Obadiah

It’s No Small Message (Big Messages From Short Books Of The Bible)

A Sermon by Jim Hammond 

Once upon a time there was one nation under God that began to do what was right in their own eyes instead of what God said was right.  This nation began to rely on wisdom rather than revelation.  At that time this one nation under God had a neighbor nation that relied on wisdom rather than revelation also and they served other false gods.  One day much to the surprise of the one nation under God, the protection of God was removed and enemy nations came and attacked the one nation under God.  The neighbor nation that served false gods began to mock the one nation under God, and took advantage of the one nation under God.  To all who observed what was happening, whether you were from the one nation under God, or from the neighbor nation who served false gods, it appeared that the one nation under God would no longer be a nation, and that the neighbor nation would thrive and become great, but that was only how it looked.  In that day there was a prophet named Obadiah who had a vision.  In that vision Obadiah saw what really was going to happen, although the vision wasn’t clear as to when.  In that vision, Obadiah saw that the one nation under God would have a remnant of faithful people who would turn back to God and that they would be saved by a deliverer.  Obadiah also saw what nobody else could see, that the neighbor nation that served themselves through the false god would be utterly destroyed. They would be treated as they had treated their neighbor.  This isn’t just a story about nations but about the faithfulness of God to his own promise and what happens to people when they are proud and when they are humble.

Today we will be looking at a big message from a little book, the littlest book in the Old Testament, the book of Obadiah.  The major theme of this little book is our focus this morning.

Focus (The Big Message):  Doom comes to the Arrogant and Deliverance comes to the Humble. 

Some Background

Before we read the written vision of Obadiah let me give you a little background so you know what to listen for and look for as we read it.  Obadiah is a prophecy about the doom of Edom.  Edom was the neighboring enemy nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, that one nation under God in that day.  Edom will also be called Esau in this book because Edom is a nation descending from Esau, just as Israel is a nation descending from Jacob, Esau’s brother.  Edom and Israel were bitter enemies all through history.  What is prophesied in this book about Edom comes true.  Today, Edom is no more. 

(Interestingly, this is not yet true in the case of another couple of battling brothers Isaac and Ishmael.  One of the enemies of Israel today is the descendents of Ishmael the son Abraham.  The Arab nations are descended from Ishmael, whereas the Jewish Nation is descended from Isaac, but that’s another story and dealt with in other visions.) 

Obadiah prophesied when things were looking the gloomiest for Judah.  Judah was the Southern Kingdom of Israel, and the last to fall into exile as had been prophesied would happen because they began serving false gods and doing what was right in their own eyes rather than being the one nation under God that God designed them to be.  At this time Edom seemed to be growing in power.  Edom was a neighboring nation sharing a border with Judah.  They may have been neighbors, but they were bitter enemies.  Look for how the two names, Edom and Esau are used interchangeably in Obadiah (note verse 6) because the national enmity is conveyed in the language of the enmity between brothers (see 6-10), Jacob, the father of the nation of Israel and Esau, the father of the Nation of Edom. 

Maybe you have heard of the city of Petra.  It was a major city of Edom.  It was a city built into the red rock cliffs. The name Edom comes from the ruddy, red color of these cliffs.  Temples and houses were carved into the cliff walls.  The cliffs only exposed one approach to Petra, giving everyone in the city of Petra a false sense of confidence in their impenetrable fortress city.  It was a great place for defense but, as you will hear from the vision of Obadiah, their doom was sure because they didn’t rely on God, just as deliverance was sure to come to those who humbly waited upon the Lord.  What we are about to read is not fairy tale, it is prophecy, prophecy that became verifiable history. 

               Obadiah 1:1-21

¹                  The vision of Obadiah.
This is what the Sovereign LORD says about Edom—
We have heard a message from the LORD:
An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Rise, and let us go against her for battle”—
²           “See, I will make you small among the nations;
you will be utterly despised.
³           The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rocks
and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
⁴           Though you soar like the eagle
and make your nest among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,”
declares the LORD.
⁵           “If thieves came to you,
if robbers in the night—
Oh, what a disaster awaits you—
would they not steal only as much as they wanted?
If grape pickers came to you,
would they not leave a few grapes?
⁶           But how Esau will be ransacked,
his hidden treasures pillaged!
⁷           All your allies will force you to the border;
your friends will deceive and overpower you;
those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,^£
but you will not detect it.
⁸           “In that day,” declares the LORD,
“will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,
men of understanding in the mountains of Esau?
⁹           Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified,
and everyone in Esau’s mountains
will be cut down in the slaughter.
¹⁰         Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
you will be covered with shame;
you will be destroyed forever.
¹¹         On the day you stood aloof
while strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
and cast lots for Jerusalem,
you were like one of them.
¹²         You should not look down on your brother
in the day of his misfortune,
nor rejoice over the people of Judah
in the day of their destruction,
nor boast so much
in the day of their trouble.
¹³         You should not march through the gates of my people
in the day of their disaster,
nor look down on them in their calamity
in the day of their disaster,
nor seize their wealth
in the day of their disaster.
¹⁴         You should not wait at the crossroads
to cut down their fugitives,
nor hand over their survivors
in the day of their trouble.
¹⁵         “The day of the LORD is near
for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
your deeds will return upon your own head.
¹⁶         Just as you drank on my holy hill,
so all the nations will drink continually;
they will drink and drink
and be as if they had never been.
¹⁷         But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;
it will be holy,
and the house of Jacob
will possess its inheritance.
¹⁸         The house of Jacob will be a fire
and the house of Joseph a flame;
the house of Esau will be stubble,
and they will set it on fire and consume it.
There will be no survivors
from the house of Esau.”
The LORD has spoken.
¹⁹         People from the Negev will occupy
the mountains of Esau,
and people from the foothills will possess
the land of the Philistines.
They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,
and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
²⁰         This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan
will possess the land as far as Zarephath;
the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
will possess the towns of the Negev.
²¹         Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion
to govern the mountains of Esau.
And the kingdom will be the LORD’S.

I.        Doom comes to the Arrogant (vs. 1-16). 

• DOOM FORETOLD, AND SUMMARAIZED AT THE OUTSET (1-2) Then the reason is given in verse 3.

¹The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign LORD says about Edom— We have heard a message from the LORD: An envoy was sent to the nations to say,  “Rise, and let us go against her for battle”—² “See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised.  

• Surprising prophecy in view of what was happening.  While Judah was crumbling, and by all appearances Edom would be growing in power, the prophecy told of the destruction of Edom and the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem.  History has proved this prophecy to be true.

³ The pride of your heart has deceived you,

C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity writes in a chapter titled “The Great Sin” about a sin that he claims everybody struggles with.  I agree with him.  He says “there is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves.”[i]

The vice he refers to is Pride, or Self-conceit, and the virtue that is opposite to it is called Humility.  This is what C.S. Lewis calls the center of morality.  The essence of all sin is Pride.  PRIDE - Undue confidence in and attention to self.  This is different than when you say to your child, “I’m proud of you”.  The kind of pride we are talking about today is the undue confidence in and attention to self, causing a self focus and a self sufficiency that leaves God out of the picture. 

SYNONYMS for pride include arrogance, presumption, conceit, self-satisfaction, boasting, and high-mindedness. 

ANTONYM (opposite) is humility, which is the proper attitude one should have in relation to God.

Pride is a form of rebellion against God because it attributes to self the honor, glory, and dependence due to God.

RELIGIOUS/IRRELIGIOUS    God is immeasurably superior and until you know him that way and see yourself as nothing by comparison you do not know God.  It is quite possible to be quite religious and be filled with pride.  It is also quite possible to be irreligious because of pride.  There is great danger for the one who sees himself as a good person with no need for God.  This comes from pride, and the inability to see God for who he really is, and self as small, and even dirty by comparison.

Here are two quotes to get you to thinking:

1)  From Charles Spurgeon:

There are two sins of man that are bred in the bone, and that continually come out in the flesh. One is self-dependence and the other is self-exaltation. It is very hard, even for the best of men, to keep themselves from the first error. The holiest of Christians, and those who understand best the gospel of Christ, find in themselves a constant inclination to look to the power of the creature, instead of looking to the power of God and the power of God alone. [ii]

2)  From Andrew Murray:

We have within us a self that has its poison from Satan--from hell--and yet we cherish and nourish it.  What do we not do to please self and nourish self--and we make the devil within us strong. ... Look at your own life.  What are the works of hell?  They are chiefly these three:  self-will, self-trust, and self-exaltation. [iii]

A.  Self-Sufficiency is deceiving 

³ The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ 

1.  It lies about your Security .  (v. 3-4)

Edom fooled itself into thinking it was great.  Partially because of its “secure” location high up in the rocks, giving it a strong military defensive position.  Surrounded by steep cliffs, approachable only via the well-defended southeast slope. 

• TODAY we don’t have cliff dwelling safety.  What do we have?  We have military might.  We have nuclear power.  We have INSURANCE!
• DO YOU FEEL SAFE?  Did you used to feel more safe than you do now?

(v. 4) Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.  

God says he’s not impressed with their cliff fortresses even if they built their security nests in the stars God could bring them down.

Sometimes your strength blinds you to your weakness.

On September 6^th, 1941 Clarke Beach, a journalist, wrote the following:  “A Japanese attack on Hawaii is regarded as the most unlikely thing in the world, with one chance in a million of being successful. Besides having more powerful defenses than any other post under the American Flag, it is protected by distance.”  [iv]

Edom built its sense of security around 4 things:  Wealth, Power, alliances, and wisdom/knowledge.  None of these would offer real protection.

God brings down the prideful nations when he wants to.  He also confronts prideful individuals, each one.  No exception. 

The Danger of Self Sufficiency Nationally: 

Even as high rocky defenses were no safeguard to Edom, Nuclear power offers no safe nest for us.  A missile defense system offers no permanent safe nest either.  Security check-stations at airports offer no permanent safe nest.  If you don’t have security in God, you don’t have any solid security.

The Danger of Self Sufficiency Individually: 

This kind of self-sufficiency is clearly evident in the man who says, "I don't need God. I can run my own life without God, in my own wisdom, my own strength, my own abilities, my own talents -- that is enough, that is all I need to make a success in life." But self-sufficiency is also seen in the Christian who says, "Well, I need God, yes, in times of danger and fear and pressure, but I am quite able, thank you, to make my own decisions about the girl I am going to marry, or the career I am going to follow, or the friends that I have, or the car that I buy or anything else like that." That is the same spirit of self-sufficiency, isn't it?

The thing that characterized the Lord Jesus Christ and marked him as continually opposed to this spirit of self-sufficiency was his utter dependence on the Father. We Christians have to learn that if there is any area of our life where we think that we've got what it takes to do without God, it is in that same area that we are manifesting prideful independence. When you step into your office on Monday morning and you have been a fine Christian on Sunday and all through the weekend, but on Monday morning you say, "Now I am in charge. I know what to do here. I don't need the Bible. I don't need God. I don't need my religion to help me here. I know exactly how to run this business," you are manifesting the pride of Edom, this spirit of self-sufficiency.  In many areas of their lives Christians live as though God were dead, they believe in God, but live as though he were dead; they live without any sense of dependency upon his wisdom and his strength.  

Here is what happens to the self sufficient, your sufficiency will be stripped from you.

(v. 5) “If thieves came to you, if robbers in the night— Oh, what a disaster awaits you—would they not steal only as much as they wanted?  If grape pickers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes? 

There are still thieves, and robbers of the night.  Disaster awaits the proud.

(v. 6) But how Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures pillaged!  

It is the proud who will be stripped.  .  Though thieves might leave items, and grape pickers leave grapes, those who pillage Edom would leave them desolate and all their treasures ransacked. 

This reminds me of the words of Jesus.  What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?  If you lose your soul, you’ve lost everything!  Too often we live for the wrong treasures.  We seek this, and we seek that.  Our hearts are aimed in all the wrong directions to our own peril.

2.  It blinds you to traps  (v. 7)

 (v. 7) All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it.  

Friends deceived Edom.  Edom was in control of local trade routes.  As a result they felt they had many powerful and prosperous allies who wanted to maintain good will with Edom and protect their trade routes, which served them as economic lifelines.  But again, God was left out of the equation.  Self-satisfaction was Edom’s undoing.  These allies turned against Edom.  No matter how secure you think you are, heed Edom’s warning if God is left out of your equation!

The Trap of your own weaknesses

Prideful people don’t see their own weaknesses.  They look down on the weaknesses of others. 

3.  It causes Wisdom to fail  (v. 8)

 (v. 8) “In that day,” declares the LORD, “will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, men of understanding in the mountains of Esau?  

Knowledge and understanding will not be enough to create a protective refuge.

(v. 9) Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified, and everyone in Esau’s mountains will be cut down in the slaughter.  

As it was for Edom so it will be for every nation that goes the route of pride.

(v. 10) Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever. 

 The prideful nation must be careful of the form of “justice” it administers, it must be careful about what kind of rationalizations it makes for its military maneuvers.

B.  Aloofness and indifference are forms of Selfish Pride. (11)

 (v. 11) On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.  

There is judgment for the sins of omission as well as the sins of commission.  Aloofness and indifference is the sin of omission.  What motivates this aloof stance? We understand it.  It can be for self-preservation that people refuse to get involved when a crime is taking place.  It can be for self-preservation that the bullies are not stopped.  But such self-preservation will be counted against us. 

Edom was condemned for aloofness toward the exiles (v. 11-12). We as Christians can stand aloof toward some exiles, just as Edom did.  We might stand watching as some fall headlong into sin.  We fail to get involved because that gets complicated.  Sometimes we fail to get involved also out of this sense of self-preservation.  Who are the exiles you stand aloof to?

The attitude of aloofness, as an expression of selfish pride can hit closer to home even than this.  Listen to the one complaining about their marriage "Well, he is simply indifferent to me. He doesn't care about me. He ignores me." Or, "She pays no attention to me. She isn't interested in the things that I am interested in." Isn't it strange that these things can be true in Christian homes? And how quickly it comes in after courtship. During the courtship it is, "What are you thinking about? Tell me what you would like?" But when marriage comes, it is, "Where's dinner? Where is the paper? What's on TV?" And the concern is entirely different. Why? Well, pride is at work. The focus has moved from serving to self-serving, her needs to my needs.  God asks us to look to him for our own character then look to him in order to meet each other’s needs.  Instead we focus on the other’s character flaws, and our own “unmet needs”. 

A Final Destination

On vacation last week I read an interesting philosophical statement written of all places on that great place for public dialogue—a public restroom wall.  It said something like this.  “The destination of life is the discovery that there is no destination.”  Whoa, great philosophy huh?  But this was only the beginning of a public dialogue, because written just below that quote was someone’s reply.  That someone simply etched out the question, “You wanta bet?”  Now If I was the kind of person who etches messages on bathroom stalls, I would have taken out my set of keys and to scratch one more line to keep this great public dialogue going.  The line I would have added would have been, “He already IS betting his life there is no destination.” 

This little book has no small message.  The message shouts to us THE DAY OF THE LORD IS NEAR FOR ALL NATIONS.”  There are consequences.  Life does have a destination.  Today’s decisions do matter.  Don’t be like Edom and ignore God.

II. Deliverance Comes to the Humble (vs. 17-21)

(v. 17)  But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will possess its inheritance.