Well, good morning. Good to see
you all out today on this holiday weekend. You know, in this holiday
season, when many who profess to be of the Christian faith
celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, you might find it odd
that I'm going to deliver a message from the Old Testament book of
Obadiah. You know, during this time of
year, we get Christmas cards and we see manger scenes and
that invokes those quaint visions of a little baby born in a manger. But our knowledge of this one
that was born some 2,000 years ago, it needs to go beyond the
warm and fuzzy sense that many get from that image of his birth. Now, every Sunday at this church,
we preach what some might call a Christmas sermon because we
preach the gospel here. the good news concerning how
God saves sinners in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Or as Paul
put it, we preach Christ and Him crucified, meaning His person
and that which He accomplished by His finished work, His doing
and dying on the cross. Recall the story of how the resurrected
Christ, he appeared and he conversed with others on the road to Emmaus.
And as they neared that village, we're told in Luke 24, 27, that
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, now that would include
Obadiah, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself. So I hope to preach from the
book of Obadiah the story for this and every season. That is
the story of eternal salvation fully accomplished by the person
in finished work of Christ. Today we're going to consider
from the book of Obadiah two historical families and their
descendants, the Jacob's and the Esau's, as you can see I've
titled today's message. And if we're to see Christ from
Obadiah, it's imperative that we perceive how these two historical
families are representative of the only two spiritual families
that exist. Physically, I'm not of Jewish
descent, so I'm not physically related to either Jacob or Esau,
but I want you to see how spiritually speaking, we all either belong
to the eternally blessed house of Jacob, what the Bible calls
the Israel of God. You'll recall God later changed
Jacob's name to Israel. We either belong to the house
of Jacob, the Israel of God, or else we belong to the eternally
condemned house of Esau. Now, this short one-chapter book
of Obadiah, it foretells the destruction of the nation Edom.
Edom was an enemy of Israel, and it was comprised of the descendants
of Esau, Jacob and Esau. They were twin brothers. And
at the time of Obadah's prophecy, the hostility that had begun
between these two twins, it continued to be reflected in these descendants,
the nations Israel and Edom. And much of the book is about
God's wrath against Edom. And I know on the surface, you
know, that doesn't sound like a very cheerful theme for this
season of the year, but I want you to bear with me because there's
a lot to be cheerful over. As the book concludes, it relates
to us the good news concerning the sure and certain eternal
salvation for spiritual Israel. Again, not that physical nation,
but that nation that was temporarily chosen by God under the Old Covenant,
but I'm speaking of those who are spiritually related to Jacob. That is, they're a chosen people,
but chosen unto eternal deliverance, eternal salvation from among
all nationalities as typified by that chosen nation, Israel. You know, most folks don't want
to hear about God's hatred for the house of Esau, as we're going
to look at today. But I want you to see the importance
of gaining an understanding of what God's hatred of the family
of Esau is all about. Because you see, apart from that,
we really cannot comprehend what the love of God is all about
for the spiritual family of Jacob. Verse 1 of Obadiah begins the
vision or the prophecy of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning
Edom. Now, as I've said, many would
prefer not to dwell on what follows because this is going to be a
prophecy of God's just wrath against this nation, Edom, the
house of Esau. But God's put it here for a reason.
Our needs aren't met by what you or I would prefer necessarily
to hear. what we would choose, but we
need to hear what God has to say. And so we're compelled to
preach just as Obadiah prophesied here, thus saith the Lord God. And so he continues saying, we
have heard a rumor, that simply means a report from the Lord. and an ambassador, Obadiah is
referring to himself, is sent among the heathen, and here's
the message, the message begins, he says, Arise ye, and let us
rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made thee small
among the heathen. Thou art greatly despised. He's telling Edom, the house
of Esau, that they're hated. Now, so before we proceed, I
want us to consider some background concerning these two families,
the Jacobs and the Esau's. The Bible teaches us that Esau
was a slightly older twin son of Isaac and Rebekah. We're told
that when the twins were delivered, Jacob was holding on to the heel
of his older brother Esau. And then later as their father
with impaired vision lay on his deathbed, Jacob deceptively gained
the birthright that was supposed to go to the eldest son, in this
case Esau, but he did so with Esau's consent. See, Esau showing
no value for that which that birthright represented, he sold
it to his brother Jacob for a bowl of soup. He apparently didn't
need the material wealth that was associated with that birthright,
but that birthright consisted of far more than just a material
inheritance. It represented, as we heard in
the 10 o'clock hour, the responsibility that was to be passed along to
the eldest son to be the spiritual patriarchal leader of the family. And Esau, he showed contempt
for that. He showed no regard for that
position, for the things of God as reflected in his selling of
the birthright to his brother Jacob for a mere bowl of soup. And you can read about all that
on your own and how after that they became enemies. Now, that
animosity, at least to some degree, exists even today among the spiritual
families of Jacob and Esau. And the animosity, to the extent
it exists, it stems from what the Lord saith concerning these
two spiritual families. You know, and we see that beginning
back with Cain and Abel. You know, God accepted Abel's
sacrifice. He brought the blood of the Lamb,
typifying the blood of the Lamb of God, Christ, where his hope
was in. And Cain brought the best that
he had to offer, and God rejected Cain's sacrifice, accepted Abel's. And so what happened? Cain slew
his brother Abel. So we see that even beginning
then. That animosity comes from what God has to say about these
two spiritual families. And so before we get into Obadiah,
I want you to look at what God says about Jacob and Esau in
Romans chapter nine. Beginning there in verse 11,
we read, for the children, that's Jacob and Esau, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, That the purpose
of God according to election might stand. Not of works, they
hadn't done any works, they hadn't been born yet. But of him that
calleth, of God. It was said unto her, that's
Rebekah, their mother, the elder shall serve the younger. As it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is that not right? Is that unfair? He says, God forbid, for he saith,
what does the Lord say? He saith to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth. It's not of your free will decision.
It's not of him that runneth. It's not of any work that you
or I can do, but it is all, listen, of God that showeth mercy. Now that creates divisions among
the Jacobs and the Esau's of this world. In our day, You point
out this passage, and many so-called Christians, they will get upset
in their rejection of this clear proclamation. Not for me, but
even the reading here from God's Word that salvation is not by
their presumed free will, but it is totally a product of God's
sovereign purpose and His mercy and grace. So the hostilities
between those who self-righteously presume is, listen, we all will
and do by nature, unless God comes our way and changes our
mind. We presume that salvation is
somehow dependent upon me, that it's something I do, something
that proceeds from me, at least in part, And the hostility is
between those who persist in that understanding and those
for whom God has come along and of whom he has declared by his
free grace in Christ alone that there he is, a product of his
sovereign mercy and grace, identified in time as their given faith
to embrace salvation God's way, that is, by Christ alone. See,
to cause to see their desperate need for mercy, mercy and grace,
salvation in Christ, in Christ alone. So, I know that during
this season we don't hear a lot about God hating a people. We
don't particularly like to hear about that. Many will so in hand,
they'll try to twist the scripture and they'll say, well, God's
hatred of Esau was simply an expression of his loving him
less. Others will say, well, God cannot
hate because they think his hatefulness of a people would be sinful because
we know that our hatred toward others is sinful. We're commanded
to love our enemies. But God's love and God's hatred,
you see, cannot be compared to our emotional feelings of love
and hate. Think about it. The Bible says
that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And that all sin deserves death, Romans 3.23 and 6.23. The scripture
tells us in Romans 2.11 that God is no respecter of persons. Now what that means, there's
nothing lovely are lovable about any of us sinners if considered
separate from Christ. Now we judge differently. We
find people we like or even love, typically extensions of ourselves
in particular, our But God judges according to a perfect standard
of righteousness. He's holy. He's just. Any sin
cannot enter into his presence. And so he finds none of us lovable
in that sense. God's hatred, see, is not like
man's sinful, selfish, and unrighteous hatred toward others. God's hatred
is righteous because God's righteous. Here's what God's hatred is.
It's His justice against sin. It's His righteous indignation
against sin. See, God, being God, He must
do right. But the Bible is clear. We don't
like to dwell on these passages too often, but God's a God of
wrath. He's a holy God, a God of justice. He also is a God
of love and mercy and grace. But because he is holy and just,
sin cannot go unpunished. His just wrath will be dispensed
against the sins of every creature that ever lived. That means your
sins and my sins shall not go unpunished. For the spiritual
house of Esau, God's just wrath will be manifested in the eternal
death of hell and everlasting separation from God. And it's
everlasting because as mere sinners, sinful creatures, there's no
amount of suffering that we could ever endure that would equate
to what is due to the injured justice of an infinitely holy
God. But know this, there's good news
for the spiritual house of Jacob. Now God's just wrath against
their sins, it must be also dispensed. But for these everlasting objects
of God's love and mercy and grace, His wrath was poured out at Calvary's
cross on their substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And their
sins were fully punished there. And this is important because
Unless until we see that God being just, that He must punish
all sin, we have no need really for mercy. So we won't come truly
pleading for mercy in Christ for all of our salvation. The
problem lies in our naturally inflated opinions of our own
importance. Our self-centeredness, we really,
whoa, we think things revolve around us. And we naturally,
and it involves what we think we naturally deserve. Our natural
thoughts are, I don't deserve to be hated. And that's reflected
in our imagination. There's got to be something I
can do, some choice I can make, some decision, some work of my
hand that will find me in favor with God so that he surely must
love me in return. And so that's why the natural
outcry against God's sovereignty and salvation is why that wouldn't
be fair. God would be unrighteous, we
suppose, as we see in that rhetorical question of Romans 9. He'd be
unrighteous if he hates the Esau's and loves the Jacob's. That wouldn't
be fair. But listen, we better find out
what God's perspective is on all this. What saith the Lord? He says he'll have mercy on whom
he'll have mercy. He says, Esau have I hated. And
I think it's so hard to get away from our own concepts of what
our hatred or love is about that maybe it'll help if you think
of it this way. Here's another way of putting
Esau have I hated. He's saying my just wrath shall
be dispensed or manifested against Esau for his sins. Since all sinners, we're all
sinners, and therefore we're all deserving of God's wrath,
the prevalent issue for us, we shouldn't be wondering, how could
God possibly hate us? But rather, how can a holy God,
who cannot commune with sin, how could He love any of us sinners? Well, see, just as with God's
hatred, unlike ours, His love's not emotional. God's love is
seen in his purpose to save, in the sovereign mercy shown
in Jesus Christ. And believers are told just that
in 1 John 4.10. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. He sent Christ to be the propitiation.
That means the sin-bearing sacrifice. that has satisfied God's justice
due unto the sins of all those for whom he propitiated himself,
lived and died. So God's love, see, is found
in Christ's person and work, that work of redemption for his
people. Jacob have I loved, or to put
that another way, I will not impute or charge Jacob with his
sins. having imputed or charged them
to his surety, my dear son, the God-man, whose blood alone is
of such infinite value that it fully redeems them, fully pays
the debt due unto the holy justice of God for the remission of their
sins once and forever. That's why their glorification
in heaven is everlasting. They possess His very everlasting
righteousness. Now, with that understanding
of God's love and hatred, let's go back to Obadiah verse 3, where
he says to Edom, The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee,
thou that dwellest in the cliffs of the rock, whose habitation
is high, that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the
ground? though thou exalt thyself as a eagle, and though thou set
thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith
the Lord." Now in these two verses we see a description of the natural
heart and a depiction of the false sense of security that
accompanies it. The geographical area of Edom
included some mountainous areas where there were rocks and caves
in the higher elevations in which they presumed to be physically
safe from all their enemies. So they thought no one could
defeat them. They could hide in the cliffs
or the cracks, the crevices, the caves of those rocks. And
so they said, well, who shall bring us down? And in verse 4,
God answers. He said, I'll bring you down.
Spiritually, we're all likewise inclined to exalt ourselves. And I think that describes both
the religiously indifferent. You see, because they feel safe
enough to not really delve into it. They figure somehow things
will work out all right for me. But it also includes the zealous
religionists. The subset of zealous religionists. We should be zealous in our religion. But I'm speaking of those who've
yet to have been humbled under the true gospel message of grace,
so as to see their utter hopelessness, their helplessness outside of
Christ. You know, the only ones who will be exalted in heaven's
glory are exalted by God in Christ. And he brings this to their awareness
in time in each generation. And he does it by first humbling
them to show us our desperate need, see, for God's mercy and
grace in Christ. There's only one cleft of the
rock where there's eternal safety. And that's in Christ, the solid
rock, as we sing. All other ground, as we sing,
is shifting sand. Or that rock of ages, cleft for
me, let me hide myself in thee. Continuing in verse 5, the complete
and total destruction of Edom is foretold as it reads, 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? How are the
things of Esau searched out? How are his hidden things sought
up? He's telling them that if they
were victims of thieves, well, they'd still leave some things
behind. They'd perhaps only take that which they could find or
which they could carry with them. But he's saying not so for the
things of Esau. They're thoroughly sought up. And in that we have a picture
of how all will be exposed in the day of eternal judgment.
that will thereby vindicate gods in his righteous judgment of
them. And here, directly, physically, is foretelling how total and
complete the destruction of the nation Edom would be. But it
illustrates how certain and total will be the eternal destruction
of those who perish as spiritually dead sinners, as we all start
out, but who persist in that state without Christ as their
mediator. And God will be vindicated as
their sinfulness is exposed. I like the way it says that the
hidden things are sought up. That means everything. All our
hidden, selfish thoughts and motives that we might effectively
hide from others, we might even fool ourselves about, but for
which the spiritual house of Esau shall be held fully accountable. Then in verses 7 through 9, we
read of this day of reckoning as it continues. He says, all
the men of our confederacy, your confederates, your presumed allies,
have brought thee even to the border as if they were there
to fight with you and defend you. The men that were at peace
with thee have deceived thee and prevailed against thee. I
couldn't help but be reminded of those occasions when we share
with a friend or a relative the gospel of God's grace that we
preach here. Just as we might show them Romans
9, the passage we looked at before, and they can't refute that. So they're inclined to go get
a second opinion. They often go back to their own
preacher and Oftentimes, unfortunately, it's
a false preacher. And when I say false, I don't
use that term lightly, but I'm talking about the many who teach
and preach that salvation is ultimately conditioned on the
sinner's decision, on their choice, on their response, on something
other than or in addition to Christ alone. And so as the prophet
Jeremiah put it in chapter 6 of Jeremiah, they cry, peace, peace
to them. He said, where there is no peace,
meaning there's no basis or ground for peace. They're saying, you're
okay, just as the serpent deceived Eve in the garden, saying, oh,
in the day you eat of the fruit, you shall not surely die. You're
okay. And so they deceive them, being
deceived themselves typically, but nonetheless deceiving them. to keep them confident in a false
refuge, in that which they've done, the sinner, to exalt themselves,
with that which they've done to presumably procure their own
salvation, to distinguish them from those who will perish. But
that's Satan's deception, and it will prevail against you unless
by God's grace you're taught of God and given faith to believe
this gospel, to believe on Christ, to believe in salvation by Christ
alone. And the prophet continues saying,
they that eat thy bread have laid a womb under thee, and there
is none understanding in him. He's saying, they've taken from
you. They ate your food, but they
hurt you in their ignorance. 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? I read how the descendants of
Esau were known for their worldly wisdom. And he says, 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. Timon
was a part of Edom that was named after Esau's grandson, and it
was known for its mighty warriors. But as we see here, the wisdom
and the might of man is no match for the just judgment of almighty
God. From a spiritual standpoint,
this is typical, I think, of those who are highly esteemed
among men as religiously wise, spiritual warriors, you know,
out there working for Jesus, as we all should be. But I'm
speaking of those who, like these, will be dismayed at their final
end. It reminds us of those preachers
in Matthew 7, doesn't it, where they come to the Lord at the
judgment and they say, Lord, Lord, hadn't I prophesied in
thy name and in thy name done many wonderful works? only to
hear him say, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. And what they thought was good,
they're working for Jesus. You see, that's what they presented
as the basis of their acceptance at the judgment. He says, no,
that doesn't measure up. That's sin. What you think's
good's sin. It's inequitable. It misses the mark of the perfection
of righteousness that you'll be judged by, the very righteousness
of his dear son. Well, in verses 10 through 14,
we see the reason for God's judgment against them. As it reads, for
thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee,
and thou shalt be cut off forever. In the day that thou stoodest
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." And Edom
was cut off forever. Physically, that nation doesn't
exist. They were completely defeated.
And Obadiah is prophesying after the Babylonians had taken Israel
into captivity. And when they did so and they
entered the gates of Jerusalem, Edom stood on the side, delighting
in their downfall. Notice the fact that the reason
cited for Edom's defeat here, their downfall, is not God's
despising or his hatred of Esau and his descendants, but rather
it's what they deserved. It was their just desert as enemies
of God's people. Spiritually, this would represent
all who stand opposed to the doctrine of the true gospel of
God's grace in Christ alone. It continues in verse 12 saying,
but thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in
the day that he became a stranger. That means taken captive to a
strange land. Neither shouldst thou have rejoiced
over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction.
You took delight seeing their physical downfall. Neither shouldst
thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress, scoffing at
their distress." You know, it kind of reminds me of the religious
enemies of the gospel who, I think, take delight and feel proud in
their huge numbers and enjoy what they measure to be the lack
of success of true gospel ministries. True gospel ministries that point
people to what Christ said is the narrow way, the straight
gate, that few enter therein. He said, Thou shouldest not have
entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity.
Yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in
the day of their calamity, again in delight, nor have laid hands
on their substance in the day of their calamity." Edom joined
in taking the spoils of war from Israel's demise. And then he
adds in verse 14, neither shouldest 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." They not only stood by, but history tells us
they gathered at the crossroads to finish off those who were
trying to escape, and then they seized those who remained behind
and turned them over to the Chaldeans or the Babylonians. But what
I wanted you to see here in verses 10 through 14 is that Edom's
destruction was justly deserved. And the cause is cited by God
as the just reward for their evil. So don't blame God simply
because he acts justly in his righteous indignation against
their sins. And so it is spiritually. Men
and women perish eternally due unto their own sins. And so God's
vindicated in his judgments. He is not the villain simply
because he, being the sovereign of this universe, chose to glorify
himself in the salvation of some, his elect, by extracting the
just penalty for their sins in the death of his beloved son,
dying in their place. See, those who perish, they do
so in their refusal to believe and value that, God's way of
salvation, by Christ alone. And then in verse 15, we see
that by whatever standard we judge others, we shall be judged. As it reads, for the day of the
Lord is near upon all the heathen. That's the day of judgments fixed
and determined by God. And he says, as thou hast done,
it shall be done unto thee. Thy reward shall return unto
thine own head. What you sow is what you reap.
physically, Edom ceased to exist, some believe just a few short
years, some say five or so, after the destruction of Jerusalem. And that would be their defeat
at the hands of those heathen neighbors that were at peace
with them. But others think that this is really a prophecy of
their final defeat by Israel, the Jews themselves. And I'll
speak on that some more in a moment. But for now, just know that likewise
for the spiritual house of Esau, in their insistency on being
judged according to something that proceeds from the center,
well, they will certainly reap just what that sin-tainted something
deserves. God's eternal wrath. If you approach
the judgment saying, I believe, so I, therefore I need, you let
me into heaven, well, you better have a perfect faith because
he's going to judge us by the perfect righteousness of his
son. And so we'll get just what that, whatever that is, we plead,
we're going to get the just desert for that. So plead the righteousness
of God in Christ for there's life everlasting therein. In
verse 16, we see this inevitability of God's wrath against all sins. It reads, therefore, as ye have
drunk upon my holy mountains, so shall all the heathen drink
continually. Yea, they shall drink, and they
shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not
been. And there's no trace left today
of that physical notion. And we see here that God's vengeance
shall be complete. and the spiritual house of Esau
will swallow down the cup of God's wrath so as to experience
the full measure of his wrath against their sins. Now that
cup of God's wrath, it's going to be emptied out again due to
the sins of all. For the Esau's, it will be swallowed
in eternal misery. But there's good news for the
Jacob's. Remember when Christ was approaching the cross and
he went into the garden of Gethsemane to pray? And he prayed to his
father that if it were possible, he said, let this cup pass from
me. Adding, nevertheless, not as
I will, but as thou wilt. He drank the full measure of
the cup of God's wrath for all the sins of all those he came
to save. Now there's certain salvation
there. And then in verse 17 we see the
hope and the exaltation of the house of Jacob, the objects of
God's everlasting love in Christ their Savior. As we read, 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 afire, and the house of Joseph aflame,
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." I believe here the prophet
is beginning to speak exclusively when he speaks of the house of
Jacob of spiritual Israel. those chosen by God from among
all nations for eternal deliverance. And I say that because Mount
Zion refers to the bride of Christ, his purchased church. And for
them, he says, there shall be deliverance. I like that declarative
language. There's no mention of any conditions
such as they'll be delivered if they'll do this or they'll
do that, if they'll accept Jesus or they'll get baptized. Things
we should, we certainly do and should do. They form no ground
or the basis for our cause of our salvation. There's no mention
of any condition like that. There's no ifs. The religion
of if you, that's the proud house of Esau. But in the house of
Jacob, you know, Jacob, the word Jacob means supplanter. God changed his name later to
Israel, which means prince of God. So here we are cheaters,
you got the house of Jacob, cheaters, supplanters, sinners. He says,
there shall be holiness. How can that be? Their holiness
is found in Christ, their substitute. They have his very perfect righteousness
imputed or reckoned to their account. And so the just wrath
due unto their sins, it's been satisfied in the death of their
Savior to whom their sins were imputed. That's propitiation,
a satisfaction to God's justice that has been made at Calvary.
And therein, as we read, is the love of God for the Jacobs. Jacob
have I loved. And notice it says they shall
possess their possessions. This refers to the fact that
in time, in every respective generation, each and every one
of them will without fail come to take hold by faith what they
were given in Christ from before the world began and what he purchased
for them in due time by his death on the cross. In verse 18, speaking
of how there won't be a divided spiritual Israel is represented
by the uniting here of Jacob. He's representing the two tribes
of Judah and then Joseph representing the ten tribes of the northern
kingdom. In history, the Jews later physically conquered Edom,
the house of Esau. But spiritually, again, this
is speaking of the final destruction of all who persist in opposing
Christ and God's way of salvation in and by him alone. verses 19
and 20, they further emphasize Edom's total destruction. It
says, 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, that's just the great number of Jews who had been taken
captive, they shall possess that of the Canaanites. even unto
Jerephath, and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad,
shall possess the cities of the south." Now those are just descriptions
of the surrounding areas and again it's just indicative of
how the whole country would be taken, the completeness of their
destruction. And then in the final verse we
see that the kingdom is the Lord's kingdom that he's speaking of.
He says, and saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the
mount of Esau. and the kingdom shall be the
Lord's." Now, we know in Scripture there's only one Savior, capital
S, and there's salvation in no other. We read in Acts how there's
none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. But the word Savior's here, it
speaks of those who will deliver or judge. And it's referring
to preachers of the gospel who point sinners to the one Savior. The gospel message, see, would,
after Obadiah's time of prophecy here, go out to all the nations,
and it would judge its hearers. It preaches to all, both a just
God who shall punish all sins, as well as a loving and merciful
Savior. And if you're given faith to
believe it, as we read in 2 Corinthians 2, it's the best news you'll
ever hear. It's called there the savor of life unto life. But the same message there is
called the savor of death unto all who reject it. This kingdom
is not established by the hand of man. I'd make it your kingdom. This eternal kingdom shall be
the Lord's. It's single-handedly established by His doing and
dying. So to which spiritual family do you belong, the Jacob's
or the Esau's? I suspect these two twins, being
born of the same parents, they likely bore some resemblance
to one another, as siblings often do. And that's true of the spiritual
Jacob's and Esau's, as we're all born into this world. You
remember what Paul said to the believers at Ephesus, how being
born dead in trespasses and sins, that they were by nature the
children of wrath, he said, even as others. In other words, you
couldn't tell them apart. The Bible teaches all sin. There's none righteous. No, not
one. So both the Jacobs and the Esau,
if judged in themselves, they're deserving of God's just wrath
against their sins. And on that note, I found some
interesting commentary by John Gill. When the Jews later destroyed
Edom, he noted that they were destroyed by Judas Maccabees.
But then he said, or they were defeated, I should say. But their
final destruction was at the hand of a high priest named Hyrcanus. And Hyrcanus killed them. He
took their spoils. But he permitted some of the
few survivors to live in what had been their own country under
the condition they would be circumcised, they would conform to the Jewish
laws and become one with them. And history tells us that they
did, those few survivors, did assimilate and become so much
one with them, they were no longer even recognized as Edomites,
but as Jews. And that's similar to what takes
place when, by God's grace, He brings one of His saviors, little
s, a gospel preacher, our way. And under the sound of this message,
this regenerating word, when applied by the power of the Holy
Spirit, he humbles us. And he causes us to identify
with God's people who no longer exalt themselves, but see their
certain exaltation in Jesus Christ alone. And thereby we found out,
wow, I am of the house of Jacob. You know, like Jacob and Esau,
we're sinners who, outside of Christ, we deserve the same end
as Esau. But God in time, he makes those
of the house of Jacob to be mercy beggars who come to see their
only hope for salvation in Christ. And so, if with our heart, you truly see, come to see your
desperate need for God's mercy and grace in Christ, so that
you can stand before a holy God, unblameable, without sin, accepted
in Jesus Christ, see, based on His imputed righteousness alone,
then there's good news. You can trace your spiritual
lineage back to Jacob. You see, because you only come
there by the blood-bought gift of faith. Christ said of all
His sheep, all the spiritual household of Jacob, He said that
they shall come to Him. So believe on him, his doing
and dying. Yeah, I listened, and I'm gonna,
in the interest of time, I'm not gonna go over this, but the
prophet Isaiah used the word, when he came to faith, he said,
I'm undone. That's the same word that's used
in our passage today of being cut off forever. But Isaiah didn't
say he was undone or cut off forever. So as we celebrate the
birth, you remember when the Christ child was eight days old
and they brought him into the temple to be circumcised as he
was commanded. They brought him to Simeon. Simeon
was there in the temple. And God had promised Simeon that
he would see the Messiah before he died. And so when Joseph and
Mary, they brought the child Jesus into this temple, Simeon
took him into his arms, we're told, and says he blessed God.
It doesn't say, he said, oh, what a precious little baby,
but rather he said this, Lord, now let us, thou servant, depart
in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. There's only one difference between
the Jacobs and the Esau's, and that difference is in the person
and finished work of the one we celebrate every day of the
year, the Savior Christ the Lord.