106 writes, they quickly forgot his works, they did not wait for his counsel, but craved intensely in the wilderness, and tempted God into the desert. So he gave them their request, but sent a wasting disease among them. Brothers and sisters, there's a parallel, there's a correlation. The more you forget about God, his character, or his works, the easier it is for you to sin. the easier it is for you and I to do our own thing. And so this passage calls us to do the exact opposite through the example of our fathers and mothers into the faith who went so astray. And that is to not forget God, to not forget his word, to not forget his benefits. And it's to that that we turn to now as we fellowship with him in his word. So let me invite you, if you would, turn in your Bibles to the book of Obadiah. And as well, locate in your bulletin the notes. You can follow along and read the quotes and take notes and hopefully learn this passage a little more. We're going to be on Obadiah this week and next week. Next week will be our last week we're on this book. Then we're going to go into Peter sometime after that. But for now, we're in 15 through 21, still the same text we've been on. We have studied it all, actually 21a, except for verse 18. So this morning we'll be focusing on verse 18 and the sixth and final benefit or blessing that God gives his people in exile. This is indeed the word of the Lord, brothers and sisters. Let me invite you to stand together with me out of reverence and respect for the reading of his word. Hear now the word of our King. For the day of the Lord draws near on all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head. Because just as you drank on my holy mountain, all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and swallow and become as if they had never existed. But on Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. And the house of Jacob will possess their possessions. Then the house of Jacob will be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame. But the house of Esau will be a stubble. And they will set them on fire and consume them, so that there will be no survivor of the house of Esau. For the Lord has spoken. Then those of the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau and those of the Shephelah, the Philistine plain. Also, they will possess the territory of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead. And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel, who are among the Canaanites as far as the Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem, who are in the Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev. The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will be the Lord's. Thus far, the reading of God's word. Let's pray together. Lord, what a privilege and delight it is for us, your people, to now sit at your feet, and by your grace and by the work, the enabling grace of the Spirit of God, to remember you, to remember your deeds, to remember your benefits and the graces that you give us in Christ. Bless this time, O Lord. Bless it unto our growth in your grace and the maturation of us, your people. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. It was July 1941, Auschwitz, Poland. The night before roll call, it was discovered that one of the men from barracks 14 was missing. He had escaped, evidently successfully. And so it was understood that evening that 10 men out of barracks 14 would be sent to the starvation bunker the next day. What's the starvation bunker? The starvation bunker was the worst form of punishment that any in Auschwitz could receive. It was a place where they sent you with people, stripped of all clothing, no food, no water. And in the summer, as it was here, it was even that much more brutal and more torturous. Chuck Holson describes it, first quote, the prisoners had heard the stories from the starvation bunker in the basement of Barracks 11. They said the condemned didn't even look like human beings after a day or two. They frightened even the guards. Their throats turned to paper, the brains turned to fire, their intestines dried up and shriveled like desiccated worms. That morning, roll call was announced, and after the morning roll call, the rest of Auschwitz went to their work detail, but barracks 14, the men of barracks 14, had to stand beneath the scorching heat all day. They couldn't drink, they couldn't eat, they couldn't relieve themselves, or at least not anywhere else other than where they were. And in the evening roll call, the commandant came out with the entire Auschwitz in order, And he approached barracks 14 and began selecting men one by one, the weakest to go die in the starvation bunker. And when he had selected the 10, one of the 10 began screaming and crying and begging for his life. Please, not me. I'm married. I've got a young wife, young children. What will they do? What will they do? Well, from the back of barracks 14 in formation, there was a commotion. It was very obvious that one of the prisoners dared to approach the commandant. The commandant allowed it. And as he got close to the commandant, the commandant said, what would this Polish pig want of me? Well, that Polish pig was Father Colby. He was a priest, a man of God. And he was known in Auschwitz as a servant of people. and is a man who was preaching Jesus Christ and encouraging the prisoners. So the prisoners knew him. He was beloved. And he approached the commandant and in answer to the commandant's question, what would he have? He said, I want to die for that prisoner in the place of that prisoner. And the commandant said, why? Colby wasn't stupid, he knew what was important. So he said, because I'm an old man, I'm weak, and I probably won't last the month. That's exactly what needed to be said. So the commandant said, yes. So Father Colby and the nine other men were sent into the starvation bunker. Colson finishes the story with these words, As the hours and days passed, however, the camp became aware of something extraordinarily happening in the death cell. Past prisoners had spent their dying days howling, attacking one another, clawing the walls in a frenzy of despair. But now, coming from the death box, those outside heard the faint words of singing. For this time, the prisoners had a shepherd to gently lead them through the shadows of the valley of death, pointing them to the great shepherd." Brothers and sisters, in the face of trial and tragedy, the valley of weeping really can become a spring. We see that. So it was amongst God's people in 586 BC when they first went into exile. that valley, that horrible, horrible valley, a tragedy that defies imagination, more than just World War II. Think of an entire nation being overturned and exiled. And yet, as I've shared with you, I've got a quote there, I'm not gonna read it, it's Tidwell. He has eight ways in which God's people flourished in the exile. God's people didn't go there to die. They didn't go there to shrivel on the vine. God's people went into exile and they thrived in their suffering. They soared in their trial. And we ask ourselves, what's to explain this? This is not natural. This is extraordinary. What's to explain how God's people in 586 didn't curse God and die? Well, the answer is amongst the people of God in 586 walked a shepherd and his name was Obadiah. And this man came and he shared the word of God. Obviously the explanation for it is God. But God did that through means, and the means was through his shepherds, not just Obadiah. We've seen six or seven different prophets ministering in this time to God's people. And the ministry specifically of the first responder, which was Obadiah, 586, he was the first responder to God's people. He immediately got their minds and their focus set where it needed to be. Off of their sin, off of the wickedness of the nation, and on to God. And so we've seen six blessings, six, as I've titled it here, consolations. that Obadiah as a shepherd gave God's people during this time. And this morning, or we've seen five, this morning we're going to look at a sixth. Thus far we've seen that God promised them in this time of suffering, relief and the storms of life, they were to dwell in the eye of the storm. Deliverance in trouble. You have the list there. Notice a sixth one. To them finally belong ultimate victory. Incredible. Notice with me 18. Then the house of Jacob will be afire and the house of Joseph aflame. But the house of Esau will be as stubble, and they, Jacob and Joseph, God's people, will set them on fire and consume them, so that there will be no survivor of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken." This prophecy is a positive and negative. Positively, it's describing the victory, the ultimate victory that God's people are going to have over the foe. But negatively, it also is describing the condemnation and death and the wiping out of existence, the nation of Esau. And this is in true form because as we saw last week in verse 17, remember how Obadiah is using the Abrahamic covenant as the basis upon which to encourage God's people. The language in verse 17, they will possess their possessions, is always used of two promises of the Abrahamic covenant. Thus it follows that verse 18, as he references two more promises in his mind, clearly he is basing this upon Abraham, the promise God gave to Abraham. Well, what two promises are here? Well, the first one is found in Genesis 12.2. God says, I will bless you. God promises to bless his people. Do you understand what that means? If you and I go out and we invest in the stock market and we get back a generous return, we might say, God blessed me. But if a lot of people got that, that's not blessing. That's normal. Statistically speaking, I remember a guy saying, in summary, the way that they're going to plant a church is they're going to call out 200,000 people with the promise that 200 people will come because that's the statistics. And so I asked him, why would you plant a church that way? And he said, because God's blessing it. Well, brothers and sisters, the Mormons use that technique and they get the same exact results. That's not blessing, that's normal. Blessing is where something extraordinarily happens. God says, I'm going to bless you in this land, the state of sin and mystery. You're going to grow. You're going to flourish. You're going to prosper in ways that goes above and beyond expectation. That's the first promise. The second promise was, that's germane here, is Genesis 12 of 3b. The one who curses you, I will curse. And both of those are being worked out in verse 18. In fact, brothers and sisters, both of those have been worked out throughout history. Do you remember the first, Exile 722? Think back with me there. Isaiah describes this, it's the opposite side of the same coin, blessing and cursing. Blessing, victory for God's people, and condemnation for the wicked. In Isaiah, God chose to discipline his people with the Assyrians, and they went nuts, they went crazy. You could read it in Isaiah chapter 10. They got arrogant and proud and they began exalting themselves, not above the northern kingdom, but above God. Who's your God? Your God's a nobody. And it went on and on. So they went way too far. And so God says at the end of Isaiah 10, using the metaphor of a forest, he says this, behold, the Lord, the God of hosts will lop off the boughs of Assyria with a terrible crash. In other words, God is gonna devastate. If they were a forest, there will be complete and total devastation. with a terrible crash. Those who are tall in stature will be cut down, and those who are lofty will be abased. And He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One." So, this forest, labeled Assyria, because of their rebellion, would be decimated, wiped off the face of the earth. But this is where we get Isaiah 11.1. Then," we always read this around Christmas time, "'a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.'" Prior to this, God pictured God's people also as a forest. And the Assyrians would devastate that forest, so much so that there would be total devastation except for one stump. There'd be one stump, and there'd be life in that stump. Yet God would bring forth a root, a branch, which we know is Jesus. And that Jesus, his kingdom, would grow and eventually, and we're still waiting for that, encompass the entire world. What we mean by that is the new heavens, the new earth, that's where it's going. Where the entire earth, once again, will be the dwelling place of God. That's what that's talking about. Brothers and sisters, it's that promise we see portrayed throughout the Old Testament into the new, and we still see it even today being worked out. And that's exactly what was being worked out in Obadiah's day. The focus of verse 18 is not the destruction of Edom or Esau. That was 15 through 16. He's already dealt with that. The focus, the emphasis of verse 17 is not the condemnation of the Edomites or the destruction of the Edomites. The focus of verse 17 is the victory that God would bring to pass amongst his people. A victory which is above and beyond all that we could ever imagine. Brothers and sisters, I want you to realize it's this victory that serves as the basis for movies in Hollywood, great movies. I mean, what do we like about movies? Well, what makes a great movie is good wins out in the end, but in the course of that movie, it doesn't look like it. It looks like there's no way these people are going to survive. I mean, this is the worst thing that could ever happen to any individual is this thing. But then it's overcome in a way that we can't even imagine. And in the end, good wins out, right? That's what makes for a great movie. Brothers and sisters, do you understand? That's the kingdom of God. Father Colby, from all outward appearances, when he walked into that cell, looked like a loser. looked like, no doubt he was pitiful. No doubt the Germans mocked and laughed and giggled and made fun. But do you understand that in a couple days, Father Colby was standing in the presence of Christ, having exchanged the sword with a wreath of victory. You realize that? And that those German soldiers, unless God saved them in a few short years, how long is 70 years? Short, a few short years, they would be suffering in hell. Brothers and sisters, we look at that situation, we say, give me the fate of Father Colby every day. Wouldn't we? Lord, that's what I want in my life. But understand, brothers and sisters, we don't have that victory. We don't enjoy that victory. In fact, the more dark it becomes, the greater we praise and celebrate the victory of God. And that's what's going on here. Obadiah comes and says, brothers and sisters, to you belongs a promise. You think this is dark, and it is. You think this is horrible, and it is. But joy comes in the morning. You're gonna prove victorious over Edom, so much so, you're gonna wipe them off the face of the earth. You're gonna decimate this people. The victory that is ours in Christ. Amazing. Now, I'd love to take this, run with it, and then go on to our next point, but this verse, verse 18, raises a couple issues that we can't afford to ignore, especially if you're gonna share this with loved ones. And maybe you're even struggling with it right now. This passage makes it very clear, at least from appearance, that God's people would exterminate the Edomites. That's an atrocity. They would wipe them off the face of the earth. At least that's what it looks like, doesn't it? There will be no survivor of the house of Esau. Because my people will be a flame and a fire, and they will consume them. Historically, we've got a problem with this verse. And the historical problem is, it never happened. God's people never exterminated the Edomites. They never did. Now, during the Maccabean Revolt, they did attack the Edomites, and they did prove victorious. But they didn't wipe them off the face of the earth, not like this. Not in any way like this. In fact, we know, historically, when the Edomites would be wiped off the face of the earth, and that was 70 AD, when Rome destroyed them. So it wasn't God's people who wiped them off the face of the earth, it was the Romans. Well, how do we explain this verse then? And how do we explain what appears to be something that today, if you shared in the context of non-believers, you'd blush. How many Christians here are proud of the Crusades? People claiming Christ, wiping out children, women, the infirmed, the Crusades. This raises the question of the Holy War, and I want to address that with you briefly, and we have to because it's addressed here. The Holy War, in God's word, God's people during the conquest were called by God to conquer the peoples of Palestine and wipe them off the face of the earth. That's known as the Holy War. Okay, now understand a couple things. First and foremost, the Holy War commands were for a specific time and a specific people concerning another specific people and time. So you cannot take those verses and run with them saying, that's the justification for us to go kill the infidel. You can't do that. That's taking those verses out of context. Furthermore, it's interesting to note in scripture that nowhere outside of the holy war passages does God's word call us to take up arms to advance God's kingdom. Nowhere. In fact, it's just the opposite. When God's people's backs were against the Red Sea, the Egyptians were attacking them. There are 2.5 million people with their backs against the Red Sea. They could easily have mounted an attack or at least attempted it. But instead, we read God saying, the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. God didn't say, go and attack and wipe out the Egyptians. God said, I'll take care of the Egyptians. You trust me. Proverbs 20, 22, do not say, I will repay evil. Wait for the Lord. He will save you. Wait on God. Don't take matters into your own hands ever. Proverbs 20, 22. Listen to the exhortation of David when he and God's people were the object of attack. This is what David wrote. Psalm 37, the wicked spies upon the righteous and seeks to kill them. What should we do? David's a soldier, a warrior, let's go and attack? No. The Lord will not leave him in his hand or let him be condemned when he is judged. Therefore, wait for the Lord, keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it. David says, don't attack, trust God. Now, does this mean that we should be pacifists? Absolutely not. Romans 13 is very clear. The civil government has a sword for a purpose, to punish evildoers. That doesn't mean, that's not pacifism, brothers and sisters. This is saying that God's kingdom is never to be advanced through force or arms. That's what this is saying. And thus, when David was being chased around by a mad lunatic for a couple years named Saul, and they had two opportunities to kill him, what did David do? He trusted his soul to a faithful creator in doing what is right. God's kingdom, brothers and sisters, and this is the qualification, God's kingdom is not advanced through violence. Period. It never has been. It never will be. Well, what about the conquest? The conquest, we're dealing with a theocracy. And we can address that at some other point. But God's kingdom is not advanced through force, at least us, force of arms. Zechariah 4, that's when God's people are back in the promised land after the exile. They're back in Palestine, and they're trying to rebuild the city walls. And the Gentile population, the Samaritans, were coming out and forced to attack them and threatening them. We read the God telling Zerubbabel, this is the word of Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Now that didn't stop them from posting sentries around the city to protect when the Gentiles attacked. So again, we're not pacifists here. It's the recognition that God's kingdom is not advanced through taking up of arms. And thus we see in John 18, Christ told Pilate specifically, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting that I might not be delivered up to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. Jesus is very clear. If my kingdom were a civil kingdom, a civil government on this earth, there'd be bloodshed right now. But because my kingdom is not of this realm, my servant's job will be to trust me. They're not going to attack. And thus we read of Christ and his ministry saying, repeating what is said in the Old Testament and then to the New. But I say to you here, you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. And so outside the holy war passages, the rest of scripture tells us God's kingdom is advanced via the working of the spirit of God by and with his word in the hearts of man. That's how his kingdom's advanced. God saves, God extends his kingdom one soul at a time. So there's no other verses outside of the holy war except verses like the one before us this morning. And the house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph, the northern kingdom, a flame. The house of Esau will be the stubble and they, God's people, will set them on fire and consume them so that there will be no survivor of the house of Esau. Now hear this. What we have here is not a command. It's an observation. So there are verses, there are many verses like this, throughout the Old Testament, dotting the pages of scripture, saying so and so will be victorious over so and so. But that's not a command, that's a description of something that's going to take place. He is not commanding God's people to take up arms and attack Esau. He's saying, hey, in chains, going in, I'm in exile. Guess what? You will be victorious over those people. I guarantee it. That's what the message is here. You will be victorious. Well, then how do we explain this? That brings us to the second question, which is sort of like the first, basically. How then do we understand this passage? How is it that God's people would set the Edomites on fire and consume them? The answer is vicariously. Important word, vicariously. Well, indeed God's kingdom is not advanced by his people taking up arms. Brothers and sisters, God's kingdom is advancing and at times God topples kingdoms, civil kingdoms. At times God destroys bad people. God does. So while it's not our job, God does do that. God's not a pacifist. God does destroy and depose and tear down and condemn. And when this occurs, brothers and sisters, our job as God's peoples and followers are not to blush or to make excuses for God, as if God's done something wrong. Our job is to give the hearty amen, hallelujah, to the glory and praise of God. You follow that? That is how God's people would prove victorious. over the Edomites. They give the amen to God's destruction. For example, let me give you an example. Psalm 52, five through seven. This is one of many. When David received the news that Doag the Edomite, remember Doag the Edomite, this worthless dog? I remember his name because it sounds like dog. Doag the dog, this wicked, wicked man who for money wiped out the priests. hacked them to pieces for money. The gentile mercenaries wouldn't do it, but Doag did it for money. This is what David wrote when he heard, when word got to David, that Doag slaughtered the priests. This is what we read, but God will break you down forever. He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent and uproot you from the land of the living." Pause and wonder, Salah. And the righteous will see and fear and will laugh at him. Now the word for laugh at him carries the idea not of ha ha ha, it's praise God, celebration. saying, behold, the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and was strong in his evil desire. Dr. Godfrey, in our Bible study this last year, when we were going through the Psalms, addressed this. First of all, what a great series. I highly recommend it. But what a masterful use of the Psalm. In response, he paused and said, there was much rejoicing. in Europe and America when news of the death of Hitler was announced. Were they wrong? There was much rejoicing when Osama bin Laden was killed and news spread. Was it wrong to rejoice over the death of such a monster? If you did, then you were giving the amen to God's taking care of these monsters. No different from what we see here. Now, that's a far cry from saying, I'm so grateful someone's in hell suffering. That's different. That's not what we're saying. But to rejoice that God removed a monster, or to rejoice that God deposed a horrible king, or toppled a horrible kingdom, a monstrous kingdom? Brothers and sisters, that's what David's saying. Rejoice! God's people, when they hear about Doag's overthrow, they're going to rejoice! Because God took care of our enemy. And brothers and sisters, that's exactly what's going on here. Would you look with me again at verse 18? The house of Jacob will be afire, the house of Joseph aflame. Esau will be stubble, and they will set them on fire and consume them. Well notice, who's the they? It doesn't give Joseph and Jacob. We don't know. The implication is it's Joseph and Jacob, but how will they set them on fire? Well, guess what? There's one other time in this passage that this verse describes God's people overthrowing Edom, and that's verse 21. Look with me there. The deliverers, who are the house of Jacob, the house of Joseph, verse 17, those who escape, the deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau. Brothers and sisters, that's how they're gonna wipe them off. They're gonna be partakers in the judgment of God against Edom. Well, what does that mean? How would they participate? The same way that we're gonna participate in God's judgment of the world. We're gonna say amen or hallelujah. You go, really? Or better yet, you say, that sounds like a stretch. Well, brothers and sisters, it's not a stretch. That's the teaching of scripture when it comes to the end days. Did you know that? I want you to look at two verses with me. 1 Corinthians 6, would you turn there? 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 2. To a people who are struggling with lawsuits against one another, Paul rebukes them. And in verse 2 he says, or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not a competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we, God's people, will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? Wait a second. The Bible is emphatic and clear. God is the only one who will judge on the last day. And you can look that up. You've got my notes, James 4, 1 Thessalonians, Romans 12, and then a footnote that gives you a whole bunch more verses. God is the judge. The scriptures say over and over, leave judgment to God. God is the judge. Not man. So how and what way do we understand a verse like this? And it's the only of its kind where it says, we're gonna judge the world. We're gonna judge angels. When you just read this verse, it sounds like there's gonna be a court of appeals. All God's people, well, wait a second, they're gonna be judged too on the last judgment. How's that gonna work? Don't know, but we can presume this. All God's people are gonna sit behind a bench at some point, and the world's gonna come right before us. Our neighbors who are mean, and we're gonna say, go to hell. Right? We're going to be the judge. We're going to condemn. And then angels. And we're going to judge them, too. Is that what this verse is saying? Well, we've got to let Scripture interpret Scripture. And when we do that, go to Revelation 19. We see one more time where God's people are active in the judgment of the world. Would you notice it? Revelation 19, verse 1. After these things, Christ's judgments. Look at the context. After these things, I heard, as it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven. Someday, brothers and sisters, you and I will be a part of this multitude." This is describing the future, which is describing you and I there. So John, when he saw this, he may have saw you. Saw? Seen? He may have seen you in this vision. Think about that. You're going to be there. if you're in Christ. I saw this multitude in heaven saying to the judgment of Christ, hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God because his judgments are true and righteous. That is how we will participate in the last judgment. We will participate not by doing the judging. It's very clear in scripture, God does the judging. God casts into the lake of fire, not us, But our judgment will be, Amen, God. Hallelujah. Your judgment, God, is righteous and true altogether. Richard Baxter wrote, They shall not only judge the world in Christ their head, by way of communion with him, by their works compared with those of the ungodly, or by way of testimony against them. Yes, Lord, I share the gospel that did not know you. They shall be assessors of Jesus Christ the judge, giving their voice against them, consenting to his judgment as just, and saying, Amen to the doom pronounced against all the ungodly. All right, that's the footnote. We're done with the footnote. All this is to say, brothers and sisters, God's people's job was not to wipe out a people group. God's people's job is not to raise the sword and attack people who don't believe in Jesus. Our job is not to take a gun and say, repent or you'll die. Our job is to rely upon God to work by and with his heart and with his word in the hearts of people as he saves them and advances kingdom one heart at a time. That's our job. Thus our job is to pray and to proclaim and to speak and to serve. It's God's job. to bring to pass his will for his kingdom as well as for the civil realm. So what's the message here? The message here, brothers and sisters, now let's get back to it. So we dealt with that Holy War issue. What's the message? The message is thirdly, or sixthly, as God's people go in chains to exile, having witnessed such an atrocity, no doubt hurting and aching within them, Obadiah the shepherd came alongside them and said, listen, in the end you win. In the end you are victorious. In the end, like Father Colby, you will stand with Jesus Christ and you will be in a glorified state. and you will know him and you will spend the rest of eternity in a place of felicity and joy with no sin, no sorrow, no sadness, no sickness, no death, no tears. Brothers and sisters, in the end, we win. And the darker our road simply tells the world, the greater is the glory. For God Almighty can even overcome this cancer or this tragedy. Our God reigns. Brothers and sisters, that's the sixth and final message that Obadiah gave in this section of consolation to his people. And that is because they are the beloved of God, to them belong ultimate victory. Calvin wrote of this, why did God with so much severity punish the Edomians? Because he intended by this example to show how much he loved his church. Why is it that God condemns so harshly those who do not know Him? Because He loves us. And He shows the wages of sin thereby. So our victory this day, brothers and sisters, is not to be delivered out of, but to be delivered in. Where we pass through the valley of weeping, it becomes a spring, though nothing's changed around us. Is that possible? I mean, think of the context one more time as I wrap this up. God's people are at the lowest of lows. Are you there today? Have you been there recently? If you haven't been there, you will. This world is very harsh, and it eats people up. And when you're at the lowest of lows, is it possible to be in that place and rejoice in the Lord always? It was in David's life, and he was a sinner. Romans 7, read it. Paul wrote, we are afflicted in every way. Remember a word afflicted means pressured. We have so much pressure, thalipsis, it's the pressure needed to burst a grape. So much pressure upon us, we can barely stand, but we're not crushed. Perplexed, we don't understand what God's doing. Wait a second, God promised a blessing? How does this fit into that promise of blessing? How does cancer fit in? How does the loss of a child? How does the loss of your health? How does this fit in? We're perplexed, but not despairing. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in that furnace of flaming fire, they were being persecuted, but there was a fourth man with them, right? They were not forsaken, struck down. How many times has the church been struck down? Has Satan sought to destroy God's work on this world? But not destroyed. Never to succeed. Brothers and sisters, you can go through the valley of the shadow of death and go through it and it becomes a spring. You can. It doesn't have to be doom and gloom. How? If you haven't seen it, if you haven't deduced it by now, brothers and sisters, it's simply by waiting on the Lord. You understand that? It's waiting on Him. If these promises that we've just looked at the last three or four weeks mean nothing to you, then of course you're going to flounder in the valley of the shadow of death. But if these promises mean the world to you, If you make much of God, if you glorify God in His name, then these promises mean more to you than your life. And so during the valley of the shadow of death, these promises lift the burdened saint, because for him, God is all that there is. God is all that we want. Well, how does that come to pass? By waiting on the Lord, in fair weather, mending the sails, waiting. on the Lord. Habakkuk 3, I'll read this and close with a summary. Habakkuk was also sent as a pastor to walk amongst God's people in 605 BC. So the same people who Obadiah is ministering to will receive the ministry of Habakkuk. And this is what we learn from Habakkuk. Habakkuk 3.16, God just revealed to Habakkuk the horror, the atrocity that was coming to his people. And Habakkuk wrote, I heard and my inward parts trembled. At the sound, my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones. Notice that he doesn't say entered. He currently is in the process where his bones or he feeling like his bones were exploding inside of him. And in my place, I trembled because I must wait quietly for the day of distress for the people to arise who will invade us. This is fascinating. This is the plan where it's here. Obadiah must wait for tragedy so that he might wait on the Lord. He goes on. Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vine, this is the tragedy he's waiting for. Though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, starvation, famine, disease, sickness, death. Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, that's warfare. That's how they get cut off. A superior army comes through and takes them. Yet I will exalt in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Brothers and sisters, exalt in the Lord. Pray that God gives you the grace to learn to exalt in Him. Pray that God gives you the grace to do that. And you do it in fair weather. If you don't do it now, you play the way you practice. That's a sports, what's the word, rule. If you practice poorly, you'll play poorly. Brothers and sisters, if in good days we don't train well, when the trial comes, we will falter. If in the good days we spend our times lapping up the ease and diving into pleasures and softening things, come the trial, we won't be ready. We will not be ready. So our call today is to pray, oh God, give us the grace to learn to wait on you. To wait on God to do what? Let's summarize now. One. Though a category, not a five, or a four, or I'm sorry, a five that'll wipe off a city, or a six that'll wipe off a state, or a seven that'll wipe off a continent, or eight that'll wipe off a world, or nine that'll wipe off a solar system. Category 10 hurricane is coming to this universe. It is big enough to wipe away the universe. But in Christ, we're in the eye of the storm. All is peace. Secondly, the second consolation is God has promised to deliver us not from trouble. Remember the big list I gave you when we looked at this? Daniel was not spared the lion's den. He was delivered not from it, but in it. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, not from it, in it. Moses and God's people, not from it, but in the Red Sea. On and on and on it goes. God has promised to always be with us. always go with us and therefore always to deliver us, not from, but in. Thirdly, it comes with a commitment on the part of God as it relates to our maturation. God is not through with us yet. And in through all things, we trust that Lord is perfecting us and preparing us for glory. Fourthly, the glorious promise of the Lord of the inheritance is ours. That inheritance is the new heaven, ultimately the new heavens and the new earth. that will come at the second coming of Jesus Christ, which is our hope. Fifthly, our glorious reunion. You know those loved ones you just saw murdered at the hands of the Babylonians? You're gonna see them in glory. You know that loved one you just lost to cancer? If in Christ, you're gonna see him in glory. You will lose nothing who gain Christ. In fact, you who gain Christ gain a whole much more than just your loved ones, but a whole kingdom. And lastly, ultimate victory. We will be a part of the throng on the right hand of Christ's throne, who upon the judgment, the declaration of judgment, where the world and the angels will be cast into the lake of fire, we will be saying hallelujah for the Lord our God reigns. Hallelujah. His judgments are just and righteous. Family of God, I just, I'm not a prophet, but God's word says it. I just prophesied to you through the word of God. Someday you, you will be there giving the amen to God's triumph. May God give us the grace, in light of these glorious truths, and the Savior who goes with us, to wait upon the Lord. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the privilege that we've had to look at these six consolations that you give your people. Lord, you know how difficult it is to live in a corporeal existence, so fleshly, so bound to this earth. governed by hunger pangs, and the cycle of the month or the week, sleep cycles, and all kinds of cycles, and Lord, therefore, to be people who are so bound to this earth. Because of that, God, it's so easy to get caught up in things that are passing. God, we pray, grant that your spirit would give us all a greater hope and a greater passion and a greater vision, a clearer vision of what is ours in you this day. And so in our valleys of the shadow of death, God, would you make it a spring. Not by anything we do, but simply by manifesting the glory, the presence of our Savior, who's promised always to be with us. So Lord, give us the grace to live this life of faith, this day, this week, this life, we pray. Amen.