FAMILY FEUD
Obadiah
INTRODUCTION:
A. The nation of Edom and the nation of Israel can trace their
beginnings back to two twin brothers
1. Edom traces their beginning back to Esau and Israel
traces their beginning back to Jacob
2. As you look at these two brothers, you find a less than
cordial relationship
a. Esau, the oldest was his father’s favorite-- Jacob, his
mother’s favorite was the youngest
b. Because of the parents showing their favoritism, there
was competition between the two sons
3. That competition led to two incidents that had far
reaching consequences
a. Jacob desired the family blessing and birthright which
was supposed to go to the oldest son
b. Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of red stew
c. Jacob later tricked Isaac into giving him the blessing
B. After all was said and done, Esau was left with a hatred for
Jacob
1. Jacob had to run away from home for a period of twenty
years before his brother’s anger subsided
2. But, the animosity between the two brothers was passed
down to the nations that bore their names
a. Edom would later refused Israel passage through their
land when they came out of Egypt
b. Edom would later take their revenge of Israel and join
the Babylonians in attaching and defeating Israel
3. As a result of their refusal to forgive their brother, God
sent Obadiah with this message about His revenge on
them
I. THE DANGER OF REFUSING TO FORGIVE
A. An unforgiving spirit can be passed on to others
1. What started out between just Jacob and Esau was passed
on for centuries down to their off spring
2. An unforgiving spirit can spread like leaven and affect:
a. An entire family
b. An entire church
c. A business, school, etc.
3. When an unforgiving spirit affects a group, people in that
group have a tendency to take up an offense and take
sides
a. The result is division in a church which the Holy Spirit
cannot work in
b. Bitterness, anger and envy which kills any spirit of joy
and praise
4. An unforgiving spirit, passed on to others, leaves scars
that often never go away
B. The danger of refusing to forgive can also be seen in how
we take revenge
1. The Bible tells us that when one who offends us will not
make it right, that we are to:
a. Forgive them from the heart-- this is for our sake and
our good
b. Pray for those who hurt us and despitefully use us
c. Turn them over to God and leave vengeance up to Him
2. When we don’t forgive, we will seek to avenge ourselves
3. When we take vengeance into our own hands, we will
adopt the world’s ways
a. Edom went in with the ungodly Babylonians to get their
vengeance v. 10-14
b. When we seek to avenge ourselves, we may be tempted
to slander and lie about another person
c. When we seek to avenge ourselves, we may be tempted
to take advantage of them
4. When we take vengeance in our own hands and adopt the
world’s way to do it, God will have to deal with our sin
as well as their’s
a. That is what the book of Obadiah is all about
b. Don’t let self righteous pride cause us to think that God
won’t deal with us v. 3-4
5. His dealing with our sin can then embitter us
II. GOD’S DESIRE FOR HIS CHILDREN IS THAT WE
FORGIVE
A. When we forgive, we are being like Him
1. Jesus has forgiven us
a. Jesus has forgiven us of offenses we committed out of
ignorance-- we sometimes offend people and don’t
intend to and don’t even realize it
b. Jesus also has forgiven us of the times when we
knowingly and rebelliously offended Him
2. Notice how Jesus made this forgiveness possible
a. We hurt and offended Him, yet He stepped in and paid
the price of our offenses
b. We hurt and offended Him yet he stepped up and made
the first move toward reconciliation-- seen in His
dealings with Adam and Eve
3. Jesus’ forgiveness brings about a reconciliation and
restores a broken relationship
4. The basis for our forgiving others is the forgiveness that
we have received from Christ-- parable of the unforgiving
servant
B. God desires that we forgive in order to show others who
Jesus is
1. It was Stephen’s forgiveness of the ones who stoned him
that led Paul to see who Jesus was
2. Believers can only reach a lost world as we model God’s
truth before them
3. Modeling forgiveness would go a long way to bring
people to Christ
CONCLUSION:
A. If God’s family can’t model forgiveness, then why should a
lost world believe us when we talk about Jesus forgiving
sin
B. God expects us to forgive one another
C. The consequences are too high not too
