Brother vs. Brother By Alan Vaughn
Text: Obadiah 1:12-14 (New International Version, ©2011)
12 You should not gloat over 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 gloat over 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.
Intro: It is absolutely amazing how something that started out as an argument between brothers ended up as a feud between nations
.
Last Sunday Morning we finished our background on Jacob and Esau.
We were led to believe that Esau had forgiven his brother and all was forgotten, however when we get to the prophet Obadiah we find that there is still hard feeling between the two nations.
Remember what was said in the book of Genesis about how the brothers parted.
Genesis 33:4 (New International Version, ©2011)
4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.
So how did we come to this hatred between the two nations that seemed to be all but resolved at the time of their reunion?
Or did Esau forgive his brother Jacob?
Genesis 27:41 (New International Version, ©2011)
41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
What we see in the verses of the book of Obadiah is bigger than just two nations at war with each other.
When we read the prophecy and put in the context of the New Testament we see that it is the same struggle that Jesus taught about.
Matthew 16:23 (New International Version, ©2011)
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
The same that Paul preached about in 2nd Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 12:6-8 (New International Version, ©2011)
6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
I. What causes the world to be divided into two groups?
I know that the first thing you are going to say is there are a lot more than two groups of people on this earth and you would be right in secular terms and definitions.
Once again however we can be assured that how we see things is not how God sees thing from heaven above.
Remember how Esau seemed to be the one who got mistreated by the standards of the world.
Remember how we thought that Jacob was the one who didn’t fit in with the way good people ought to act.
What the world thinks and what God thinks are usually two entirely different things.
ILL. Remember how the people talked about Jesus when he was consorting with Tax Collectors.
Matthew 11:19 (New International Version, ©2011)
19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”
So as the world sees people, we have at least one group of people in this old world those who are always right about everything! Ha! Ha!
What we know for sure from the scripture is there are two kinds of people in this world.
The first kinds of people are the ones who are prideful and self-sufficient. These are the ones who are intelligent and to well off to have a need for God.
These are the kinds of people that the Edomites were. Let’s take a closer look at what are the characteristics’ of a person from the line of Esau or a person from the country of Edom.
First in order to be from the Nation of Edom, you have to have a prideful heart.
Obadiah 1:3 (New International Version, ©2011)
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?’
They are above the judgment of God or so they think. How many people today think that they are above the judgment of The Almighty God in Heaven.
How many people think that they have so much power and prestige that no judgment will ever touch them in their high and lofty position?
Even some beings in heaven think that they are a match for the almighty God in Heaven.
Isaiah chapter 14 has a lot to say about a certain someone that is high ranking in the kingdom of heaven. This certain someone also had a prideful heart.
Isaiah 14:12-15 (New International Version, ©2011)
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.[a]
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit.
So, here we have the nation of Edom, a reflection of Satan’s willful and prideful heart here in the world where we live.
This is the true heart of a person with the heart and mind of someone from the line of Edom.
The second thing we see about someone from line of Edom is that they are greedy and gluttons, another words they want everything that is theirs and everything that is not theirs.
Obadiah 1:13 (New International Version, ©2011)
13 You should not march through the gates of my people
in the day of their disaster,
nor gloat over them in their calamity
in the day of their disaster,
nor seize their wealth
in the day of their disaster.
This is the kind of people that God will destroy this is the kinds of people that can never be made happy this is the kinds of people that we believe will have no inheritance in the kingdom of heaven.
II. Then we have the second kind of people, the people that are not perfect, the people that have problems, and the people that the world says of them you are not our kind of people.
These are the type of people that usually have a heart for God and Jesus.
These people are God’s people.
Obadiah 1:10 (New International Version, ©2011)
10 Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
you will be covered with shame;
you will be destroyed forever.
Because of the sins against God’s people judgment will fall on the ungodly or the people who don’t know God.
The world may mistreat you today but God will take care of it for you.
The world may knock you Down but God will take care of you.
Revelation 22:12-16 (New International Version, ©2011)
Epilogue: Invitation and Warning
12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you[a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
God will send his avenger his judge upon the earth.
His name is JESUS!!!!
Invitation:
A SECOND CHANCE
Some years ago, two teenagers with a long history of crime and misbehavior robbed a YMCA on the lowest East Side of New York City. On the way out they saw a young man at the telephone switchboard. They were frightened and assumed that the man must be calling the police. They held and beat him violently with brass knuckles and a black jack. They thought he was dead; they hid him behind the swimming pool and escaped.
Later that evening, a woman who came to swim was walking by the pool. She slipped in the man’s blood, screamed, and then found Donald Tippet’s body. He lived, but one eye was so badly damaged that it could not be saved.
Meanwhile, the two teenagers were seized and brought to trial.
Their past records assured that both would get long sentences. Donald Tippet did an amazing thing when he called for that the judge allows the two young men to be paroled to his charge. He wanted to give them another chance. He believed they could change.
One of the boys committed another crime, was caught, and sent to jail.
The other boy was receptive to Tippet’s kindness. He went to college and then to medical school.
He became one of our nation’s leading eye surgeons. A reporter, writing about Donald Tippet’s amazing story of forgiveness, said of the surgeon’s deeds: "I wonder if he ever performs one of those delicate eye operations without thinking of that night in the YMCA and the young man whose forgiveness changed his life!"
Hebrews Chapter 12 says:
Hebrews 12:2 (New International Version, ©2011)
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
This morning fix your eyes upon Jesus as we stand and sing.
