Obadiah 15-21
The Day of the Lord
Introduction
Tonight as we finish our study in the book of Obadiah, let’s briefly review what we’ve learned so far. We learned that the book dealt with God’s judgment on the nation of Edom for its sin of pride. Edom is the nation that descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob. The two brothers maintained great animosity toward one another for many years, and though they seemed to finally make peace, the two resulting nations continued with these feelings of animosity. Remember that Edom refused to allow Israel passage through their land when they were trying to reach the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses.
God said in Malachi that He hated Esau, and the reason He hated Esau, or Edom was because of their pride. They were proud of their national defenses, their strong allies and their superior wisdom, and that pride was manifested in their treatment of their brother Israel when the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar. When Babylon descended on Jerusalem, the Edomites stood by watching. They laughed and mocked and even encouraged the enemy to destroy the place. When the battle was over they went into the city themselves to steal and loot anything that was left behind, and then in a final display of hatred they rounded up all the refugees they encountered and handed them over to the Babylonians.
How did God feel about all of this? Well, that’s what we’re going to find out in verses 15-21. Let’s read the rest of this little book and see what Obadiah said to Edom, but as we do, I want to point out some important lessons that we need to learn from what is said.
“For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been. But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it. And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain of the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south. And saviors shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.”
Notice the first little word in this section. It is the word for. It means because. Now go back to verse 12. You, Edom, should not have…Verse 13, you should not have…Verse 14, you should not have…Obadiah tells the Edomites quite plainly that they shouldn’t have acted so violently toward their brother Israel, and why? Why should they not have done all they did? Because the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen.
That’s quite a statement. Listen, if you think for a moment that God doesn’t remember our behavior, we ought to think again. The Edomites practiced this animosity toward their brothers for centuries, and while they might have thought they were getting away with it God was keeping His record.
Ecclesiastes 8:11 says,
“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
Why doesn’t He always execute judgment immediately then? The Bible says that the “Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.” It says that “The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.” Why doesn’t the Lord execute judgment right away? Because He is longsuffering and He gives us space to repent and turn toward Him. Why didn’t He just wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah when He first wanted to? Why didn’t He just clean the city of Nineveh right off the face of the earth? Why did He bother with a Jonah? Because His desire is repentance, not judgment.
Edom would not repent though, and because they wouldn’t repent, Obadiah told them that the day of the Lord was near upon all the heathen, or nations. Now we consider this a split prophecy, because it had an immediate fulfillment on the nation of Edom, but its ultimate fulfillment will take place when the Lord returns.
Edom, which was once a very rich and prosperous nation, is now a barren land. It is a wasteland and its people are gone. Notice one of the laws of God that we don’t pay much attention to in verse 15.
“As you have done, it shall be done unto you: your reward shall return upon your own head.”
Wow! How often do we think of that? We know the Golden Rule – “Do unto others as we would have them do unto us.” But we need to remember this rule as well – whatever we do to others will be brought back to us. Can we be certain God holds us to that rule? Look at James 2:12-13 for a New Testament example of the Lord’s teaching. What does James say about our actions toward others being returned upon our own heads? He said that if we are unmerciful to others, we can expect the same treatment from the Lord. Isn’t it funny that we want God to punish others for their sinful acts, but when we sin against Him we cry out for mercy? Isn’t it funny that we hold on to anger and bitterness because of the sins of others against us, but then we sin against God and expect Him to forgive us?
This doesn’t just apply to Edom, or even to us, because Obadiah said that the day of the Lord was near upon all the nations. If you’ll look over to verse 19, you’ll see a list begun of some of these nations – the mount of Esau, the Philistines, Ephraim, Samaria, Benjamin, Gilead, Zarephath and Sepharad. We have the feeling that Obadiah could have expanded this list indefinitely; and if this is the case, then he could have included our own or any other nation as well…It is a tragedy of nations that their people somehow think themselves exempt from the judgments that have overtaken others…The day comes when God will judge everyone.
Verse 16 then goes on to say…
“For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.”
When Jerusalem fell, the Edomites entered the city and began to rejoice, plundering the goods. In other words, they went into God’s capital city and partied – they “drank on God’s holy mountain.” Then we read something interesting. Just as Edom went in and drank on God’s holy mountain, all the nations will drink continually and they shall be as though they had not been. What does that mean? For an answer, let’s look at Jeremiah 25. Read with me beginning in verse 15.
“For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me…(27) Therefore thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; drink ye, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, thus saith the Lord of hosts; ye shall certainly drink.”
Edom, Obadiah says with poetic justice, along with the other nations, is going to drink again. But this time the cup will not hold wine. It will be the cup of the wrath of God. If we are to learn anything from all of this, it ought to be that Edom wasn’t singled out for its enmity against God’s people Israel, which was really enmity against God Himself. Whatever form wicked pride takes; pride is an affront to God, and God will judge all who refuse to humble themselves.
Isaiah said that “the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:” Ezekiel said, “For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.” There are a number of other places in the Scripture that speak about the day of the Lord, and many of them mention another fact that Obadiah points out – the day of the Lord is near.
Now, here is a problem for some people. Obadiah wrote this almost 600 years before the birth of Christ, and now it has been around 2600 years since he wrote it. How could he possibly say that the day of the Lord was near when he wrote it that long ago and the Lord still hasn’t returned?
Just to make sure we’re on the same page, remember that the day of the Lord he is speaking of is the one we studied a short while back in 1 Thessalonians 5, the day when Jesus returns to this earth to execute judgment on the nations. It is the day when He returns to set up His kingdom and establish righteousness. It is the day when people will see Him not as the Lamb of God but as the Lion of the tribe of Judah with a rod of iron in His hand. In that day the nations of the earth will be destroyed and all earthly governments will be put down. I think of what Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:44-45.
“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”
So, the nations will be destroyed in the day of the Lord, but getting back to what Obadiah said, how can it be that His day is near? Certainly for Edom it was. Edom was most likely put down when Nebuchadnezzar marched through that land to get to Egypt. They probably used the same route that the Israelites tried to use when they were refused passage. Knowing that these were a thieving and wicked people, Nebuchadnezzar couldn’t afford to just leave them alone. They most likely subjugated the Edomites, killing off many of them and capturing a good many more, but they didn’t wipe them out because we find that later on in Israel’s history, during the time of the Maccabees that there were still Edomites that had to be dealt with, and then of course during the time of Christ there were still Edomites living, such as the Herods. During the siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, when the temple was destroyed, the Zealots, a group that the Apostle Simon was identified with, sent for the Edomites, who only added further torment to the destruction of Jerusalem. After this battle their name disappears from history. Most of them perished during the Jewish extermination that accompanied the siege and destruction of Jerusalem.
But what about the rest of the nations? They were not all dealt with at that time. If you will permit me to, I’d like to read from what the writer James Montgomery Boice said about this passage. I think he did an excellent job of explaining this idea of nearness.
“…we need to understand that the Bible’s view of nearness is more what we would intend by the word “imminence.” That is, the judgment is near in the sense that it can occur at any moment. Imminent means “threatening to occur immediately, impending.” An imminent event does not necessarily occur immediately, but it could. Therefore one must be ready for it.
“An illustration may help. Imagine that a preacher is talking to a large congregation and that, as he begins, he places his Bible on the pulpit so that it is hanging out over the edge. This Bible is very precariously balanced. Although the preacher is not aware of it himself, the congregation notices what has happened and is anxiously wondering when the Bible will fall. No one knows when it will fall. It might sit there throughout the sermon. But, on the other hand, the preacher might jar the pulpit or even knock the Bible off deliberately. The situation is critical. When the preacher is speaking quietly and is not touching the pulpit, the congregation relaxes somewhat. When he gets louder and begins to thump the pulpit, they become worried.
“This is the sense in which God’s judgment is near, not only to nations but to every one of us. There are times when things are quiet and we do not anticipate the judgment so much. At other times we hear of wars and rumors of wars, the sea of the nations is troubled, and we wonder if God’s final intervention in history may not be just around the corner. We become anxious. But notice: Judgment is no less near in quiet times than in stormy ones. At any moment God may set the wheels of his final reckoning in order. That is why we must prepare for the Day of the Lord and be ready through faith in Jesus our Savior. Jesus himself said, “Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.””
So, there’s the day of the Lord and His judgment on the nations – what happens to Jerusalem and God’s people Israel? Read verses 17, 18 and 21 with me again.
“But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it…And saviors shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.”
While Edom could only look forward to doom and destruction, verse 17 says that there’s going to be deliverance on mount Zion, which is sort of a poetic name for Jerusalem. When is Obadiah talking about? When is this time that God is going to give deliverance to His own people, bless them and enable them to possess all this land mentioned in verses 19-20? It is the time of the millennial reign of Christ! It is the time that follows the day of the Lord, when Christ our Savior is going to put down all the heathen nations and exalt His own people and sit on His throne!
Those days will be characterized by true holiness. There is no true holiness in our world today – we can write all the laws we want and govern people with an iron fist, but sinful people will be sinful people and no matter what we do we won’t change that. Even God’s people in His churches struggle daily with real holiness. They always have! You can’t find a period in all of history since the fall when the world hasn’t been characterized by lawlessness and wickedness, but in that day, the day when God will bring deliverance, when the kingdom shall be the Lord’s, the Bible says that Christ will rule and reign with righteousness!
Obadiah saw the Hebrew nation resettled in the Promised Land. Their sifting time will be over forever, the Jewish people will fully possess all the territory that God promised to Abraham. Holiness will be established throughout the kingdom, and the teachings of Jesus will stand as good and right for all the world. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to the day that Christ returns and sets up His kingdom. I’m looking forward to the day when God is going to sort things out and punish unrighteousness. Sometimes we can feel like Asaph when he wrote Psalm 73 – he noticed that the wicked and unrighteous enjoyed good lives and godly people were stricken, but God’s Word tells us and Obadiah shows us that in the end God is going to sort all of that out and His people will be eternally blessed!
Why hasn’t the Lord returned yet? Why hasn’t He come to judge the nations? We already mentioned it, but God is so gracious – every moment He delays His coming is a moment for people and nations to repent – even people like you and me. God is delaying the ultimate working out of His judgment on many nations until those who respond to the gospel in faith come to Him.
If you have never placed your faith in Christ – you should do so today. Turn to Christ in repentance and faith and be saved today. If you are a believer, then search your heart and repent of any trace of pride or any other sin, no matter how small you might think it is. One thing ought to be abundantly clear from our study of this book today – God doesn’t see things like we do – so don’t judge your spiritual condition by your brother or sister, but by every good and perfect Word of God!
