Introduction
I can’t
remember the last time I heard a message based on the book of Obadiah. Haggai and Philemon are the basis of messages
now and again, and II and III John may occasionally receive a passing
reference. Of all the little books in the
Bible, Jude seems to receive the most attention. If a minister really studies this book and
puts some effort into it, he or she can get at least a month’s worth of
material from Jude. It’s too bad that
more ministers don’t mine Jude’s depth of meaning.
Obadiah,
Haggai, Philemon, II John, III John and Jude are what I refer to as the Bible’s
little books. All of these books contain
a single chapter except for Haggai which has two chapters.
Obadiah
and Haggai are the smallest books of the Minor Prophets. As a whole, the Minor Prophets are not
studied as much as are the Major Prophetic books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel
and Daniel. The Minor Prophet that seems
to receive the most attention is Jonah.
Amos and Hosea receive a fair amount of attention as well.
In the
New Testament, Philemon is not ignored.
I’ve actually heard several messages preached from this one chapter
book. I don’t believe that I have ever
heard a minister mention the fact though that Paul violates a command from the
Old Testament in sending Onesimus back to his master. We will study more about that later.
While
these little books may be shorter than many other books in the canon of
Scripture, each one of them has a powerful and timely message for Christians living
in the 21st century.
This book
is my attempt to explore these little and often overlooked books of Holy
Scripture and discern afresh what they can teach us today. The goal of this
book is to explore a little about the general nature of each book and discuss
what we know about that book’s authorship.
We will then examine what each book can teach us today.
It is my
hope and prayer that the Lord will use my writing to bring honor and glory to
His most Holy name. By studying these
little books with me, I pray that you would grow in your love for the Lord and
for His Word. May this then lead you to
further study in the familiar and unfamiliar pages of the Bible.
Chapter
One – Obadiah
Obadiah
has the distinction of being the shortest book in the Old Testament. The entirety of the book centers around a
single theme, and that theme is that the judgment of God is destined to come
upon the nation of Edom and the Edomites. Before we deal with the specifics of the book
of Obadiah, let’s look at the authorship of the book and the time period when
the book may have been written.
There are
several different people named Obadiah listed in the Bible. Most of the people named Obadiah are
mentioned in genealogies or lists of men who were tasked with different
assignments.
The most
prominent man named Obadiah mentioned in Scripture is the Obadiah whose story
we read in I Kings 18. This Obadiah was
in charge of King Ahab’s household affairs.
Unlike the evil King Ahab, Obadiah was a man who feared the Lord, and he
attempted to do all that the Lord required.
When Ahab
and Jezebel sought to destroy all the prophets who remained faithful to the
Lord, Obadiah defied the royal couple and hid the prophets in two separate
groups in caves. He brought them food
and water until the threat from Ahab and Jezebel passed.
When the
drought in Israel predicted by the great prophet Elijah was at its most
intense, Ahab tasked Obadiah to find water for the royal horses. While searching, Obadiah came upon
Elijah. Elijah told Obadiah that he
wished to speak to the king. Obadiah
relayed the prophet’s message faithfully.
While
this Obadiah of Scripture was certainly an honorable man who served the Lord in
a difficult situation, this Obadiah is not the author of the book of
Obadiah. The book of Obadiah speaks
about events that occurred during the Babylonian conquest of Israel in and around
586 BC. Therefore, the book must have
been written subsequent to this event.
The
Obadiah who wrote the book that bears his name does not seem to be mentioned
anywhere else in the Word of God. The
book was most likely written by a prophet who was active in the ministry during
the time surrounding the Babylonian Captivity.
One thing
that we can be certain of is that this Obadiah was a faithful servant of the
Lord. He received a vision from the
Lord, and Obadiah faithfully recorded the message given to him by God.
As we
will see shortly, Obadiah’s prophecy relates in its entirety to the nation of
Edom. With this in mind, let us see what
the Bible has to say to us about Edom.
First of
all, Edom receives its name from a descendant of Esau. Esau sold his birthright and was tricked out
of Isaac’s blessing by Jacob. Jacob’s
name would be changed to Israel by the Lord, and Jacob’s sons would go on to
give their names to the twelve tribes of Israel.
On the
other hand, Esau would go on to reconcile with his brother. Esau’s descendants would become the Edomites,
and they would rise to become a kingdom of their own. Throughout their histories, Israel and Edom
would be in conflict just as the two brothers were in conflict with one another.
The bad
blood between Edom and Israel is exemplified during the time Moses was leading
the people out of Egyptian bondage, through the desert and into the Promised
Land. The shortest route into the
Promised Land would have been through the land of Edom.
Numbers
20 recounts the details of what happened when the Israelites encountered the
Edomites. Moses asked the ruler of Edom
if his people could travel through Edom into the Promised Land. The ruler of Edom flat out refused to allow it. In fact, the Edomites came out against the
children of Israel with their armed forces.
The Israelites turned aside and went along a different and longer route.
During
the time of the Kings, Edom and Israel would be at war. Saul and David both fought battles with
Edom. David would bring the land under
subjection, and Edom would remain a vassal of Judah when the Kingdom divided
after the death of David’s son Solomon.
Edom
would become an independent nation again.
When Jehoram became king, Edom rebelled.
The king tried to put down the rebellion, but he was unsuccessful. As II Kings 8:23 states, “To this day, Edom
has been in rebellion against Judah.” At the time of the siege of Jerusalem by
the Babylonians, the Edomites would join with the Babylonians and participate
in harassing the people of Israel.
Eventually, Edom would cease to be a nation. The region of Edom would become home to a
people know as the Nabateans. The
Nabateans were traders and great architects.
Their capital city of Petra is a wonder, and it draws tourists to Jordan
from around the world.
With that
information about the place of Edom in the Bible and in the historical record,
let us delve into the book of Obadiah and see what God would have us learn
today from this small book of prophecy.
For our
purposes of study, I want to divide the book of Obadiah into three sections
with three lessons that we can learn.
First of all, verses 1-9 deal with the issue of pride and trusting in
our own strength and resourcefulness.
Verses 10-14 teach us not to look with pleasure on someone else’s
misfortune. Lastly, verses 15-21 teach
us that what we sow is what we will eventually reap. Let’s look at these three lessons in more
detail.
Even
though the nation of Edom was tiny, the people were filled with pride and
boasting. They felt as if their mountain
kingdom was an impregnable fortress in spite of military defeats in the past. Obadiah said they lived in the cliffs of and
made their homes in the high places. As
people with military knowledge know, mountain terrain makes for extremely
difficult fighting conditions.
Obadiah
prophesied that in spite of the Edomites mountainous fortress, they would be
defeated and cease to be a nation. Just
as God said through Obadiah, Edom was defeated, and the Edomites are no more.
Many of
us have an attitude that is very similar to what was expressed by the people of
Edom. We are filled with pride and
boasting. We often place our trust and
our confidence in life in everyone and everything except in the Almighty God.
I found
this happening in my own life at one time.
I had acquired some money from my investments as well as a small inheritance. I thought I was set. A great deal of my confidence was placed in
my material possessions. What
happened? A Great Recession
happened. In just a few short weeks, my
stock holdings, which were largely in banks and financials, were nearly wiped
out. I went through one of the most
depressed periods of my life. I needed
to find work, but I wasn’t able to find a job for a long, long time. To top it all off, I was diagnosed with a
chronic health condition.
I was
down and out and almost done. I soon
realized that all of my confidence had to be in the Lord Jesus. Everything in this world is temporary and it
is passing away. Everything and everyone
changes in this life except for Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today
and forever.
The Lord
Jesus saw me through the bad times, and I am slowly emerging from a dark tunnel.
I learned not to rely on myself or anything in this world. My confidence, help and sustenance is to be
found in Jesus only.
There are
many ways of trusting in the self and in being lifted up with pride. It can happen on both an individual and on a
national level.
On an
individual level, a prideful person may place their hope in wealth, fame,
career or in their own abilities. This
is the basis of their life, and they think more highly of themselves than they
ought to think.
In the
Bible, pride is referred to as an abomination.
Proverbs 16:8 states that pride comes before destruction. The Lord Jesus tells us in Mark 7 that pride
is among a number of different evils that come from within the heart of a
person and lead to a person’s corruption. In the epistle of I John, the apostle
states in 2:16 that the pride of life is an aspect of loving the world more than loving God.
All
individuals and nations mentioned in the Bible that were elevated with pride
were eventually brought low. Let me give
you just two examples.
In Daniel
chapter 4, we read about the powerful Babylonian king named
Nebuchadnezzar. He thought that he was
great, and he boasted of all that he had done and all that he possessed. However, Nebuchadnezzar was brought to the
place where he wandered around like a wild animal.
As far as
nations are concerned, look no farther than the Roman Empire. This was once one of the mightiest empires on
the face of the earth. The Caesar’s of
Rome declared themselves to be Lord and demanded to be worshipped as gods. The Roman Empire is no more, and their might
is now just a subject of study for historians.
James
4:16 sums it up by saying that, “God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to
the humble.” As followers of the Lord
Jesus, we must look to Him as our ultimate example of humility. The Apostle Paul expresses the subject of
humility extraordinarily well in Philippians 2:5-11 which states, “Have this
mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the
form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made
Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men. And being found in human form, He humbled
Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Now for
our second lesson from the book of Obadiah.
The Lord said in Obadiah 12, “Do not gloat over the day of your brother
in the day of misfortune.” The people of
Edom rejoiced to see of people of Israel defeated by the Babylonians. In fact, they joined with the Babylonians in
the time of plunder. God did not like
this behavior one bit.
As
followers of the Lord, we should rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with
those who weep.(Romans 12:15) Even when
someone who has been mean to us or someone who betrayed us gets their
comeuppance we should not gloat and receive some type of satisfaction from the
news of someone’s downfall and
misfortune.
Christ
has called us to be people who express true love in imitation of the love
expressed by Jesus. In his great chapter
on love found in I Corinthians 13, Paul says that true love is not arrogant or
rude. True love is not resentful of
others, and does not rejoice in any type of wrongdoing.
When
those who are our enemies have problems, we are to show them love. Jesus says in the Sermon one the Mount that
we are to “Love you enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew
5:44)
And now
for our third lesson from Obadiah.
Obadiah teaches the principle that you will reap whatever it is that you
sow. Obadiah 15 says, “For the day of
the Lord is near upon all nations. As
you have done, it shall be done to you.
Your deeds shall return on your own heads.”
This
principle is so true in life. But, I
want to speak about this at the ultimate level.
If a person lives his life for the temporal things of this world that
are passing away, he will ultimately achieve nothing. Everything that is in this world is passing
away.
Jesus
said in the Sermon on the Mount that we should lay up treasures in heaven and
not lay up treasures for ourselves on this earth. Jesus asked the questions “What does it
profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his own soul? What can a man give in exchange for his soul?”
That which is eternal is what we should strive for. Then we will reap an eternal reward.
For a
while, I had the wrong perspective. With
the assistance of the indwelling Holy Spirit, I want to focus my life in
spreading the message of the love of Jesus.
Jesus
told a great story that shows the difference in the world’s thinking about
success and an eternal perspective of what constitutes success. Jesus said that
there was a rich man that had everything that money could buy. He was successful in the terms of this world’s
system.
Lying
outside the gate of this rich man was a poor man named Lazarus. He was covered in sores, and the dogs who
licked his sores were his only companions.
This world didn’t think much of him.
His life seemed like a waste.
Both men
died. The rich man who laid up treasure
for himself on earth went to Hades and eternal torment. Lazarus, who was rich in the eternal things
of God, went to Abraham’s Bosom.
Build
your life and eternity on the solid rock of Jesus. In eternity, you will not suffer loss.
There is
probably much more that we could say and learn from Obadiah. But, let us now move on to see what the
little book of Haggai has to teach us.
No comments:
Post a Comment