The Kingdom Shall Be the Lord’s

Last week, we wrapped up our time in the book of Habakkuk with his incredible words about rejoicing in the Lord despite the worst-case scenario that he saw headed his way. Like a man in prison rejoicing in the news that he's going to be broken out soon, Habakkuk showed us how to have joy even in desolate circumstances.

And today, as we move through this mini-series in the minor prophets, we are jumping forward a few decades to the prophet Obadiah who lived after that worst-case scenario actually happened.

Like Habakkuk, we don't know anything about Obadiah outside of this very short prophecy that bears his name. In fact, this is the shortest book in the whole Old Testament.

We do know, from the events that are referenced here, that this was written after the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem. God warned Habakkuk that Babylon was coming, and Obadiah looks back on what Babylon did when they came.

But not just Babylon. This prophecy isn't about Babylon, or even about Judah. It's "concerning Edom" as verse 1 says.

Edom was a small nation to the southeast of Judah, just across the Dead Sea in a rocky land full of cliffs and crags. If you've ever seen pictures of the city of Petra, that was built later but was a part of the country of Edom which gives you a sense of the kind of land it was.

Judah and Edom went way back—all the way back to Jacob and Esau. Remember those two brothers, and how Jacob stole the blessing from his brother Esau, who wanted to kill him, so Jacob escaped to his uncle Laban where he worked for years?

And then when he came back, he met Esau and gave him all those presents, but when Esau told him to come back and live with him, Jacob snuck off again and settled near where his parents lived?

That was it for Jacob and Esau as people. But that wasn't it for the nations that came from them. Esau's descendants formed the nation of Edom, just as Jacob's descendants formed the nation of Israel. And the relationship between those two nations was a lot like the relationship between the two brothers.

There was a time that David conquered Edom, and for a time they were a client state to Israel and then Judah. But as the kingdom of Judah grew weaker, Edom revolted (2 Ki 8:20) and became independent.

It's not hard to see the old rivalries between brothers playing out there. "No way will you rule over me, little brother."

And then it happened. Babylon attacked Jerusalem and Edom rejoiced. Psalm 137:7 says, “Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, ‘Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!’” (Psalm 137:7). As Jerusalem was battered, Edom cheered from the sidelines.

And not just cheered. Like we're going to see today, they joined in.

And God, through Obadiah, addresses them and declares how He is going to respond to this treachery and brotherly back-stabbing.

1. Bad News for Edom (vv. 1-9)

We start with bad news for Edom in verses 1-9. “The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom: We have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: ‘Rise up! Let us rise against her for battle!’” (Obadiah 1).

This is a poetic way of saying: war is coming to your front doors, too. Battle is drawing near. And what will the result be? “Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised" (Obadiah 2).

And that's just the beginning. As we're going to read in just a few verses, Edom is going to be finished as a nation.

a. No Escape (vv. 3-4)

Verses 3-4 tell us how there will be no escape for them. They thought they were going to be safe in their rocky fortresses, like verse 3 says. “The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?”’” (Obadiah 3).

But verse 4, “Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord” (Obadiah 4). No matter how secure their natural defences, there will be no escape.

b. No Friends (vv. 5-7)

Not only will there be no escape, but there will be no friends. Building up to this, verse 5 says that if thieves break into a house, they'll usually leave some stuff behind. If grape harvesters harvest a field, they'll usually leave some grapes behind.

But not for Edom. When judgement comes to them, verse 6, they will be pillaged and their treasures sought out in such a way that nothing will be left over. And in the verses that follow, we get two examples of what they will have nothing left of.

First, verse 7 says that they will have no friends left. All their allies will turn their back on them. "Those at peace with you have deceived you; they have prevailed against you; those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you."

In the ancient world, small nations like Edom survived through diplomacy and relationships with other nations. And all of that is going to end. The people they thought they were closest to were going to stab them in the back.

c. No Leaders (v. 8-9)

The end of verse 7 makes a transition as it says "you have no understanding." This leads into verse 8, where we read how they will have no leaders left. “Will I not on that day, declares the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of Mount Esau?” (Obadiah 8). And verse 8 speaks about their mighty men being dismayed, and every man from Mount Esau being cut off.

So Edom is doomed. They will have no escape, no friends, and no leaders.

2. Why? (vv. 10-15)

So far, we've heard about the judgement coming against Edom. We haven't heard why. What did they do to bring this upon them?

And the answer is pretty directly given in verse 10: “Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever” (Obadiah 10).

Notice the use of "brother." Undeserved violence from any person to another is wrong, but violence against a brother is another thing. Edom had a unique responsibility to Judah given their ancient relationship, but instead, verse 11,

“On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them” (Obadiah 11). They joined in the plunder and divided the spoil like the rest of the invading armies.

Verses 12-14 tell us more about what Edom did in a series of statements that tell them what not to do. It's kind of interesting how this is worded, because all of these statements say "do not." "Do not gloat." "Do not rejoice."

Some translations put this as "you should not have" done these things, seeing how Obadiah is looking back at what already happened. But maybe we shouldn't rush to try and "fix" this. There's quite an effect to telling someone not to do something they already have done.

It's like in a movie when someone walks through a forbidden door and their friend says, "Don't go in there." It's like saying, "You should have known better." And the way it's worded highlights that it's too late now.

So what should Edom not have done? They shouldn't have gloated over the day of their brother's misfortune. They shouldn't have rejoiced over Judah in the day of their ruin, or boasted in their distress.

Notice how all of these in verse 12 have nothing to do with what Edom did to Judah, but rather how they responded when they found out the news. That's important. God cares about our hearts. He saw Edom's happy dance when they heard about Judah's downfall, and he's going to hold them accountable for that.

Verse 13 gets to the things they actually did. They entered the gates of Jerusalem. There, they gloated a bit more, and then they looted their wealth.

I mean, Babylon was going to take everything anyways, so might as well take a bit for ourselves, right? It reminds me of a video I saw of a convenience store in Mexico that was damaged during a street battle between the army and the cartel.

And the video shows tourists going into the store to just help themselves. I mean, everybody else is. Why not? You see this in all kinds of similar situations—riots break out, stores get their windows smashed and people help themselves.

And Edom was like a brother taking stuff from his brother's home after criminals kicked in the front door. Not cool.

Verse 14 shows us that things got even worse. As fugitives and survivors from Jerusalem fled for safety, Edomites caught them as they fled and handed them over to their enemies—maybe even killing them themselves.

I mean, wow. That's low. That's dirty. This is like Lion King-style betrayal of brother throwing brother to his death. Just awful.

And notice how things go from bad to worse. It starts with gloating, it moves into plunder, and it ends with betrayal and maybe even murder.

And God is not going to let them get away with it—he's going to avenge His children.

3. God's Plan for All Nations (vv. 15-21)

Now at this point, Obadiah is finished the part of the prophecy that specially addresses Edom. We know what's coming to Edom, and we know why.

But what we find out in the second half of the prophecy, which starts in verse 15, is that what God is going to do with Edom is just an example of what he is going to do with all of the nations one day.

Verse 15: “For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head” (Obadiah 15).

Obadiah goes on to compare God's judgement to a cup of strong drink, which is a picture we see often in the prophets. When God's judgement comes upon people, they fall apart, can't walk straight, lose themselves completely just like a person who is drunk.

This is the picture Jesus picks up on when he asks his Father in Gethsemane that the cup might pass from his lips. That was the cup of God's wrath.

And that's the picture here in verse 16. It's a little unclear what is meant by "as you have drunk on my holy mountain"—is this addressed to Israel, speaking of them drinking the cup of judgement? Is this Edom toasting themselves on their success? It's hard to be 100% certain, but it's more clear what the rest says—"so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been." This is the cup of judgement that is going to come to all nations, not just Edom.

But—here it is—"But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions."

What happened to Jerusalem was just temporary. It was not going to last. The house of Jacob—Esau's younger but chosen brother—would come back into their own. And, in fact, would be a part of the judgement on Edom.

“The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken” (Obadiah 18).

And all of this happened. Babylon, who Edom thought was their ally, turned on them and attacked them, and they were pushed out of their land by other enemies. Edomites eventually settled in the land that had belonged to Judah, where they became known as Idumeans. They were conquered by the Jews and by the time of Christ were largely followers of Judaism and had a basically Jewish identity.

Herod the Great's father was Idumean, and the irony of a half-Edomite trying to murder the Jewish Messiah is hard to miss. But after the Romans destroyed the temple and the Jews were scattered, Idumean identity totally disappeared. There are no Edomites around today.

But the same is not true of the house of Jacob. There are ethnic Jews all over the world, despite their enemies' best attempts.

And more importantly, there are members of the household of God all over the world, including us right here in this room today, who have been grafted into the promises of Abraham through our Messiah Jesus.

Jesus, as the son of David, in keeping with the ancient promises, has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. And today, Jesus is gathering his people from all over the world in anticipation of the day when his disciples—his meek, peacemaking, merciful, pure-in-heart followers—will inherit the earth.

And this final conquest is pictured in its baby stages in verses 19-20. "Those of the Negeb (that's the south of Israel) shall possess Mount Esau." And it goes on to talk about the people moving out from the land to possess the nations around them on all sides—the land of the Philistines, Ephraim, Samaria, Gilead, the land of the Canaanites. Some of this is the land that belonged to Israel that is being taken back. Some of this is land that was promised to them that they had never been able to take in the first place.

Some of this—like Mount Esau—is land that belonged to their enemies that they are taking after it's been left vacant.

All together, as I've suggested, I think the best way to take these verses is to understand this as describing, in language that the people of the day would have understood, the idea that God's chosen people would inherit the earth. Which we understand is being fulfilled in Jesus, the son of Abraham, and will be perfectly fulfilled the day He returns and reigns.

And here's something really amazing to think about—Galatians 3 says that Jesus is the offspring of Abraham who inherits all of the promises, and that we become a part of those promises through faith in Jesus. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:28–29).

And Mark 3:7 says that some of the big crowds of people who followed Jesus were from Idumea. And I'd be surprised if some of them didn't believe, and were brought back in—by faith—to the family of Abraham through the son of David.

Which means that, through the gospel, maybe we are going to rub shoulders with Edomite brothers and sisters in the New Creation. And then, they will no longer be gloating but will be giving all the glory to Jesus the Jewish Messiah and the Saviour of the world.

4. Our Place in the Story

So that's the story of Obadiah. It's actually not too hard to wrap our heads around what's going on here: Edom betrayed their brothers, God will judge them as He will all nations, and His people inherit the earth.

What is a bit more challenging for us to ask is, what's our place in this story? Where do we fit? How should we apply and internalize the truths that are taught in this little book?

And I want to suggest we do this in two ways. First, we should heed the warnings given to Edom, and we should treasure the promises given to Israel.

a. Heed the warnings to Edom

We should heed the warnings to Edom, because as we read God's rebuke to them through Obadiah, we learn about the kind of behaviour that God hates. And since we want to please the Lord, we should want to rid our lives of anything that looks or smells like these Edomite evils.

And maybe it's that first group of sins in verse 12 that hit the closest to home—the gloating, the rejoicing over their ruin, the boasting in their distress.

The Germans have a word for this: schadenfreude. Taking joy at the pain of others.

And to put this in context a little bit more, we should remember that when Jerusalem was being destroyed, this wasn't just some bad random thing happening to them. They were being dealt with by God for their own rebellion.

They had this coming to them. This was their fault. And still, God rebukes Edom for gloating over them.

Have you ever seen someone in a bad situation and thought "Well, they did that to themselves." Have you ever seen a bad person get what's coming to them and thought, "Oh yeah." Not because justice is being done, but because you're enjoying seeing them suffer?

Have you ever heard news about a pastor falling into moral sin—a pastor from a church that you think is just awful—and your soul feels smug, like "he totally had that coming," instead of heartbroken?

I think we all know what this experience is like. Kids, you know this. A few of you are walking, and someone trips over a branch and falls, and what is it so easy to do? Laugh at them. "Ha ha." Someone gives the wrong answer in front of a group, and what do you do? Tease them. "Ha ha."

This is natural. Our sinful flesh does this without thinking about it. And it's really not okay. This is not how the people of God are to be.

Kids and young adults, when you gather with one another, it needs to be a safe place for one another. Let it be that teasing and mocking each other is just not a thing. That's the way the world works, because that's all they've got. The only way to make themselves feel better is by pushing others down. But when we know God, we don't need to make others feel worse for us to feel better. Knowing that God loves us completely, we can encourage others instead of punching them down.

And for us adults, if we see someone broken by their sin or being disciplined for their sin, our first thought should not be a smug, "Well, they did that to themselves. They should have made better choices like I did." Instead, we should think, "But for the grace of God, there go I. I am no better than them. I don't deserve God's grace any more than they do." We should remember that he who thinks he stands should take heed lest he fall (1 Cor 10:12). We hear the words of Galatians 6:1: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Galatians 6:1).

We humbly pray and seek God's mercy for ourselves and for those who have stumbled.

Before we finish this section here, let's briefly look at verse 14 and think about how Edom was condemned for the way they treated the fugitives and survivors who fled from the disaster in Jerusalem.

God really cares about how we treat people who are truly vulnerable and in real need. Like He said to His people Israel, “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:21).

And here in Obadiah, he holds Edom accountable for how they treated the Judean refugees, even though—don't forget this—even though those people had become refugees because of their own sin and wickedness.

This is really important for us to think about. It reminds us that when we meet people who are in genuine need, even if they are in need because of their own choices and decisions, we close our hearts to them to our own peril.

One of the great blights on the history of our country was in 1939 when Canada refused entry to a ship of Jewish refugees from Germany. Eventually, they had to return to Europe, where almost a third of those on board later died in concentration camps.

Today, a lot has changed, and it might be easy for us to debate what our country and our government should and should not do when it comes to those who want to immigrate to Canada, but let's remember that our God is very interested in what happens in our hearts as we encounter those from other nations—a good number of whom have come here not just as immigrants but as refugees seeking safety, and many of whom continue to have genuine needs.

Christians should be the first to open our hearts to those in genuine need, given the way that God has opened His heart to us.

And those are some of the truths that we ponder as we seek to heed the warning to Edom.

b. Treasure the Promises Given to Israel

But that's not the only place we should go. We should also treasure the promises given to Israel. Because think about what this whole book tells us. Think about what it tells us about our God.

It tells us that He cares about His children—even as He is disciplining them. He cares about His people even as He deals with them for their sin.

Some of you know what it’s like to receive the discipline of God. And the very good news is that if you belong to Jesus, which shows up in the soft-hearted way that you repent and respond to His discipline, then even as God disciplines you, He is not against you. He is for you. He's going to defend you and deal with those who harm you.

We have to understand how these words from Obadiah would have been such a comfort to Israel as they experienced all the suffering in those years. From every indication, they were finished. When Babylon attacked you and knocked down your walls and burned your city, you didn't just bounce back. That was the end of your existence as a nation as you knew it.

So the fact that God even cares how Edom responds here shows that He's not finished with His people—there is a future for them. And it gets even better with these incredible promises of hope that come at the end of the prophecy. “Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s” (Obadiah 21).

We can't get used to hearing promises like this. We need to remember again just how astounding it is that God has kept and is keeping His promises.

One way of thinking about that is to consider just how unlikely it is that Jewish people would exist, at all. After what Babylon did, after what the Greeks did, after what the Romans did, after all that happened in the centuries after that, up to the Holocaust, the fact that Jewish people exist is one of the greatest testimonies to the existence of God and the strength of His promises.

So think about some area where you are struggling to trust God. Are you struggling to believe that He is actually going to forgive you for what you've done? That He’s going to provide for you in your need? That He's going to keep you till the end in the face of the many challenges you face daily?

Does the promise of eternal life feel like a distant pipe dream to you? Do Habakkuk's words from last week—that even if the worst case scenario happens, you will still rejoice—feel unrealistic and impossible?

I hope your faith this morning is strengthened as you consider the way that God has kept and is keeping His equally unlikely promises made to Obadiah. His people did survive. The Messiah was born. The Spirit was poured out. His kingdom has citizens all over the globe, even in Nipawin. The Jewish people, most of whom do not believe in their Messiah, are nevertheless preserved until the day when that branch that was broken off will be grafted in again and all Israel shall be saved.

So if you know Jesus, what you've experienced just this morning would seem impossibly too good to be true to the average Judean in Obadiah's day. Just as impossible, maybe more impossible, than whatever you're struggling to believe today feels like to you.

If you are a Christian, you are living a miracle that defies explanation. And may that simple fact strengthen your faith in the promises that God has yet to fulfill.

And if you are not a Christian, I hope you've heard this morning—in the songs we've sung, in the words from Obadiah, in the testimony from Addison, that God has a big heart and He would love to forgive you and welcome you into His family. You could come to Jesus today and begin to experience this too-good-to-be-understood but not too-good-to-be-true grace for yourself. Would you come? Even as the service ends, would you come talk with me? I'd love to help you find Jesus today.