The Kingdom is the Lord’s
Book of Obadiah
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScnGFMIzeVY
As Christians we’ll have enemies, and our spiritual maturity can be measured by the kind of enemies we have. What we need to make sure of, however, is that our enemies are the same as God’s enemies, and not enemies of our own making.
What I mean is that most of our enemies are those who have hurt, oppose, disagree, or prevent us from doing what we want. They are those who have gossiped about us, have different views than we have. And what this has done is kept our focus off our real enemy, and that is Satan.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12 NKJV)
And to verify this reality, all we need to do is to look at the news, and the evil that is in this world, and the problems, that while they’re happening half way around the world, are negatively affecting our lives. And it’s not other people or people groups, a religion, or even a particular issue; rather it’s Satan and his demonic forces that are behind it all.
And so, to our cry, “How long O Lord?” comes the message of Obadiah, that God is in control and that He is working out His will and purpose through it all, or what He, that is the Lord says through Obadiah at the very end of this vision, “The kingdom shall be the Lord's.” (Obadiah 1:21b NKJV)
Obadiah is actually the shortest book in the Bible (21 verses in total). Now, beyond the prophet’s words, there is little known about Obadiah, except that he prophesied in the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, to the Jews who were now in exile.
And what is interesting, is that in this prophecy the Lord is not addressing the sins of the Jewish people that caused their exile, but rather He was addressing and pronouncing judgment against Israel’s ancient enemy, Edom, a nation that has largely been forgotten by most people today.
The story of this animosity between Israel and Edom goes way back to the book of Genesis and the children that were born to Isaac and Rebekah. In fact, they were twins, Esau and Jacob. It was a fight that actually started in the womb, and when Esau came out first, Jacob was holding on to is heal, as to try to bring him back in.
And while they were growing up, it just got kind of worse, where Jacob eventually stole Esau’s birth right as being the first born, and when Esau found out he wanted to kill him, and so, Jacob fled to his uncle Laban’s house in Mesopotamia. When he eventually returned with his new family, he made peace with Esau, but it wasn’t a peace that was kept by their kids, because their descendants were always at war with with one another.
This is seen when Israel tried to cross their territory in their trek to the Promised Land, but the Edomites said no, and sent out an army to oppose them. But we also see this animosity building because when the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem, Edom joined in with them sharing in the spoils and harassing the Jews afterwards.
This is seen in the prophet Amos’s account when the Lord pronounced judgment against Edom saying, “For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity; his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever.” (Amos 1:11 NKJV)
And this is exactly what Obadiah brings out in verses 12-14.
“But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother in the day of his captivity; nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; nor should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress. You should not have entered the gate of My people in the day of their calamity. Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. You should not have stood at the crossroads to cut off those among them who escaped; nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained in the day of distress.”
Besides their great animosity towards each other, what I find telling is that there’s no record of them serving any gods, like Baal or the gods of the people in the land. And also they never served or followed the Lord God of Abraham and Isaac, their progenitors. You might say they were godless, with the blatant exception of serving and worshipping themselves, that is, they made themselves into their own gods.
But what caused this pronouncement of judgment by God against them? What made them into an enemy of God? In a word, pride.
Pride
Pride was at the heart of the Edomite people. This is seen at the very outset of Obadiah’s vision.
“The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; you who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down," says the Lord.” (Obadiah 1:3-4 NKJV)
The Edomites were a proud people. But God doesn’t stand such pride. Solomon said that pride was the first thing that God hated the most. In Proverbs 6:16-19, Solomon said, “These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”
Notice now how God deals with pride as Obadiah goes on to say, about them at the end of verse 4, “I will bring you down.”
If I could, I’d like to go back to Solomon and his overall summation of how God deals with pride saying, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18 NKJV)
The terrible thing about pride is how it traps and trips us up. Our only problem is that we don’t recognize it until it is too late. But Solomon gives us a way out of our prideful ways and our prideful condition.
“Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” (Proverbs 16:19 NKJV)
Now, from Obadiah’s vision this pride is revealed in several ways
First it begins with a False Sense of Security
We see this with the Edomites in not only where they lived, but in their fortress and capital city.
The land where they dwelt was south of the Dead Sea, and a land that really no one wanted. It was a land of bare mountains and desert. It was a land that was both hard and relentless.
Now to get a sense of Edom, how many of you remember the movie, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?” At the end of the movie, as they tracked down the Holy Grail, they entered through a long windy narrow gorge to find a lost city. Where they filmed this scene was the ancient city of Petra, the capital of Edom, which the people of Edom considered to be invincible.
But there is a price to pay when we trust in our own abilities and strength and fail to trust in the Lord God. Isaiah brings this out in chapter 31.
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!” (Isaiah 31:1 NKJV)
In the end, when we trust in our own abilities and strength, and not the Lord, there is only disaster and defeat which we see happening to the Edomites. Even after helping the Babylonians, the Babylonians then moved against them, and they were defeated. And then the nation just east of Edom, Nabatu, migrated west and were able to oust the Edomites from the land. And those who were left, small remnant, moved into the south of Judah, where they became known as the Idumeans.
(Now as a side note, they were still considered a people group during the time of Jesus, and still took pleasure at sticking it to the Jews, as King Herod the Great was a Idumean.)
And what we see is that this confederacy of nations, their political allies, turned against them, which Obadiah prophecies about.
“All the men in your confederacy shall force you to the border; the men at peace with you shall deceive you and prevail against you. Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap for you. No one is aware of it.” (Obadiah 1:7 NKJV)
But their false sense of security is also seen in their belief in their economy. They were highly dependent on outside trade, because they could grow little produce, which were limited to grapes and olives around those regions that were watered by natural springs. Everything else had to be traded for, and they were able to raise these funds through toll fees for people to pass through their lands. They had what today we would call a protection racket. Pay or you do not pass. You see, Edom sat on the major throughway from Egypt to the lands north of them, including the Land of Israel.
This is why we know that the animosity was so intense between the Edomites and Jews. When the Jews were on their way to the Promised Land from their Egyptian bondage, they wanted passage through Edom, and while it would make great economic sense, they refused and sent their army to stop them (Numbers 20).
But through Obadiah, the Lord explained how the Edomite economy was a house of cards.
“If thieves had come to you, if robbers by night -- Oh, how you will be cut off! Would they not have stolen till they had enough? If grape-gatherers had come to you, would they not have left some gleanings? Oh, how Esau shall be searched out! How his hidden treasures shall be sought after!” (Obadiah 1:5 NKJV)
Thus, through Obadiah, the Lord was prophesying their defeat and the complete plundering of their nation, and their eventual eviction from their land, a land to which they never returned.
Their Attitude of Self-Sufficiency
Through Obadiah the Lord said, “‘Will I not in that day,’ says the Lord, ‘Even destroy the wise men from Edom, and understanding from the mountains of Esau?’” (Obadiah 1:8 NKJV)
Now, when someone doesn’t know God, they really don’t know much. Now, the Edomites were known for their wisdom, but not the wisdom of God. We see this in one of Job’s counselors, Eliphaz the Temanite, who was from Teman, a city of Edom.
Now, while Eliphaz seemed to know about theology, and about God, He never had the wisdom of God, and in the end, He was, like the others, rebuked by God for his ungodly counsel. In other words, while he may have known the words, his wisdom was completely devoid of any understanding of God.
Teman seemed to have been known for its sages and wise men, but during the time of Jeremiah it all vanished. In Jeremiah 49:7 it says, “Against Edom. Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Is wisdom no more in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom vanished?’”
This is what was pointed out earlier, in that they never served the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but only served and worshipped themselves. They trusted in themselves and their own worldly wisdom that ruled out any and all dependance on God.
Now, let me return to Solomon and look now at what he said in Proverbs 3:7. “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil.”
But it is the Apostles Paul and James that had the most to say about this.
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness.’” (1 Corinthians 3:19 NKJV)
James then contrasts worldly wisdom with godly wisdom saying that worldly wisdom is both sensual and demonic. But then he goes on to say this about godly wisdom.
“The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” (James 3:17 NKJV)
Now, please notice that I haven’t gotten all that far in this book, and there is so much more that can be talked about. But for our time I’d like to look at how this all applies to our lives.
God is in Control
As we look back over human history, we see God’s hand move, as the proud and godless nations are exposed and disposed of. Every great kingdom of the past that has dominated the world and human history are no longer great nor in power.
And now, think about America and what will be our end if we continue in our pride and arrogance to flaunt our independence, especially as it affects our relationship with God! Like Edom, we’re moving closer and closer to becoming a godless nation, where we hold ourselves, our economy, and our wisdom as superior to God, and live in complete rebellion to His word.
I think Ruth Graham Bell, wife of Billy Graham summed it up the best after she had read what her husband had written about abortion and the immorality of our nation. She said, “If God does not bring judgment upon the United States, he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorra.”
And so, it all comes down to Obadiah’s last words. “The Kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” That is, God is still in control and is working out His will and His purpose through all that we go through. Literally, what we can say is the history is His story, that is God’s story.
Further, seeing that God is in control of it all, He is the one who distributes what we need, and He can just as easily give it as He can take it away, which is a truth brought out by no one less than Job.
“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21 NKJV)
Next, what I see in our text, and what we need to be careful of is the danger of self-sufficiency.
The Danger of Self-Sufficiency
Now, besides our pride and arrogance, we also see the nation of Edom in our own country’s attitude of self-sufficiency.
One of the ways is in our belief that we don’t need God, that we can do it ourselves and that we’re doing just fine without Him. Just take a look at how our laws are changing from the morals as found in God’s word to that of now our laws being essentially moral-less. It’s also where we are trusting in our own abilities and talents to be successful.
Yet, one look at what is going on in our nation dismantles this belief that we’re capable of doing it on our own as violence and immorality are at an all time high, and diseases are running rampant, with hundreds of thousands dying. And our economy is a house of cards that could come tumbling down at any time. Literally our national debt is well above our ability to pay it off.
And the church is no better. I think that Jesus sums up today’s church in his description of the church of Laodicea, the last church he wrote to in the book of Revelation. It is a church that believes that they’ve got it all down, and that they don’t need God.
He said, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’-- and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:17 NKJV)
And so, we need to hear what Jesus tells us to hear, and that is what the Holy Spirit is speaking to the church today. These were actually His last words this church.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 3:22 NKJV)
The next area we need to be careful about and that which is seen in Obadiah is the danger of misplaced or wrong alignments.
The Danger of Wrong Alignments
We see this wrong alignment going on in our country, with those allies that neither know God and against what He stands for. Edom tried this approach, and it landed them being conquered and removed from the land where they are no longer even a people group.
Look at what the Bible says when it comes to alignment with others.
“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14 NKJV)
Now, there are also those within the church that aren’t crazy about this verse because it messes around with their perceived happiness. And so, they speak negatively about pastors, teachers, and counselors who they believe are way too negative and legalistic when they bring up this verse.
I remember one person whom I talked to about this, and their response to me was, “Church is church, but business is business.” That is, our faith should never encroach upon our business and the decisions we have to make in business. But in the end, their business never really took off, and when it came to my business, my partner, who was part of my family, didn’t believe, and in the end our business suffered and eventually went down as a direct result of his way of doing business.
Please know that there is a fundamental difference between the way of God and the way of the world, and the two are irreconcilable, just as light is to darkness and righteousness is to unrighteousness.
One church historian put it like this, “The church never had so much influence on the world as when she kept herself aloof from it. A church conformed to the world will never lead it; she must be separate if she would live.”
And the last area from the book of Obadiah that I’d like to talk about is the fiery judgments that are coming.
God’s Fiery Judgements
Let me end with this one last observation from Obadiah. It is found in verses 17-18.
“But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame; but the house of Esau shall be stubble; they shall kindle them and devour them, and no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,’ for the Lord has spoken.” (Obadiah 1:17-18)
The image of fire speaks of God’s judgment. To Judah, the flame will be that of a refiner’s fire that will purge the nation and the people of their uncleanliness, that is, their sin. But to Edom this fire will destroy them, like fire consumes the stubble that is left behind and or chaff that is separated from the wheat.
This is exactly what we see in the history of both nations. While Edom and its people have perished, the Jews have returned to their land and are flourishing. But I think this speaks of a further deliverance for all those who come to faith in Jesus Christ, which is seen when Obadiah said that on Mt. Zion there shall be deliverance, as it was upon Mt. Zion that Jesus was crucified.
• The deliverance of Israel restored them to the land of promise, whereas the deliverance that Jesus brings restores those who believe into a personal relationship with God, with heaven as their eventual home.
• The deliverance of Israel resulted in a return to holiness and righteousness based upon the keeping of the law, which we have seen is impossible to do, whereas the deliverance Jesus brings is a return to holiness and righteousness based upon the holiness of God and of the righteousness that is in Christ alone.
• And the deliverance of Israel was the power to subdue their enemies, whereas the deliverance of Jesus gives those who believe the power over sin and death, and over the gates of hell itself.
Conclusion
And so, through Obadiah, God is giving full voice to a kingdom principle, and that is, because of God’s overwhelming grace, mercy, and love, He is giving to us today, like He gave to the Ninevites in Jonah’s day and the Edomites in Obadiah’s day, time to repent, before judgment comes. The Ninevites took advantage of God’s grace and mercy, by repenting and lived, whereas the Edomites in their pride didn’t, and they perished.
And so now it’s our turn. What about us?
I’d like to end with this simple admonition from Andrew Murray, Christian pastor, author, and teacher, who said, “Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.”
We must die to our pride if we ever want heaven to live inside
