OBADIAH
In the name of Jesus who loved us and freed us from the
tyranny of sin and the fear of death,
dear fellow redeemed children of God.
An article I read this week said that though we celebrate
the approval of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress this
weekend, the document itself has not always been treated with the care you
might expect. Historians say that the
Declaration has been haphazardly transported around the country in carriages
and a sailing ship. At one point it was
put in a burlap bag. Some historians say
the Founding Fathers rolled it up all the time, which you're not supposed to do
with valuable historical documents.
Along the way It was exposed to light and smoke. And somewhere along the way, someone slapped
a big, dirty handprint on the bottom left-hand corner. The dark smudge on the nation's famed
document has baffled historians for years.
Some have wondered if it was an unwashed founding father, as he leaned
over the parchment on that hot summer day in 1776? Or maybe it was the
print-shop owner who reframed the document in 1888?
We are not sure whose hand print is on the Declaration of
Independence but it is very clear that God’s handprints are all over the
history of our nation and the history of all nations. I guess that is why is called “His”
story. We have a chance to see that
again as we hear what God announce Judgment on a nation that was a neighbor to
God’s Old Testament people. Long before
July 4th, 1776 the Lord showed that he is the author of History through
His prophet Obadiah. God makes it clear- “The Kingdom Is The
Lord’s.”
As with almost all of the minor prophets we know very little
about Obadiah. There are about ten times
in the Old Testament when an Obadiah is mentioned. One was a servant of King Ahab and Queen
Jezebel. Remember he hid and kept some
of the seminary students alive and fed when Ahab and Jezebel were running after
their false gods. If he is the author, he certainly would have been familiar
with the sinful pride that brings down nations since he worked for Ahab and
Jezebel. Many who are much smarter than I am think that
the Obadiah who wrote this book was an Obadiah who lived later in history. He sent by King Jehoshaphat to revive the
worship of the true God by instructing the people in God’s Word. Because Obadiah doesn’t pull out his
prophet’s license at the beginning of his book we know much more about his
message than we know about him.
We do know more about the people that he was writing about. Obadiah told of God’s judgment against the
Edomites. The Edomites were the
descendants of Esau, Jacob’s twin but older brother. Remember he was the brother who especially
lived for the here and now. He sold the
eldest son’s birthright because he was hungry for a bowl of stew. So the Edomites were not only neighbors of
the Israelites, they were relatives. But
they sure did not treat them like family.
When the Children of Israel came of out Egypt and requested safe passage
from their cousins through their land.
The Edomites responded by pointing their swords at them and making them
travel way around their land. The
Edomites started wars with King Saul and King David. They rebelled against King Solomon.
They cheered when the people of Judah and Israel stumbled. Later Jerusalem was attacked by the
Philistines who grabbed much of the royal treasury. The Edomites didn’t lift a finger to help
and cheered while that was happening.
That’s why Obadiah wrote, “You should not look down on your brother in
the day of his misfortune…nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.”
Esau settled his family in the land of Seir, the mountainous
area to the south and east of what we
know as Israel. The Edomites capital
city was a place called Sela, sometimes called Petra today. You might not have ever heard of the land of
the Edomites but perhaps you have seen it in the movies. In one of the Indiana Jones movies, the rock
fortress of Petra is featured. There is
a narrow passage way that leads to a fortress carved on the cliffs of red sandstone. The passageway to their capital was so
narrow that attacking armies could not march through there with more than a few
soldiers at a time. Being up on top of
the cliffs they could see enemy armies
coming from a long way off and then throw nasty stuff down on the heads of
enemy soldiers to discourage them. Obadiah
talks about their strategic position when he writes, “you who live in the
clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights.”
The Edomite land was sitting just right not only to keep
them safe but to make them very wealthy.
The traded in precious metals.
They had a very robust copper mining
industry in their mountains. Remember the Israelites wanted to travel
through Edom to get to Israel because it was the easier way through the
mountain gorges. That same thing was
true for all of the other travelers and traders. So the Edomites made money by charging tolls
on an important trade route.
Sounds like things were going pretty well for the Edomites. So what was there problem that brought such
harsh words from God’s prophet? In a
word it was their arrogance.
Sinful pride brought down God’s judgment on them.
God says, “The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who
live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say
to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar like the eagle and make your
nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down.” It seems like the Edomites were not recognizing
that the Kingdom is the Lord’s. They
were thinking to themselves that their wealth had come from their own ingenuity
and their safety came because of their own smarts and good planning.
There is no place where the handprints of God in history are
more evident than in God’s plan for you and me to be living in heaven with him
on the day history stops being written for this world. “Deliverers will go up
on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will be the
LORD’s.” The Edomites were arrogant enough to try mess
with that. They hooted and hollered at
the defeat of their neighbors. They
danced as the family from whom the Savior of the world would come took their
lumps. The Lord would remind them and us
that the Kingdom is the Lord’s.
On this day when we are celebrating our nation’s founding, are
there things we Americans can learn from the Edomites? The Kingdom is the Lord’s. Are we thinking like the Edomites? Are we thinking that we are very secure? That is especially easy for us to do
because God has been so good to us that most of the harm that has come
to our country hasn’t not come from outside our country but rather harm from
the silly, foolish things we have done
to ourselves.
Are we thinking that our wealth has come from our own
ingenuity? Are we thinking we’ve done
things right? Have we deluded ourselves
into thinking that we somehow deserve what we have much more than the people in
this world who do have a sandwich to eat or who don’t have safe water to drink. Have we forgotten that our beautiful country
has come to us as a blessing from God- that it is yet another wonderful example of God not treating us as
our sins deserve.
Are we living like the Edomites for the here and now? Are we most interested in what makes us happy
right now? Does the thought that the
Lord has given us all of these blessings in our country so that we might be
able to help others ever cross our mind?
The Kingdom is the Lord’s.
From the first pages of human history when mankind disobeyed Him, God
began planning to send a Savior. God has
been taking all of the nations along the way turning and twisting each nation
to fit his plan. Each nation along the
way has somehow someway fit into the tapestry of that plan. A
deliverer has gone up to Zion. 2,000
years ago, God sent his Son to live a perfect life free from arrogance and
sinful pride and humbly go to an awful death on a cross so that we might be
free. The Kingdom is the Lord’s!
Let’s let our pride as Americans be from the fact that God
has shed his grace on us that our nation might fit in his plan. That God would turn history that we might
serve as a safe haven for us to learn about and spread the good news of Jesus.
May our pride come from the fact that the Lord has used us through the years to bring food and shelter in times
of disaster around the world. While
these windows of history are open for us right now let’s stop living in a
“please me now” mode and let’s rejoice that the Lord would use us to help
others.
Yakov Smirnoff, the comedian had it right when he said about
America, “What a Country!” Yes the Lord
has shed His grace on us. Let’s not be
like the Edomites- let’s remember that the Kingdom is the Lord’s/ Amen.
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