Would you pray with me, please? God, our Heavenly Father, we praise you for your word, and we ask that we, as we consider this passage of prophecy tonight, that your spirit would work in our hearts, that which is pleasing in your sight, that we would truly understand your word, and that you would apply it to our lives so that we might be more like Jesus when we leave tonight than when we came in. We ask this in his holy name, amen. I think it would be helpful if you open up the Pew Bible in front of you or your own copy of God's Word to the Book of Obadiah. It's page 772 in the Pew Bible. Every week on Sunday morning we pray the Lord's Prayer and we say, thy kingdom come. And when we pray that prayer, we're asking that the reign of God would extend to every corner of the universe. Of course, the Bible teaches that God's kingship is universal, Jeremiah 10, 10. But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. Or Psalm 103, 19. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. Everything depends on him for its very existence. We can't escape his rule any more than we can escape breathing. He is our creator. He has provided the physical laws of the universe, Proverbs 3, 19 and 20. The Lord, by his wisdom, founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew. God's also established the moral laws of the universe. Psalm 111, seven to eight. The works of his hands are faithful and just. All his precepts are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. But God also created people, human beings, to share in his ruling. We're told in Genesis chapter one that God gave a man whom he made in his likeness, male and female. He said, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. But our first parents rebelled. And so when they rebelled, in the first promise of the gospel in the Bible, God promised that one day a seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. So God's kingship is universal. And though we were intended to reign as his vicegerents over creation, that was broken by sin. So then we come to a second aspect of God's kingship, which is important to understand if we're to understand what the prophets in general were getting at with their message. And that is that God's kingship is covenantal. that God in his saving mercy set his affection upon a particular people and he took the initiative to save sinful mankind. And we see this enacted first with Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. He says to Abraham, I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So God forms a nation. Abraham has descendants and he enacts laws. We have the Mosaic law that he gives and we find out that in his covenantal rule that there's blessings for obedience to that law and there's cursings for disobedience. And we find out that God will protect his people He had said to Abraham, I'll bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you, I will curse. So we find that God has a holy jealousy over his people. But we also see that God has formed this nation so that it would be a blessing to the nations. Well this covenantal relationship that God establishes first with Abraham and then with the people of Israel is, and the implications for the nations is the backdrop for the book of Obadiah. And the prophetical books in general are God's assessment of these covenantal standards. We have to understand that the books of prophecy in the Old Testament are historically coterminous with the books of 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, and Ezra and Nehemiah. So the era of the kings of Israel and Judah. And the prophets were sent to bring messages of judgment for disobedience, messages of hope when the people were oppressed. and ultimately predicting the downfall of both the northern and southern kingdoms, the exile, the judgment that they would experience because of their disobedience to God, but ultimately a restoration. So this is the background for the book of Obadiah. And in many ways, the book of Odiah is a tale of two kingdoms. The tale of a kingdom of God and a nation which opposes God's kingdom. We look at the first verse, says the vision of Obadiah. And we don't know anything about this particular Obadiah. There's lots of Obadiahs that are listed in the Old Testament, but we don't know anything about this particular one, other than what his name means. And his name simply means servant of Yahweh. Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom. Who is Edom? Well, Edom was a territory southeast of Judah from the southern end of the Dead Sea down to the Red Sea. It was noted for its high, rocky areas. In fact, if you are an Indiana Jones fan, this area was featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the city of Petra with its high walls and of course they ride out at the end through that deep canyon. It was an important trade route connecting Egypt and Syria up to Assyria and Babylon, a route called the King's Highway. It's been known variously, and it's referred to variously in the Old Testament as Edom or Sir, which was the capital of Edom, Timon, or, and we'll see this in the book of Obadiah, Esau. In fact, we learn in the book of Genesis that the nation of Edom is comprised of the descendants of Esau. And Genesis 36 chronicles how Esau and his family settled there. Now when we see the word Edom, this is a name which really should jump off the page. And we would say there's a bit of family history there between Edom and Israel. That is between the descendants of Jacob and the descendants of Esau. And we find that there was trouble from the very beginning, even from the womb of their mother, Rebecca. Genesis 25, 21 to 23 says, and Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, if it is thus, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord and the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger. And then we find out later in Genesis chapter 25 that Esau sells his birthright for a pot of red soup. And so he's given a nickname, Edom, which sounds like the Hebrew word for red, maybe the original redneck. Well, this family history continues. Obviously, Esau is very upset when Father Isaac blesses Jacob instead, and he pleads for a blessing as well, and he's very angered such that we know that Jacob has to run away and is away for many years. They're eventually reunited. But much of the rest of the Old Testament chronicles many different encounters between Edom and Israel, which are quite negative. In Numbers 20, we see that the nation of Edom refuses passage to the people of Israel over the King's Highway as they're coming out of the wilderness. They even come out with an army to threaten them, a deed which Israel will not soon forget. In fact, God even warns the Israelites in the book of Deuteronomy 23, 7 to 8, says, But then when the nation of Israel is established in the land, we read in 2 Samuel 8 that David eventually conquers Edom, even killing 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. And he sets up garrisons there, and the text says that the Edomites became David's servants. This became a source of great bitterness for the nation of Edom. We read next in the book of Kings that when Solomon turns from the Lord, the Lord in judgment against Solomon raises up Hadad the Edomite as an adversary. And then in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, the Edomites unite with the Moabites and the Ammonites against Jehoshaphat. But the Lord miraculously delivers Israel by turning their enemies upon one another. And finally in 2 Chronicles 21, Edom and Libna revolt and set up their own king. And around this time in 848 BC, the Philistines and the Arabians attack Judah carrying off many possessions as well as many of King Jehoram's wives. Those who give an early date for the Book of Obadiah argue that this may be the actual historical context for the Book of Obadiah, because that's the Philistines and the Arabians were carrying off the captives that Edom participated in that ransacking. Again, in 2 Chronicles 28, we read that the Edomites invade Judah and take away captives during Ahaz's reign. And then worst of all, we find out that Edom plays a part in the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586. Psalm 137 refers to this, the great lament of the exiles in Babylon. It says in verse seven, remember, O Lord, against the Edomites, the day of Jerusalem, how they said, lay it bare, lay it bare down to its foundations. Many scholars argue that Obadiah was written shortly after the fall of Jerusalem. Though the Lord had chosen Babylon and the surrounding nations as his instruments of justice against his rebellious people, his covenant promise to Abraham still holds. Those who dishonor his people will be judged. And so this first section that we see in the book of Obadiah, verses one through 14, is God's judgment of Edom. And it falls basically into two parts. In verses one through nine, God addresses Edom's pride. And in verses 10 through 14, God condemns Edom's actions. So first of all, verses one to nine, God addresses Edom's pride. Notice how he says in verse two, Behold, I will make you small among the nations. You shall be utterly despised. Proverbs 16, 18 says, Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Notice in verse three, it says, the pride of your heart. has deceived you. This was the basic sin that God was calling Edom out for, the sin of pride. And the word heart here indicates the seat of the intellect and the emotions. Pride in the Bible is portrayed as a disposition which is set against God. For example, Psalm 10, verses three to four. For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. In the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him. All his thoughts are, there is no God. The prideful heart pushes away from God while simultaneously seeking to inflate itself. In fact, if we think about the original sin in Eden, it was exactly like that. Remember God had given the warning to Adam and Eve, don't eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because in that day you shall surely die, and Satan comes to them and says, you shall not, you surely will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So the fact, the temptation of wanting to be like God, Eve and Adam, they push themselves away from God while seeking to inflate themselves and make themselves like God. But notice in verse three, God's word says, the pride of your heart has deceived you. Pride gives a false picture of reality. And we notice in the following verses several ways in which this is true. First of all, it can give a false security. Look at verses three and four. You who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground? This is somewhat reminiscent of Babel, isn't it? Genesis 11. Let us make a name for ourselves. We can imagine Edom there and their lofty dwellings, thinking that they're untouchable. Edom was a place that was easily defended against any kind of enemies. They could easily exercise their independence, even making attacks against God's people, thinking they could ultimately get away with it. But pride also can give us the false idea that we can control our own destiny. Instead of loving and trusting God for everything, we begin to trust in other things. We can come to the conclusion that while God may be right for some people, I don't really need him. Pride can even make a person believe their eternal destiny is in their own control. Consider the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and said, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus answer, one thing you still lack, sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. But when he heard these things, he became very sad for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And just as Jesus' words deflated the rich young ruler and brought him back to reality, so God's word to Edom humbles and points out the reality of their standing before him. So just as we see that pride is a kind of inflation of self, these verses also indicate that a divine deflation will take place. Verses one and two, a messenger has been sent among the nations, rise up, let us rise up against her for battle. Behold, I will make you small among the nations. God is sovereign over the affairs of this world. He raises up kings and nations and he can bring them down again. Notice in verses five and six that they will be completely plundered. You know, we often associate money with power and we can seek more at others' expense. Money can give a sense of entitlement. Paul says in 1 Timothy, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. Notice how all of their riches and wealth will be taken from them. If thieves came to you, if plunderers came by night, how you have been destroyed. Would they not steal only enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? How Esau has been pillaged, his treasures sought out. God goes on to say that if they've been trusting in their political allies, that those will be taken away as well. Verse seven, all your allies have driven you to your border. Those at peace with you have deceived you. They have prevailed against you. Those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you. You have no understanding. Or maybe they had been trusting in their wisdom or political savvy. Look at verse nine, or verse eight. Will I not on that day, declares the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom and understanding out of Mount Esau? And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O temen, so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter. Edom was known for its wisdom. In fact, in the book of Job, his friends, we read of Eliphaz the Temanite, and you see teman mentioned here. Edom was known for its wisdom, and in this context, it is speaking of wisdom as a kind of a political might, and even God is going to tear that down as well. So in the first nine verses, we have God addressing Edom's pride. But then in verses 10 to 14, we see God addressing and condemning Edom's actions. Edom was a proud nation. And often, pride manifests itself in terrible deeds. And these deeds are generally described in verse 10 as violence done to your brother, Jacob. And first of all, he talks of them standing aloof, verse 11. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. He was standing there giving approval. It's reminiscent of some ways of the apostle Paul as he saw when he stood by and watched the stoning of Stephen as the stoner's clothes had been laid at his feet. Standing aloof can also indicate not doing what's needed. Again, we're reminded in the New Testament of the parable of the sheep and the goats, and the goats ask, well, when did we see you naked, Jesus, or hungry in prison, et cetera? And Jesus replies to them, inasmuch as you did not do it unto the least of these, you have not done it unto me. So standing aloof reminds us that there can be sins of omission when we don't do what we're supposed to do, when there's an obvious thing in front of us that ought to be done. If we see injustice being done and we don't address it. So we have a danger of remaining silent when injustice is being done. And when we do so, we can become complicit in the crime. You were like one of them. And then notice he addresses gloating, verse 12. That's a kind of boasting with intent of humiliation. Do not gloat over the day of your brother and the day of his misfortune. Do not rejoice over the people of Judah and the day of their ruin. Do not boast in the day of distress. reminded of how people derided Jesus as he was on the cross. You would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Save yourself if you are the son of God. Come down from the cross. They're condemned for looting, verse three. Do not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity. Again, we think of the soldiers dividing Christ's clothing at his crucifixion. And then we're told that Edom even cut off the fugitives that were seeking to forsake, to leave and escape the city, that they were capturing them and handing them back to their captors. So we see that God judges Edom for their pride and he condemns their action. And then in verses 15 through 21, God judges the nations but also predicts the restoration of Jacob. In verse 15 we read, of the day of the Lord. And in the prophetic writings, this indicates any time that the Lord intervenes in history. In fact, there are many days of the Lord, leading up to the great day of the Lord, in which we've been studying and finished the study this morning on the book of Revelation. In 15 and 16, we read how all nations will be judged, and notice they'll be judged according to their deeds. As you have done, it shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return on your own head. This is indicating that God's judgment is always right. His punishment always fits the crime. God's justice is always correct. And then we read of kingdom lands being restored, verses 19 and 20. And we read that some who, there may be some who escape in Mount Zion, and Mount Zion should be called a holy place. And then finally this wonderful verse, looking down at verse 21. Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. This restoration and this description of Mount Zion as the ideal Jerusalem, Jerusalem completely restored. We see this repeatedly throughout the prophets. Now a good thing to do when we're looking at a prophecy like this is to first think about what we learn about God. Second, what we learn about man. And third, what we learn about and how it points ahead to the Lord Jesus. We've seen that this passage teaches about the justice of God, about his universal kingship, and that he has an interest in his people, that he protects them jealously. We read of the pride of the nations and in many respects, Edom represents all of the different nations which are antagonistic to the kingdom of God. Edom, in many ways, is the same in the Old Testament as the use of the word world in the New Testament. In the books of John, for instance, when he talks about not loving the world or the things of this world. These are the things which are against or opposed to the kingdom of God. Edom stands for those things in the Old Testament. They're kind of an arch enemy, if you will, of Israel. But how does this little book point us to Christ, I want to suggest a few different ways that it does that as we close tonight. We first spoke about God addressing proud Edom. We're told in Philippians that Christ, though he did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he humbled himself. Here is the king of heaven, and he humbles himself even unto the point of death. We read about unjust Edom, the Edom which did violence against its brother Jacob, didn't even consider its own relatives' needs. Christ was the brother who was unjustly treated. We're told in the book of John that Jesus came to his own and his own did not receive him. Once Edom had gained its independence from Judah, it expanded westward into an area which was known as Edomia. And we're told from extra-biblical writings that Herod, the king, who was reigning at the time of Jesus' birth, was an Idumean. And we all know what Herod did when he heard of Jesus' birth. Tell us about this king. And then he slew all of the children in that area, ages two and under. He went after Jesus. Jesus is the representative Israelite. And he was condemned and put to death by his own people. In Peter's sermon, in Acts chapter 2, Peter is very explicit about this. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. Jesus was the brother that was unjustly treated. Jesus was the one who was abused and wickedly put to death. In the book of Obadiah, we see the judgment of all the nations which oppose God's kingdom. And we read in the New Testament that Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. And of course, we've been reading in the book of Revelation how God is going to bring that judgment to fruition one day, that all Christ's enemies will be put under his feet. We read in Obadiah of a restoration in verses 15 to 21, a restoration of the land, an expansion of the land even, a restoration of possessions that the house of Jacob will be reestablished. The inheritance of the land has been given back to them. And we read in the New Testament that Christ is the heir of all things and that we are fellow heirs with him. And then we also read in the book of Obadiah of the establishment of the kingdom of God on Mount Zion. Savior shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. We're told in the book of Philippians that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And we're told in the book of Revelation, he shall reign forever and ever. He is the King of Kings and He is the Lord of Lords, our great Savior. One more thing, a challenge for us. The kingdom as it's presented here in the Old Testament, we read about the land of Israel being restored. And we're taught in the New Testament, Jesus teaches in John chapter four, that it's a spiritual kingdom that God is building. It's not attached to Jerusalem as the place of worship, but it's a spiritual kingdom. So how is that kingdom advanced now? Well, it's advanced through the preaching of the gospel. In, of course, Jesus in the Great Commission says that all authority has been given unto me, therefore go and make disciples of all the nations. And in the book of Luke and in the book of Acts, Jesus says this, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. I think this final verse of Obadiah is very beautiful in the sense when it says that saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lord. It gives us a hint into what we're supposed to do. Saviors would have been rulers which would have protected and provided for the nations which were under their control. And it's in the preaching and the dissemination of the gospel that the kingdom of God is extended, that the message of salvation, that the message of life is given throughout this world. And this commission was given by Christ, the one who went up to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem when he ascended into heaven, gives this commission to his disciples to go into all the world. So we're to be taken up with the business of preaching the gospel, leading people to the gospel, bringing people to Christ. A couple encouraging verses in that regard. We see in 1 Timothy 4, verses 13 to 16, he says to Timothy, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers. Or James chapter five, verses 19 and 20. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Are you involved in that kingdom work? Do you want to see this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ? And God has skilled each one of us and put each one of us in a place where we can point others to Christ. And he's uniquely gifted each person with talents and abilities to work in his church to spread the gospel. So go out and do that in his name. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this small book which has such an enormous lesson to all of us. that you are the everlasting king, and that we're to be caught up in the work of your kingdom, Lord God, and spreading the gospel from shore to shore in every nation of the world to every language and tongue. Lord, may this church here at 17th and Spruce ever be faithful to you in that regard, and may your people here, Lord, each and every day seek to share the good news of the salvation of Jesus Christ With those whom we know, we ask these things in his name. Amen.