiah. Who was Obadiah? Well, we know that there are, at least, the name Obadiah appears in the Old Testament, in our English Bible, about 20 times. Now, each time it occurs, it's not referring to the same individual. Obadiah was a very common name. If you think of common names today, it was a common name. Anywhere from 10 to 13 different men in the Old Testament were named Obadiah. As far as Scripture indicates this Obadiah, the Prophet Obadiah, is only mentioned in the Book of Obadiah. And his name means Servant of the Lord, or Servant of Jehovah. Whenever you have a book or a person's name ending in the AH, that AH is an abbreviated form of Jehovah. Whenever there's a person's name that ends in EL, that's an abbreviation of Elohim, or God. And so Jobadiah's name means Servant of the Lord. Now right there, with his very name, there's something that an individual who's in the corporate body of the church can say, hey, that is something that could apply to me. Take a look at the Apostle Paul. In most of the books, He started with Paul, most of his letters, he said, Paul a servant of Jesus Christ. Or something to that effect. And here Obadiah, he was the same thing. Servant of Jehovah. And that is what we must be today. We must be a servant of Jehovah. And servants need to be obedient. And Obadiah was being obedient, communicating God's truth. And he had a vision. And remember what the vision was? His eyes were open. The guy communicated to him when his eyes were open. And it says concerning Edom. Now remember, when we were discussing Esau, this is Edom. Now Esau, or Edom, went to live and he dwelt in the land that was south of the Dead Sea. If you picture in your mind a map of Holy Land, you think of the Sea of Galilee, And from the Sea of Galilee running to the south, you have the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee would run into the Dead Sea. And then south of the Dead Sea region, there's a Mount Seir, and then there's the region of Edom, the nation of Edom, the territory of Edom. And this is a judgment, this Obadiah is predicting and communicating judgment upon Edom. That too is something that can be learned, that we as believers in the church can look back into the dispensation of law and say, alright, God is the one that does the judging. Or through God's instruction, judgment is done. And it's based upon something. Judgment should always be based upon the scripture, or upon God's word. We see an ambassador sent among the heathens saying, gather ye together and come against her and rise up We have heard a rumor from the Lord. An ambassador is sent among the heathen. Now, what is an ambassador? We think of an ambassador of a country, what they are. An ambassador of a country is a representative of that country, or should be. And so we have here the representative being sent among the heathen. Now, the word sent. Now, the Old Testament, as you remember, or New Testament, was written in Greek. Old Testament was written in Hebrew and in Aramaic, partially. Not very much of it, but a small part of it was written in Aramaic. Now, in Hebrew, they have essentially, they have similar names of tenses, but the tenses in Hebrew do not necessarily correspond to the tenses in English or in Greek. And here, this is a perfect tense. Now, the perfect tense in Hebrew is different than the perfect tense in Greek. The perfect tense in Greek is a more specific type of tense, but in Hebrew it's just a general tense that something, generally means an action, has been completed. And so we have an ambassador being sent. Now, if you remember what a mood is in English, we have an imperative, an indicative, a subjunctive, all those strange words that are called moods in the English language, and in the Greek language, and in any language, they have moods. And the mood here is called the Po. And this mood is a passive form, and it's an intensive, see, it's a passive appeal, but the pool, I don't want to get everyone confused with these words. But let me, for private, I'll drop the name of the mood, and I'll just tell you how the mood functions. for the moment. Then later on, when we are all familiar with these funny names, we can use the words. But it's an intensive, a passive, intensive, a passive. In other words, let me give you an example of a passive. If I can remember one. For instance, he broke, or I don't want to use anyone's name, but he broke, or the dish broke versus the dish was broken. Now, this particular idea of sense, it intensifies that. Rather than saying he broke, but he smashed. There is a difference between broke and smashed. Now granted, the word is not break here, it's the word sent. But if you use the example of the word broke, just intensify the word sent. Think of what, he was commissioned, he was ordered, something very intense, an intense sending. and it's passive. In other words, it is sent. It's a recipient of the action. The ambassador is sent. It's intensified among the heathen. Now, heathen are someone who do not acknowledge or do not accept God's plan. And we have an ambassador in Obadiah's time being sent among the heathen. Now, in our time, not to put Obadiah's time and our time together, but there are two separate time periods, in our time we have the scripture that is being sent among the heathen. If you remember the account in Luke chapter 16, I believe it is, when there is a wealthy man or a rich man in Lazarus. And we know that it came to pass that the beggar died and went to Abraham's bosom. And we know that the rich man died and was buried. And we know that in hell, the scripture tells us, He lifted up his eyes, and being in torment, and he cried to Abraham and said, and Lazarus dipped his finger in water to cool my tongue. But that wasn't his main concern. He said, send Lazarus back, because I have five brethren that I do not want to come to this place. And Abraham's response was, they have Moses and the prophets right here In the book that you have on your lap, the scripture, that is the testimony that the heathen have today. They have Moses and the prophets and they have much more than that today. The canon of scripture has been completed and they have the entire New Testament as well. An ambassador is sent among the heathen, a representative is sent among the heathen. arise ye, let us rise up against her in battle. Now this is the heathen talking, and the arise as an imperative. We have an intensified sense, and the arise as an imperative, a command or request, arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle. Now, Hebrew, we mentioned the perfect tense, which is an action that generally means action completed. There's another tense called the imperfect in Hebrew, which means action that has yet not yet been fully completed. It may have been started, not may or may not have been started, but it could have been started, but not necessarily completed. If I start a project in my house, It's not completed until the project is finished. I have a lot of imperfect projects, no pun intended, but in the sense of the tense, my projects are not yet fully completed. And imperfect tense means something that is yet not completed. So here in verse 1 of Obadiah, the end of verse 1, let us rise up against her in battle, At the time Obadiah is communicating this, it is not yet fully completed. And sometimes scripture has what is known as a double prophecy, which a prophecy applies to two different time periods. But this is not yet to be completed. Verse 2, this is describing, verse 2 describes Edom. Behold I have made thee small among the heathen that are greatly despised. Now this is what, this is Esau, this is the vision of the descendants of Esau. And scripture does tell us that God chose Jacob over Esau. Not only was Esau despised in the eyes of God, but he was despised in the eyes of all the neighbors. Right down here, south of the Dead Sea, is Edom. And it says, Greatly despised, the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. Now, this is not the first time that Edom, or Esau, was deceived. Now, one Esau, if I use the word Esau, I suppose I should use it referring to the one person, and I should use Edom referring to the nation. But Esau himself was deceived a few times, if you recall back in the accounts of Genesis. But it says, the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. Now, how can pride deceive somebody? Well, in many different ways. One is prideful. That very thinking of that is a deception to themselves. And, again, this is a perfect tense of the verb, which means an action already completed, they've already been deceived, and it's a completed action, but it's a hyphial, the mood is called. And that mood, versus he deceived, versus he caused the deceive, is a causative effect, a causative effect. Because of the pride, that's the cause of the deception, a causative effect. The pride of thine heart. Because of the pride, one thing leads to another. The pride in the heart has caused this deception, a causative effect. effect. Pride causes deception. If you do a study in the scripture on the word pride, you'll learn that it ultimately leads to deception. Thou that dwellest in the clusts of the rock, that's referring to, we'll find out later on, a mountain, Mount Seir, in the context of Edom, whose habitation is high, that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down? Now, again, the heart, this is again that causative mood. that heart is having a cause on what he says. He's saying, who shall bring me down? He's saying, this is what Edom is saying. And the interesting thing about it is, it's not the perfect, but it is the imperfect. They are still saying it. This is an action that is yet to be fully completed. It's not something they said, who shall bring me down? But they're saying, they still are not convinced. Who shall bring me down? An action that is yet to be completed, to the ground. But the scripture will tell us the answer to their question. In verse 4, Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence do I bring thee down, saith the Lord." Now this is referring to, again, pride, exaltation. Think of stars, the stars of heaven, a very, very high-minded person. Or rather, set thyself as an eagle. An eagle is a bird that flies freely and highly, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, keeping with the line of the symbolism of the eagle, that's why I bring thee down." Now, the word exalt is imperfect, which again means, it's that causative mood again, the causative mood, the cause and the effect thing, and it's the imperfect, which means that it's still going on, they still are doing it. See, many times, as being in the corporate body of the church, one learns something, they will stop doing it. If they learn their ways are wrong through the study of the scripture, they will stop doing it. But here, Edom, the nation, they kept on going. The ambassador was sent to them, telling them judgment is coming. They are exalting themselves among the stars. It's a causative effect. Their pride is causing this. and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence I will bring thee down." And again, that is still, in this verse 4, that is still the imperative. The action is still not yet completed during the time Obadiah is communicating this message. He is communicating to Edom, Edom is receiving the message, and they know something is happening, although it has not happened yet. Verse 5, If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, how art thou cut off? Now this word, cut off, It's a new mood, it's the passive of the niffle, and it's a perfect, which refers to something, an action that has already been completed. Would they not have stolen? An example is being given here, by thieves coming, by robbers coming. Would they have not stolen, so they had enough? And the phrase, have stolen, again is an imperfect, which means an action that has yet to be fully completed. So they have had enough. If, and then I should switch into another example, if grape gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes? And again that's an imperfect, an action that has not fully yet been completed. And so here we have some examples being given about what is going to be the fate and the destruction of Edom. It's going to be completely and totally abolished. It's not going to be like a thief that comes and just taking a few selected items, or like someone who is gathering grapes and taking a few grapes, but everything is being taken and utter destruction is going to come upon Edom. How are the things of Esau searched out? Now the things of Esau, this is an interesting phrase. We know that the phrase of elsewhere in scripture refers to the way of Cain. Cain had a certain philosophy, a certain mentality of things. And then we have the things of Esau. How are the things of Esau searched out? The scripture tells us that whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. And so here we have Esau sowing, we have Edom sowing, evil and wickedness, and now they are reaping destruction. How are the things of Esau searched out? How are the hidden things sought up? All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border. Apparently, Edom, the nation, had some type of agreement or confederacy with other surrounding countries or nations or peoples. And it appears, as we learned from the previous verses, in verse 2 of this book, that they were greatly despised. But yet they established some type of confederacy among these people. They really didn't completely like them, because the scripture does say they were despised. And so that's a lesson that we can look back on and say, Is it really worth a believer to make alliances, make confederacies, make agreements with other people who are not following the scripture? And we know from passages in Corinthians, passages in 1 Thessalonians, that if somebody is not abiding by scripture, if somebody is disobeying scripture, it is the duty of the believer to avoid that person until that individual that is disobeying scripture is restored to fellowship or turns around and starts heading in the right path. But here, we have a confederacy that these people are making, Edom is making with these people that despise them, and it says they have brought the Edom to the border. Now, again, this is that mood that indicates an intensive, an intensified action. It is a perfect tense, which means an action that has been completed, but they've done this with intensity. It wasn't a casual thing, but it was an intense thing. If you think of any example of something that's intense, not a casual taking somebody. There was an example not too long ago with a current affair, a current issue with the Vice President of the United States, in 2001, he was in the White House, and there was a national tragedy that caused the Secret Service to have an intensive removal of his person from that room. It wasn't a casual thing. Hello, Mr. President, let's go down to the basement. No, I'm not even sure what they said, but from indications I've heard, they basically drugged him, or drugged him, intensified, out of that room, down to a secure place in the basement. And so intensity, this is intense. All the men of the confederacy have brought thee even to the border. The men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee." See, peace treaties sometimes are sown in deception. And here, Edom was deceived again. They were deceived. And again, it's a causative thing. A causative mood. They almost brought this upon themselves. They have deceived thee and prevailed against thee. They that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee. There is none understanding in him." So this deception, this false confederacy has actually been a hurt, an injury to this, and this have laid a wound. Again, that is not a perfect Hebrew tense, but that's an imperfect Hebrew tense, meaning an action that is yet not fully completed. So the wound is still hurting, as Obadiah is reporting. "...shine not on that day, save the LORD." And LORD here, if you notice, is in all caps. Here in verse 8, LORD is in all caps. Verse 4, it's in all caps. Verse 1, it's in all caps. And then if you notice, GOD is in all caps, in verse 1 as well. Anytime LORD or GOD are on all caps. That indicates the Hebrew word under that is Jehovah. Just like that Obadiah's name means Servant of Jehovah, that A-H at the end of his name. And so here it's Jehovah. Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and the understanding out of the Mount of Esau? Again, the word destroy is a causative mood, it's a hyphal mood, which is causative. Let me give you an example with the simple word to eat. He ate versus he caused to eat. He ate is the simple mood, called the cow. He caused to eat is the hyphal, it's a causative type of thing. This is what the Lord is doing. The Lord is having a direct cause on the destruction of Edom. Because of what Edom has done, because of their wickedness, God is having a direct cause, a direct involvement upon their judgment. And God is involved today. He has a direct cause today in the affairs of us, the affairs of many things. all things, not as the deists believe who just wound up the world and let it set and go by itself, but he has a causative effect on the world and upon the church today. And thy mighty men, O Timon, shall be dismayed to the end that every one of the Mount of Esau may be cut off And again, Mount Esau, or Mount Seir, as it is sometimes called down here, by the southern part of the Dead Sea, and may be cut off, is that imperfect Hebrew tense, which means an action that is yet fully being completed. And so here is the book of Obadiah. And this is the first part of the book of Obadiah, and there is another part of it. Obadiah only has 21 verses in it. But it is a judgment against Edom. And as far as the mind of prophets go, before God starts judging Judah in Israel, We have Edom, the wicked grandson of Abraham, Jacob's brother. Judgment coming to him first. And unfortunately, Israel and Judah did not look at the examples of what happened to Edom, but they had experienced them for themselves. And that's found in other parts of the prophets. There are pre-exilic prophets, prophets before the exile, there are exilic prophets, prophets during the exile, and there are post-exilic prophets, prophets after the exile. And here Obadiah is giving the account of his vision primarily to the nation of Edom, but now we have it today before us. So what can be learned from Obadiah's message? Failure to obey the scripture leads to ruin. That's what can be learned. One of the things that can be learned. Study the book some more. But this is just an introduction to Obadiah. And Lord willing, next time the message will be continued in verses 10 through 21.