Minor Prophets Major Lessons – Obadiah

Obadiah: God Is Faithful

586 BC was the year Judah lost everything. They watched the Babylonians destroy Jerusalem and burn the temple, and then every man, woman, and child was dragged into exile. They had already been divided as a people, then decimated, then displaced. And these were God’s people. Centuries earlier God had come to Abraham and promised, “I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing,” and “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” But about 560 BC when Obadiah was written, it seemed God had changed his mind. Was God going to rescue them? Were Abraham’s blessings going to come to nothing? God, where are you? So into that grave uncertainty, God sent Obadiah with a timely message: no matter what it looks like, God is faithful. He keeps his promises.

We are in a series on the Minor Prophets, the last twelve books of the Old Testament, written between about 750 and 450 BC. They are minor not in importance but in length. All twelve together are about the length of one of the Major Prophets. Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament, and we know only that his name means servant of God. I am not as creative with sermon titles as Pastors Mike, Dan, and Jeff, so I called it Obadiah. His message has two parts for Edom and Judah, and two for us.

Obadiah’s Message for Edom: God’s Enemies Will Be Destroyed

Verse 1 is the vision: God is recruiting nations to rise against Edom for battle. Edom was a small country southeast of Judah, about 100 miles by 25 miles, like Middle Tennessee. Its people were descendants of Esau. When you first read about Esau you might admire him, an independent, self-reliant man. But he was indifferent to God, and so were his descendants. In verse 2 God says, I will make you small among the nations. He did that through the Babylonians, and by 553 BC Edom was totally destroyed. Why? There are two reasons.

They were proud. Verse 3 says, “the pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the cliffs of the rock.” Their capital was Petra, the city in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, carved into sandstone cliffs and entered through a canyon only ten feet wide in places, so that twelve trained soldiers could hold it against hundreds. They thought they were unconquerable: we don’t need support, we don’t need God. But God says, “Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down.”

Think about where pride ranks among sins in your heart. In our culture pride seems more a virtue than a vice, but 1 Peter 5:5 says God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. I don’t want to be opposed by God. We can feel satisfaction when we or someone we love does something honorable, and there is nothing wrong with that. When a Christian feels it, it turns quickly to praise, because we know any good in us comes from God. John 15:5 says apart from him we can do nothing. But for an unbeliever, the satisfaction has nowhere to go but inward, and it becomes praise of self. “Pride is a thief of glory.” And there is nothing more important to our God than the glory of his name.

They opposed God’s people. They were brothers, Jacob and Esau, and Edom took advantage of Judah in its weakness, conspiring with Babylon. So God cut them off forever.

Obadiah’s Message for Judah: God’s People Will Be Delivered

Verses 17 through 21 promise that on Mount Zion there will be those who escape, and the house of Jacob will possess their possessions. The house of Esau will be stubble. Mount Esau will be destroyed, but Mount Zion will be restored, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s. In other words, hang on. Things are not what they seem. God will fulfill his promises.

What It Means for Us

A good deal of this prophecy has been fulfilled. Edom was destroyed, and the promise to Abraham was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Yet there is a sense in which it is not yet fulfilled. Verses 15 and 16 say the day of the Lord is near for all the nations, and as you have done, it shall be done to you. God’s enemies will be as though they had never been.

And God’s people will be delivered. If you are a Christian you have been delivered, you are being delivered, and you will be delivered. We have been freed from the consequences of sin but not yet from its presence. This week you can probably bring to mind things you feel guilty for or ashamed of, ways you acted and things you said. John Newton said, “I am not who I want to be. I’m not who I should be,” but “by the grace of God, I am not who I once was.” One day in restored bodies in the new heavens and new earth, you will be incapable of sin. Revelation 21:4 says he will wipe away every tear.

If you are here today and are not yet a believer, you are here as an enemy of God. There is no middle: there is Jacob and Esau, Judah and Edom, a child of God and not a child of God. That is the bad news. The good news is that Jesus suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.