Okay, in our survey then, as we're working our way through the 12, remember the 12 are the minor prophets. This morning our text is going to be, as I said, the smallest book in the entire Old Testament. It's only 21 verses long, and it's the book of Obadiah. Now the name Obadiah means worshiper of God or another translation, a servant of the Lord. It is one of the most common names in all of the Old Testament. There are more than a dozen different people who bear this name in its pages. Now we know nothing about this particular Obadiah. We don't know anything about the author aside from his name. Also, the date of the work is largely unknown. Scholars typically narrow it down to either one of two possibilities, and the possibilities are really suggested to us by the theme of the book. The theme of the book is very narrow. It's a prophecy of judgment against the nation of Edom. Now, in real terms, God is never reactive. He has determined from all eternity what He is going to do. History unfolds according to that decree. Yet as we said a few weeks ago, in order to relate with temporal creatures such as ourselves, a part of God's decree is that it unfolds within time. So that in the history that he has determined, he interacts with us so that there's cause and effect. In any case, the point being that attempts to date the book look for a cause. Why was the book written? What prompted it to be written? What event might have led to giving this prophecy? And as I said, most scholars have narrowed it down to two. One is that just after the destruction of Jerusalem, when Judah was devastated, the Edomites took advantage of this tragedy and they confiscated lands that had been Judah's. So if this is what prompted the book of Obadiah, then it was given in the years just after 586 B.C. The second possibility is an early date, and that's been suggested because Obadiah has been put in the earlier section of the Minor Prophets, but it's between 840 There we go, 840 and 850 BC. They see it in the reign of King Jehoram because a confederation of Philistines and Arabs invaded. And Edom is not specifically mentioned in this, but it's more likely than not that she would have taken advantage of Judah's troubles. And that really is the occasion of the book. There is some event. Jerusalem was plundered. It was either plundered by the Philistines or plundered by the Babylonians and the Edomites took pleasure in this downfall and shared in that plunder. Even more egregious, Edom captured escaping Judeans and abused them and actually sold them as slaves and turned them back to whoever was doing the plundering. And so the purpose here is very narrow. It's to announce God's judgment on Edom for its lack of brotherly concern, is the way it puts it. And in a wider sense, it was set to give a view of the final restoration of what is right and what is just in the day of the Lord. So before we look at Obadiah's word against Edom, let's understand who were the Edomites and answer the question of why their treachery earned them special attention. Now, the antagonism between Israel and Edom was hereditary. Edom was the ancestral land and peoples derived from Jacob's brother Esau. Now Jacob and Esau may have reconciled, but the bitter hatred of Edom for the Israelites spanned over the centuries. Now this land itself, this land of Edom, was rugged and mountainous. We see that hinted at in the text itself. God says to them, he says, the pride of your heart has deceived you, 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? And although it's from a later period, you have these famous rock cliffs in Petra as an example. This is in modern day Jordan. It exemplifies what once was Edom. And they literally were those who lived in the cliffs of the rocks. They carved these structures actually into the cliff faces. Now interestingly, in light of the scriptures here predicting the complete destruction of Edom, We have no inscriptions, we have no writings that have survived from Edom, so that all of our records come from Hebrew, Assyrian, and Egyptian sources. What we do know is that Israel viewed Edom as estranged brothers being related to Esau, whereas the Edomites were less inclined to reciprocate that feeling. Israel remembered their common father Abraham, but Edom was actually a mixed race with the Canaanites. Remember, Esau himself married those who were in the land. Therefore, the hereditary ties were diluted. Yet the Old Testament constantly emphasized this racial relationship. And it was something of a sore point. When Israel came out of Egypt, you remember, the direct path to the land was along the king's highway. That ran through Edom. Moses asked for safe passage. The Edomites refused. But we see in the account in Deuteronomy that for Abraham's sake, God continued to impress upon Israel their kinship with Edom. For example, chapter 2, verses 4 and 5 says, You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers. the people of Esau. Do not contend with them. I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession." And in chapter 23, Israel was specifically forbidden to hate Edom. It says, "'You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother.' Yet there was always a hereditary animosity Israel stressed the heredity. Edom stressed the animosity. That was part of the problem here. That was part of the issue. But still, when we see that tie, that link back to Abraham, God was honoring that because Esau was the grandchild of Abraham. Now nearly all of the prophets of Judah faulted Edom for this hatred as well as their brutality. Now it was David who first subdued Edom and made it a tributary. And Edom was also a key to the wealth of Solomon's kingdom because by making a tributary of Edom, it allowed access to the trade routes. But in the ninth century, Edom rebelled twice. And then in 735 BC, she succeeded in regaining her independence. However, it was short-lived because in three years, she was then a tributary to Assyria. And then when Babylon conquered Assyria, Edom quietly accepted this change in suzerains. And then in 586, she allied herself with Nebuchadnezzar and celebrated the subsequent fall of Jerusalem. Now as a consequence of the fall then, Edomites then went in and occupied parts of southern Judea. They set up a capital in the city of Hebron, and this formed the nation of Edomia. Now the original nation of Edom, which is down in here, was overrun by Arabs in the 4th century BC, leaving only the Edomians as a remnant. Now you could say at this point that the prophecy had come through, Edom had been destroyed. However, the judgment would be more complete. In the years between the Testaments, the Maccabees eventually subjugated the Edomians. forced them to practice Judaism. That was the state of affairs when all of Palestine then fell under Roman control. Now why is this worth mentioning? It's because the enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, between elect and reprobate, is exemplified in Jacob and Esau, Remember? And Paul does this in Romans chapter 9. He says, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Well, this struggle between Jacob and Esau that began in the womb reached a climax in the first century. Herod was an Edomite. He was a child of Esau. He's the one who tries to murder the infant Jesus, who's a child of Jacob. And then in 70 AD, Edomia was destroyed by the same Roman army that crushed the Jews. That's the last vestiges of Edom. It disappears entirely from history. So there is this remarkable irony within history, especially if Obadiah was written after 586 BC. Because we see here that Edom had rejoiced over Judah's fall on the day of the Lord that had destroyed the first temple. And then Obadiah prophesied Edom's complete destruction to come in another day of the Lord. This came to pass literally in the day of the Lord that destroyed the second temple. And so Edom would not repeat her laughter at Judah's expense. As the Lord said to her, will I not on that day, declares the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter. So not only does God fulfill this prophecy, he does so in dramatic significance, one that harkens back to her sin six centuries earlier. And even if Obadiah is dated early, the same significant parallel can be made from Edom's glee in this earlier sack of the city, and then her sorrow in the later sack of the city. So that's some of the background to the object of the judgment here of Obadiah. So let's take a quick look at the text itself. As we said, nothing is given about the author. Instead, the text immediately points to its divine author by the opening line, which says, this is the vision of Obadiah. He's receiving this supernaturally. And so Obadiah has received a report from the Lord concerning Edom. Now, unlike Jonah and Nineveh, where Jonah was sent to preach to Nineveh, Obadiah's words are not intended for Edom as an audience. They're given to God's people, and they're given for two reasons. One is to sustain their faith in God's moral government over all of creation, and then two, to provide hope to the people, God's people, of an ultimate restoration, which would represent the ultimate triumph of his will and his purpose. So looking back at number one, the moral governance of God rests in the triumph of justice. And yet as the history of a fallen world unfolds, justice often seems lost. We don't see it. And Job, the Proverbs, the Psalms all ask the same kinds of questions. Why did the wicked prosper? How was Edom allowed to come in and take parts of the land? That's kind of the theme that's here. And so in a sense, Edom represents all the nations. She represents all the unjust aggression upon God's people. And the message of Obadiah is that all the wicked will one day receive just recompense for their evil ways. Now, although it's a short book, Obadiah is actually broken into four different oracles. The first one describes the root of Edom's problem, which is pride, actually. The second defines the extent of Edom's destruction. The third details the unbrotherly conduct of Edom towards Judah. That's the crime that she has committed. And then the fourth focuses on the day of the Lord. That is the ultimate vindication of justice. Now the first four verses are a parallel to Jeremiah's oracle against Edom in his 49th chapter. There are other places in the text that we've seen so far that are giving prophecies of judgment against Edom. But let's look at the first four verses of Obadiah, in which he says, we have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations. There's going to be an invitation sent to the nations, come destroy Edom. It says, rise up, let us rise against her for battle. Behold, I will make you small among the nations. You shall be utterly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you. That's actually the root of her problem, is pride. 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? In other words, they're taking pride and they're putting their faith and their strongholds there in the mountains and in the rocks and in the cliffs. And God says, though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord. Now when we compare this to Jeremiah 49, 14 to 16, it's almost phrase for phrase. So either Jeremiah knew of Obadiah, or Obadiah knew of Jeremiah, or the Lord sent the same message to both of them. We don't know. If the book was written after the exile, then quoting Jeremiah's prophecy against Edom would have had a powerful effect upon the exiles because they had just seen Jeremiah's prophecies fulfilled against them in the destruction of Jerusalem. So if he's quoting Jeremiah and they've already experienced the fact that Jeremiah was a true prophet, they could place their faith in this prophecy as well. Okay, so notice the reference to how pride had deceived Edom into believing that she could escape the punishment for her sins. Now that's a downfall of all sinners, not just Edomites. In Edom's case, they had this lofty Self-conceit, basically, that is reflected in how Obadiah describes their rocky stronghold. He's always pointing to, you live in the clouds or whatever, you know, you're high up, you can't be brought down. That's that lofty self-conceit. But it says the Lord was already calling the nations, inviting them to assemble for battle. And it shows once again how God controls the affairs of men for His own purposes. The nations that would subdue Edom did not receive a literal summons. Instead, God used their own wills, their own evil intents, to accomplish His good purpose. That's divine concurrence. So Edom's haughty self-confidence, when she says, who will bring me down to the ground, is the way they boast, they never took God's power into account. And so truly this was an example of pride coming before the fall. Now the second oracle spells the extent of the end of Edom. Her defeat would be complete and ultimate. Obadiah says that if Edom had been plundered by thieves, or if she had been a vineyard picked over by grape gatherers, there would be something left. He's basically saying that thieves only steal what they can carry. Harvesters will leave behind the gleanings. Yet for Edom, it would be much worse. Nothing would be left. She would be picked clean. And he says that her downfall would be instigated by her so-called allies. He says, those at peace with you have deceived you. Those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you. And just as reliance on others would fail, so would reliance upon her own strength. He says, will I not destroy the wise men out of Eden? Won't your mighty men be dismayed? He says every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter. So you're not gonna be able to trust in your wisdom or your strength. God's going to defeat you. The third oracle describes the various wicked ways in which Edom betrayed her brother Judah. This was the essential crime that would not go unpunished. It was the betrayal of a brother. And the text says, because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever. Obadiah says that in the moment of Judah's extreme distress, Edom had stood aloft. He says on the day that the enemy had carried away her wealth and had entered her gates and had divided Jerusalem amongst them, he says to Edom, you were like one of them. And the rest of the verses in this section kind of use a negative to reveal just what Edom had done. It's a poetic device. In other words, he says, do not gloat over the day of your brother's misfortune. Do not rejoice over the day of their ruin. Basically he's saying that's exactly what you did. And so we see these charges that God makes against Edom. He says they did gloat. They did rejoice at their brother's ruin. They boasted in the day of her distress, it says. They entered the gates of the city after the enemy had left and gloated over the devastation and plundered what was left of Judah's wealth. Worse yet, the text says, do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives. In other words, this is what they did. do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress. Meaning that as these refugees fled Judah trying to escape Nebuchadnezzar, the Edomites had caught them at the borders and then handed them over to the enemy instead of giving them shelter as a brother should. So it's more than simply standing by and not rendering aid. It's an active participation in the looting of the city. It's a betrayal of fugitives. It's a betrayal of fellow sons of Abraham. And then like several of the prophets that we've seen, the final word in Obadiah is of the day of the Lord. We've seen that the day of the Lord was not a single event. It has been those unique moments in history of a divine visitation of judgment. And we've seen it several times. Now, if Obadiah did write early, then he would have been the first of the prophets to use this term, the Day of the Lord. Proponents of an early date point to this as being the source of Israel's conviction that the Day of the Lord was judgment only upon the nations, because there are no words of judgment in this work against Judah or Israel. So that's their supposition. Regardless, in hindsight, we know of several parousia events, coming of the Lord in judgment, and yet what we see even in this text, that there will be a final day of the Lord, a final reckoning, a final visitation of judgment that is yet future. And Obadiah's final oracle expands its focus from just Edom, then to all the nations. And it appears to have the full scope of the final day of the Lord in view here. He tells the nations, as you have done, it shall be done to you. Your deed shall return to your own head. And the Lord says that Edom and the nations had drunk upon the holy hill of the Lord, they had desecrated Zion, and they continued to drink. But in that day, Edom and the nations would drink from a different cup, from the cup of God's wrath. And you recall that Jeremiah had said, the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink. Well, here God says through Obadiah, they shall drink and swallow, and it shall be as though they had never been. And so the nations would be forced to swallow the wine of God's vengeance, his wrath, his justice, and then the world would be swept clean of every vestige of their wicked existence. And yet, he says, there will be a remnant of Zion who escape. The house of Jacob, he says, will repossess what had been lost. In fact, it says that the house of Jacob will be like a fire, and Edom will be like dry stubble. And it says, they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken. And so the end here would be a stark contrast then of destruction and deliverance in Edom and Judah and Esau and Jacob. in the reprobate and the elect. That's the contrast. And it says the land will be restored. The people, God's people, will possess their inheritance again. And of course in the text it's given in terms of geography, the land. But when we recall that the geography was always tied to the land as representing the unique presence of God, we understand that the true restoration is to be in his presence. That's the possession that Obadiah promises in the end when all the exiles return. And the last verse, verse 21 is, deliverers shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. And so God's rule will be established over all of the nations. And so what we take from Obadiah is that God's moral judgment will bring retribution against evil, all evil, to all nations. All powers opposed to the Lord will ultimately fall. It also shows that there is an eschatological hope, not only in this temporal return of exiles, but then to the ultimate establishment of God's kingdom. As Matheson writes, What Israel lost through disobedience, she will regain by grace. And so when placed in the larger context of the rest of scripture, Obadiah reveals that God makes his own sovereign choices. He speaks of the final destiny of Edom to judgment, the final deliverance and blessing of Israel. It's that same choice. But the truth is that God had already made this choice between Esau and Jacob, between Edom and Judah, even before they were born. Malachi wrote, remember, was not Esau Jacob's brother? The Lord says, yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals. This, of course, we see repeated in Romans chapter nine, and Paul then adds that this choice had been made before either had been born. So the judging of the nations and the deliverance of the saints is but the sifting of humanity into these two peoples. Just as God had delineated them in Genesis, in the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, it has continued even to this day. And you recall the psalmist asked, why do the nations rage against his anointed one? And Obadiah was yet another confirmation of the answer the psalmist gave. In Psalm 2 in which it says, the one enthroned in heaven laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. All that pride that Edom had in their strongholds, it's nothing. Then he rebukes them in anger and terrifies them in his wrath. He says, I will make the nations your inheritance, speaking to Christ, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter. You will dash them to pieces like pottery. In the end, God will hold accountable all injustice, all unrighteousness that Edom here represented. Christ has inherited the nations. Out of them he calls Jacob, whom he loved, and prepares for destruction Esau, whom he rejected. Those who are his and those who are not. And Obadiah says to us, God knows the difference between the two. He set them apart. And he says to keep the faith, the prosperity of the wicked is but an illusion. And the day of the Lord will reveal it to be so. Then one final thought on Obadiah. It's gonna be early here. So there better be lots of comments and questions, okay. So one final thought. The text reflects the fact that Edom had a covenant link with Abraham. That's all that language about being a brother to Judah. Esau was a grandchild of Abraham. He was circumcised as belonging to the visible people of God. So there's a covenant link. We see in Deuteronomy that the children of the covenant often see temporal advantages. God gave Esau a nation because of Abraham. Yet in the end, despite whatever temporal blessings the covenant might convey upon the apostate, someone who had sold his birthright, spurning the covenant is called out for specific judgment. No other nation had a book of the Bible devoted to its destruction as Edom did. And this should give us in the church pause. There are advantages to being in the communion of the visible church, yet woe to the apostate and the false professor. We saw yesterday the confirmation of one of our own. We always stress the eternal implications of this temporal moment. Oaths are given. A covenant is professed. And yet for those who fail to remain true to the calling that they there claim to have accepted and then deny it with their lives, it's no different than Esau selling his birthright. And as Obadiah affirms, the punishment to come will be that much more severe because of what it means to be an apostate. Edom found that out. The so-called Christian nations will find that out. Every false believer who has falsely called himself by Christ's name will also learn that truth. It's very sobering. Yet for those that are truly his, they will possess the presence of God, and as Obadiah says, the kingdom will be the Lord's.