The Kingdom Is The Lord’s

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.