1 Valley View Chapel October 2, 2016 Big Things in Small Packages Part 1 Obadiah Obadiah 1:1-21 Introduction I have been preaching for 42½ years. My best guess is that I ve delivered about 1800 sermons and you know what? I have NEVER preached a sermon from the Old Testament book of Obadiah. So this is a truly historic occasion I m surprised that the networks, CNN, MSNBC and FOX News aren t covering it! Some of you are not aware that there is a book named Obadiah in the Bible. And I can t blame you. It s the shortest book in the Old Testament and probably the most neglected book in the Word of God. So why am I preaching from Obadiah today? Because I m starting a 5-sermon series called Big Things in Small Packages. There are five books in the Bible that have only one chapter Obadiah in the Old Testament and Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude in the New. I m going to devote one message to each of these brief and overlooked books. I ve studied them carefully in my personal Bible reading and have discovered timeless, practical spiritual truths in each one. I think you ll be as surprised as I was at the quality of helpful information hidden away in these five little books. Obadiah tells the story of two nations Israel and Edom. The story really begins back in Genesis 25:21-26. Isaac prayed hard to God for his wife because she was barren. God answered his prayer and Rebekah became pregnant. But the children tumbled and kicked inside her so much that she said, If this is the way it's going to be, why go on living? She went to God to find out what was going on. God told her, Two nations are in your womb, two peoples butting heads while still in your body. One people will overpower the other, and the older will serve the younger. When her time to give birth came, sure enough, there were twins in her womb. The first came out reddish, as if snugly wrapped in a hairy blanket; they named him Esau (Hairy). His brother followed, his fist clutched tight to Esau's heel; they named him Jacob (Heel). Isaac was sixty years old when they were born. (MSG) Isaac s son, Jacob, eventually became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. Esau moved to the mountains southeast of Israel and became the patriarch of a people known as Edomites. Just as Jacob and Esau were life-long rivals from before their birth so the Israelites and Edomites were perpetual enemies. Their antagonism came to a head shortly after the Israelites had escaped from Egyptian slavery. The Jews were on their way to the Promised Land and needed to pass through the land of Edom. We ll pick up the story in Numbers 20:14. Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: Thus says your brother Israel: 'You know all the hardships we have experienced, how our ancestors went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors badly. So when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent a messenger, and has brought us up out of Egypt. Now we are here in Kadesh, a town on the edge of your country. Please let us pass through your country. We will not pass through the fields or through the
2 vineyards, nor will we drink water from any well. We will go by the King's Highway; we will not turn to the right or the left until we have passed through your region.' But Edom said to him, You will not pass through me, or I will come out against you with the sword. Then the Israelites said to him, We will go along the highway, and if we or our cattle drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We will only pass through on our feet, without doing anything else. But he said, You may not pass through. Then Edom came out against them with a large and powerful force. So Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border; therefore Israel turned away from him. (NET) A thousand years later Obadiah prophesied God s judgment on the nation of Edom for its antagonistic attitude toward God s people. But the book of Obadiah is not only a story of God s judgment of Edom. The principles outlined and the lessons learned in these twentyone verses are timeless. The first reason for Edom s downfall was that they were: Snared by Pride The Bible has a lot to say about pride and none of it is good. The book of Proverbs issues repeated warnings about the danger of pride. Proverbs 6:16 tells us, These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him. And what is number one on the list of seven things that deeply offend God? A proud look. (NKJV) Proverbs 8:13 declares, I hate pride and arrogance. (NIV) Proverbs 16:18 contains a serious warning: Pride will destroy a person; a proud attitude leads to ruin. (NCV) The people of Edom were snared by pride. And on the surface at least, they had reasons to be proud. Reasons for Edom s Pride First, they were proud of their location. They seemed invincible. Geography was on their side. The capital city of Petra in present-day Jordan was cut out of mountainous rocks. It was located 5,000 feet above sea level. Petra was accessible only by a path a few yards wide that extended for more than a mile. The city was virtually an impenetrable fortress. You know the familiar saying about real estate? Location! Location! Location! The most expensive city to live in the United States today is BROOKLYN. People who bought low in Brooklyn years ago are feeling pretty proud of their investment about now. But what goes up has to come down eventually. The Edomites found out in 553 B.C. that location was over-rated when they were conquered by the Babylonians. Second, they were proud of their treasures, their financial prosperity. Yet money and possessions can be lost. They can wear out. They can be taken from us. We re told in verse 6, But how Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures pillaged!
3 I read recently that the average professional athlete in the U.S. will make more in one season than most of us earn in our entire lives. Yet despite those staggering salaries, 78% of NFL players, 60% of NBA players and a very large percentage of MLB players (4x that of the average U.S. citizen) file bankruptcy within five years of retirement. We may never file for bankruptcy but at the very least, we have to leave it all behind when we die. You ve heard the old saying: I ve never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul. (Well, I guess there was one hearse that pulled a U-Haul. I guess the funeral home couldn t afford a flower car!) God said to the farmer who placed his ultimate trust in his material abundance: This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? (NIV) One of the most misquoted verses in the Bible is 1 Timothy 6:10. It is NOT: Money is the root of all evil. It really says: For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. (NLT) Money is neutral. It can be used for good or bad purposes. But the love of it; pride in it; over dependence on it will lead to disappointment and eventual ruin. Third, they were proud of their friends. They had powerful allies. But how trustworthy are friends? They move away. They die. They lose interest in us. They will even turn on us and betray our trust. The Edomites found out the hard way that pride in their alliances was short-sighted and short-lived. Look with me at verse 7, All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it. (NIV) Fourth, they were proud of their wisdom, their intellectual achievements. The Edomites were an educated people. They scored in the 98 th percentile on the standardized tests of their day. Yet when the wisdom of Man leaves out God, it becomes foolishness. The wisdom of frail, flawed, finite Ph.Ds. has failed to stand up against the challenges of changing times. God made a promise against Edom in verse 8, In that day will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, men of understanding in the mountains of Esau? Fifth, they were proud of the strength, their military might. They had numerous and able warriors. The Edomites were good fighters. They hadn t lost a war since David defeated them 500 years earlier. But their day of reckoning was imminent. The prophecy of verse 9 came true within 50 years: Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified and everyone in Esau s mountains will be cut down in the slaughter. Military preparedness is a good thing. But when God decides to judge a nation for its sin and wickedness, no Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, or Coast Guard will be able to resist. Obadiah s prophecy is a word of warning to America. We cannot continue to break God s laws with impunity and think that our military might will keep us safe. Our national failure to repent and turn to God will result in our destruction. The lessons from history declare it to be so. At the time of Obadiah s prophecy around 586 B.C. - Edom looked strong. But they were sick and weak and they didn t know it. In his book How the Mighty Fall business author Jim Collins described a day when he and his wife, Joanne, went for a run on a mountain road near Aspen, Colorado. At the time, Joanne Ernst, his wife, was a well-conditioned runner who had won the 1985 Ironman Triathlon. Joanne quickly outdistanced her husband, stopping only when she reached an altitude of almost 13,000 feet.
4 Yet a little more than two months later, she was diagnosed with cancer and underwent two mastectomies. Collins's point: on the day of that run, his wife appeared the picture of health, but she was already carrying her disease within her. The Edomites looked strong indeed invincible - in 586 B.C. But appearances are deceiving. That s why we must depend on the Lord s grace, mercy, protection, and provision every day. There is absolutely place for no pride. We depend on the Lord for our next breath, our next step, and our next dollar. A good location; or friends; or treasures; or wisdom; or a strong military presence are good things to have. But they cannot form the basis of our security and significance. Like Edom, we have been richly, abundantly blessed in this wonderful land perhaps more than any other nation in the history of the world. But our blessings must not be a source of pride. Rather may they be a source of thankfulness and gratitude. Author Alex Haley had a picture in his office showing a turtle on a fencepost. He said that the picture reminded him of a lesson: If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he had some help. Any time I start thinking, Wow, isn t this marvelous what I ve done! I look at that picture and remember how this turtle me got up on that post. If we have done anything that the world might call even mildly commendable, let s remember that we re just a turtle on a fence post. The God of grace and mercy placed us there. The Edomites were turtles who thought they mounted the fence post with no outside help. The second life principle contained in Obadiah is: The Danger of Forgetfulness A couple of weeks ago Keith Holmes and I tried to think of three universal principles, principles that applied to every situation for all time our personal lives; our spiritual lives; relational lives; social lives; work lives; the political arena; everywhere. I want to suggest one of those principles: The Law of Sowing and Reaping: You Reap What You Sow. The Bible in both testaments calls this inflexible and timeless law to our attention. Job 4:8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. (NIV) 2 Corinthians 9:6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. (NIV) Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. (NIV) The Edomites forgot that for centuries they sowed trouble for their next of kin, the Israelites. Back at the time of the exodus they had forbidden them from entering their land in a time of need.
5 Around 586 B.C. they stood by indifferently while the Babylonians ravaged Jerusalem and carried defenseless people into captivity. Worse yet, they positioned themselves by the escape routes and turned back fleeing Israelites into the hands of the Babylonians for deportation and slavery. I find verse 12 particularly relevant in this season of political mud-slinging and attack ads: You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble. Have the major political candidates ever read this verse, much less incorporated its truth into their campaign strategy? Or do they rejoice over the misfortune of their opponent? Do they boast when their opponent gets into trouble? We need to remember that it s that kind of thing that brought down the Edomites under God s hand of judgment. By the way, have I ever said about someone who opposed me or didn t like me: He or she got what she deserved. They made their bed. Let them lie in it? Aren t you glad that God doesn t say to us: You made your bed. Now you can lie in it. How often do we conveniently forget Jesus counsel in Luke 6:27-28, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (NIV) Conclusion Verse 15 proclaimed that The day of the Lord is near for all nations. The day of the Lord has three contexts. It can mean judgment that is close at hand such as for the Edomites. It can mean discipline for the people of God the purpose of which is to persuade us to repent of our sins and bow once again before the gracious authority of the Lord Jesus. It can mean the final judgment when Jesus Christ returns to earth to make wrongs right and establish his earthly kingdom of peace. The concluding and triumphant point of Obadiah s prophecy is stated in his concluding words: And the kingdom will be the Lord s. There are Edomites in your world and there are Edomites in my world. There are people and forces that don t like us; that work against us; and seek to deprive us of the blessings that accompany salvation. They may seem to have the advantage for the time being. But the day of the Lord is near when the kingdom will be the Lord s. Let us rest with confidence on that sure and certain promise. M. Scott Peck began his book The Road Less Traveled with an observation that has the ring of truth about it: Life is difficult.
In a difficult, Edomite-filled world, may we cast away our pride and trust God humbly. And may we unceasingly sow love, compassion, kindness, and sacrifice so that at the end of the journey we will reap the joy of hearing our Lord s Well done. 6