Let us hear the word of our God, Obadiah, beginning in verse 10. For violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day the strangers carried captive his forces when foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were as one of them. You should not have gazed on the day of your brother and the day of his captivity, nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress. You should not have entered the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. You should not have stood at the crossroads to cut off those among them who escaped, nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained in the day of distress. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen. As we begin here today, I want you to think of those times where someone has been harmed, but it's not someone you know or don't know them very well. Maybe a very general acquaintance or something like that. Now, in those settings, we may become upset by this action, this harm that has come upon them, but probably our response is relatively minimal. Compare that, though, to when someone we know well has been harmed. Maybe a good friend or your spouse or your child. Maybe a neighbor or someone else in your family or something to that effect. response tends to be very different. We get very upset and we wish for justice or we wish you know this that and the other would happen to the person or whatever. Now with this in mind and this distinction let us come here again to the book of Obadiah and keep in mind that God is very upset because of what people have done to his people. Now we have sought to enter into this message in this somewhat obscure and infrequently proclaimed book of the Old Testament. It was written, we believe, about 845 B.C. when the enemies of Israel attacked them and defeated King Jehoram, taking him and his family into captivity. Now we do need to remember that the Arabians and even the Philistines who joined them were raised up by God to punish Jehoram for his sin, his wickedness. Nevertheless, those who did this are responsible for their actions, and obviously the focus of Obadiah is on Edom's part in this whole event. We have seen, of course, that since God rules over all things, everyone will give an account to Him, whether we're individuals or families or churches or nations, societies, cultures, businesses. We have seen that Edom is being judged or has been judged because they were living their lives without God as their Lord. They were trusting in themselves, and we saw that especially in verses 2 to 9. But the main reason why God is having Obadiah send these words to Edom and the nations, the main reason that God is so upset is found now here in verses 10 to 14. Edom is judged primarily for doing violence against their neighbor who was also their relative, and in fact, their brother, as it says, their twin brother. And so Yahweh is upset. But notice, as we look at these verses, it's not because Edom killed Israelites. It's not because they raised a sword, but they did help the wicked, and they rejoiced when God's people were harmed. So last time we started looking at verses 10 and 11, this subsection here in the book, and we saw in verse 10 that it was because of violence that they committed against their brother that God is going to shame them and cut them off. Verses 11 to 14 really define what violence is here in God's mind. And we saw, even beginning last time, that their enmity, their hatred, their evil was not like Cain against Abel, or the Herods against Jesus, or John, or James and Peter. Rather, it was more like Herod Agrippa II, who did nothing to help Paul in his time of need. In other words, they were not, if you will, overly aggressive, but nevertheless, they were still committing acts of violence. All right, now as we begin here today, let's have a bird's eye view, first of all. Let's observe some things from a distance, so to speak, and then we will look at the verses more specifically. First of all, notice the language of in the day. You know, your translation may say on the day or something like that, and yet it's the same in the Hebrew. 10 times we see this short phrase in verses 11 to 14. Hey, there are books that are five times longer than Obadiah. They don't have that many times. Hey, 10 times, just in these four verses, it says in the day, we need to pay attention to that. Um, and so notice, I point him out verse 11 in the day that you stood on the other side in the day, the strangers carried captive his forces. Verse 12 at the end of the first line, right? the day of your brother, and then in the day of captivity and the day of their destruction. And thirdly, in this setting here in the day of distress, and then it continues in verse 13 to the day of their calamity three times. And then at the end of verse 14, in the day of distress, look also at verse eight, will I not in that day, notice it adds the adjective that here, God's going to destroy them. And so in the day they did all these things of Israel's destruction and calamity and so forth, God then in that day is going to bring judgment against Edom. And then note also verse 15, for the day of the Lord upon all the nations is clear. Now that one's a little bit different, but we still see the word day. And so 11 times altogether and a 12th time with the word day here in verse 15. Obviously this is extremely important. In the day of Israel's hardship, Edom committed violence. It didn't help. They committed violence. And so God is going to bring judgment against them and, verse 15, against anyone who does something similar on the day of the Lord. Now let me just briefly mention this point. You'll notice that all 12 of these occurrences of the Hebrew word for day are combined with other things. You have a preposition, definite article, adjective, and or part of an of phrase. And so this gives it an indefinite feel to it. And so it kind of suggests to us that it is a period of time. Okay, so possibly when the Arabs came and captured Jerusalem and Jehoram, that it happened over several days, maybe even months if they besieged Jerusalem for a time. Same thing for the Day of the Lord in verse 15, that may refer to more than one particular day. Nevertheless, Jehoram was taken away on one particular day, and the Day of Judgment will happen on a particular day. And so this mildly indefinite meaning of the word day only is such because of the other things that are connected to it, plus you have the ideas of some of the uncertainty of when things will happen. But my point here, again just briefly, is to say this is actually a pattern we see throughout the Old Testament. that if you're gonna have the word day to mean an indefinite period of time, it only means such based on the context in which you find it, which is very different from what we see in Genesis 1. There is no justification here for this indefinite field to refer to millions of years or something like that. All right, again, somewhat of a side point, but helpful in our exegesis of other things. All right, now our next bird's eye view point here is this. Notice the language there in verse 12, you should not have, and it's repeated eight times in verses 12 to 14, you should not have gazed on the day of your brother. You should not have rejoiced. You should not have spoken proudly. Then verse 13, you should not have entered the gate. You should not have gazed on their affliction, nor laid hands on their substance. Verse 14, you should not have stood, and then nor should you have delivered up. And so eight times. Now, if you have the new King James, obviously, that's what it says. If you have the old King James or the new RSV, it'll have the same thing. If you, however, have the ESV or the New American Standard, it's worded a little differently. Not, you should not have, which suggests to us that Obadiah is writing in the future, referring back to what Edom has done, right? And that is certainly a way we can translate the Hebrew. But the ESV and the NAS treat these as commands. Do not gaze. Do not. and so forth, for all eight of these, right? And this is also a possibility because the way things are worded in the Hebrew is just like what we would see in the Ten Commandments. So, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, and so forth. It's the same way of wording things. And so for them to translate it that way is actually reasonable. If you have the NIV, they actually use both, depending on which line it is. So how do we take this? Well, you know, in this case, I'm not sure it matters so much, though I would side with the new King James here. I think this fits better with the flow of the argument. But whether we're talking about something now or something in the past or even something in the future, God is commanding everyone everywhere, not just his people, not just even the Edomites. But everyone, they should not do this. They better not do this because it displeases God. And He then will bring judgment upon those who do these things or who have done these things. So again, you have a little difference in the translations, but I think overall the point is this. All right, now of these eight occurrences, seven of them are you singular. and masculine in gender. In Hebrew you can show gender in the second person, which isn't true in English. But note, I think the point is this. He is speaking to all of Edom, this collective group. All of Edom. You shouldn't have done this. It does not appear to be pointing to the individuals, though obviously we can apply it in that way. Now, I said seven of the eight. The eighth one is a little bit different, and that's the one in verse 13, the last one. Nor laid hands on their substance, is how the new King James puts it. That one's actually feminine plural. So that jumps out at you. Hey, you're talking about Edom. You shouldn't have done this, shouldn't have done this, right? Do not do this. And all of a sudden, the women are addressed. You shouldn't have done that. What did they do? Well, they laid hands. on Israel's stuff. Presumably, this means that when Edom was doing these things, it wasn't just the soldiers, it wasn't just the men. Now, we're used to, of course, having women in the military today, but back then, that was highly unusual. Maybe the women would help out with medical things or food, or occasionally you had J.L. with a tent peg and a hammer, but, you know, women just, they didn't go out to battle. So, we're not talking about the military here. We're talking about most likely just everyday Edomite women who said, hey, and they went and took stuff. So, note that rather striking difference there. All right. Now, the next bird's eye view thing for us to observe is the of phrases. Okay, the of. Notice here, verse 12, you should not have gazed on the day of your brother. This obviously takes us back to verse 10, okay, for violence against your brother. And remember, we're talking over a thousand years since Jacob and Esau were alive, when God has these words in this whole situation with Obadiah and Edom. And yet God is still thinking about this family connection. Probably none of us here have traced our ancestry back over a thousand years. Our family's going back about 400, but that's barely getting started in comparison. But God is keeping this very much in the forefront. Because of your brother, Edom violated not just love for neighbor, but love for family and in particular love for a brother and a twin brother at that. And so as I said at the beginning, it is evil to do violence against a stranger because everyone is our neighbor, everyone is made in God's image. But it is more evil to do violence against a family member or someone close to us. The thief stealing from some random person is bad, but an employee stealing from an employer, or someone at church, or from a friend, or from a family member, these things are worse, right? The Judas Kiss scenario, a lot of people opposing Jesus, but Judas turning them in, that's what we're talking about, this kind of close connection. And so God is saying here to Edom, you shouldn't have done that, he was your brother. Now note the next of, this is in verse 12, in the day of his captivity. All right, now the word here for captivity is connected to the word for foreigner. So 2 Chronicles 21, the Arabians and some of the Philistines came and took Jehoram and his family. They were taken to a foreign land. Later, of course, the Assyrians did it for the Northern Kingdom. The Babylonians did it later, about 250 years later. This is what we're talking about. We're talking about foreigners coming in and taking them captive. All right, now, as I frequently try to do, let's not just remain in antiquity in our understanding. How do we see these kinds of things happening today? Do we see examples of foreigners taking people into captivity. Well, obviously, this week, we have heard over and over again about the peace treaty between Israel and Hamas and the other nations, the Abrahamic Accords, and so on and so forth, right? Well, over two years ago, of course, on October 7th, you had Hamas going into Israel, taking captive, okay, 1,200 people killed or taken captive, taken hostage, and returned to Gaza. Here's an example of this. But there are other examples. Another one that came to mind for me, and you probably can think of some others, is the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of women and children especially, who have been taken captive and are now part of the sex slave trade around the world. And a huge reason why the number is so high is the open border policies, not just here in America, but in the countries of Europe and elsewhere. This has made it so easy for this kind of captivity. And it's not just the left, right? The right's been doing it for 40 years too, especially. So here are just a couple of examples of people being taken by foreigners. Many people in the sex slave trade in our country who come from a foreign land. All right, well, here's another line here. Note then in verse 12, in the day of their destruction, this phrase, this word that is used, destruction can mean ruin or breaking something. It can refer to perishing or taking things even. So it has a kind of a variety of meaning in that way, but the point here is clear. Israel was ruined. Israel was destroyed when they came in there in the 9th century. And we read from Jeremiah 49 earlier, some of the same language is used there as is used here. And so this particular word for destruction or ruin is used in verse 7 in particular. So, again, how can we talk about examples of ruin and destruction today? Well, again, examples are endless. I talked about some, if you will, national things. Let's focus maybe more on more personal things here for a moment. Businesses, when they go bankrupt because they made bad decisions or someone took them over or bad political policy, That business now is in ruins, destruction. We can talk about this in families. You think of divorce situations where the family is destroyed because of that scenario. Or you can talk about your health or you can talk about possessions that have been ruined. Your house is destroyed. I think it was last week I mentioned watching CSI. The one I watched last night was the house that fell down because of a variety of situations. But ruin, destruction can happen in all kinds of ways. In those situations, God is going to say, right, don't do this. But for now, we're just focusing on these phrases. So the next one we see is distress. Of the day of distress. It's seen also at the end of verse 14. This particular word can be translated as trouble. Think of dire straits or something like that. Obviously, this can be understood in the context of being attacked by enemies, and there are numerous troubles and distresses that we face as individuals, as families. Let's talk about the church here just a moment. Maybe you heard, I think it was Monday that I first heard of this, that the communists in China are cracking down on the underground church again. There's ebbs and flows, and there were 30 pastors that were arrested. And obviously, great distress for those men, for those churches, for those families, the communities, and so forth. So here's one example we can talk about of modern-day distress Again, certainly we could talk about others. So let's look now at verse 13 and notice the of phrases here, in the day of their calamity, three times it says it there. Now the Hebrew actually says it this way, in the day of their calamity for the first one and the day of his calamity for the next two. So it's probably meaning Israel as a whole and then Jehoram and his family more specifically. It's not abundantly clear, but the difference there is there for a reason, and it's probably the case. Now, for the first one, where it does say their calamity, this is one of those plays on words you don't see in English. But the word their calamity is adom. And, of course, the word for edom, as we say, is adome. So it's very similar. Seems to be done deliberately to call attention to that. All right, calamity, what's that mean? Well, again, we can use some of these other words we've used already. Destruction or distress, disaster, tragedy. So what are some examples we see here today? Well, again, fill in the blank. Numerous examples, say the fires in California in January, or the terrible flooding with the hurricane in North Carolina in particular last September. I mentioned already the October 7th attack in Israel, that major calamity. Again, we can talk about many other things. But here's somewhat of a bird's eye view, looking at these things in this, if you will, distant way. And so we've talked about, in the day, We've talked about the you should not have phrasing and now we've talked about the of phrases. So let's put it together and understand it now more specifically. So let's look then at verse 12. But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother in the day of his captivity. Now notice they're just using their eyes. Their act of violence, right, verse 10, is done by looking, gazing. Violence can be watching evil and doing nothing to try to stop it. Edom here just sat back and watched while their brother was harmed. And God said, that is an act of violence, not just those who pick up the swords. Doing nothing can be an act of violence. Watching can be an act of violence. So, hey, I think I mentioned last week about the bully on the playground or the bully on social media, which is maybe far more common today. If you sit around and just watch and do nothing, then you're contributing to the act of violence. Or maybe the subway in New York City. Somebody starts going off on some passenger. If you just sit around and you hold up your phone and take a video but then do nothing to help, what good is that? That's an act of violence. Family get-togethers and someone starts spewing filth against somebody else. If you just sit there and listen and do nothing and you watch what's happening, you're contributing to that act of violence. So let's look at the next thought here. Nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Here, Edom was not just watching Israel being destroyed, but they were happy about it. They were excited about it. This too is an act of violence. If we rejoice when someone is harmed by evil, then guilty by association as it were, we are displeasing to the Lord if we're happy in this way. And then the third line here, third idea, nor should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Pride in and of itself, boasting in and of itself is an act of violence. Violence against another person because you think you're better than they are in some way or another and so you're attacking them really. And our pride often comes out with hard or harsh words and sometimes actions. But pride is violence against others and Edom was doing that. Now, as we look at these three thoughts here, watching, rejoicing, boasting, a perfect example of what's happening today is how people have responded to Charlie Kirk. We have seen exactly this. We've seen the violence of Tyler Robinson. We've also seen the violence of people who are happy about this. And not just the crazies over there, our politicians, political leaders, church leaders, who are happy that a person got shot for their faith. They've been boasting and speaking proudly. God hates that. It's not an issue of free speech. Yeah, they have the right to say whatever they want, but God's going to hold them accountable for what they say. just like he did Edom. All right, let's look now at verse 13. You should not have entered the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Now notice here, Edom does not enter the gate with their swords drawn. They're not attacking Israel, but they do enter the gate. They're not just standing on the mountain, you know, from a distance or something watching it all happen. They're not just watching it on social media or whatever. They actually enter into the gate, which suggests to us they actually come to Jerusalem. And they're coming in, again, not to attack, but they enter in and they don't help. And then the next part of verse 13, indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction in the day of their calamity. Notice they're watching again. Maybe we could say verse 12, they're watching from a distance. Maybe it's just a general statement. But now here in verse 13, they've come in right into Jerusalem, to Israel, and they're watching. Notice we have another term given to us. We've seen the terms for captivity and destruction and so forth. Now we have the word affliction. It's like Obadiah is trying to exhaust the Hebrew language by saying basically the same thing with all these different terms. Here's another one, which really is synonymous with the rest. So then the next part, the third part here, verse 13, nor laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. So they've entered in, they're looking around, not to help, but to plunder. to steal, to take, they grasped these things. Hey, they broke the eighth commandment here. And remember it was the women here in this line that is emphasized. Surely some men did too, but the women here are emphasized. So here you have people entering, watching and taking. This too is an act of violence, even though they're not the ones throwing the punches or shooting the guns or whatever, they are committing violence here in this way. So what are some ways we can see this today? A couple that came to my mind, though certainly we could say more, are these. First of all, on January 6th, hopefully you know by now, that at least 90% of what happened that day was staged and exaggerated. Okay? There's so much evidence to show. The CIA, the FBI, and others were very much a part of this, creating this chaos. That is an act of violence, and all who were behind it, God will judge them. But there were others who were Ignorantly influenced by it. Those who did trespass and take things from Nancy Pelosi's office or something like that, that's an act of violence too. The others are more culpable, but they still are committing violence. And God hates that. Another example, about the same time here of all this, think of the George Floyd scenario in Minneapolis. Are you aware of how much violence was committed after that? Neighborhoods were completely destroyed, gutted, burned. The crazy leftists went nuts and destroyed things. I've never understood why you would destroy your own neighborhood. Rodney King in LA, same thing. Why would you do that? It makes no sense. But anyway, those perpetrators are committing acts of violence. But then there were people in the community who saw open windows and doors and they went and they took stuff too. They committed an act of violence even if they never had any crowbars or rocks or anything else to break in. Do you see the same kind of scenario as we see here with Edom? All right, well, let's keep going in verse 14. You should not have stood at the crossroads to cut off those among them who escaped. Here now are more acts of violence, more things that God hates and will judge. In this case, notice, they stood and cut off the Israelites who are trying to escape. They blocked Jehoram, maybe, and his family. Other Israelites, they blocked them, preventing them from escaping so that the Arabians and others could do their thing. So an example that we might see today is if somebody drives down the road, they take a turn, and all of a sudden the whole road is blocked off with protesters, and now you're surrounded by protesters. It's not just the people who jump on the car and try to break the windows who are committing act of violence, but those who are standing there preventing someone from escaping, they're committing acts of violence too and deserve to be judged by it. And then the last part here, verse 14, nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained in the day of distress. Seems to be building here, right? Verse 12. suggests that they're looking from a distance. Verse 13, they enter in, now they're blocking and even handing people over to the enemy. They're delivering them up. Edom seized escaping Israelites and gave them over to the Arabians and Philistines, and of course, later to the Babylonians. Where have we seen examples of this here in our day? The Palestinians were very much part of October 7th, not just Hamas. The Chinese citizens who are seizing Christians in the underground church are very much a part of this situation, not just the communists who are leading this, the officials. German citizens helped deliver people up to the Nazis. And even here in our country during the shutdown, During those tyrannical mandates of shots and masks and staying home and all this sort of thing, you had family members turning in other family members. Again, this isn't just something that happened almost 3,000 years ago. We're seeing the same kinds of things in our day. And do you see the point? This makes God mad. He is very upset with these acts of violence. This is the breaking of the sixth commandment primarily, though others certainly can be part of this. But he's especially mad because this is happening to his people. And so, as we read in Jeremiah 49, as we read here in Obadiah, God is shaming them. He is cutting them off. He is punishing them for their sin. He did it back then. He does it today and will do it. God will judge those who commit acts of violence. Even if human magistrates never bring those people to justice, he will. at some point. And because he will, we should try to do that as the people of God, having a just society. But God's anger because of what's happening to his people is really paramount and the main point here of these five verses. And so note that the implication goes two ways. Isn't that a comfort for the people of God? Can you imagine if God didn't care if we were abused? There'd be no comfort there at all. But for God to be upset that his people, his children, are abused by others, what an encouragement that he loves us that much and we know at some point he will make everything right. This is an encouragement. So as we read verses 10 to 14, even verses 1 to 14, and we'll add verses 15 and 16, these are hard words. God is judge and wrath and, you know, it makes us squirm. You know, we've been singing all these psalms the last number of weeks that speak to the same thing. We've done two already today. These imprecatory psalms and the wicked and all that, it just makes us a bit uncomfortable. But the point is actually to comfort us. as the people of God. And we'll see verses 17 to 21 expanding on that point. But the primary point right now in this section, verses 1 and following, is that this is a warning to all those who do similarly. And as I have said, Obadiah was to send this messenger to Edom and the nations with this message. That message has been given to us too. We are to go forth. Yes, tell them about their sin, tell them about salvation in Jesus, but make sure you also say God hates violent actions, especially if you mistreat his people. And if you don't repent of that, if you don't turn from that, terrible judgment awaits. Make sure we're telling the whole message here, not just part of it. And so this is a warning. This is a warning. Braden talked about the event on Thursday, the people protesting this person speaking. Hopefully somebody went and talked to them, and hopefully the whole message was given. Again, this has immediate relevance for us, and here are just a few thoughts in this way. So, as I mentioned earlier, I was intending to bring out another point, but we've run out of time. So we're gonna pick up with that, at least my plan is, next week, and look at verses 15 and 16. Let's pray together. Our Father and God, we thank you for your word. And we thank you even for obscure messages like Obadiah, ones that are maybe rather hard to hear. But we are thankful, Lord, that you do hate violence and those who love violence. We are thankful, Lord, that you have given the sixth commandment and you've told people not to do these things. And if they have, that there's going to be consequences. We are thankful, Lord, that you do not allow evil to go on unchecked and unpunished. And we are thankful, Lord, that you do this not just for your own righteousness, but for the sake of your people, for us. And we are thankful, Lord. Surely those believers in China this very day who are trying to worship in the context of oppression and distress, surely these words are an encouragement to them, but also even for us in our own distresses. Lord, we again ask that you would strengthen us, give us a boldness, to tell others these truths, that we wouldn't just hear these words and go home and go about our daily lives, but may it impact us, especially as we talk to the unbelievers around us. We pray, Lord, that you would use us to extend your kingdom here in these ways. We pray all these things then in Jesus' name, amen.