Arrogantly rejoicing and exploiting those who experience distress and destruction will result in distress and destruction from the Lord...

This week we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Obadiah. So far this week, we discovered that Obadiah was sent by the Lord to proclaim a message from the Lord concerning the nation of Edom. 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. We looked on as Obadiah proclaimed 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.

Obadiah revealed the arrogance of the nation of Edom, and then proclaimed that 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.

The prophet then painted two word pictures to proclaim the reality that the nation of Edom would be completely and utterly destroyed. 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 in Obadiah 1:10-14:

 ¹⁰ "Because of violence to your brother Jacob, You will be covered with shame, And you will be cut off forever. ¹¹ "On the day that you stood aloof, On the day that strangers carried off his wealth, And foreigners entered his gate And cast lots for Jerusalem-- You too were as one of them. ¹² "Do not gloat over your brother's day, The day of his misfortune. And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah In the day of their destruction; Yes, do not boast In the day of their distress. ¹³ "Do not enter the gate of My people In the day of their disaster. Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity In the day of their disaster. And do not loot their wealth In the day of their disaster. ¹⁴ "Do not stand at the fork of the road To cut down their fugitives; And do not imprison their survivors In the day of their distress.

Here we see Obadiah reveal four different ways in which the nation of Edom committed violence against the Jewish people in spite of the reality that the nation of Edom shared a similar family tree with the Jewish people. In spite of the reality that the Lord called the Jewish people to not demonstrate hatred to the nation of Edom as a result of their common ancestry, Edom responded with hatred and hostility upon the misfortune that fell upon the Jewish people at the hands of the Babylonian Empire. The violent selfishness and rebellion that the nation of Edom committed against the Jewish people progressed and escalated as the Jewish people were conquered.

First, the nation of Edom did not come to the aid of the Jewish people. Instead, the nation stood by and watched while Jerusalem was invaded. Second, the nation of Edom rejoiced and celebrated as the Jewish people were conquered and led into captivity. Third, the nation of Edom chose to respond to the capture of the city of Jerusalem by joining in and actively participating in the sacking of the city. And fourth, the nation of Edom helped set roadblocks the prevent the escape of the Jewish people from the invading Babylonian army.

And as a result of the nation of Edom’s arrogant rejoicing and exploiting of the Jewish people as they experienced distress and destruction at the hands of the Babylonian Empire for their selfishness and rebellion, the Lord was about to cover the nation of Edom with shame. The nation of Edom would soon experience the Lord’s justice and judgment for the violence and exploitation that they committed against the Jewish people, as Obadiah reveals in verses 15-16:

 ¹⁵ "For the day of the LORD draws near on all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head. ¹⁶ "Because just as you drank on My holy mountain, All the nations will drink continually. They will drink and swallow And become as if they had never existed.

Here we see the Lord proclaim that the future judgment of the nation of Edom would be a prelude to a day in the future when every nation would have to stand before the Lord and answer for their opposition to the Lord and the people of the Lord. Just as the nation of Edom would experience the Lord’s right and just response to their selfishness and rebellion, every nation will stand before the Lord and experience the Lord’s right and just response to their selfishness and rebellion.

And just a few years after proclaiming the Lord’s message against the nation of Edom, the nation of Edom found themselves being gradually overrun by the Nabateans, who lived in what is now modern-day Jordan. And the Lord’s rejection of Esau and his descendants was not temporary. While the Edomites believed that they would simply rebuild their nation that had been crushed and destroyed by the Nabateans and return to power and prominence, the Lord had other plans.

First, the Nabateans eventually drove them from their territory. Then, in 185 B.C., Judas Maccabeus led the Jewish people to crush the remaining resistance of the nation of Edom. Fifty years later, in 135 B.C. John Hyrcanus, the nephew of Judas Maccabeus, forced the Edomites to be circumcised. Finally, the Jewish historian Josephus recorded the end of the nation of Edom in the first century as they had become fully engulfed by Jewish culture. Obadiah then ended his message from the Lord by proclaiming what the future would hold for the Jewish people. So let’s look at that together. Beginning in verses 17-21:

 ¹⁷ "But on Mount Zion there will be those who escape, And it will be holy. And the house of Jacob will possess their possessions. ¹⁸ "Then the house of Jacob will be a fire And the house of Joseph a flame; But the house of Esau will be as stubble. And they will set them on fire and consume them, So that there will be no survivor of the house of Esau," For the LORD has spoken. ¹⁹ Then those of the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau, And those of the Shephelah the Philistine plain; Also, possess the territory of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria, And Benjamin will possess Gilead. ²⁰ And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel, Who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad Will possess the cities of the Negev. ²¹ The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion To judge the mountain of Esau, And the kingdom will be the LORD'S.

Here we see the Lord proclaim to the Jewish people that there would be a day in the future when the Jewish people would experience an opportunity to live in the territory that had been lost as a result of being conquered and carried into captivity by the Babylonian Empire. During a time that is known in church mumbo jumbo talk as the millennial kingdom, the Jewish people will experience a restoration of the land that they had lost as a result of their selfishness and rebellion against the Lord. The Lord, through His grace, would fulfill His promises to His people.

Now a natural question that could arise at this point is “Well Dave that sounds interesting, but what does any of this have to do with us today? If Edom does not exist, and if these promises involve land for the Jewish people in the future, then what point does this letter have for us today?”

 If that question is running through your mind, I want to let you know that you are asking a great question. And my response to that question is this: This letter has everything to do with us today because it is here when God speaks, that we discover a timeless truth about the nature and character of God and God’s activity in history. And that timeless truth is this: Arrogantly rejoicing and exploiting those who experience distress and destruction will result in distress and destruction from the Lord.

You see, the point of the book of Obadiah is that the Lord is large and in charge of all of humanity and that the Lord will exercise His right and just justice against the selfishness and rebellion of humanity. And the point of the book of Obadiah is that the Lord will respond to those who arrogantly gloat and rejoice over the distress and destruction of others by bringing the same distress and destruction upon their heads.

The point of the book of Obadiah is that there is a day in the future when the Lord will return to bring justice and judgment to every nation and all humanity. And on that day, those who arrogantly looked down on other nations in their time of distress will be looked down upon by the Lord. On that day, those who arrogantly did not come to the aid of those in distress but instead rejoiced and celebrated their distress and destruction will experience the Lord’s right and just response to such arrogant indifference and celebration.

You see, so often we tend to read the letters that make up the Bible from an individualistic perspective. We tend to read the Bible from the perspective “what does this have to say to me?” However, the letters that make up the Bible were written to people who had a corporate perspective and who lived in community with one another. The letters were written to people who lived with a sense of corporate responsibility, with a sense that they were part of a community and nation and would be held responsible for the actions of that nation.

And for an individual or a nation to arrogantly believe that they were superior and invincible as a result of their location and resources; for an individual or a nation to arrogantly rejoice and exploit other individuals and nations in their time of distress and destruction will result in distress and destruction for that individual and nation from the Lord. We see this reality repeatedly throughout the letters that make up the Bible. And the timeless reality is that arrogantly rejoicing and exploiting those who experience distress and destruction will result in distress and destruction from the Lord.

So here is a question to consider: How do you respond when you hear about others who are experiencing distress and destruction in their lives? How do you respond when another nation or people group experiences distress and destruction? Do you rejoice as you arrogantly look down on others who experience distress and difficulty?

Are you arrogantly looking at the distress and destruction that may happen to other nations as evidence of American exceptionalism? Do you arrogantly believe that America is “God’s chosen nation?”

Because, as we have discovered, arrogantly rejoicing and exploiting those who experience distress and destruction will result in distress and destruction from the Lord...