How Did We Get Here?

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. It's the shortest book in your Old Testament, so if you turn the page one too many times you're going to lose it.

If you found Obadiah with me, would you stand once again in honor of the reading of God's Word? And we're going to read just a short portion of this. If you look at how this looks, we're actually just looking this morning specifically at the first four words here in verse 1 that says the vision of Obadiah.

Alright, that's as far as we're getting today. But I do want you to have the key verse in your mind from the very beginning as we start this so you can have a feel for what is happening in this book.

Because here's the deal. One of these days you're going to walk the streets of heaven and you're going to bump into a guy and he's going to introduce himself as Obadiah. And if he says, what do you think about what I wrote and you don't know, it's going to be really embarrassing.

Alright? So I'm preparing you for heaven. Alright? 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. Behold, I will make you small among the nations. You shall be utterly despised.

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?

Here's the key verse. Though you soar aloft like the eagle. Though your nest is set among the stars.

From there I will bring you down. The Lord declares the Lord. And you can be seated. In the Old Testament, there are three books of the Bible in the Old Testament that are not addressed specifically to God's people.

Those of you that have been in the Institute need to know this. Alright? Or you're going to get an F for today's pop quiz. Alright? You know this. There are three books in the Old Testament not addressed to God's people specifically.

Or that are not about the warning or the word is not about God's people in Israel or Judah. You've got the book of Jonah that's about the Ninevites.

You've got the book of Nahum about a century later that's also about the Ninevites. And then you have this book Obadiah that is about the fall, the coming fall of the Edomites.

When you read the rest of the Old Testament, though there are warnings contained in them for other nations for sure, they are addressed to God's people.

When you're in the New Testament, it's addressed to believers. The letters in the New Testament are addressed to the church, God's people. But in the Old Testament, you've got these three books that are interesting.

Jonah, Nahum, and Obadiah. But in the book of Obadiah, what is interesting here is not only is the message not specifically about God's people, it's actually addressed to another people.

Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom. This book is all about Edom. This is a word from God through the prophet Obadiah about a nation.

As I read to you already, there is a clear warning. They take pride in their lofty status, verse 4, and it is the Lord who will bring them down.

Now, admittedly, it gets confusing to try to keep track of the difference between Habakkuk and Haggai and Nahum and Obadiah.

But the more we understand in these prophets of what is happening, it not only helps us understand biblical history and world history, it helps us understand something of the character of God and the work of God.

And there are all kinds of helpful warnings and implications that we would do well to listen to and to abide by.

So this morning, while we begin this brief study through this very short Old Testament book, for this morning, we're going to need to turn to a few different places because I just want to introduce you today to the book of Obadiah.

So to do that, we're going to ask and answer three questions. All right, number one, who is Obadiah? The first four words of the text, the vision of Obadiah.

And so we need to consider who is Obadiah. That's the first question. In the Old Testament, there are actually 12 different people that appear in the Scripture with the name Obadiah.

Obadiah. The name appears about 20 times in reference to 12 different people. Who is the Obadiah who wrote this?

Well, outside of this book, we don't know anything about him. Nothing at all. He's kind of a one-hit wonder.

The Lord used him for a very specific purpose. But outside of the purpose of receiving and recording this vision, nothing else is known of him.

I want to point this out, though. That his lack of fame and renown was no barrier to God using him then, and it's no barrier to God using you today.

Obadiah. Obadiah had a very common name. It's not only common in his day in which he lived, it's common in the Scripture.

And I can't tell you anything about him other than what we know from this one book of the Bible, which is the shortest in your Old Testament. I don't know anything else about him.

History doesn't record for us anything about his life, his family, his background, his skills, his knowledge, his occupation, other than what we read in this one book.

He's introduced very plainly the vision of Obadiah.

That's it. So if you ever think that God can't use you because you're not well-known or widely followed or highly educated or God can't use you because you're just a common person from a common family living in a common town, living a common life, let me just remind you that the only thing that makes Obadiah known at all is just that God spoke through him.

That's it. And all Obadiah does is be faithful to share the word God's given him.

And I want you to know from the very beginning of this brief study we'll be in that you don't need to be famous to be used by God. You don't need to be wealthy to be used by God.

You don't need to be off the charts, talented to be used by God. You don't need to be from an influential family to be used by God. You just need to be faithful.

That's it. Just be faithful. His name, Obadiah, means servant of Yahweh. Yahweh being God's covenantal name.

It's a common name. It's a compound name. It comes from Obed and Yahweh. You remember in the book of Ruth, at the end, when Obed is born, it means servant.

Obed, Obed, Obed, Obed, Yoph, meaning servant of Yahweh. It says in verse 1, he receives a vision.

This is direct revelation from God to him recorded through the work of the Holy Spirit so that we could know God's word.

And if you just kind of, I'll just take you on a quick jet tour here. If you just let your eyes scan through the book of Obadiah, you see a break after verse 9, verses 1 and 9.

The judgment that's coming for Edom is explained. And then, verses 10 to 14, you'll see another break. That's where the crimes that they've committed are given.

And then verses 15, down through the end, in verse 21, deals with the future and some eschatological themes, things that will happen at the end times are revealed.

What we know about Obadiah is that he receives this vision at some point after Jerusalem was attacked and before Edom was destroyed.

Okay? So, do a little history here together. There are five major times when Jerusalem was attacked that we know about.

Something happened after one of those times it was attacked when Edom is found guilty of the crimes that are going to be described in this short book.

We know that this prophecy comes before Edom fell because it describes Edom as currently still strong and above it all. So, this prophecy comes at some point at a time when Jerusalem was attacked and before the fall of Edom.

five major times when these attacks happened. One was in 925 B.C., about a thousand years before the birth of Christ.

Another, around 841 B.C. A third, around 790 B.C. A fourth, which was Edom and Philistia in 735.

And then a fifth, one that you're more familiar with that we are from our Old Testament reading, which would have been after 586, this would have been with the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar, the time of the exile.

It won't make much of a difference at all for our interpretation of the events or our understanding of the implication from the text for us.

But I will confess to you that it drives me crazy that I can't tell you for sure which time this happened. Of the five major times that we know that it was attacked, there's really two options that we can know that it had to be one of the two.

It either was during this time period of around 840 B.C. That'd be the earlier dating. Or around the time period of about 580 or so B.C.

after Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians come through and destroy Jerusalem. We can't be sure which one it is. If you have good study Bibles, it will give you a headache because some will claim it's probably the 800 date and the next good study of the Bible you read will tell you it's probably the 500 date.

The last couple of weeks I have been in all kinds of conversations with friends of mine that pastor churches that teach in seminaries and we've been talking and going back and forth on which date it most likely is and after tons of reading and research and conversations here's what I can authoritatively definitively tell you about when it was written I don't know.

But I can tell you one of two. So when you meet Obadiah in heaven if you meet him before I do do me a favor find out if it's the earlier dating or the later one text me and when I meet him I'll just pretend that I knew all along.

All right? We do know the setting though. The setting is Jerusalem has been attacked and Edom did nothing to help.

They sat back and they watched this attack against Jerusalem and they did nothing to help. So of Obadiah we know very little.

of the date we can get within two options but we cannot be dogmatic on those. I've got one scholar friend who's pretty dogmatic on this side another who's pretty dogmatic on this side and I could give you volume after volume after volume that would give both of their arguments and conclude we can't be sure.

Which is interesting because why has the Lord given us this word preserved in our Bibles from a human author we don't know about a setting we do know but at a time period we can't be sure.

We'll see as we go on why that may just be the case. Here's a second question. Who is Edom? Edom? Your first question who is Obadiah?

If you didn't do very well at that one we'll ask a second question. Who is Edom? Now Edom we know a little bit more about. Edomite settled in this region south of the Dead Sea modern Jordan in fact I think we've got a map here just to give you a little bit of an idea here so the blue is Israel to the north whatever color that would be below it that wasn't in my set of eight crayons I had as a kid that's the only colors I know so the kind of purpley pinky salmon color there kingdom of Judah below that yellow I did have as a crayon kingdom of Edom so you can get some feel for where it is okay it's 40 miles wide 100 miles long approximately if I did my math right about about the size square miles of the state of

Connecticut is who we're talking about the place of Edom now here's what I want you to know about Edom Edom was considered a brother of Israel in fact Deuteroni 23 verse 7 you shall not abhor an Edomite for he is your brother 120 times you'll see a reference in the Old Testament to the Edomites now whoever they are there's something important here because though it's short an entire book of your Old Testament is about the prophesied fall of the Edomites it's a short book granted but there's only 66 books in your Bible and one of the 66 is all about the judgment coming to

Edom so whoever Edom is and whatever the Edomites are must be important to know because one of the entire books of the Bible is dedicated to describing their sin and their downfall where do the Edomites come from keep Obadiah marked because we're coming back to it next week and I want you to be able to find it alright so keep Obadiah marked but let's turn back this is much easier turn back to Genesis much easier the very beginning of your Bible and let's look at where did the Edomites come from go all the way back to Genesis 25 some of you are saying but

I just found Obadiah well sorry we're moving on Genesis 25 verse 21 Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren and the Lord granted his prayer and Rebecca his wife conceived the children struggled together within her and she said if it is thus why is this happening to me so she went to inquire of the Lord and the Lord said to her two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you shall be divided the one shall be stronger than the other here's what's unusual the older shall serve the younger when her days to give birth were completed behold there were twins in her womb the first came out red and all his body like a hairy cloak so they called his name

Esau Esau so his name was called Jacob so here's what's going on as we're introduced to these twins Abraham has been called by God given the Abrahamic covenant the Abrahamic covenant said that through Israel or through Abraham would come the hope the nation is going to be formed and the promise is that from Abraham through that covenant they're going to have land they're going to have seed and offspring more than you can count and the whole world will be blessed through them Abraham has Ishmael first but Ishmael is not the son of the promise the son of the promise is Isaac Isaac marries Rebecca Rebecca has these twins

Esau the first born Jacob the second born Jacob's name is going to be changed to Israel as you read through the Old Testament that's where we get those names now one of the things I just read you in Genesis 25 is that from these twins Jacob and Esau Esau is born first Esau was hairy second born is Jacob but what's strange is the word from God that the older will serve the younger it's not the way it typically would work but it is through Jacob not Esau that this promise gets passed down now a fair question would be to say well why why didn't

God just make Jacob the first born if the birthright and the blessing goes to the first born and if Jacob is going to be the one that's going to be the one that the promise gets passed down to why didn't God just make Jacob the first born couldn't he have done that well of course he could have Paul tells us though in Romans 9 you don't have to turn there but Paul tells us in Romans 9 why God didn't just have Jacob be born first Romans 9 verse 10 says not only so but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man our forefather Isaac though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue not because of works but because of him who calls she was told the older will serve the younger

God could have had Jacob born first according to Romans 9 the verbatim answer of why he didn't do that is so his purpose in election would stand meaning that it wasn't going to be Jacob simply because he was born first it was going to be because this was the decree and the will of God God is going to choose to use Jacob and so no one will think he's using Jacob merely because he was the first born according to Romans 9 it will be so that God's purpose his will his decree would be known and would stand in other words this whole unfolding here is to show it is God who is in complete control not merely as it would be seen by human eyes who happened to be born first

Genesis 27 you don't turn there you're familiar with it the deal has been made between the brothers Esau gives away his birth right to Jacob he gets the blessing from his father and Esau is going to serve Jacob Genesis 25 Genesis 27 Israelites as they're known are the descendants of Jacob the Edomites are the descendants of Esau so when you're in Obadiah either 800s or 500s BC before the birth of Christ the descendants of Jacob are known as Israelites the descendants of Esau the older brother are the Edomites so when we talk about the fall of the

Edomites we're talking about those who are descendants from Esau why don't we call them Esau ites or they Edomites well Esau means hairy Edom means red and Esau sells his birthright for the red stew now I've been hungry in my life I don't know if I've ever been hungry enough that stew would have satisfied me but this was some stew and this red stew gets associated with Esau and so Esau who sold his birthright for the red stew the people would follow after him are known as the Edom red Edomites Esau disregarded the covenant he married two

Canaanite women that's in Genesis 26 he married the daughter of Ishmael that's in Genesis 28 so Jacob and Esau have this conflict between these two brothers okay that's where it starts to understand Obadiah you've got to understand Jacob and Esau of where it starts okay that's where it began there's something that happens between there turn with me to the right to the book of numbers Genesis Exodus Leviticus and then numbers chapter 20 we're 400 years after the birth of Jacob and Esau the conflict they had fast forward 400 years

Israel's coming out of Egypt and as they're coming out of Egypt they're going they want to pass through Edom okay I showed you on the slide you have that picture in your mind they're going to pass through Edom numbers 20 verse 14 Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom thus says your brother Israel you notice the language there the regard of his brothers you know all the hardship that we have met how our fathers went down to Egypt and we lived in Egypt a long time and the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers and when we cried to the Lord he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt and here we are in Kadesh the city on the edge of your territory please let us pass through your land we will not pass through field or vineyard or drink water from a well we will go along the king's highway we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory stop look out just a minute

Jacob and Esau two brothers they're born but it's the older who's going to serve the younger according to Romans 9 so that God's purpose would stand as the brothers grow up the older brother Esau sells his birthright gives away his blessing to the younger considered though as brothers as far as the nations go the descendants of Jacob Israelites and the descendants of Esau the Edomites now 400 years later here comes this situation the Israelites want to pass through the land he says we're not going to drink your water we're not going to tear up your fields we're not going to tear up your vineyards we're not going to migrate all around we're going to walk in a straight line we'll go around the king's highway we just need to verse 18 but

Edom said to him you shall not pass through lest I come out with a sword against you and the people of Israel said to him we will go up by the highway and if we drink of your water I and my livestock then I will pay for it let me only pass through on foot nothing more but he said you shall not pass through and Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory so Israel turned away from him 400 years after Jacob and Esau the feud continues as you keep going down through Old Testament history the

Edomites opposed Saul as you know in the Old Testament Israel had three kings where they split Saul David and Solomon the Edomites opposed Saul then when David was king David subdued them when Solomon was king he subdued them then according to the first kings the Edomites fought against Jehoshaphat successfully rebelled against Jehoram later the Edomites were controlled by a leader named Tiglath Pileser they were controlled by the Assyrians controlled by the Babylonians and then in the fourth century BC so now we're pretty soon before the birth of Christ those survivors the Edomites that had survived all of that were forced to leave their area by the

Nabataeans and they were driven down to southern Palestine to an area known as the and they became known as the Edomians there's one famous Edomian one famous Edomite in your New Testament Herod the Great in 164 BC so now we're right before the birth of Christ Judas Maccabees gained victory over the Edomites his nephew John Hyrcanus in 120 BC forced the Edomites to convert to Judaism Herod the Great comes into power the only Edomite in your New Testament and then the Edomites that remained joined forces with the Jews in 70

AD when the rampage comes there against the Jews and Rome wipes them out and they are no more what we will read about in Obadiah absolutely undeniably historically came to pass but when you read Obadiah at the point of history in which you read Obadiah the Edomites are doing fine as you'll see the next few weeks the events of the book of Obadiah happen when Jerusalem is attacked and the Edomites do nothing to protect or to help but Eden themselves are doing just fine at the time of the writing of the book third question who is this prophecy for who is this prophecy for well back in

Obadiah it simply says the vision of Obadiah thus says the Lord God concerning! Edom this prophecy is given to Edom but in just a minute I'm going to tell you why this prophecy was given but what the prophecy tells us is that God is going to punish the Edomites for their sin so this vision given by a Jewish person Obadiah in our scripture about the future of Edom will reveal to us that our God is perfectly in control of history you're also going to notice we go through the book of

Obadiah that there's no offer for his judgment to relent at this point it is settled so in this very quick history I've given you here's what we see Jacob and Esau are born these brothers and God is going to do a specific work through the younger and the older will serve the younger and you see this contention between the brothers literally then you see it throughout the ages among the two nations referred to in the scripture I've already shown you as brothers and this contention is strife continues over and over generation after generation decade after decade even century after century until

God speaks to a man unknown to us except for this word named Obadiah and says let me tell you Edom God will bring you down and in 70 AD they are wiped off and you've never met and Edom never by the time you get to the New Testament it's only going to record of one Herod the Great God's word comes to pass one final question this will serve as kind of helping us get our minds around this for the next few weeks as we dive into the book itself what can we learn from the book of Obadiah this is this is both looking forward and when you get to the end of the book this is what you will see looking backwards at what we'll have learned number one all people are held accountable to

God for their actions all people are held accountable to God for their actions as you're going to learn in the next few weeks Edom is going to rejoice over the downfall of Jerusalem do nothing to help Jerusalem and Edom will be punished all people are held accountable to God for their actions this church by the way is absolutely critical for you to understand and believe for you to be able to go through life trusting God to deal with sin when Obadiah is given this vision Edom is fine it's going to be a while before

Edom is dealt with but their sin will be dealt with in your life individually there are people who do things that are unlawful or unethical or unkind and you don't need to take the place of God and feel like you've got to give out perfect justice or vengeance don't do that you'll be miserable in your life the Lord will deal with all sin and it may not be and probably won't be as fast as you'd prefer it and it may even come after you die and it may happen you don't even know about it you've got to trust that the Lord is going to deal with all the sin in the world it's not on you to make all things square if you go through your life trying to do that you will be a miserable person if you try to always put people in their place if you try to post cryptic things on

Facebook hoping that person who made you mad sees it and knows you're talking about them and you're going to really stick it to them don't do that don't jump into that world the Lord will hold people accountable for sin the pressure is not on you to make all things right one of the greatest reliefs you will feel in your life is when you recognize that one truth you can live you can serve you can love you can forgive you can be gracious you can be kind and you say but they're getting away with it no they're not God will deal with all sin number two we learn from the book of Obadiah make no allowance for bitterness make no allowance for bitterness the bitterness between

Esau and Jacob was the foundation but that foundation went forward for centuries and this feud between them mushroomed into this conflict that went forward for hundreds of years make no allowance for bitterness settle conflict as best you can as soon as you can now I know your objection your objection is either well that person doesn't deserve to be forgiven or what if that person refuses to have a peaceful relationship with me well when you say that person doesn't deserve to be forgiven I suppose we could grant that but we have to say just as honestly neither do we what is it that we think our sin deserves forgiveness but somebody else's doesn't so the question isn't what we deserve!

and the answer is we want to give the grace he's given us to other people who have wronged us now to the objection of how do I settle conflict with someone who refuses to be in peace with me there's only so much you can do as much as depends on you live in peace with all men as much as you can if somebody refuses to be kind to you there's only so much you can do if somebody refuses to have a relationship with you only so much you can do if somebody refuses to forgive you only so close you can get to them but as much as depends on you settle frustration settle arguments settle disputes settle feuds as quickly as you can and do it as best you can you can't make somebody else treat you in a kind way you can't make somebody else live differently you can't make somebody else be gracious and compassionate but please don't let their sin be the standard by which you choose to respond don't do that if you have someone in your life who is continually mean critical harsh unforgiving or if you wronged someone way back when and someone in your life refuses to forgive you refuses to move beyond it you're not responsible for how they behave but please don't let their sinful choices become the standard by which you choose how you're going to live and treat others don't do that make no allowance for bitterness that's true inside the church

Philippians 4 speaks to us about conflict in the church it happens this isn't just outside the church conflict happens inside the church and sometimes that conflict is between two people who really love Jesus and really want to do ministry they just can't seem to get along that happens and sometimes conflict in the church happens because you've got unconverted people who are in the church and unconverted people who don't know and love Jesus but keep showing up to church happens all the time don't let your heart become bitter your bitterness does not put them in their place and it will rob you of your joy don't let your heart become bitter Jacob and Esau in this bitter feud they had for all they knew and what they had experienced was about two guys who just didn't like each other 400 years later the king of

Edom said get off my lawn you can't walk through here and for centuries after that Edomites descendants of Esau Israelites descendants of Jacob would find themselves in feud after feud after feud and the root of all of that was the bitter hearts that did not get past it number three we will learn from the book of Obadiah that God's purposes will stand God's purposes will stand when you read Obadiah and you don't know anything else you're reading about what God says is going to happen but when you read

Obadiah with a little bit of knowledge of world history what you're reading is a preview of exactly what God did it's actually quite staggering that was such detail whether 840 or the 500s either way it was written before Edom would fall at a time Edom was described as an eagle in the nest flying above the fray majestic and powerful and strong and you fast forward to 70 AD and they are no more because

God's purpose will stand number four pride leads us to exalt ourselves and rejoice in the calamity of others pride leads us to exalt ourselves and to rejoice in the calamity of others and listen friends both of those things bring destruction to our hearts when you exalt yourself you are setting yourself up on a collision course with God that never goes well and when you rejoice in the calamity of others you create within your heart a coldness that's going to cut you off from the joy that would be yours if you learn to love even those who persecute you you've got to fight against pride with all your heart and if you say can you give me an example from the

Bible of how deadly and dangerous pride can be read Genesis 25 read the one chapter book of Obadiah and watch how deadly pride can be and then the last thing I want you to make note of this morning that will set us up as we study through this is that God's word can be trusted God's word can be trusted Obadiah verse 18 says 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 here's the end of verse 18 for the Lord has spoken what God says will come to pass will take place now if you say all that history all the Old Testament all the prophecy what does that mean for me in 2025 dealing with what I'm going through today let me tell you what else to do with you the same God who promised the older would serve the younger saw it through the same God who said Edom will be wiped out saw it through and is the same

God who says to you my grace will be sufficient for you the character of your God is unchanging and every prophecy you read that's been fulfilled just gives you more and more legitimate reason to say what our God says our God does amen and our God has said that his grace will be sufficient our God has said great is your reward in heaven our God has said to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ our God has said that in the end in heaven with the Lord there will be no tears no sorrow no death how do you know that will be true because everything the

Lord says he will do he does the book of Obadiah today should give you a faith of steel that says whatever I read in God's Bible I believe it because God does what God says the next few weeks we'll walk through in detail to see how that happened and I pray build our faith as we go Lord I thank you today for your word and pray that while challenging that this has been helpful and pray Lord that while I know so much information and history and dates and names and parts of our Bible that may be unfamiliar to many I pray that we would at least leave this place convinced of this that you are a God that accomplishes your purpose and a God who keeps your word may we believe it and we build our life upon it and may we trust it every day that we live in the name of Christ amen church if we can serve you or help you let us know if you have a question about how to know

Christ as your savior if you have a question about how you can respond in faith if you have a question of how you can live in obedience if you have a question of how you can build your faith and deepen your trust in the Lord by knowing his word would you use that connection card and let us know your need let us know your prayer request we would love to pray with you we would love to serve you we'd love to be able to help you as you seek to follow and honor the Lord Jesus Christ we want you not just to hear truth but to believe truth and to live truth and if there is a way that we can respond to you by helping you in obedience in spiritual disciplines in prayer in walking with the Lord we want saved if you have not had your sin forgiven even this day would you call upon the name of the Lord not because you deserve it but because in grace and mercy our

God offers forgiveness through the work of his son the Lord Jesus Christ and the price was paid and finished upon the cross and that is why we can call out to him in faith and he hears us and forgives us even this day would you call upon the name of the Lord for asking to forgive you of your sin believing that what God says he does that would be our greatest prayer and desire for you I love you dealer church family so thankful for you hope you have a great rest of your day God bless you you!

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