Obadiah—a Brother's Keeper

Those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you. You have no understanding. Will I not, on the day, declares the Lord, destroy the wise man out of Edom, and understanding out of Esau. And you mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman, so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughters. Edom violenced against Jacob.

Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lost for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. But do not gloat over the day of your brothers in the day of his misfortune. Do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin. Do not boast in the day of distress.

Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity. Do not loot in wealth in the day of his calamity. Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives. Do not hand over his survivors on the day of distress.

For the day of the Lord is near upon the all nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return on your own head. For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually. They shall drink and swallow and shall be as though they had never been.

But in Mount Zion, there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob self possesses their own possessions. The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble. As they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivors of the house of Esau, and the Lord has spoken. Those of the Negeb shall possesses Mount Esau, and those of the Sephala shall possesses the land of the Philistines. They shall possesses the land of Ephraim and the land of and Benjamin shall be possesses by Gilead.

The exiles of the host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Sapphara. And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sappharat shall possess the cities of the Negeb. The survivors shall go up Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Some of you may remember congregation that when I first started this series on the line of prophets, I compared the prophets to lookout crows. If you want to hear the story, come and talk to me over a cup of coffee later.

So this morning we're looking at another of God's lookout crows who tells people, get off the road, you're on the wrong road, you're in trouble, you need to move. And this morning we're looking at Obadiah. You find it handy to keep your Bible open, if you've got your app on your phone, please keep it ready. I want to refer to some verses in particular. There's several things, brothers and sisters, in Christ that are unique about the book of Obadiah.

First of all, it's the shortest of the minor prophets and the smallest book in the Old Testament. Secondly, the book is never quoted in the New Testament at all. Every other Bible book is, but not Obadiah, it seems it got overlooked by the apostles. And then thirdly, we know absolutely nothing about the prophet Obadiah. There's about a dozen people by the name of Obadiah in the Old Testament and various attempts have been made to try and prove that one of them is the prophet Obadiah that we've just read this morning.

For example, the Obadiah who was a servant of King Ahab at the time of Elijah. Now I don't want to go there this morning brothers and sisters because I don't think there's any point here. Seems to me that maybe there's even something quite intentional about that on God's part. And maybe God is telling us this morning that the message is more important than the messenger. And so Obadiah is simply being the mouthpiece of God Almighty and speaking on His behalf.

And I think that comes out very clearly in this book. Verse 1, if you've got your Bible open still, notice it's a vision from God. It begins with a claim that this is the sovereign Lord speaking, and several times throughout the prophecy, a section is concluded with the words declares the Lord and then at the end of verse 18, the prophet says, the Lord has spoken. So at the end of the day friends, it doesn't really matter too much who the messenger is. It's not a matter of concern who the prophet Obadiah really is.

It's the message that ought to occupy our attention this morning. And it's a message from which we can draw comfort, but also a message that has some warnings for us. Because when God speaks, it's the messenger, the spokesperson who recedes into the background and we're hearing God's words of encouragement and God's words of challenge. When you read through this prophecy, it becomes very quickly obvious that a major issue in this book is the matter of pride. Verses 2 and 3 and 4 all mention it.

It's abundantly clear. Problem is pride. And pride is one of what used to be called the seven deadly sins. In our modern society, we tend not to even want to talk about sin at all, let alone the big seven. But the big seven are anger, greed, sloth or laziness, pride, lust, envy and gluttony.

But there's a sense congregation in which pride trumps the other six. Because pride was the very first sin. As a matter of fact, it was the sin of pride which led to the angel Lucifer being guilty of rebelling against God and being cast out of heaven. You read a bit about that in the books of Ezekiel and Isaiah. So pride is not something you can just shrug off.

It's a sin that is very often referred to in the Bible. It's confronting us again and again in the Scriptures. In fact, did you know that pride is dealt with more than 100 times in the Bible? So when you see pride rearing its head in your life, you need to deal with it. That makes Obadiah so relevant for us this morning, makes it relevant for our society for every age, for all of us familiar with pride.

Saying to a colleague of mine the other day, that often before I get up on the pulpit and preach on Sunday, pray like crazy that God will not let His word return empty, but that He will use my words to bless the congregation. Then after I've finished, I'm timbered to think, well, Wiss and Rob, you didn't do a bad job again this morning. That's pride rearing its head. I know it in my life, you know it in yours. We can't just shrug it off.

Our society is full of it. I think of the pride that was involved in building the Titanic. Did you know that people argued when it was built that it was unsinkable? There was an engineer at the launching who said, even God couldn't sink the Titanic. Pride is so common to every human being.

Some of you in my generation will remember Muhammad Ali, the boxer. What did he used to say? I am the greatest. Again and again he used to say that on one occasion Muhammad Ali was on an aircraft and stewardess asked him to buckle up his seat belt and he replied, Superman doesn't need no seat belts. And the stewardess replied, Superman don't need no aeroplane, buckle up or get off.

So she was very quick on the uptake. In the Bible, there's many examples of pride. King Nebuchadnezzar, remember him? Here in the book of Obadiah, it's not just personal pride, but it's pride taking on a national character. And so here it is, a nation that is marked by pride, and that's not uncommon, is it?

Pride is so often seen in the arrogance of nations. And here in Obadiah, it's the nation of Edom. Now let me say that Edom was not a significant nation in Bible times. In some ways, would say this morning that on the world scene in Bible times, Moab and Edom were countries that were only ever minor players, Edom particularly. But that would only highlight that you don't need to be big to be proud, do you?

You can be very small and be proud and arrogant. Pride is a mindset and it's a mindset that we slip into so easily. Notice how it's expressed here. For one thing, they were proud of their geography, the place where they lived. Verse 3 of chapter 1.

Well, it's only one chapter. Verse 3, they pictured as living in the cleft of a rock high up on a plateau. And that fits from what we know archaeologically. We know the ancient capital city of Bozrah today as the city of Petra. It's an amazing city that's been carved out of solid rock right at the end of an impregnable canyon.

Recall one of the Indiana Jones movies featured the city of Petra. So it's no wonder that Eden says here in the book of Obadiah, who can bring me down to the ground? Pride congregation. And over and over again throughout history, we've seen the pride of nations. Most recently, we've seen it in the arrogance of ISIS in Syria and Iraq or even more recently, Hamas and what they did in Israel in '23 in October.

Or again, if you want to think of the arrogance of the Nazis a little over eighty years ago. As a matter of fact, did you know that in occupied Europe during the war years, verse 4 of Obadiah was a favourite text for pastors and preachers to preach on in Christian churches, because the emblem of the Nazi army was an eagle. And so there were many ministers in occupied Europe who preached on those words from verse 4, though you soar like an eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord. God is gonna humble them. The point is this morning that we need to realise is God absolutely loathes pride.

He always has and He always will. Why? Because ultimately pride sets itself up as its own god. It takes credit for itself that belongs to Him. Pride regards self as supreme.

Pride refuses to bow in humility before God. And that makes the name Obadiah especially relevant because the name Obadiah means servant of Yahweh, servant of Jehovah. In other words, someone who humbly submits to God. I sang a bit in that song a little while ago, all to Jesus I surrender. You can't do that when you've got pride in your life.

Pride is just what we don't want, pride just doesn't want us to surrender all to God. The point of the book of Obadiah is that God is dealing with that kind of arrogance. Some ways we could label the book of Edom as the doom, the book of Obadiah is the doom of Edom. Over and over again, the Bible puts down the proud, and I think of Mary's song, the Magnificat, tell out my soul. Proud hearts and stubborn wills are put to flight.

And here it is, the nation of Edom that God says is gonna be brought down. Verse 2 says, He will make them small among the nations. And that's the first morning congregation that comes out of this very small book, one chapter of the minor prophets. God puts down the proud, and He's still able to do that today, isn't He? God sank that unsinkable Titanic, and He has sunk many arrogant nations.

ISIS today is history. There's a wonderful story that I often think of in this regard from Jerusalem back in the days of Hezekiah, the Assyrian army surrounded, totally surrounded the city of Jerusalem, threatening to take it captive. And the captain of the Assyrian army spoke some arrogant words against Israel and Israel's God to Hezekiah and the leaders. And then he wrote it down and sent it as a letter. Hezekiah took that letter and laid it before God in the temple, he brought it to God in prayer, and that night, 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were struck by God's angels.

God humbled the pride of Assyria. Think of Nebuchadnezzar, he discovered the hard way that God puts down the proud. As a matter of fact, it was on the very day that he boasted, is this not the great city of Babylon that I have built, That God struck him down, humbled him, and he spent seven years with wild animals. It is so true what Mary's saying in Luke 1, He has scattered those who were proud in the imagination of their hearts. Brothers and sisters, this morning the problem of pride is not the only problem that Obadiah deals with and to get at the second problem, let me remind you that this morning, God's Ten Commandments have two parts to them.

The first part, the first four commandments have all got to do with God, His name, His worship. The second part, the last six commandments all have to do with our fellow man, our neighbour, don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't steal and so on. But those two parts of the law are connected. There's a very close link between them. Because the pride that thumbs its nose at God also has an outworking among other people.

And if you don't love God first of all, then that makes it so much easier to ignore your neighbours in need. As a matter of fact, think about what is the essence of pride? What is at the heart of pride? Isn't it that middle letter, P R I D E, the big I in the centre? Pride puts self on the throne.

Pride is the attitude that says, it's all about me. And if you've got that attitude, then care and compassion for others is gonna go out the window. And you'll be like the priest and the Levite in the parable Jesus told about the good Samaritan, you'll pass by on the other side of the road instead of giving assistance. And that was the problem with proud nation Eden. There was no compassion for the needy.

Their arrogance and their lovelessness went hand in hand as it usually does. Pride was linked to a lack of care for others. Think about it, congregation, doesn't that make sense to you this morning? If it's all about me, then will I really be interested in showing compassion to others? And so this prophecy speaks not only against an overarching pride, the kind of arrogance that says, I've made my nest among the stars, I challenge you to get me down, but it also speaks against the violence of Edom that was committed against the people of Israel.

Actually, that's really the compelling problem that Obadiah is reacting against so sharply. Edom's treatment of Israel was absolutely pathetic. And the point that Obadiah makes is that this was not just between two strangers, not between two nations that were unrelated to each other. We saw this morning in the kids video. These were brother nations stemming from the twin brothers, Jacob and Esau.

And you know the story, friends, Isaac and Rebecca were childless. They tried to fall pregnant and they couldn't and then Isaac prayed for Rebecca and when she became pregnant, she felt a jostling in her womb. And the Lord told her when she inquired about it, that there were twins fighting in her womb and that fighting never stopped. Jacob stole Esau's blessing. Esau wanted to kill Jacob.

Jacob eventually became the nation of Israel. Esau eventually became the nation of Edom, but Edom's history was that it was always a thorn in the side of Israel. Numbers 20, that they refused to let Israel through into the territory of Canaan. And so often in later history, Edom sided with the enemies of God's people. Here in verse 12, have a look at verse 12, and you'll notice that he has a very specific situation in mind.

We're not sure exactly what the situation is. Some people say it was when Babylon captured Jerusalem, it may be, others, and this is my opinion, links it to an earlier incident where Israel was attacked, that we read about in Amos, but notice the list of things that Edom should not have done begins in verse 12, first half of the verse says, Do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune at setting the scene. I read that first half of verse 12 and I think of the family that had two boys, a six year old and a five year old. And one morning, the six year old took a tumble down the stairs and ended in a crying heap at the bottom, crying his eyes out, the shock of rolling down the stairs. His younger brother came in and also started bawling his eyes out and when his parents wondered why he was crying, they said, my brother fell down the stairs and I didn't see it.

There was no sympathy, just as there was no sympathy on the part of Eden. In fact, it got worse, much worse. Look at the verse, verses that follow. Do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin. Do not boast in the day of their distress.

Do not enter the gates of my people in the day of their calamity. Do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity. Do not loot his wealth in the day of calamity. Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives. Do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress.

Do you get the picture, friends? Do you see what Edom's doing? He's effectively taking the place of Cain back in Genesis saying, am I my brother's keeper? And so Obadiah doesn't only deal with pride, he also deals with lovelessness. He's not only confronting the sin against the first part of God's law, the arrogance that defies God, but also against the second part of the law, the commandments regarding our neighbours.

Notice how verse 15 speaks about God dealing with sin, some very strong words in verse 15. As you have done, so it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head. Today in our society, we'd say what goes around comes around. But you know, it's really the biblical principle of agriculture that you reap what you sow.

As you have done, so it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head. At first glance congregation, that might seem that this is merely because of Edom's sin against Israel, but it goes deeper than that. Did you know that in Old Testament times, people were judged, other nations were judged by their attitude to God's people? You wanna check that out, have a look at Genesis 12 when you get home.

It was a principle that God laid down when He made the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12. God had said, I will make you, Abraham, into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. And then God significantly added, I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse. Do you see what God's doing?

He's identifying with the nation of Israel. And so, Eden's mistreating of Israel is at the same time an attack against God, mistreating Him. On occasion, God said, he who touches you touches the apple of My eye. Do you see why Obadiah in this single chapter prophecy is signing Edom's death certificate? That's what the book of Edom, of Obadiah is, it's about the demise of Edom And where did it go wrong?

With pride, yes, absolutely. But also with Edom asking that Cain question, am I my brother's keeper? And look where it ends in verse 18, there will be no survivors from the house of Edom. And that prediction was actually fulfilled in history. You see friends, in the New Testament, there is another proud and very proud and arrogant family, a very cruel and compassionless, a compassionless family mentioned in the gospels and in the book of Acts.

Do you know who they were? They were the Herods, and the Herods were the last of the Edomites in the New Testament called the Idumeans. And today there are no Edomites. And Petra, their capital is just an archaeological novelty. You know, I originally struggled with this Book of Obadiah, I wondered how I could preach from it.

Seemed at first glance that all it's got for us is some moral lessons and there's nothing particularly Christian about morals, just about God dealing with pride, okay, God gets involved, we need to guard against pride, and of course, God is judging this nation for its cruelty to a brother nation, but when all is said and done, they are just moral lessons. Don't be proud, don't be loveless. Well, okay, there's a little bit of ancient history thrown in. We learn about how Eden, at some point, mistreated Israel and how under God's curse, Eden became a threatened species and eventually extinct. But can you see the problem I struggled with congregation?

As a Christian pastor, I'm supposed to preach Christ. And as a reformed preacher, I heartily believe that Jesus is the centre of the whole Bible. He's also in the book of Obadiah, but my question is, where is He in the book of Obadiah? This whole chapter is devoted, this whole book is devoted to a foreign nation, a gentile nation, when all's said and done, and that nation today no longer exists. So the best we can do is get a few moral lessons out of it about pride and lovelessness, right?

No. You see, look at the final verse in the book. The final verse in the book of Obadiah is actually the key to understanding it. And Obadiah concludes his writings with these words, and the kingdom will be Yahweh's. And that is a big picture statement, friends.

You see where that statement takes us? Right back to a theme that runs right through the Old Testament, the battle between two kingdoms, the kingdom of darkness, kingdom of Satan, and Edom allies itself with that kingdom, the kingdom of pride that sets itself up against God. My friends, Edom had many allies in that kingdom of darkness and other nations also set themselves up against God and His people and repeatedly, Edom sided with the enemies of Israel. But you know, in that kingdom of the evil one, there's not much loyalty, is there? What Obadiah predicts in verse 7, that their allies will betray them, that's exactly what happened at the end of Eden's story.

Those kings called Herods, the last of the Edomites, they sided with Rome. They were the puppet kings of the Roman Empire. But at the end of the day, Rome destroyed the last of the Edomites, the Herods, in the battle at Jerusalem in seventy AD. You see how that changes the whole picture of the prophecies of Obadiah. Obadiah this morning is not only teaching us moral lessons.

Yes, they're there and yes, they're important. You need to deal with pride, I need to deal with pride, you need to deal with lovelessness, I need to deal with that. But it's also part of the big picture story of the Bible, how Satan tried to stop Jesus from coming into this world, how the devil attempted to stop Christmas from ever happening by using Eden. But Obadiah shows us that God is in control, and so the kingdom of Christ wins in the end. The kingdom will be Yahweh's.

It helps us to understand this morning some other things in those concluding verses. It speaks there about the restoration of God's people. Edom thought they were putting an end to God's people, helping the enemies to do that. God says at the end of Obadiah, instead the Israelites will flourish. And then we get a lovely picture of their restoration and their territory's gonna be expanded.

The enlargement of the nation, all those surrounding countries will be possessed and occupied by God's people. And that says Obadiah will happen when deliverers, saviours go up on Mount Zion. And that was a prediction of their return from captivity and possibly the rise of the Maccabees, which happened in the four hundred years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. So what are we going to do this morning, congregation, with this very positive ending to the book about the Doom of Edom? How do we apply that to us today?

Over the years, I've met quite a few Christians who want to apply this to the modern state of Israel today, and they even try and link the covenant promises that God made to Abraham in Genesis 12 to modern day Israel. And someone who took that view on one occasion asked the question, he said, why is America such a great nation today? He answered the question himself by saying, well, because America has always been a good friend of Israel and God had said, those whom you bless, I will bless, but if America ever turns against Israel, that will change. And I wanna say very loudly, no, wrong. Unlike Edom, you today and we today are not judged by our attitude to the modern state of Israel.

You are judged by your attitude to the Israel who is encapsulated in the person of Christ. He fulfilled all that Old Testament Israel was. Brothers and sisters, when that's our view, then the Church of Jesus Christ is also part of that fulfilment. We are the branches that have been grafted into the rootstock of Israel, and so Paul calls the New Testament church, the Israel of God. Look again at the list of neighbouring peoples that are taken up in Israel at the end of Obadiah, the greatest fulfilment of that is the fact that people from all the nations today, those nations that are mentioned have joined the church of Jesus Christ.

And explains one other thing in the book of Obadiah, like so many of the minor prophets, he mentions the day of the Lord. So that last time in Joel, it's a shorthand way of saying, that's the day in which God intervenes in history. Ultimately, it's the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Obadiah, yes, it's a book about judgement. It has bad news, bad news for the proud, bad news for lovelessness, bad news for us when we let pride feature in our lives or lovelessness take over.

But it's also a book of salvation. It's good news, good news for believers, because that day of the Lord is the day when the kingdom will be Yahweh's, and on that day friends, ultimately every knee shall bow to Jesus and every tongue will confess Him as Lord. And I wanna say to you this morning before you leave this building, I wanna say that if you bow the knee to Jesus now, then the good news is that you're on the winning side. No longer part of the kingdom of darkness, but part of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me lead you in prayer.

Father, just a single chapter in the Old Testament, just one solitary Bible book that at first comes across so negative, full of judgement and doom on the nation of Eden. And yet Father, we thank You that right at the end there, You give us that wonderful glimpse of salvation being Yours and You being in ultimate control and working out also through the Edomites, Your purposes. So we thank You that the devil couldn't stop Christmas from happening, couldn't stop Jesus from coming. We thank You that He came to give His life, so that we might have life in all its fullness, in all its richness. Help us then this morning Lord, to surrender our lives to You, to do away with pride and with lovelessness and to seek to serve You and to seek to serve our fellow man.

We pray that through Jesus Christ our Lord, In His name we say together, Amen.