Tweets From God (Part 1: Obadiah) Series

Tweets from God: Obadiah

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 5/15/2016

I want to encourage you to log into Facebook, Twitter or whatever social media you prefer and “check in” here at the Grove. This is one way that we as a congregation can get the word out to our friends, family, and followers about our church and what God’s doing here at the Grove.

And speaking of social media, I’m guessing the majority of you here today are on Facebook. The church has a Facebook page as well as a Facebook group where we can share prayer requests and connect with one another online. If you’re like me, that’s about all the social media you can handle. But there are actually several other social networking sites out there. For instance, Linkedin is a site geared more toward professionals. MyYearbook and Tagged are both teen-oriented social networks. MySpace is still around and, believe it or not, has about 34 million users. But by far the most popular social network besides Facebook is Twitter with over 200 million users. The word Twitter comes from the chirping sound made by birds, hence the bird used in the Twitter logo. Twitter is very similar to Facebook, but one of the features that make Twitter unique is that it only allows you to create posts 140 characters longs (about a sentence or two)—no longwinded diatribes, no soapbox lectures. Your posts or tweets have to be short and to the point.

And that got me thinking, “If God had a Twitter account, what would he tweet?”

The Bible is a pretty long book, and that might give the impression that every book of the Bible is long, too. But that’s not true! It actually has some almost tweetable documents in it. Five books of the Bible consist of only a single chapter. All of them are under five hundred words and would have fit on a single sheet of papyrus. While they’re technically too long for a tweet, these five books are short personal messages from God to his followers—much like Twitter today.

Their brevity actually points to their urgency. So I’d like to spend the next few Sunday’s examining these Tweets from God to see what urgent message God might have for us. The first of these one-chapter books is found in the Old Testament and, according to Biblegateway.com, it’s the least popular book of the Bible, or the least read at any rate. Which means, Obadiah is probably the coolest book you’ve never read.

It’s about a third of the way through your Bible, right before the book of Jonah. So if you have Bible or an app on your phone, open it up and we’ll see what lessons we can draw from this bite-sized book.

The book of Obadiah is a brief prophetic word regarding the nearby nation of Edom. And it’s not good news for Edom. Israel has a longstanding rivalry with this nation, but now Edom has gone too far. When the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem and the temple of God, Edom was there—cheering on the Babylonians.

So God sends his messenger to them: a man named Obadiah (Hebrew for “servant of Yahweh”). Through Obadiah, God swears to turn the tables on Edom. Obadiah’s message is simple: no matter how safe they think they are, no matter how wise they think they are, Edom won’t get away with this! The letter breaks naturally into two sections. The first focuses on Edom’s downfall.

• EDOM’S DOWNFALL

The Israel vs. Edom rivalry is more than just two nations who don’t get along. The struggle begins in the book of Genesis. The Israelites are the descendants of Jacob, while the Edomites are the descendants of Jacob’s brother, Esau. As you may recall, Jacob and Esau didn’t get along so well. Jacob stole Esau’s birthright and Esau was ready to kill him for it.

Eventually, however, the brothers resolved their differences, and God gave both of their descendants a land. Esau’s descendants became the nation of Edom, while Jacob fathered the 12 tribes of Israel. Israel’s capital was Mount Zion (Jerusalem); Edom’s was Mount Seir. Both had an inheritance. Both had a mountain. Only one was God’s chosen people. As time wore on, the relationship between their descendants became strained. So when Babylon attacked Jerusalem, Edom sided with the Babylonians, cheering them on and even helping them out.

So what does God have to say about Edom?

First, he criticizes their pride!

The Lord says to Edom, “I will cut you down to size among the nations; you will be greatly despised. You have been deceived by your own pride because you live in a rock fortress and make your home high in the mountains. ‘Who can ever reach us way up here?’ you ask boastfully. But even if you soar as high as eagles and build your nest among the stars, I will bring you crashing down” (Obadiah 2-4 NLT).