Obadiah: Zooming Out on God's Big Plan | Pastor PJ Berner

Obad this week in, in fact, all week long, I've had the song by the

Beatles stuck in my head, OB ob.

Anybody else, life goes on.

Obadiah is not about the Beatles, it's not about that.

It is, I guess about life going on in some sense or another.

Uh, but we are going to talk about something that's probably been a little

bit overdue this morning as we are going through a series on the minor prophets.

Uh, some churches would look at the minor prophets and be like,

we're not gonna waste our time.

Maybe they wouldn't say it.

So starkly preaching through the minor prophets, because that's for Israel.

Uh, we're gonna preach through the, the New Testament.

We're gonna preach through an epistle.

We're gonna preach through something like that.

The gospels, uh, that's, that's the church.

That's what we're dealing with now.

That's what God is concerned about.

Well, as we got into this, as I started studying the Book of Obadiah

this week, I, I was reminded that I probably need to deal with the

relationship of Israel and the church.

And some of you may already be thinking, uh, that you aren't gonna like that.

And, and that's okay because this is a second tier issue.

This is not an is issue of dividing fellowship.

This is not an issue of whether or not we're Christians.

This is not an issue of can we even hang out together in the same church.

I, I trust and hope that we can agree to disagree if we disagree on this, but I,

I do believe that it's important for us to know and for you to know where we are

when it comes to Israel and the church.

And that was all before Israel decided to launch a massive

attack against Iran this week.

That was just God saying, here's an illustration for you.

Um.

But it was, uh, it's a situation where we need to, we need to be able to take in

account of what's going on globally and as the church be able to ask and answer the

question, what do we do with all of this?

Uh, Thursday night as all of this was unfolding, I was

awake still and on Twitter.

And Twitter was just a blaze.

I know it's not Twitter anymore, it's X, but X sounds weird to say

from the poll it's Twitter still.

Um, it was a blaze with everybody from just Fairfax reporting to other

people, celebrating this to some people saying it's World War ii, to

other people saying this is GOG and May, and Jesus is on the way back.

He's just at a stoplight right now.

Uh, listen, a a as we dive into this subject in Obadiah this

morning specifically, and you'll see the connection I, I trust, I

hope I pray if I do my job right.

Um, I'm not here to tell you this morning that Jesus is on his way back right

now, and, and, Hey, you, you better get your affairs in order presently

because this is the end of the world.

Uh, maybe it might be, and he might be.

What I want us to think about is, is are we ready for him to come back?

Are we ready for this future where he is going to return to set in motion and

to fill, fulfill promises like those that he makes to the people of Israel?

In the Book of Obediah, I believe that there is still a future for Israel.

I believe that there are promises yet unfulfilled that will be fulfilled

in the people of Israel, and I think we as a church, need to do well to

consider our place in this whole picture and ask ourselves, okay,

so then what does that mean for us?

That's where we're going this morning.

Take your Bibles, if you will.

Obadiah chapter or chapter one.

It's only one chapter.

It's only one chapter, Obadiah verse one.

But as we get in there, a, a couple of things.

The, the author identified there in verse one is Obadiah.

Who is Obadiah?

Well, we don't know who Obadiah was, aside from his name here, his

title, uh, there are about 12 Obeds.

We believe in the, in the Bible, in the scriptures.

Uh, but Obediah is the prophet here as he is called and given a vision of the.

The Lord's message, and we'll talk about to whom in just a second.

But he wrote, this is debatable.

There's confusion and there's uncertainty because there's not a lot of solid

ground for us to point to in the book.

To date it specifically, I'm gonna say that he wrote around 5 86.

This is around the time that Jerusalem fell, that Nebuchadnezzar came in

the final siege against Jerusalem.

The city fell, the temple would be destroyed.

The, the people were gonna be carried off into exile.

And I think that fits contextually, uh, Eden's response to Israel that

we're gonna read about in the book.

But some people take that it was written earlier around the ninth

century BC and there's, uh, arguments to be made on that front too.

Either way, the message of the book.

Remains the same.

And the message of the book is about how God was going to judge Edem,

uh, both in the short term, but also in the long term eschatological.

And what does that mean for God's people and Israel's enemies as well?

Who's the audience?

Well, it says in verse one, thus says the Lord God concerning

edem, but it doesn't say to Edem.

And so what is going on here, I believe, is that God is sending obediah to Judah,

to the southern nation of Israel here.

To comfort them with a message of judgment against their enemies as they

are facing or on the backside of the exile being carried off into Babylon.

A big theme in the book of Obadiah is that God is going to bring judge judgment and

justice to his people, Israel, and he's going to show that by targeting Edem,

specifically saying, Edem, I'm coming after you for how you treated my people.

And so as God is writing to this people being carried off in exile,

this is a message to encourage them.

To say to them, Hey, I want you to know what's coming for Edem.

And as we'll see, it's not just for Edem, but it's for anybody

that stands against God and against his program and against his plan.

The theme word here as we've been talking about these different words, we had

redemption right back with Hosea, and then we had, uh, repentance with Joel,

and then last week was justice with Amos.

This week the word is gonna be humility.

Humility, that's our word, uh, that we're gonna associate

here with the book of Obadiah.

Obadiah one says this, the vision of Obadiah, thus says the Lord God.

Concerning Edam, we've heard a report from the Lord.

A messenger has been sent among the nations, rise up and let

us rise against her for battle.

And so in verse one, he's saying to Edem, I'm going to bring judgment upon you.

I'm rising up the nations for battle against her.

The her there in verse one is Edem.

Verse two.

Behold I will make you small among the nations.

You shall be utterly despised.

The pride of your heart has deceived 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.

I.

Though you soar a loft like the Eagle, though, your nest is set among the stars.

From there, I will bring you down to declares the Lord.

Let's get a little geographical context.

If you can see on the screens there, I know it's small, but that red circle

on the bottom, that is Modern Day Petra, which is in Jordan, and that

is we believe what the capital city of the Emmys was during this time.

So when he is writing about Edem, you'll notice it's south of the Dead Sea.

It's south of Jerusalem, it's south of the nation of Israel, and

so he's writing to them there and he's delivering this message about

them having this pridefulness.

That's the main sin of the Edomites was pride and arrogance.

And it's a pride that is deceived them.

It's a self deceiving pride.

Into thinking that they were secure and safe as they watched Israel destroyed and,

and carried off into Babylonian exile.

Why were they so prideful?

Well, if you've ever looked up Petra, or maybe some of you have even, even

been to Petra, this is an example.

This is some of the ruins, the remains of the city, Petra.

It was literally carved into the rocks.

In fact, here's a, a closer picture of some of the ruins there.

And, and this was a, a easily defendable city.

There was one access point into Petra and it was through a narrow valley.

And so if you possessed Petra, this is where you dwelt.

Then you thought you had it made.

This was living in Prosper, Texas back in, in Old Testament times.

You were comfortable, you had nothing to fear.

Yeah.

The riots may be breaking out in LA and Portland and New York City.

Iran and Israel are fighting.

But man, we're fine here.

We're good, we're good.

And see, the pride of Edem is also something that we have to worry about

too, and that is being lulled into a sense of false security, thinking that

nothing's ever gonna happen to us.

So what does it really matter?

How we behave, how we act?

God said, no, I'm gonna bring you down, declares the Lord.

In fact, he says, I'm gonna make you small.

The word small in the Hebrew doesn't just mean in size.

The word small means I'm gonna render you inconsequential.

I'm gonna make you nothing essentially is what God says.

In fact, in verse 10, we're gonna find out that God is gonna tell Edem you

are gonna be destroyed completely.

And if you look up Edem on Google Maps today, guess what?

You won't find Edem.

Why?

Because God fulfills his promises.

And so God is bringing this message of judgment and he's

delivering it to Judah about Edem.

Verse five.

He says, if Thieves came to you, if Plunderers came by night.

How you have been destroyed, would they not only steal enough for themselves

if, if grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave the gleanings?

How Esau has been pillaged and his treasures sought out?

In other words, here God is saying to eat 'em, eat 'em.

If, if only it had been just simply the, the, the thieves.

'cause if, if thieves had come to you, yeah, you would've suffered loss.

But they wouldn't have taken everything or eat 'em.

If, if only I, my judgment has been, had been as the, the grape gatherers.

Because then they would've even left the gleanings behind.

There would've been something left behind, but God says no.

How Esau has been pillaged.

The word pillaged there conveys seeking out that which is hidden.

And so God is telling Edam, I'm going to even find the things that

you don't think I can get to, and I'm gonna take those from you two.

You are gonna have nothing left.

He continues.

He says, all your allies have driven you to your border.

Those at peace with you have deceived you.

They've prevailed against you.

Those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you.

You have no understanding.

In other words, Edam, your sense of security and, and trusting in

other nations and other peoples that's gonna be taken away.

You're gonna find out that your allies have been deceiving,

you have been lying to you.

That what you are trusting in is gonna be a trap door beneath you.

Verse eight, will I not on that day declares the Lord.

Destroy the wise men out of edem in understanding out of Mount Esau.

And your mighty men shall be dismayed ota, so that every man from Mount Esau

will be cut off by slaughter again.

God is going after their source of pride.

Your wisdom Edam, you, you, you boast in being wiser than

all of the surrounding peoples.

I'm gonna take away your wisdom, your might, your power.

You think you have a, an army that's sufficient.

Eden, I'm gonna take away your warriors and I'm gonna replace it with shame.

The grounds of judgment come in verse 10.

Of what?

Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob.

Shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever.

The word violence there in the Hebrew is the word Hamas.

Hamas, does that strike any, any bells?

Strike any chords with anybody.

Hamas is the Hebrew word for violence, and so God is indicting edem and, and he's

bringing in this judgment against edem, and he's saying to edem, because of your

violence done to your notice brother.

And that reminds us that there's a history here between Edem and Israel.

Edem is not just some random nation that got us pinpointing

now saying, well, let's, yeah, you, you we're gonna judge you.

Let's talk about for a minute here and remind ourselves of

the history of Edem and Israel.

It does go back to Jacob and Esau.

You remember the, the argument, the birthright selling, the

blessing, all of those things.

That was the start of the conflict.

These two, what brothers?

Well, from there, it, it grew only in their conflict, uh, they denied Israel.

You may recall passage during the wilderness wanderings, as Israel was

leaving Egypt, it would've made sense for them and been safer for them

to go through the mite territory.

But the mites, the descendants of Esau said, no, we're not gonna let you through.

Later on, king David is going to take Edem and make Edem a vassal state to Israel.

He's gonna subject them to labor.

He's gonna basically enslave the Edomites to the Israelites.

This is first Chronicles 18.

Well, they're not gonna like that.

So then under the reign of King Jehoram, second Kings, chapter eight

tells us that Edomites, they're gonna revolt against Jerusalem.

They're gonna say, we're not gonna do this anymore.

We're not gonna put up with your, your, your oppression of us anymore.

And so they free themselves for a minute until Amiah comes on

the scene and he recons Edam.

And so again, the conflict between the Israelites and the Edomites going

back and forth and back and forth.

Well eventually, here comes Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar

comes in, and this is what we're dealing with in Obadiah and o.

Nebuchadnezzar takes out the Israelites and he conquers

Jerusalem and destroys the temple.

And what does Edem do?

Well, Psalm 1 37 says that Edem was rejoicing in celebrating the downfall

of Jerusalem, and that I think is what.

Obediah is talking about here when he's confronting the Edomites.

So this is part of the history, but it didn't stop there.

It didn't stop with the exile of Israel, it continued.

In fact, it continued into the Inner Testament period

and into the New Testament.

Even Edem is gonna be resettled to Southern Judah by another nation.

Natia.

And so they're moved fifth century BC into Southern Judah.

Okay, so they're kicked out of their, their part that they love,

the Petra, the, the security, the provision, the safety that they have,

they're gonna be removed from there.

It's the beginning of God's ultimate judgment.

And then intertestamental, period.

You may re recall or be familiar with the guy named Judas Maccabeus

from the Book of Maccabees.

Not a biblical book, not an inspired book, but a book that

does record some history for us.

He conquers Edem in the second century BC.

So Maccabeus comes in, he's leading the Jewish revolt, and he's also

gonna go after the Edomites.

At the same time, he's gonna conquer Edem in the second century bc.

One of his predecessors, or successors rather, is John HERIs or her Canis,

and he's going to force the conversion of all of the Edomites Ju Judaism.

Okay, so you can imagine that went over really well with the, the Edomites John

HERIs, though with, with Military Force Mite is gonna force the conversion

of all the Edomites to Judaism.

At that same time, they become known as the Ians The Ians.

And, and that may ring a bell for you because in the New Testament, now as we

move past the Intertestamental period into the New Testament to the time of

Christ, there's a couple significant figures who are Ians like King Herod.

I.

Remember King Herod, right?

He's the one that the Magi went to and said, Hey, we're looking for him.

Who's been born?

King of the Jews, and Herod went after and tried to kill the Jewish Messiah.

Herod is an Ian.

He's an mite.

He's a descendant of Esau also from his same line comes Anus.

You may remember Herod Anus as the one who executed John the Baptist.

And so we have all of this conflict between Israel and Edem and Israel, and

the mites and the descendants of Esau.

That goes all the way back to Jacob and Esau.

And then eventually when the temple is finally destroyed, and Jerusalem is

attacked by Titus Fist Besian in 70 ad.

The Edomites are once and for all, wiped out the face of the planet,

and no one has heard from them since.

Okay, so that's the framework of what we're talking about here.

That's why back in verse 10, uh, the author, that's why Obadiah, that's why

God through Obediah says, because of the violence the Hamas done to your

brother Jacob, shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever.

See, God was particularly agitated by the sin of the Edomites because

they had gone after their own kinsmen because they had gone after their own

flesh and blood and mistreated them, and they were indeed the people of God.

Verse 11, on that day, when they were carried off, when they were

destroyed, you stood aloof, loof.

On that day.

Strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates

and cast lots for Jerusalem, and you were like one of them.

The pride of Edem had led to an indifference towards

the, the suffering of Israel.

They, they weren't going to come to their aid.

In fact, they just stood aloof and they watched it happen and they

didn't care as the city was divided up amongst the soldiers of Babylon.

Casting lots for different portions of it.

Verse 12, but do not gloo.

Do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune.

Do not rejoice over the people of Judah.

In the day of the ruin.

Do not boast in the day of his distress.

God is confronting Edem Lamentations 4 21 says of Edem, rejoice

and be glad daughter of Edem.

You dwell on the land of ooze, but to you also, the cup shall pass.

The cup of what?

The cup of judgment, the cup of God's wrath and you shall become

drunk and strip yourself bare.

In other words, Edam, God is gonna come for you too.

For what?

For rejoicing.

Ezekiel 35 15 As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of

Israel because it was desolate.

So I will deal with you.

You shall be desolate Mount Sr.

In all Edam, all of it.

They will know that I am the Lord.

He continues back in OB obadiah, verse 13.

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 his wealth in the day of his calamity.

Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives.

Do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress.

It seems that what was happening was not only were they uninterested in

Israel's safety and wellbeing, they were actively working against it.

As the Israelites were fleeing out of the city of Jerusalem to avoid capture, the

Edomites were there to capture them and to return them back to Nebuchadnezzar.

The word calamity shows up three times here in these two verses.

Uh, that word calamity in the Hebrew is aam.

So you have edem not to rejoice in the Adam of the people of God.

So God is using a play on words.

He's using words that sounds similar to convey the message,

this calamity, this destruction.

See, Edem was leaching off the victory of Babylon and they

were oppressing the people.

And God was saying, you've become just like them.

Verse 15 and 16.

Here's the reason why.

Edam, you need to be careful for the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.

This is now the third book that we've seen the day of the Lord featured in here in

the minor prophets, the day of the Lord being that eschatological, that end times

judgment where God is gonna bring his full wrath against all of those that are

his enemies, including here the mites.

So 70 ad was gonna take the Edomites off the scene globally and and temporally

speaking, but the return of Christ and the final judgment is gonna take Edem

off the map in a totally different way.

That there's a future judgment that the Edomites are gonna suffer for the day

the Lord is near upon all the nations as you have done, it shall be done to you.

Your deed shall return on your own head for as you have drunk on my holy mountain.

In other words, edem, you're celebrating, you're in revelry and and you're

getting drunk on my holy mountain, as my people are being carried off,

as my people are being destroyed.

So the nation shall drink continually.

They shall drink and swallow and shall be as they had never been.

In other words, you're gonna get drunk with something else on that day.

Edam, you're gonna get drunk with the wrath of God poured out upon you.

And so this message of judgment, as you've done social will be done to you.

As you have oppressed.

You will be oppressed.

As you have killed, you will be killed.

Verse 17, the contrast though, but.

But in Mount Zion, in Israel, in on Jerusalem's Mountain,

there shall be those who escape.

It shall be holy.

And the house of Jacob that is Israel shall possess their own possessions.

The house of Jacob shall be a fire.

The house of Joseph of 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, for the Lord.

Has spoken.

Now again, I think this is not the judgment of AD 70, but this

is an eschatological judgment.

This is a future judgment where God will use his people Israel as they're reformed

together to execute justice and judgment.

Not against Edam only, but against all of the nations at that point

that are gathered against him.

Verse 19.

Those are the NES shall po possess Mount Esau.

Those are the shela shall come in, possess the land of the Philistines.

They shall possess the land of Ephrem, the land of Samaria and

Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

The exiles of the host of the people of Israel shall possess the

land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath and the exiles of Jerusalem

who are in Sade shall possess the cities of the Nega Sur survive.

Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and

the kingdom shall be the Lord's

mic drop done right?

The kingdom shall be the Lords.

That's the end of all of this, and yet notice it's going to feature Israel.

Israel is gonna possess all of the Promised land again and not just

the promised land that they managed to take under Joshua's conquest,

but the extent of the promised land that God had originally told them

they were to go in and take, they're going to have it all at that point.

Listen church as to, to right now, where we sit today, that has not yet happened.

And when we look at land promises in the Bible, those aren't for you and me.

That's one of the clear reasons why we believe and are convinced and

convi convicted even, that there is a future for God's people, Israel,

and he will fulfill these promises and bring them to completion.

So let's talk about that for just a minute before we get into a few

thoughts on what to do with the book of Obadiah as we go from here.

Israel in the church is something that everybody has

a, a, a view point of view on.

If you are a believer, you have to come down somewhere on the the scale.

With Israel and the church, we are what is known as dispensationalist, and

that's become a bit of a pejorative term amongst a lot of theological circles.

People make fun of us as the crazy chart.

People notice I haven't given you a single chart today.

Not one.

I don't have one for you either, but you know, the, the, the whiteboard with all

the wires and the, the, the red lines going from different things and people

are like, oh, that's dispensationalist.

They're they're crazy.

We we're a little crazy.

I'll give you that.

But we are, because I think the Bible lays out that there is a distinction.

Between Israel and the church.

The, the church has not replaced Israel.

Okay.

The, in other words, let me put it this way, 'cause some people don't like that.

Well, we're not replacement theologians is what the, the other side of this

argument is the covenant theologian.

And so they will say, well, we're not replacement theologians.

We don't believe the church has replaced Israel.

Here's what they'll say.

We believe all the promises were fulfilled in Christ, and our connection to Jesus

makes us partakers of those promises.

Now, as the church, I don't think that's the message of scripture.

As God through Obadiah is writing to Israel about the coming day of

the Lord and telling Israel that you are going to be used by me.

You are going to possess the land, and I'm gonna use you to

bring judgment upon the nations.

If God is gonna abrogate that promise, then God is an unfaithful God.

And it's not just Obadiah.

There are other promises that God has made specifically to Israel that

are going to be fulfilled in Israel.

And so we are what is known as dispensationalist.

Well, what is a dispensation?

A dispensation is this, A dispensation is a recognizable

historic division in scripture.

So let's just start right there.

It's a portion of scripture.

It's a period of time in the Bible, right, in which God observes the activities

of man in a given historic framework.

So there are distinct frameworks, distinct ways that God has entrusted to mankind

to operate in relation to him across what are known as these dispensations,

these historic time periods.

And what he does during that time is he passes judgment on that

activity or he tests his people during that period of time.

So Dispensationalism classically has seen seven different dispensations.

You guys are getting way more than you bargained for this morning.

I know this is not normal, but it's important for us to get, uh,

dispensations, according to classic dispensationalism, would say, well,

there's the dispensation of innocence.

That's from creation to the fall.

And, and so that was the framework.

The framework was that Adam and Eve were innocent because they had not sinned.

The next dispensation then is the dispensation of human conscience, and

that was from the fall to the flood.

Adam says, the sin of man, that that death reigned from Adam all the way

on until Moses, even over those whose sin was not like Adams in the sense

that what, well, they didn't have a codified law during this time.

What they had was their conscience.

So that's the dispensation of the conscience from the fall to the flood.

After that comes the dispensation of human government.

Where God allowed a humankind to see what they would do if

they were to govern themselves.

Well, that ended up in them by building a gigantic tower, neglecting God's

order to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and God came down and

scattered them of his own accord there.

After this, we move into another dispensation called the

dispensation of the promise.

This is the the covenant promises given to Abraham about what God was

gonna do for his people, Israel.

The promises of land, the promises of seed, the promises of offspring.

From the promise.

Then we go to the dispensation of the law.

This is the Mosaic Covenant, and this is going to stretch all the

way from Moses all the way through to John the Baptist and beyond.

This is the Mosaic covenant.

This is the giving of the law.

This is the framework, the historic framework.

During that period of time through which God interacted with his

people, now we find ourselves today in the dispensation of God's grace.

This is the dispensation that goes from the day of Pentecost, which is

the birth of the church all the way through to the rapture of the church.

In other words, this is the church age.

This is the present dispensation where you and I find ourselves

currently, and then there will be the dispensation of the kingdom.

This is gonna be the millennial kingdom all the way through

to the great white throne.

After that comes the eternal state.

This is classic dispensationalism.

There's another form of dispensationalism that's out there.

Classic dispensationalism says this.

That there is a distinction between Israel and the church that always

will exist forever and always.

Even after the inauguration of the eternal state, you will

still have on the new earth.

There's Israel, here's the church, and the two shall never intertwine.

What we would classify ourselves as is what's called

progressive dispensationalist.

Now, before you throw stones, because the word progressive has been

hijacked by our political culture, to means something horrible today,

uh, it doesn't mean anything bad.

Some people may think it does.

I don't think it means anything bad.

Progressive dispensationalism is this.

We still believe that the church and Israel are distinct.

We still believe that there's a future for Israel where Israel is going to fulfill

the promises of God to their completion.

However, we also believe that some of those promises of God have already been

inaugurated, and we are experiencing some of them currently and presently

as a church, not in their fullness, but there's an already not yet component

to some of the promises of God that will be ultimately fulfilled in Israel.

Case in point, the new covenant, Jesus in the upper room says this is the blood

of the new covenant, and he inaugurates that the spirit dwelling within us is part

of the blessing of the new covenant, the spiritual blessings of the new covenant.

We as the church get to participate in right now because it's been

inaugurated, not yet fulfilled.

There is a land promise of the new covenant and a political

promise of the new covenant.

That's for Israel, not for us.

Joel chapter two, I talked about this when we went through Joel.

We saw a partial fulfillment of Joel chapter two on the day of Pentecost.

We did not see a full fulfillment of Joel Chapter two on the day of Pentecost.

That's yet awaiting the return of Christ.

Progressive dispensationalism breaks things down a little bit more simply.

They would see four dispensations, the patriarchal dispensation that's from

Abraham to Moses, the mosaic dispensation, which is from Moses to the ascension of

Jesus, the ecclesial dispensation from the Greek word for the church, cia.

Which goes from today or from Pentecost rather, all the

way through Christ's return.

That's where we are in the ecclesial dispensation.

And then the Zion dispensation the millennium into the paternal state.

Sorry, progressive, because God's promises are being, are progressively

being matured and realized throughout the course of human history.

Okay, already not yet.

That's the key understanding here.

Why in the world did I talk about all this stuff when we're dealing with obadiah?

'cause I think it matters for us.

I think it matters for us to read a book that's about Israel and Edem

and to sit here as the church and say, well, what do we do with this?

Because there's a, a couple of errors that we have to avoid.

We can't appropriate the promises given to Israel for us.

Okay?

So we can't alize or allegorize promises given to Israel as the people

of God and say all of a sudden they're here for us as the church today.

The other thing though that we can't do is just look at this book and say,

well, it has nothing to do with us, so why bother spending any time in Obediah?

There are spiritual truths for us to glean from what God is communicating here.

And there's a few of those that I'd like to talk about with us in the rest

of our time together this morning.

First thing I want us to think about is this.

As we think about what does obadiah mean for us, first thing that

we should do, church is this.

We should feel small before God's sovereign plan.

We should feel small before God's sovereign plan.

My family and I are, are leaving after service to, to go on vacation.

We're gonna be driving out to California and every time I, I either drive or I fly.

I'm reminded of how small I am, um, because I drive by so many people.

I don't know.

I don't know any of them.

They don't know me.

They don't care about who I am.

You drive through these towns, these blips on the map, and you drive through

the town and you go, who lives here?

Somebody does, and God knows who they are and God cares about them,

and God's got a plan for them.

You fly, right?

You, you, you fly in a plane, you look out, you see the,

the crop circles or whatever.

They are the alien evidence down there beneath, and then you'll see like

a, a handful of houses down there and you're like, who lives there?

Somebody does.

And that's just here we zoom out even further.

You start thinking about what's going on right now in Israel, in Iran.

I mean, six people died through the missile attacks from

Iran into Israel yesterday.

That that's six people with families.

That's six people who are planning memorial services right now.

Well, the families are,

you think about the soldiers.

I mean, we don't know any of them.

We don't know any of them.

You've got Russia and Ukraine.

You've got China doing whatever China does.

You've got North Korea sinking battleships without anybody's help.

All of this is taking place and here we are in Prosper, Texas, and, and if

you're anything like me, then we can so easily be like Edem and, and think that

this whole world is just about us and our own comfort and our own security,

and it's so important for us to zoom out and remember just how small we are.

God is doing something in redemptive Sal Salvific history,

and he began that back in Genesis.

Prior to Genesis even.

But in Genesis three 16, we find what's called the proto gelian.

It means the first gospel when God told the serpent,

Eve's gonna have a descendant.

You're gonna strike his heel, he's gonna crush your head.

See from that point forward and we get to Genesis 12, three.

Which Paul says was God telling Abraham and that that this is the

gospel, Abraham, and you will all the families of the earth be blessed?

How will all the families of the earth be blessed through Abraham?

Well, through one of his descendants who would be also that descendant of

Eve, who the serpent was gonna strike his heel on the cross, but he was

gonna crush his head on the cross.

I mean, we move on the Davidic covenant.

God's promise that there was going to be a king, a Davidic king, a descendant

of David that was gonna rule and reign with a kingdom that would have no end.

We saw his first coming at his incarnation, his death on the cross

for our sins, his resurrection and the partial fulfillment of

the inauguration of that kingdom.

Waiting the full, full completion of that when he comes back.

God's story has been one of moving us towards the end of salvation

history from the very beginning of time, and we're a part of it.

We're just not everything and we need to remember that.

And when it comes to passages like Obadiah, we need to think rightly about

ourselves as the church and say, okay, yes, right now in this dispensation, God

is concerned with the church, but one day he will again be concerned with Israel

and that should give us a humility, but it also should give us an appreciation.

The other thought I have is I'm driving through all these towns,

is God, thank you for your grace.

Why me?

Why was I not born in Tel Aviv?

Why wasn't I one of the six hit with the missile strikes?

Why wasn't I born in Iran?

I mean, the fact that we are here as part of the church and as part of the

recipients of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ should remind

us yes, of our, of our smallness, but also it should just prompt us

to a humble gratitude before God.

God, thank you.

I don't want you to leave here feeling guilty 'cause you live in Prosper, Texas.

I just want you to leave here not trusting that you live in Prosper,

Texas for your security and your wellbeing and your comfort.

Be grateful that we're here, that we're part of the church, that we're part of

what God's doing during this dispensation.

But remember, this isn't everything for God's plan.

There's still a future for Israel and re remembering how small we are is

helpful in assessing our place there.

Second.

We can trust that God won't leave justice undone.

We can trust that God won't leave justice undone.

That's his message in Obadiah, right?

He's telling Israel as they're being carried away into captivity,

as they're being exiled and, and their city is destroyed,

the temple's gonna be destroyed.

Part of the message of Obadiah to the people of Jerusalem and

Judah, there was, Hey, have hope that God's gonna right the wrongs.

Wrongs that have been done against you, not just by Edem,

but by the end of the book.

Remember, he's talking about the nations coming in the day of the Lord.

Hey, there's justice that's going to be done.

I mentioned earlier we can't appropriate the promises to Israel

for ourselves, but we can appropriate theological truths about who God is

as we read books like this that are always true regardless of time and say

they're true for the church as well.

Because God is an immutable God of justice and he was going to find

and seek justice for his people.

Israel, you this morning can know that God is not gonna leave

justice undone for you either.

And so I hope and pray that that encourages you this morning to

think about the fact that God is is going to care for you.

You don't have enemies gloating I hope, and trust and prey over the

destruction of your home and watching you be carried into captivity.

But you have trials, you have difficulties, you have things in life.

You've been wronged, you've been sinned against, you've been hurt, and you

certainly, I know for every single person that names the name of Jesus Christ

as the Lord and Savior in this room, you have an enemy that hates you this

morning, who has a legion of demons at his disposal, who wants anything but your

joy and happiness in this life, and so what do you do when he comes for you?

The Book of Obadiah is helpful in that regard.

The Book of Obadiah can calm or comfort.

The anxious soul this morning.

Who battles the what ifs and the if onlys

because though you may walk through the calamity today, remember, as Obediah

was confronting Edam first standing aloof during the calamity of Israel,

though you may walk through your own version of calamity, whatever that

may look like today, you can know and trust that God is moving you towards

the joys of life with him tomorrow.

See, as God is telling Israel.

Israel the day of the Lord is coming for those with ears

to hear amongst his people.

For the faithful, for the remnant of Israel.

The day of the Lord will not be a day of fear and judgment for

them, but a day of great hope and deliverance and justice for them.

And so we can know that too as we battle our own anxieties, our what ifs are.

If only we can know that God is a God who's in control and he's leading

us towards its perfect conclusion.

Obadiah should also be a book that comforts the wronged soul this morning.

Maybe you've been sinned against, you've been wronged.

You've been wounded by someone, and you long for that wrong to be made right.

Though you may not see vindication on your timetable, a book like Obadiah

reminds us that God will see to it that any sins committed against

you will be brought to justice.

God was telling that to Israel.

Israel was not gonna see immediate justice.

They were not gonna see immediate vindication.

In fact, they were going into 70 years of, of captivity at this point.

But God was telling Israel, Israel, you can trust me, that I'm a God of justice.

Here's the difficult part for us.

For us here.

Some of the wrongs that have been committed against you

will have been retroactively dealt with through the cross.

Meaning if you are sinned against by a brother or sister in Christ,

if they are truly saved, no matter how egregious that sin is against

you, the ultimate justice served was already served at the cross of Christ.

And we don't like that because we sit here and we say, yeah,

but I want my pound of flesh now.

And all that reveals is that we don't fully appreciate the

gravity and severity of the cross.

I think if we did, we would say yes and amen.

It's been dealt with at the cross,

and if I can tread very lightly on the toes of those that struggle to

forgive in the room this morning, I think that's one of the root causes

of our refusal to forgive other people, especially other believers.

Because we don't fully believe that the cross was enough.

'cause when we understand that justice ultimately was served at the

cross, that, that the justice due, our sin was served at the cross.

When, when we harbor still bitterness against someone and say, yeah,

but I'm not gonna forgive them.

Basically what we are saying is, Jesus, your death wasn't enough to provide

the justice needed for this situation.

I need more than what you gave, even though you gave everything.

See, God is the God of justice, and we can trust that justice will be done.

But as brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to understand ultimately

that, that the, the true justice has already been done at the cross.

Outside of that.

People that sin against you, unbelievers, nations.

As we look around the world and we see all the evil and the wickedness going on,

listen, as Christians, we can know that that justice is going to be done, that

God will serve justice, and that will be on that day of the Lord that is coming.

And so we can know that and we can trust in that.

And so if you've been wronged, you can know that God is a God

of justice and he will see to it.

Oh, but I also though should comfort the discouraged soul this morning.

The one that is looking around at the world events and the news

headlines and everything else going, what is happening in the world?

I used to know we've got Antifa attacking ice detention centers up in

Portland with explosives and rocks.

We have riots happening all over our country.

We have members of of Congress being assassinated.

We've got Iran and Israel at war with each other, and nuclear

warheads are being targeted and, and at the center of all of this.

You've got Russia and Ukraine still at odds with each other.

There's probably a new strain of COVID out there somewhere.

I'm, I'm, I'm imagining,

and it's enough to cause us, if, if we, we try to take it all in to

say, what in the world is happening,

OAI is a book for you because though the ruler of this world governs over

the kingdoms of the world at present.

The end of Obadiah reminds us.

The reality is that everything will one day be the kingdom of the Lord.

Though the world looks out of control to us, it's in control of God.

It's in his perfect control.

When Israel launched the attack, God didn't all of a sudden look down

and be like, Hey, what happened?

Hey Jesus, holy Spirit, come over here.

We gotta huddle up together.

Did you see what they just did?

Did you let 'em do that?

That's not the God we serve.

He's in perfect control.

He's in control of the destruction of Jerusalem.

He's in control of the judgment that he will one day bring and

the justice that will be meted out, and we can trust in that.

And so a book like Obadiah reminds us to trust God's program to trust that

God will not leave justice undone.

Third and finally, the Book of Obadiah should prompt us to share the gospel

with those still facing God's justice.

Share the gospel with those still facing God's justice

the day of the Lord.

There's this weird tension for us, 'cause Peter talks about in

second Peter, that we should be hastening the coming day of the Lord.

So in other words, we should as Christians, desire the day of the Lord.

Be because it, it will mean that it's precipitated by the

Lord coming back for the church.

It's precipitated by the marriage shepherd of the lamb and the, the

culmination of those things and the, all of that, all of the, the good

things for the church will mean that that's already taken place by the time

that the day of the Lord gets here.

In other words, we should long for the day of the Lord because

it means the return of Christ.

And as Christians, we desire that.

And, and yet there's this tension, this paradox where though we long

for the day of the Lord and saying, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, come

quickly like we sang this morning.

There's a tension in which we also have to say, but, but Lord, I,

I, I, I want as many people to be saved as possible before that day.

And so there's this weird tension that anyone in the room as a

parent who doesn't have believing children at home knows all too well.

On the one hand you say, come Lord Jesus.

And on the other hand you say, Lord, please save my my

child before you come back.

And I'm saying we should have that prayer for not just our family members, but

for our mailmen and for our cashiers at Starbucks and for our city councilmen

and women, and for the president of the United States and for the people

fighting wars across the globe,

you're not gonna be able to sit down with the.

Iranian regime to share the gospel with them, I don't think,

but you can sit down with your neighbors and share the gospel with them,

and if we don't get the gospel to people who are perishing, then your

neighbors are gonna be on level footing with the ruler of the Iran Iranian

regime, and they're both gonna be standing there before a holy God who's

about to consume them in his wrath.

Do we care?

That's the question.

That's why we're still here, by the way.

That's why there's a church dispensation.

Otherwise, as soon as you get saved, God should just take you home to be with him.

There is nothing that you can better here on Earth.

Then what you'll be able to do in heaven except for reach the lost 'cause.

You won't be able to do that in heaven.

And so God's got you here.

He has us here.

He has the church here during the church age to reach more people for Christ.

And at some point in time, the last soul to be saved will be saved

and Christ will come back to take us to be with him where he is.

And then it inaugurates the end, the tribulation, the millennial kingdom, the

great white throne in our eternal state.

Here we are though, and listen, this is where whether you

agree with dispensationalism or not, we can all agree on this.

The mission of the church is to see lost people saved mission.

The church is to be liked.

And all of you in this room have a mission field.

All of you in this room are missionaries.

Your mission field is your neighborhood.

Your mission field is your local gym.

Your mission field is the hospital.

When you visit somebody there, your mission field is your workplace.

The restaurants you go to, the malls you visit, the sporting events you attend.

All of those things are your mission fields.

And you're here to share the gospel with those still facing God's justice and to

call them to faith and repentance in Jesus so that they can have a hope and a future.

That's not one of terror, but one of great confidence and joy.

So is Jesus at a stoplight right now waiting to come back to earth?

By the way, I don't think there's stoplights.

If you're wondering what, what is he talking about?

I don't actually think Jesus is in a stoplight.

Is Jesus on his way back right now?

I don't know.

I don't know, but I do know that, that we need to be ready for his return.

'cause there's a plan that's going to unfold.

Obia talks about it.

There's a plan that's coming and that plan is gonna involve Israel.

We're gonna be with the Lord, we're gonna be in in heaven with

him at that point as the church.

But that plan is coming and it's gonna be precipitated by the return

of Christ for the bride of Christ.

And so the question for us this morning is, are you ready for that return?

Have you responded to the gospel or are you still facing God's justice On the

day of the Lord, let's pray together.

Will you stand with me?