It was a tragedy; the city of God was attacked and destroyed. The holy things were profaned the sacred things were destroyed and the people were imprisoned. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise for over a hundred years the prophets had been warning the people that if they continued in their evil ways that God would remove his hand of protection from their nation and bad things would happen. They didn’t, he did and sure enough bad things happened. The people of Israel, God’s chosen people were conquered by the Babylonians and taken into captivity. Their holy city Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple was devastated. Under King David and then his son Solomon Israel had been one of the most powerful forces in the ancient world. The temple they built to honour God was spoken of throughout the known world. And now it was all in ruins. And the sad part was this wasn’t the way it was supposed to be, Israel was supposed to remain prosperous and her people were supposed to remain free, but now that’s not what happened.
And whose fault was that? Well some might have blamed God, after all he was supposed to be in control, and he was supposed to be taking care of his people. So if he didn’t then he must be at fault. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Well maybe, or not.
If I was to tell you, “You shouldn’t play on the street because it’s really dangerous and if you play on the street there’s a pretty good chance that you will get run over and could get hurt really bad.” And you say “tough, I’ll play where ever I want to play and you’re not going to stop me, nah, nah, nah.” And then you go out and play on the street and get hit by a car and get hurt really bad, whose fault is that? Perhaps you would say, “Well you could have stopped me if you’d really wanted to. You could have tied me up and not let me go out on the street, or you could have been more forceful in your arguments, so then maybe I would have believed you.” Would that have made it my fault? No, it was your choice and you made it and so you have to own the consequences.
God had sent prophet after prophet to tell the people of Israel that if they did not change their evil ways, if they didn’t stop worshipping false gods and living morally bankrupt lives that they would have to pay the consequences. And they chose to ignore that message and sometimes even punished the messenger. Do you remember what Jesus said about Jerusalem? No? Let me remind you, Matthew 23:37 “ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! And people say that Halifax is a tough city to have a church in.
As a result of Israel’s gross disobedience God removed his hand of protection and the Babylonians swept in and conquered the Kingdom. It was not a pretty picture. And I’m sure that many people blamed God and wondered if he had fallen off his throne and whether or not he was even still in control.
And that is the situation that Obadiah is addressing in the 31st book of the Old Testament. The author is named, obviously Obadiah and that’s all we know about him. His name means Servant of Jehovah. There are a dozen people by this name mentioned in the Bible but there is not indication that they are the prophet. Obadiah may seem like a strange name now but it was probably fairly common then. When was then? The book was probably written somewhere between 605 and 587 BC.
Why was it written? Interesting concept here. Obadiah is pronouncing Judgement upon Edom. While most of the prophets wrote directly to the Israelites this particular book is addressed to their neighbours the Edomites, or people of Edom. And it would appear that God is not very happy with them. We gotta go back to the beginning of the story to see what’s happening here.
So let’s go back, way back. You might recall that the story of the people of Israel began with Abraham who was told that he and his wife would have a child, even though they were in their nineties, and while that might seem a little far fetched they had a son whom they called Isaac. Isaac grew up and got married and he and his wife Rebekah had paternal twin boys, that’s non identical. One son was named Jacob, a name that would later be changed to Israel and the other’s son’s name was Esau. And there’s a whole story there that I will tell you later on. Esau also had a nickname because of his ruddy complexion and reddish hair he was call Red, well actually that would have been a little strange because nobody around him spoke English so they would have had no idea what people were calling him, what they actually called him was the Hebrew word for red which was Edom.
Let’s pull up a map here. A few familiar places here, Lebanon, Syria, and this is where Israel and his family ultimately settled, they would eventually be called the Israelites and here in what we know of as Jordon is where Edom and his family settled, they would eventually be known as the Edomites. Still with me? If you are familiar with the book of Genesis then you know the story of Jacob’s sons, remember Joseph and his coat of many colours. And you’ll remember how eventually Jacob and his entire extended family ended up moving to Egypt during a great famine. And there the people of Israel lived for four hundred years and they multiplied until they were perceived to be a threat by the leaders of Egypt and forced into slavery. Sounding familiar? God calls a man by the name of Moses to lead his people to the Promised Land, the land that God had given Abraham and his descendents.
So, the people of Israel are going home, to the land of Milk and honey, their journey leads them to the land of Edom and Moses sends this message to the King. Numbers 20:14-17 “This message is from your relatives, the people of Israel: You know all the hardships we have been through, and that our ancestors went down to Egypt. Yada, yada, yada, Please let us pass through your country. We will be careful not to go through your fields and vineyards. We won’t even drink water from your wells. We will stay on the king’s road and never leave it until we have crossed the opposite border.”
Sounds fair to me, and the King replied in Numbers 20:18 But the king of Edom said, “Stay out of my land or I will meet you with an army!” Essh, what a grouch. And so the Israelites were forced to make a detour around Edom. Fast forward a few hundred years and David is now king of Israel and is doing very well as King, 2 Samuel 8:14 He placed army garrisons throughout Edom, and all the Edomites became David’s subjects. This was another example of how the Lord made David victorious wherever he went. Now eventually after the reign of David and later his son Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was divided and Edom became a separate nation again. But there was this friction back and forth between what essentially amounted to distant cousins.
Now let’s go back to our story, Israel refuses to submit to God, they have begun to worship false gods and flaunt the laws of the true God. And God removes his hand of protection from Israel and the Babylonians conquer them. And that really isn’t what this letter is about. We can debate the entire concept of God allowing the Israelites as a whole to be punished for the sins of the nation, we can question what that says about their relationship with God and His relationship with them. What we do know is that Israel was the nation of God and he had great expectations for them. He also had great expectations of them. He had basically told them, if you do this, then this will happen, if you do that then that will happen. Obey me and worship me and you will prosper as a nation, disobey me and worship other gods and you are in deep doo doo.
But this prophecy isn’t directed toward Israel it’s directed toward Edom, and it’s not a turn or burn type prophecy. Obadiah isn’t doing the usual prophet thing of saying, “If you continue on your path of destruction you will be destroyed but if you turn to God you will be spared.” Nope this prophecy offers no hope to Edom at all. There is no escape clause here. This is not someone telling the Captain of the Titanic, “If you continue to sail through these waters at this speed and if you don’t post a sharp look out you are in serious danger.” Nope this is someone telling the captain of the Titanic, “You didn’t pay attention, you have hit an iceberg and torn the side out of your ship and now you are toast.”
Obadiah uses extreme language, he says every thing will be destroyed, nothing will be left, everyone will turn against Edom, they will have no allies and no friends. And finally Obadiah says “You will disappear from history as though you had never even existed.” Homer Hailey said “By 100 AD the people of Edom had become lost to history” And Stuart Briscoe made this observation “If you travel today in the region of Edom, you will find nothing but the most stark wilderness and the most isolated emptiness ..... it is one of the most formidable, forsaken spots on earth” As a matter of fact here is a photo of what Edom looks like now.
So what was it that Edom did that stirred the wrath of God and what can we learn from them. Because as my Daddy says “Everyone is good for something even if it’s being a bad example.”
The first thing we discover about the Edomites is that 1) They Wouldn’t let it go. This isn’t or wasn’t a new problem. As we mentioned earlier the bad blood between the Israelites and the Edomites goes back fifteen hundred years. It was the story I mentioned earlier, the one about the twins Jacob and Esau. You see even with twins one is a little bit older, my dad is ten minutes younger then his twin. In this case the older was Esau and he was born with his twin literally at his heels, but it didn’t matter. Esau was the oldest and as such he received all the perks of being the first born. And the two things that made being the first born so important was 1) the birthright and 2) the father’s blessing. Remember the story when they were young men Esau had been out hunting and Jacob was home cooking, don’t ask. Esau comes home starving and demands some of the stew that Jacob had whipped up and Jacob said no problem, I’ll trade you my stew for your birthright. Esau says , “Look I’m dying of starvation, what good is my birthright to me now?” Now I have no doubt that Esau was hungry, but dying of starvation? He obviously wasn’t as good a hunter as his brother was a cook. And so Esau trades away his birthright for a bowl of Jacob’s stew.
The second part of the story comes when the boy’s father, Isaac, was old and blind. And he told Esau to bring him a meal and that he would pronounce his blessing upon his son. Jacob finds out, prepares a meal dresses up like Esau and tricks his father into blessing him.
Needless to say Esau was a little upset. Just a little, this is what it says in Genesis 27:41 Esau hated Jacob because he had stolen his blessing, and he said to himself, “My father will soon be dead and gone. Then I will kill Jacob.”
Now I’m not condoning what Jacob did. The birthright thing, fine, a deals a deal and if Esau wanted to trade his future for a bowl of soup more power to him. But the blessing that was a little sleazy. But come on people it’s been fifteen hundred years, let it go. I’m sure that through the generations that the Edomites would talk about how the Jews had what really should have been theirs. And how that scoundrel Jacob had tricked poor innocent Esau. Hey folks, get over it.
Maybe they should have listened to Confucius who lived about the same time this letter was written because he said Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. Or maybe they should have stuck around for another 600 years to hear Paul write Romans 12:19 Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God. For it is written, “I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it,” says the Lord.
We can learn the same lesson, let it go. I know that you’ve been hurt, and I know that I probably can’t understand how bad it was. But listen up, you need to get over it and get on with life or you will be the loser. You will stay right where you are quite content to get even instead of getting ahead, wallowing in self pity and mentally rehearsing a hundred acts of revenge. And slowly destroying yourself.
Listen to a warning that Jesus gives in Matthew 6:14-15 “ If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
And Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:5 Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It was said of Eleanor Roosevelt “She got even in a way that was almost cruel. She forgave them.” Remember the words of Paul in Romans 12:19 Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God. For it is written, “I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it,” says the Lord. Now listen to the next verse Romans 12:20 Instead, do what the Scriptures say: “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink, and they will be ashamed of what they have done to you.”
The second thing we discover from the Edomites is 2) They Wouldn’t help. It wasn’t that they Edomites took revenge directly. They just stood around and watched when the Israelites need help. First when the Israelites needed to cross over Edom to get to the promised land and then again when the Babylonians attacked Israel. They just stood there and watched.
Here’s how Obadiah describes it Obadiah 11-12 For you deserted your relatives in Israel during their time of greatest need. You stood aloof, refusing to lift a finger to help when foreign invaders carried off their wealth and cast lots to divide up Jerusalem. You acted as though you were one of Israel’s enemies. “You shouldn’t have done this! You shouldn’t have gloated when they exiled your relatives to distant lands. You shouldn’t have rejoiced because they were suffering such misfortune. You shouldn’t have crowed over them as they suffered these disasters.
Sir Walter Scott made this observation The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-men; and no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt.
As we go through life we will see other people struggling and we will be able to help or we will just stand and watch. And guess which one God would prefer us to do? James 4:17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. And in the Old Testament Solomon writes in Proverbs 17:5 Those who rejoice at the misfortune of others will be punished.
What’s your reaction when others are having a rough time? Or when something bad happens to someone? “Boy glad that’s not me.” “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person” “What goes around comes around” A television show that I find really disturbing is America’s Funniest Videos. People sit and laugh at bad things happening to other people. “No Denn, that’s not what we are laughing at.” Sure. Watch it again and write down which videos you think are the funniest. Who gets hit and where? How many times does the ATV, car, bicycle or boat roll over? What mistake is made during the most important day in the Bride’s life? And we think that is funny, disturbing. Proverbs 17:5 Those who rejoice at the misfortune of others will be punished.
I wonder what Herod was feeling when he saw Jesus, the King of Israel being mocked and beaten? When Herod ridiculed the King of the Jews I wonder if he was feeling vindication for his people, you see history tells us that Herod was from Edom. And two generations from then the followers of Jesus had spread all over the known world, and Edom was no more.
And finally 3) They Wouldn’t serve God. The Old Testament refers to people worshipping the gods of Edom. Not the God of Edom, but the gods of Edom. Interesting. You see as we mentioned, Esau or Edom and Jacob or Israel had the same heritage. They shared the same father, Isaac and the same grandfather Abraham. They were brought up with the same religious training. And yet we read verses in the Old Testament like Exodus 3:6 Then God said, “I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Not the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Esau. And we read verses in the New Testament like Romans 11:28 Many of the Jews are now enemies of the Good News. But this has been to your benefit, for God has given his gifts to you Gentiles. Yet the Jews are still his chosen people because of his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
No mention of Edom. Why? Because somewhere along the line Esau or his children or his grandchildren forsook God. They should have heeded the advice of 1 Chronicles 28:9. . . get to know the God of your ancestors. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and understands and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.
So, where you at today? In your forgiveness, your compassion and your relationship with God. Only you can answer those questions.
I hope you enjoyed the message, if you are interested in PowerPoint for this message visit www.powerpoint4preaching.com or email me at denn@powerpoint4preaching.com
