A dysfunctional family that led to an arrogant nation...

At the church where I serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled when God speaks. During this series we are spending our time together looking at these letters that we often have a tendency to skip over, which are referred to as the prophets. We are going to discover who these letters that we have a tendency to skip over were written to. We are going to discover what these letters that we have a tendency to skip over reveal about who we are. We are going to discover what these letters that we have a tendency to skip over reveal about the nature of God and God’s activity in history.

This week I would like for us to lookg at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Obadiah, which is the next letter that was written by a prophet chronologically, which is not necessarily the order that they are found in the Bible, where they are organized by size. So let’s look at the man and the message of the Book of Obadiah, beginning in Obadiah 1:1a:

The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom—

Most scholars and historians believe that the book of Obadiah was written right after the fall of the city of Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom of Judea, which occurred in 586 B.C. In the opening verse of this letter, we discover that Obadiah was sent by the Lord to proclaim a message from the Lord concerning the nation of Edom. Now to fully understand the message of the book of Obadiah, we first need to understand who the nation of Edom, or the Edomites, were.

The nation of Edom, or the Edomites, were descendants of a man named Esau. Esau was one of the grandsons of Abraham, who was the individual that the Jewish people descended from. Abraham’s son, named Isaac, had two sons. The firstborn son was named Esau, while the youngest son was named Jacob. We discover who Esau and Jacob were and the role that they played in God’s story by looking at a section of the first letter that is recorded for us in our Bibles, called the book of Genesis. In Genesis 25, Isaac’s wife Rebekkah was unable to bear children. And it is into this context that we read the following, beginning in Genesis 25:21-23:

Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is so, why then am I this way?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger."

Rebekah then gave birth to the twins, who were named Esau and Jacob. The oldest son, Esau when he became an adult, despised his birthright, which was the special rights, responsibilities, and privileges that he had as the firstborn. And in Genesis 25, we read that one day, after returning famished from a hunting trip, Esau was manipulated into handing over his birthright and the larger inheritance that the birthright represented by his brother Jacob. Esau, out of selfishness, sold the blessings that came from the birthright to his younger brother Jacob for a bowl of soup.

A little later in the book of Genesis, in Genesis chapter 27, we read about an event from history where Jacob deceived his father Isaac in order to receive the blessing that belonged to Esau. We see how Esau responded to being a victim of the deception of his younger brother Jacob that resulted in Esau losing the blessing that belonged to him in Genesis 27:41:

So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob."

Then, in Genesis 28, Esau chose to marry a woman that he knew his parents disproved of in order to rebel against them.  Now, who says that the Bible is boring? You should really read it some time. I mean, we could not make this kind of stuff up, could we? What a dysfunctional family. Deception, manipulation, this is the stuff that could make for a top-flight reality T.V. show. Would we all agree that both Esau and Jacob had significant issues, wouldn’t we?

In the letters that make up the Bible, the descendants of Esau would eventually form the nation of Edom and were referred to as the Edomites. And throughout the letters that make up the Bible, we repeatedly see that the relationship between the descendants of Esau, who became the nation of Edom, and the descendants of Jacob, who became the Jewish people, was marked by hostility and animosity.

And in 586 B.C. the centuries of hostility and animosity reached its climax as the Jewish people were conquered by the Babylonian Empire. Now, with this background in mind, let’s jump into the message of the prophet Obadiah to the nation of Edom in the second half of Obadiah 1:1b-4:

We have heard a report from the LORD, And an envoy has been sent among the nations saying, "Arise and let us go against her for battle "-- ² "Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You are greatly despised. ³ "The arrogance of your heart has deceived you, You who live in the clefts of the rock, In the loftiness of your dwelling place, Who say in your heart, 'Who will bring me down to earth?' ⁴ "Though you build high like the eagle, Though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down," declares the LORD.

Here we see Obadiah proclaim that he, along with the Jewish people, had received word from the Lord that a messenger had been sent to the nations surrounding Edom to form a military coalition in order to attack the nation. “Let us band together and attack Edom” was the message that was being communicated by this envoy to the nations that surrounded Edom. Obadiah then proclaimed the message of the Lord against Edom.

However, to fully understand the Lord’s message through Obadiah, we first need to understand what the prophet is referring to when he uses the phrase “You who live in the clefts of the rock, In the loftiness of your dwelling place”. Here Obadiah is referring to the almost impregnable fortress city of Petra, which served as the capital city of Edom. The city of Petra was located on the top of a plateau, whose surrounding perpendicular cliffs were over 2,000 feet high. This formidable rock mass and plateau could only be approached from the southeast.

And as the Edomites sat atop this plateau that provided a natural fortress, the nation developed an arrogant sense of superiority and invincibility. Obadiah revealed the arrogance of the nation of Edom by repeating the defiant challenge that the nation would proclaim to any potential challenger: “Who will bring me down to earth?”

However, the Lord wanted the nation of Edom to clearly understand that their arrogance had deceived them. The Lord wanted to nation of Edom to clearly understand that they were about to be brought down and belittled. The nation that viewed themselves as invincible would be despised and destroyed. We see the Lord continue to proclaim His message of judgment and destruction against the nation of Edom in verse 5-9:

 ⁵ "If thieves came to you, If robbers by night-- O how you will be ruined!-- Would they not steal only until they had enough? If grape gatherers came to you, Would they not leave some gleanings? ⁶ "O how Esau will be ransacked, And his hidden treasures searched out! ⁷ "All the men allied with you Will send you forth to the border, And the men at peace with you Will deceive you and overpower you. They who eat your bread Will set an ambush for you. (There is no understanding in him.) ⁸ "Will I not on that day," declares the LORD, "Destroy wise men from Edom And understanding from the mountain of Esau? ⁹ "Then your mighty men will be dismayed, O Teman, So that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter.

Here we see the Lord proclaim the extent of the judgment that would come upon the nation of Edom with two different word pictures. They first word picture involved a thief breaking into a home: “If thieves came to you, If robbers by night-- would they not steal only until they had enough?” With this word picture, the prophet pointed the nation of Edom to the reality that when a thief breaks into a home, they usually do not spend the time necessary to take everything. Instead a thief usually only takes what is valuable and what is beneficial to them.

The prophet then painted a second word picture, this time of those who harvest a field of grapes: If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleanings? With this word picture, the prophet pointed the nation of Edom to the reality that when a field of grapes is harvested, there are usually some grapes that remain. Some grapes are missed, and some grapes would be left for the poor.

The prophet painted these word pictures to proclaim the reality that the nation of Edom would be completely and utterly destroyed. The prophet proclaimed that even those who the nation viewed as being allies would turn against them and drive them from their borders. The wise leaders and the mighty warriors of the nation of Edom would be shocked and stunned at the betrayal and complete destruction that would unexpectedly come upon the nation. Even the nations riches that were hidden in their caves would be discovered and taken by the invading forces.

And as Obadiah continued to proclaim the message of the Lord to the nation of Edom, we see him reveal the reasons behind the Lord’s judgment of the nation. Friday, we will look at those reasons together...