All right, tonight, as I said,
we're going to begin the book of Obadiah. And what I have to
say at first will just be an introduction. And then I hope
to give you some summary of what it is and get into at least one
of the points I want to make tonight. So first thing I'd like
to do is to read the book of Obadiah. It's only 21 verses.
We'll be able to read a whole book of the Bible. So, let's
read from verse one. The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith
the Lord God concerning Edom. We have heard a rumor from the
Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen. Arise, ye,
and let us rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made
thee small among the heathen, thou art greatly despised. The
pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. Thou that dwellest in the
clefts of the rock, and whose habitation is high, that saith
in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though
thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest
among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the
Lord. If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, how art
thou cut off? Would they not have stolen till
they had enough? If the grape-gatherers came to thee, would they not
leave some grapes? The implication is normally,
but not in your case. How are these things of Esau
searched out? How are these hidden things sought
up? All the men of thy confederacy
have brought thee even to the border. The men that were at
peace with thee have deceived thee and prevailed against thee.
They that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee. There
is none understanding in him. Shall I not in that day, saith
the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding
out of the mount of Esau? And thy mighty men, O Teman,
shall be dismayed to the end that every one of the mount of
Esau may be cut off by slaughter. For thy violence against thy
brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off
for ever. In the day that thou stood'st
on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away
captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast
lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. But thou
shouldst not have looked on the day of thy brother, in the day
that he became a stranger. Neither shouldst thou have rejoiced
over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction.
Neither shouldst thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.
Thou shouldst not have entered into the gate of my people in
the day of their calamity. Yea, thou shouldst have not should
not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity,
nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their
calamity, neither shouldst thou have stood in the crossway to
cut off those of his that did escape, neither shouldst thou
have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of
distress. For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen.
As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee. Thy reward shall
return upon thine own head. For as you have drunk upon my
holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually. Yea,
they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall
be as those that had not been. But upon Mount Zion shall be
deliverance, and there shall be holiness. And the house of
Jacob shall possess their possessions. And the house of Jacob shall
be of fire, and the house of Joseph of flame, and the house
of Esau for stubble. And they shall kindle in them.
and devour them. And there shall not be any remaining
of the house of Esau, for the LORD hath spoken it. And they
of the south shall possess the mount of Esau, and they of the
plain the Philistines. And they shall possess the fields
of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess
Gilead. And the captivity of this host,
of the children of Israel, shall possess that of the Canaanites,
even unto Zarephath. And the captivity of Jerusalem,
which is Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south, and
saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau,
and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. All right, seems like
strange language to us because we're not familiar with these
places or most of these people. But if you read this one chapter,
you'll notice in verse 17, how does it begin? It says, but,
you see that little word, but. The first 16 verses here are
about Esau and his children. The last verses, beginning at
verse 17, are about Jacob and his children. So that little
conjunction, that word but, is God's way of indicating his amazing
grace. In Psalm 106, for example, it
says in verse 4, we have sinned with our fathers, we have committed
iniquity, we have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not thy
wonders in Egypt, they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies,
but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless,
He saved them for His name's sake, that He might make His
mighty power known." You see the word nevertheless? It's just
like the word but. It's just like in Ephesians 2,
verse 4, where it says, But God, who is rich in mercy, for His
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, has quickened us together with Christ. And so we see in
this one chapter of this obscure book of the Bible, Obadiah, we
see God's grace in contrast to his judgment on these people
called the people of Esau. So I've entitled this message,
or this Bible study today, Were It Not for Grace? And you can
see why just by that little word, but. Now if you look at verse
one, if you look at verse one, it says the vision of Obadiah.
Now the name Obadiah means servant of Jehovah. The ending of the
word A-H, Obadiah, indicates that. Obadiah, servant of Jehovah. And so we could understand it
since the Lord Jesus Christ is one with the Father and with
the Holy Spirit, that the Lord Jesus, who is the Son of God,
also is called Jehovah. So this opening four words, the
vision of Obadiah, we could understand it as the vision of Christ's
servant, because he was a servant of the Lord. And the other thing
I want you to point out here is that when the Bible uses the
word Lord, here, you don't see it in our English translation,
but when the word normally is all capitals, capital L-O-R-D,
it usually means Jehovah. Now in this case, the word Lord
isn't all capitals. You see it's capital L, and then
it's lowercase, O-R-D. And then God is all uppercase.
If you look at the words behind those English words, it's Lord
Jehovah. Or in the original, it's a word
called Adonai, is the way you pronounce it. Adonai. That's
not a word we're familiar with. It sounds funny, I know, but
in the scriptures, there are two words used in the original
for Lord. One is Adonai, the other one
is Adon, or A-D-O-N, Adon. Now, I point that out because
the word here for Lord, Adonai, is a word that is used in scripture
exclusively when addressing God as the Lord. So Adonai Jehovah
or the Lord God is what is interpreted here. So the servant of Jehovah
or the servant of Christ is receiving a message, thus saith Adonai
Jehovah or the Lord God. And I point that out because
what does the word Lord mean anyway? Well, if it's all caps,
if it's all uppercase, L-O-R-D, then it means Jehovah. But if
it's small, O-R-D, capital L, small O-R-D, then it means Lord,
like we would understand the word Lord. But what does Lord
mean? When you call, do you ever refer to somebody as Lord? In
our culture, we don't. We don't use that word Lord,
but they used to. And they would call governors
and servants would call their masters Lord. And sometimes the
father of a house would be called the Lord of the house. Remember
in first Peter, Sarah was said to have called Abraham Lord.
So the word Lord means superior when it's used to address men. But when it's used to address
God, it doesn't mean just us superior. It means the one who
is the sovereign superior, the one above which there is no one
greater. And so when we say Lord, what
does it mean? When we say Lord God, what does
it mean? Well, it means it expresses our
submission, first of all, and our reverence, second of all. We reverence the one we're addressing
as God himself, and we are submissive to him. This is a fundamental
truth, but I like to just point it out here because we're looking
at these words in this opening verse of this little chapter,
and we see them in this light. We see that the vision of Christ's
servant received from the one we reverence, the one we submit
to in all things and call our God and our Savior, the one who
exists as by himself without any dependence on any but himself,
that's the Lord we serve, the Lord, the sovereign Lord, the
one who is Jehovah God, Jesus Christ, and one with the Father
and the Spirit. Okay, the Lord Jesus Christ in
the book of John in the New Testament is called the Word of God, isn't
he? The Word of God. In Revelation
19 it says, his name is called the Word of God. And he is the
Lord of lords and the King of kings. So he's the one who is
the ultimate Lord. So I just, I wanna point that
out here because this is a message given by a man from Christ. the
one who is himself our Lord and our God, the one we serve, the
one we submit to, the one we honor. That's what reverence
means, we honor him. Okay, but this, as I said, is
our first study in the book of Obadiah, and it's meant to be
an encouragement, so I encourage you, if you have questions, to
note them, and we will try to get to them over time. Now, I
wanna point out here, when we read through this, you could
tell that this book, was a narrative, a prophecy of historical people
and places, wasn't it? So the Book of Obadiah is a prophecy
of historical events. These things actually happened.
Well, when he wrote these words, they hadn't actually happened,
but they did happen after he wrote them. What do we call it
when we write about things that have happened already? We call
that history, don't we? What do we call it if we write
about something that's going to happen? Well, we call that
predicting. We call that a prophecy. When
the Lord speaks about things that are going to happen, it's
talking about future history, because there's no way that it
cannot happen. I don't know if I said that right.
There's no possibility that it can't happen. It's going to happen
if the Lord speaks of it. Even though it's future to us,
with the Lord, it's done when he speaks it. If you look at
Isaiah chapter 46, you see this. These truths are intended to
encourage us that whatever God says is true about his people
and about the way things are is actually true, even if it's
spoken about future events, future people. In Isaiah 46, verse 9,
it says, remember the former things of old, for I am God,
and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like
me. Notice in verse 10, declaring
the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure. And he refers to a man in history
calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes
my counsel from a far country. And he goes on, yea, I have spoken
it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. That's the way God speaks. In
Romans 4, verse 17, it says that Abraham believed God who calls
those things which be not as though they were. So a prophecy
is future history. Jesus did this in the New Testament.
He said, many shall come to me in that day, and they'll say,
Lord, Lord, Have we not prophesied in thy name? Have we not done
many miracles in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name?"
And all these things. And then he will say to them,
depart from me, I never knew you. He's talking about something
in the future, at the end of time, but he talks about it without
there being any possibility that it won't happen. It has to happen
because he said it. Jesus said this, heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away. And so
when we read this, we can appreciate the fact that it's a book about
history that hasn't yet happened. It's future history. And it's
about a people and places here in this account, this prophecy.
But it's not just about people in this history here in this
book of Obadiah. And this is important. The book
of Esther is written this way. The book of Ruth is written this
way. Many books of the Bible are written this way. It's an
allegory. It's an allegory that is given
from the context or out of a historical history, something, I mean that's
a redundant way of saying it, out of a history that hasn't
yet happened, but the allegory has to do with things that are
outside of the history of this immediate context. So outside
this narrative, God is teaching something and proclaiming something
that's true, that's bigger, outside of, it goes beyond the borders
of this historical people and places. Now in the first 16 verses,
he's talking about who? He's talking about people who
were the descendants, the children of Esau. Remember Esau? He was the twin brother of Jacob,
both born to Rebekah and Isaac. And it's also about, in verses
17 and following, it's about the historical people of Jacob,
the children of Jacob, who were called the people of Israel.
So there were two people, the children of Esau and the children
of Jacob. The children of Esau, in this
account, are called Edom, because that was their place. Edom was
the place where they lived. and there was mention made of
a man named Teman. Teman was one of Esau's sons. He was born to one of Esau's
wives, but he represents the people born to Esau a particular
way, a wise people. One of the friends of Job, in
the book of Job, he was a Temanite. So he was a descendant of Esau's
son, Timon. And remember, he spoke to Job,
but he gave bad counsel about to Job. And Job later prayed
for him. So here he says in verse nine,
for example, and thy mighty men, O Timon, shall be dismayed to
the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off
by slaughter. And in another place, he shows
that their wisdom would have, oh, in verse eight and seven,
there's no understanding in him. So there you see that this one
who was known for their wisdom won't have any wisdom when God
does this, okay? Okay, so we see here, again,
historical account, two nations, two people, one Esau and his
children, the other Jacob and his children. The people that
were Esau's descendants were called the Edomites. And in fact,
when this name was first mentioned in scripture, Esau was hungry.
He came to his brother Jacob. He had been out hunting and he
was very hungry. And Jacob was making some red porridge, or
red pottage, or whatever they called it. I can't remember the
word in the King James Version. It was basically stew, and it
was red. And he said, give me some of that red, delicious stew,
or whatever it was. And it says in scripture, therefore
his name is called Edom, because he was red and hairy when he
came out. When he was born, he was red and hairy. So Edom means red. It describes
Esau's descendants and the place where they live. Israel is the
place where Jacob's descendants live. Remember? So the people
of Jacob's descendants lived in the land of Israel. The people
of Esau's descendants lived in the land of Edom, which is also
called in scripture Idumea, or I-D-U-M-E-A, I think is the way
you spell it, Idumea. So the book of Obadiah, again,
it's a history, but it's also an allegory. The people in the
book, some of them are given the pronouncement of certain
judgment. They are the children of Esau, or the Edomites. The
other people, who were the children of Jacob, God is pronouncing
on them blessing. but it wasn't without trouble.
They were taken captives by their enemies and the people of Esau
rejoiced. They were cheering when the children
of Israel were taken captives and God is going to punish Esau
for that. God is going to deliver the Israelites. Okay. So from just that and knowing
what the New Testament says about Esau and Jacob in Romans chapter
9, remember what God said there? He says, let me read it to you
in Romans chapter 9 so that you have it fresh in your mind right
from scripture. In Romans chapter 9, he says
this in verse 6. When he talks about the nation
of Israel, the Apostle Paul said that he would be willing himself
to be cursed from Christ for them. They're Israelites, in
verse 4. They have the fathers like Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. And Christ came through that
nation, after the flesh, Christ came through them, and Christ
is God-blessed forever. That's the end of verse five.
But then he's answering a question, an objection that might be raised,
why weren't they all saved if they were God's people? Why was
it that the nation of Israel, if they were truly so blessed
by God, what happened? Did something fail in God? Did
God call them Israel, and then was he not able to actually save
them? Remember, that was the prayer
that Moses used in Exodus, and in Numbers 14, in Exodus 32,
in Numbers 14, when in Exodus 32, Moses came down from the
mountain, and the people of Israel, Aaron at the lead, were worshiping
this golden calf that Aaron had made for them. And God said,
I'm gonna destroy them. Moses argued, he said, if you
destroy them, their enemies, the heathen, they'll hear about
it, and you know what they'll say? That you couldn't deliver
them. And so, there's no possibility
that God was gonna let that happen. Now, of course, God knew that,
but he wanted Moses to express that. In other words, God saved
them for his name's sake. Because if he couldn't save them,
what kind of a savior would he be? No better than the idols
that they served. God saves his people. And so
the Apostle Paul here in Romans 9 asks the question, raises the
objection then. He's going to answer it, why
weren't they saved then? In verse 6, not as though the
word of God had taken an effect. For they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. That's the answer. There's a
nation of people descending from Jacob called Israel, but they're
not all in the true Israel. Remember when God brought them
into that land? What was that land called? He brought them
into. The land of what? Canaan. And
it was their what? Their inheritance. They received
an inheritance because God promised it to them. It was given to Abraham
by promise and to his children. And they received it, that physical
land. But that physical land was talked
about as an inheritance. Why did they receive it? Because
they were descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That was it.
It wasn't for their goodness. It wasn't for their strength.
It wasn't for their being submissive or being full of faith. It was
because God gave it to them by promise. And so God delivered
it to them. And the name Israel means prince
with God, remember? Jacob wrestled with the angel,
and that angel actually wrestled with Jacob. And at the end of
that night of wrestling, Jacob would not let go, and the Lord,
who was actually wrestling with the Lord Jesus Christ, he said,
what's your name? And he said, Jacob. And Jacob means what? Cheat. That means a deceiver. What's your name? He confessed
what he was, didn't he? And then the Lord said, your
name will no more be Jacob, but what? Israel. What does Israel
mean? Prince with God. Who is the Prince
of Peace? Who is the King of Righteousness? Who is the Lord of Lords and
King of Kings? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. So the people of
Israel received their inheritance because they were in Israel,
Jacob, when the promise was made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
They received the land of Canaan. But spiritually, what that means
is, is that all of God's people receive an eternal life and an
eternal inheritance because they're in Christ, who is the head of
that covenant that God made with him. And all of his people receive
an inheritance in him. Now, remember Jacob and Esau?
They were twins in the same womb, and they struggled in the womb
together. They were fighting already before they were born.
And what happened when they were born? Who was born first? Esau. He was the older. What did Jacob
do? He was just a baby. Well, what
happened? Well, he grabbed hold of Esau's heel, which was a sign,
God-given sign, that the elder would do what? Serve the younger. So they struggled in the womb,
and there was a sign when they were born that Jacob was actually
going to be the one God blessed. And as they grew up, even though
Esau had the firstborn, the birthright, because he was born first, and
the blessings were going to be given to him, and Isaac was determined
to give Esau the blessings, what happened? Esau sold his birthright. Give me that red stew. I'm so
hungry. What good is my life if I don't
have that? And Jacob said, I'll give it to you. You just give
me your birthright. And Esau said, I don't need a birthright.
I'm going to die. Give me the stew. And so Jacob
said, fine, take the stew. Later on, when their father Isaac
couldn't see and they thought he was near death, they said,
Rebecca told Jacob, we need to set this up so that Isaac, your
father, gives you the blessing. After all, you're the one that
needs to be blessed here. She remembered God's promise. The
elder would serve the younger. And so she concocted this scheme
where she was going to put skins of a goat on Jacob's arms and
on his neck and make him smell like Esau. So she put some of
Esau's clothes on Jacob because he was a man of the field. Jacob
was a smooth man. He wasn't hairy like his brother
Esau. And since Isaac was blind, Rebekah made what Isaac thought
was deer meat or venison, took it into Isaac to receive the
blessing. And Isaac was not sure this was Esau. It smelled like
Esau, felt like Esau, didn't talk like Esau, and he was tricked,
and he actually blessed Jacob. He blessed him, he gave him everything.
He made his brother his servant. And then after Isaac blessed
Jacob, and he left his tent, took the food out with him, Isaac
is sitting there, he can't eat another bite, in walks Esau with
the deer meat. He had just killed a deer and
made it for his father, brought it into him, and he says, here
I am, father, time to bless me. He said, who are you? Who are
you? It says he quaked, he shook exceedingly,
he trembled exceedingly. He knew he was tricked. But at
that moment, Isaac realized that God had fulfilled his word and
he had ignored it all these years and so he had given the blessing
to Jacob. And Isaac realized that and he
knew then that what he had done for Jacob was God's will. And he saw, he starts blubbering
and bawling and weeping and crying, is there no blessing for me my
father? And what happened? No, there
is no blessing for you, my son. I've given everything to your
brother. And Isaac would not turn, he would not change his
mind. Look at Hebrews chapter 12. I'm
showing you what kind of a man Esau was and God's purpose throughout
history from the Old Testament. Hebrews chapter 12, look at the
way it goes here. Who was the book of Hebrews written
to? Obviously the Hebrews. Who were they? They were the
Israelites. They were descendants of Jacob,
right? So what would they think about someone who called them,
you know, you're acting like Esau? They wouldn't think very
highly of them, would they? That would be a real insult.
So look at Hebrews chapter 12. He says, Verse 15, he tells them,
looking diligently lest any man fall of the grace of God, look
diligently lest any man fall of the grace of God, lest any
root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many
be defiled. Verse 16, lest there be any fornicator
or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright. For you know how that afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully
with tears." What is he saying? He tried to get Isaac to turn
and change his mind. Isaac said, no, it's not going
to happen. Isaac would not turn, he would
not relent, he would not repent. He had given the blessing to
Jacob and the blessings, the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance. So here we have it. Why does
God call Esau a fornicator and a profane person? Was it because
he was running around in a perverse way as we think of that nowadays?
No, it means that he was an idolater, a spiritual fornicator, a spiritually
profane person. He was doing spiritually what
men do outwardly in fornication. He was unfaithful to God. God
had given him the birthright. He despised his own birthright. What was the birthright? God
had promised to Abraham and to his seed. He considered eternal
life and eternal inheritance in Christ worth nothing, worth
nothing more than a morsel of meat. And here in the book of
Hebrews, God is equating those who turn away from the gospel
as equivalent to Esau, your spiritual, profane, and fornicating people,
like Esau. What a humiliating thing to say.
But you see God's purpose here. What is the teaching here back
in Romans chapter 9? He says, not as though the word
of God had taken an effect, verse 6, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of
Abraham, that means the offspring, are they all children, but in
Isaac shall thy seed be called. That's a quote from Old Testament
scripture in, I don't know exactly the verse of scripture, but it's
in Genesis. I can look it up later if you
want it. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. God spoke to Abraham.
In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That means not in Ishmael, but
in Isaac. And he goes on. He says, what
is he saying here? He had two sons and God only
allowed the seed to come through one of them in Isaac. He goes,
and this is the word of promise. At this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son, Isaac. And not only this, but when Rebecca,
who was not Isaac's, was Isaac's wife now, when she had also conceived
by one, even by her father Isaac, for the children, Jacob and Esau,
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, there
were still infants in the womb, that the purpose of God, that
the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, what
is that purpose? Not of works. but of him that
calleth." How are we saved? Not of works, but of God who
does the calling. You see, our salvation is just
like the choice God made of Jacob over Esau. It was of God. Why? Because he wants to ensure that
in the way that we're saved, it's all of him. It's not of
us. He's going to be the one. Verse
12 goes on. And it was said to her, the elder
shall serve the younger. Esau is going to serve Jacob.
And Esau's descendants are going to serve Jacob's descendants.
Verse 13. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Whoa. We might say, what does
that mean? Does it really mean he hated
Esau? Well, listen to the next verse. What shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? Why would you ask the question,
is there unrighteousness with God, if it didn't really mean
God hated Esau and loved Jacob? Because that's what we think,
naturally, is that God somehow loved one and hated the other
before they were born. That makes God unfair. Isn't
that the way we naturally think? God said, does that mean God
is unrighteous? No. That's what he's saying. No, God forbid, no. God is not
unrighteous. Verse 15, he's going to quote
from Moses, just to prove it. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion, so then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, striving, working, trying, but
of God that shows mercy. Salvation is not of our choice,
it's God's choice. Not of our work, it's God's work.
Not of our merit, it's Christ's merit. The people of Israel inherited
Canaan because God made a promise with their father Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. The people of Christ received
salvation because God made a promise with our head, Christ. And we
receive eternal life and inheritance because we're in Christ, just
like they were in the nation of Israel. And God is saying
that the true Israel of God is not made up of the descendants
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's made up of a spiritual people,
a people God chose in Christ. They're the ones on whom God
is going to have mercy. They're characterized, they're
depicted by Esau and Jacob. And that's what this book Obadiah
is about. It's about these two people.
The allegory points to a spiritual truth, a historical prophecy
with a meaning and a people and events outside of that historical
narrative that's bigger than the narrative and is as most
certain, more certain even than the historical account, if you
could say it that way. Do you understand? Does that
make sense? It's amazing. It's amazing. What does it teach
us here? It teaches us that Esau was cursed in Obadiah. You can see this. Look at Obadiah
chapter 1 again. This is the vision of Christ's
servant Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God, the
one we reverence, the one we submit to, the one our life is
lived for, the one who made us, the one who saves us, the only
true God, the living God. Thus saith the Lord God concerning
Edom, these people, characterized by the children of Esau. They
have his nature, they have his character. They're just like
him in God's purpose. You see? The children of Esau,
like Jesus told in John chapter 8 to the Pharisees, he says,
if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it. He was glad. You see
me and you're not glad. In fact, you hate me and want
to kill me. That Abraham did not do, therefore you're not
his children. Edom then refers to all those in God's view in
his spiritual view of men. He divides the entire population
of Adam's race into two groups, the Edomites and the Israelites,
spiritually. Listen, this is the vision of
Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom. We have
heard a rumor from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among
the heathen. Arise ye and do what? Let us
rise up against her in battle. God is stirring up the enemies
of the Edomites. He sends a rumor. We heard that
God spoke to the heathen. Go against them. Notice in verse
2, Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen that were greatly
despised. You're just a little puny thing
and the heathen are going to come and swoop down on you and
destroy you. Notice verse 3, why? The pride
of thine heart has deceived thee. Thou that dwellest in the clefts
of the rock, whose habitation is high, that sayeth in thy heart,
who shall bring me down to the ground? This describes the natural
man. Okay, so let's take these things
together. What is it teaching us? God sees
the human race as Edom or Israel, as the children of Esau or the
children of Jacob, as the people left under God's purpose to receive
the due reward of their sins, or as the people God chose to
rescue, to preserve in Christ, and to give them an eternal salvation
and bless them. with heavenly and spiritual blessings.
That's the way he's divided things up. The first, the Esau, the
Edomites, they are proud people in their heart. They're going
to be destroyed by their enemies. They dwell in the clefts of the
rock. In other words, they have a high
opinion of their safety. Their habitation is high. In
their heart, they say, who shall bring me down to the ground?
They have no fear. They don't expect anyone can
overcome them, because they're self-confident, self-dependent. They depend on the world, like
Esau depended on food. They don't care a whit about
the spiritual blessings in Christ. This is the natural heart of
man. This is what we are by nature. And yet, in this same book, God
talks about the people of Jacob just like he did in Romans chapter
9. He blesses them. Why? Because they're in Christ.
He chose them in Christ. Okay? Now, I want to talk just
a minute about pride. Pride. I titled this, Were It Not for
Grace, and I think that this helps us to understand something
about this, were it not for grace. What is pride? What does God
think about pride? Do you know that pride is what
God hates? Human pride. God hates pride. What is it? Well, on the one hand, it's this
attitude that I don't need God. It's an attitude that I can live
my life the way I want to, isn't it? It's self-dependence, independence
of God. Isn't this the way the world
works? How many times do you see people
or hear people talking in a public way about problems? How often
do you hear them say, what are we going to do? We're going to
have to call upon God to save us. That is our only hope. Do you ever hear that? Not in
public places. It might be happening in private
places, but you don't hear it publicly. They don't say that
on the news, for example. You don't read that in the newspaper.
I haven't. But you find it in the Bible,
right? It's because the Bible is written to the people who
are the people of faith. And faith is that gift that God
gives us to cause us to fear the Lord. What does it mean to
fear the Lord? That means to have a holy awe
of Him, to reverence Him, to live in an attitude that He is
the Lord and be submissive to His voice. It's not to live our
lives as if it's my way, it's my life, I can do what I want.
That's not the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the opposite
of that. It's this awareness that I live by the mercy of God. My breath is in His hands. My
heart beats because of His will. Not only did He make me, but
He upholds my eternal soul. That's the fear of the Lord.
And the fear of the Lord causes us to come to God seeking salvation
from Him who holds in His hand our eternal life because we have
nowhere else to go. That's the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord is really another word for faith. It's
his attitude that God is the one I answer to, and only he
can save me. Pride is the opposite of the
fear of the Lord. Pride says, you know, it doesn't
seem right to me to do that, even though God said that's the
way it is. I'd rather do something else. That's what pride is. We'll
talk about this a lot more next time, because I know I'm running
out of time here. But let me give you some verses here on
pride, just so you can take these to think about them in your own
contemplation. These are some verses from scripture
here. It says in 2 Samuel 22 verse 28, And the afflicted people
thou wilt save, but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou
mayest bring them down. You see that? What does God say
he's going to do to the afflicted people? Save them. What is he going to do to the
proud? He's going to bring them down. Here's another verse. In
Proverbs 16 verse 18, pride goeth before destruction and a haughty
spirit before a fall. So you see someone lifted up
in pride, stand back because God's gonna bring them down.
Here's another one. Before destruction, the heart
of man is haughty, but before honor is humility. If God is
going to save you, he's going to humble you. If God is going
to bless you, he's going to humble you first. If you're going to
give glory to God, he's going to first humble you because before
destruction, the heart of man is haughty. Here's another one. In Psalm 10, verse 2, the wicked
in his pride doth persecute the poor. What does a proud man do? He sees someone who is small
in his own eyes. And he persecutes him. What did
they do to Jesus? They persecuted him. He was a
humble man. He was lowly, meek and lowly
of heart. It says, the wicked in his pride
that persecute the poor, let them be taken in the devices
that they have imagined. That's what he said here in Obadiah.
What you have imagined against Jacob, that's what's gonna come
on you. You have devised this evil, that's the evil God will
bring upon you. He says this in Proverbs 13.10.
This is another verse. Listen to this. Only by pride
cometh contention. But with the well-advised is
wisdom. Why do people strive? Why do they fight? Pride. Only by pride. That's what he
says. Only by pride cometh contention. Here's another one. In the mouth
of the foolish is a rod of pride. They want to beat people. They
want to hold other people accountable. because they're foolish, they
don't understand, they themselves deserve the very rod they want
to apply to someone else. But the lips of the wise shall
preserve them. Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall. And so you see this, and we're
gonna look at this in more detail next time, because I want to
talk about this a little bit, because I myself need to be humbled. I do. Let's pray. Lord, thank
you for this book of scripture that teaches us not to raise
ourselves up in our own mind or to look upon ourselves as
self-important or self-dependent, but to take no confidence in
our flesh, to realize that we are no different than those you
destroy, for their wickedness, and we must be saved by your
mercy, which we know is at your prerogative and not by our will,
not by our works. You don't consider anything of
us, and it's a good thing you don't, because if you did, we
could not be saved. But because it is all of your
sovereign grace and mercy in Christ, we have hope. In fact,
we have confidence to come to you. by your own word for Christ's
sake alone and find our refuge in him. And so, Lord, we pray
you would draw us and give us grace to believe and look to
Christ and humble us, Lord, so that when we think about you,
we would think about you with an attitude of submission and
reverence and trust and dependence, and we would cry to you and call
upon you to deliver us from our own iniquities and our sins so
that we might not perish in our sins. In Jesus' name we pray,
amen.