Obadiah

How can you let go of deep wounds and surrender the heavy burden of judgment? Watch to discover three practical steps to lay down your pride, stand with those who hurt, and experience true peace.

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Transcript

The Pull To Respond

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning. I love that. That was a great bumper. All right. So, you know, all joking aside, I want to start with a question for you to think about. Have you ever felt the pulling of Jesus on your heart? And it could be anything. Like, I just felt I needed to pray for something. For me, it's like this magnetic feeling. I don't know how to quite describe it. It usually starts right about here, where like I see something, I hear something, and I know I need to respond. And so it like travels from here to here so I can test it against the word to make sure it's actually from the Lord and not from like some weird internal thing that I had going on for the day. But it just like it pulls you to do things, to pray for somebody, to to share resources, to like uh go and put your arm around somebody to listen to them. There's just something that pulls you. And I want to start with a story that kind of begins that way. It's a story of Don and Carol Richardson. This is a true story, 100% real. Um, they felt pulled after reading an article about an untouched, uncontacted tribe in Papua New Guinea. And they're called the Saui tribe. And it was told that, like, this is kind of a dangerous thing to be pulled into because this tribe that was made up of large families were still cannibalistic. So they did not look kindly on strangers coming in, but they still felt this pull to try to be drawn to the Saui. So they like left their jobs and in prayer raised enough funds to be able to go over there. They finally make their way to the Saui people. But in order to like get in with them, what they did is they befriended one of the families first and they shared compassion with them and they helped as they could. They they slowly gained trust with that family. And they did this with the other family as well. Well, while they're working with this family and they gain their trust and they said, We're gonna go over there. This family here said, Yeah, they really need you to go and help them because they're really messed up over there. But be careful, if you go over there, they might eat you. And so Don and Carol were like, Yeah, but we're still called, we're still pulled by Jesus, and so come what may, we're gonna go. So they went over to the other family and they started doing the same things compassion, care, building trust, the whole thing. And they got to a point where they had a really good relationship with this family within the larger tribe. And as they got to know this tribe better, this family said, You know where you need to go? You need to go over there. Those people are really messed up, but be careful. If you go over there, they might eat you. That's right. They're like, We were already there, we know. They're not as bad as you say they're. Oh, yeah, they're terrible. Do you know what they did? And they told stories and stories and stories. But they heard the same thing over here. Now, they had gotten to a good trusting relationship where they started to not only just care and have compassion, but share the gospel story. So they get to the point in both of these homes, with both of these families, where they get to the Thursday when Jesus was betrayed, right? Where Judas comes up, kisses him on the cheek. Now, in most parts of the story, we say, Boo, Judas. But at that point of the story, in both families in the same tribe, they started to clap and cheer, Yeah! Woo! He's the hero, he's the best. Because what the Richardsons didn't know is that this whole tribe viewed betrayal as the highest value and virtue you could possibly have. And after Judas lived as Jesus' friend for three full years, 24-7, serving him closely, they just saw this guy's the best. We've never heard this done before. Three years of that? What a hero! And they left after that part of the story from both families of the same tribe. Neither having heard the gospel, both of them still stuck in the well, they did this first. All right. This the story, we're gonna take a pin in it, we're gonna put it up here, and we're gonna come back to it later, and you'll see why in just a second.

Bible Shorts And Obadiah Snapshot

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Because this week we're starting a new sermon series called Bible Shorts, and we're starting with a very interesting character. We're taking like four books that are very short and teaching through like the whole book so that we can teach through it like contextually. So, this series, this sermon, all the sermons, they're gonna be very much like a Bible study with proclamation of Jesus. So if you did not bring your Bibles this week, bring your Bibles next week because we are going through the verses. Do you want that? Do you want the Word of God? Because bring the Word of God if you want the Word of God. And that's what you're gonna get today. Because we're gonna walk through Obadiah, a book that most people haven't read through, even though it probably take you all of five minutes to finish it. I'm just gonna give you a little bit of a snapshot of Obadiah before I give you the hook to help remember what Obadiah is all about. Uh Obadiah is speaking against a tribe, specifically one family within a larger family group. Obadiah is from the group of the Israelites who have had something bad happen to them. He's speaking against the Edomites. The Israelites come from Jacob, the Edomites come from Esau, but both Jacob and Esau shared the same daddy. Isaac was both of their fathers. So you see how the beginning story ties in with Obadiah's context. And what you're gonna see is that there's something diagnostically wrong with the Edomites. And it is pride and betrayal are at the top of the food chain for them. So I've got a hook for you to remember if you ever want to go back into Obadiah and see how the Old Testament always points to the New Testament in Jesus, you can remember it this way: Pride turns brothers into, what does it say? Enemies. But Jesus turns enemies into, what does it say? Family. That's right. Because that's not normally how it goes, particularly without Jesus. But you're gonna find that in Obadiah. So in each one of the Bible shorts sermons, I'm gonna give you a snapshot. That snapshot's gonna be a brief, brief summary of when the book was written, who wrote it, what we know about them, and why that book was written. So let's start. It was written around 586 to 580 BC. You might say, I'll never remember that, but you might not, and that's okay. But here's why it's important in 586, God's people from the descendants of Jacob had been attacked three times, and they had lost each one of those times. And in 586, the last of the holdouts, the last of the survivors, were attacked and carried off into exile. And the beautiful temple that everybody talks about from the Old Testament was completely destroyed by another country. And so that happens in 586, and this is what Obadiah is speaking about. Now, here's the thing about the character of Obadiah. Most prophets we know something about because the Bible will tell us. Like it'll say Jonah was the son of Amitai, so we knew what his daddy was. It'll say Amos was from Tokoa, so we know what city he was from. And it'll say he was a shepherd or a fig puncher. I don't want to punch a fig. Maybe you want to punch a fig. I don't know, but that's what it says that he did. Most prophets, we have some idea of who they are, but with Obadiah, there is not a lot that's given about him. No family, no hometown, no occupation. There's like a dozen Obadiahs in the scope of the whole Old Testament, but we cannot bear down that any one of those is this one that's speaking at this time as a prophet. And I want to give you a little bit of an insight when you're studying the scriptures. If you come to a book or a speaker where little is known about the speaker, there's a reason for that. That's because you and I are not supposed to pay attention to the messenger. We're supposed to pay attention to the message. Exactly. And that's what's happening here in Obadiah. And if you pay attention to the message today, you will be blessed by the same lesson that Obadiah was speaking 2,500 years ago. So what's the circumstance? Well, like I said, there was another country named Babylon that came in and just utterly destroyed the last of the people that were holding out that were the descendants of Jacob. Edom, relatives to Jacob's, Israelites, Edomites, celebrated that defeat for those who were in Judah. Edom then came in after God's people were moved out of that place and looted the city, stole all of their relatives' good things that they wanted to take with them. There were a couple of survivors that were there. And the relatives, rather than saying, We'll take you in and harbor you for safety and compassion. No, instead they turned them back into the Babylonians or just straight up murdered them. And so Obadiah is now speaking God's judgment against Edom for their pride and their violence. But in the Old Testament, you do not leave a prophet without some hope. And that's why, by the close, verse 21 of Obadiah, this is the key verse that you're going to want to write down. The kingdom shall be the Lord's. So regardless of what happened, the kingdom and everything that happens in it, that's the Lord's. He saw what happened to your family. He saw what they did, regardless of who did what first. And that's why Obadiah starts with verse 1: the vision of Obadiah. This is what the sovereign Lord says about Edom. Alright, so here's uh let's go back and do just like a little bit of a speed run through why these different families were going at each

Jacob And Esau Set The Pattern

SPEAKER_00 10:51

other. They start with Jacob and Esau. Jacob also, like as they were being born because there were twins, started it. Esau was the first one out the shoot. That's as graphic as I'm gonna get. But Jacob grabbed onto Esau's heel as they're both being delivered. But because Esau came out first, Esau in this culture was entitled to a double inheritance. Let's fast forward until they're adults. Esau goes out into the wilderness to go hunt for food for his family. He is not successful. So he comes back in, absolutely starved and famished. He sees Jacob. Jacob's a decent cook. He's like, Jacob, could you please make me some stew? Jacob, the brother, should have said, Absolutely, I will do this for you. You're my brother. But instead, he says, You get a double portion of the inheritance. Would you give it to me if I give you stew? And then Esau is like, That sounds like a great deal. And so he does it, and that is foolish. Fast forward a little bit longer because there's already animosity now between these guys. Isaac, their dad, is just about ready to die. And he wants to give a blessing, a spiritual blessing, to his oldest son Esau. That is his desire. So he calls Esau and he's like, Hey, you're a great hunter. Go out, get some game, cook me my favorite dish, and I'll give you the spiritual blessing that's supposed to be for you. Esau does exactly like his dad says. He goes out and goes hunting. Jacob and Esau's mommy hears all about this, and she's got her favorite. It's Jacob. And she says, Jacob, you need to get this blessing. You need to have not only the double inheritance physically, but you need the spiritual blessing as well. Here's what you're gonna go do: go get a goat. Kill the goat. I'll make your father's favorite dish. Put the stinky goat hair on your body. What did that say about Esau? He's stanky. Can you imagine? You're over, your dad is dying, and he's like, Woo, that's my son. He couldn't see very well at the end of his life, he couldn't hear very well at the end of his life, but he could smell, and that was one smelly dude. And so that's what happens. Jacob, clothed with goat's skin of this deceased animal, comes to his father and says, I'm Esau, I have your favorite dish. And Isaac is like, You smell like him? You don't sound like him, but I'm gonna give you my blessing anyway. So he gives the full blessing. By the time Isaac is done blessing Jacob, there is not an ounce of blessing left to give. And upon him leaving, Esau comes into the story. He says, Dad, I was successful. The Lord has blessed me with a successful hunt. I have provided for you the meal that you've asked for. And Isaac kind of breaks down because he's like, I already did it. I don't have any blessing left for you. Esau knows exactly what happened at that point. He knows his brother came in, and now not only does he have the physical double inheritance, but now he's got the spiritual inheritance as well. So he breathes murderous threats. He wants to kill his brother. From this side, he's saying, Do you know what he did? He did it first. He started it, he grabbed my ankle when we were little babies. And Jacob was like, Well, Daddy always liked you better. And he Esau was like, Well, mommy always liked you better. Does this sound like anything you've ever experienced before? That's the setting that Obadiah is speaking into. And then their descendants, even though there is a point where Jacob and Esau reconcile, their descendants continue to do the same thing. Jacob's descendants get taken into Egypt because of a famine. Moses leads them back by the hand of the Lord through the promised land. Edom is between Moses and God's people, the descendants of Jacob and the promised land. So they're like, hey, could you please let us through here? And the Edomites say no. Do you know what they did to us before? They're probably gonna grab our ankles and think we're stinky again. The Edomites rise up against David, the king, later on. And David puts that down. The Edomites rise up against Solomon, and Solomon, a descendant of Jacob, puts that down again. The Edomites rebel and actually still steal and kill members of those who are in the southern kingdom. And it just keeps going back and forth and back and forth. You know what they did? You know what he did? You know what he did? It's like watching a soap opera. But what you find is the hook that pride got in the way of these brothers and all of their descendants. Because pride turns brothers into enemies. So verse three is gonna see and show you and I where pride has played a role.

Pride Exposed And Judgment Named

SPEAKER_00 15:43

God says through Obadiah, the pride of your heart has deceived you. You who live in the clefts of the rocks, you make your home in the heights, you who say to yourself, Who can bring me down to the ground? These are the Edomites. They have elevated places where they are actually hiding so that they can take out people from Jacob's descendants. And they're like, You can't get us from up here. In the very next verse, God says, Oh, you're asking who can come and get us? I can. Though you soar like the eagle, and you make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down. Notice, not Jacob, I will. Pride has a significant way of getting in between our relationships, particularly if we're related by family. Do you know what she did? Pride has a big problem in a large place, way too big in marriages. Oh, I'm not gonna say sorry until he says he's sorry, but I'm not gonna actually say that he needs to say that he's sorry. I am nowhere near going to say I'm sorry. I'm just gonna be silent and hope she notices how sorry she needs to be because of what she's done. Do you know the size of the hot wheel that he stole from me? Do you know the Nerf gun that he took from me? Did you know that he stole one of my resurrection life in Fortnite? I don't even know if that's how you say that, but that's okay. These are the silly things that get in between us, but they breed into larger and larger and larger things because we do not want to exercise our hearts from the pride that dwells here, because we are more comfortable sitting with pride and self-righteousness than we are with conviction and humility. Because pride turns brothers into enemies. But y'all y'all need to know, and I need to know, that Jesus turns enemies into family. Because sometime an Obadiah is going to show up to you to confront what pride has done, like he does with the Edomites in verse 10. He says, Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you'll be covered with shame. You'll be destroyed forever. On the day when the Edomites stood aloof, when strangers carried off your wealth, and foreigners entered your gates and cast lots for what was in Jerusalem, you were like one of them. That's what pride does. Pride does not make us more and more into the image of Jesus. Pride makes us more and more in the image of the enemy of Jesus. Pride doesn't restore marriages. Pride adds zero net good to your family and mine, and yet pride is one of the highest values. And betrayal, then, because of it, can become one of the highest things that we chase after. Because I'm gonna get mine, and my self-righteousness is at stake here. Yeah, you and I were like one of them. So Obadiah says in verses 12, 13, and 14, you shouldn't gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune. You shouldn't march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster. You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives. The ones that were supposed to protect and guard instead gloated. And they justified it. As they stood proud and aloof and silent, as those they were supposed to have compassion and protect were in some of the deepest pain in their life. Because pride turns brothers into enemies. But we need to know that there is something different in Jesus. He turns enemies into family. Obadiah continues to speak to the Edomites, but also to us. He says, The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you've done, it'll be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head. But what you'll notice about is he's not saying, It's now your job that you have to seek this vengeance. You have to seek the means to solve this injustice. No, instead, this is the Lord's. Revenge is in our security. We're not the prideful ones. We're not those who put betrayal above everything else. No, our job isn't to be up here and to win the fight against the people we're supposed to love the most. Our job is to lower ourselves to serve those who are around us. That's why I want you to add one more thing in your snapshot for Obadiah.

The Servant Way In Jesus

SPEAKER_00 21:06

I intentionally left this out earlier. It's what the name Obadiah actually literally means. It means servant of the Lord. Servant of the Lord. Not in the place of the Lord, not better than the Lord, not the betrayer of the Lord, but the servant of the Lord. And this is something we all struggle with. Think about the disciples. Who is the greatest among us? Is what they ask. And Jesus is like, no, no, no, no, you don't understand still after following me all these years. It's not about who's the greatest, it's about who can serve the most. And what's great is everything you learn in the Old Testament is going to find its way into the New Testament and Jesus. In Matthew chapter 2, Jesus is being born. Jesus, who was of the Lion of the tribe of which tribe, guys? Judah, which was a descendant of Jacob. That's the line that Jesus was coming from. He was born into an area that was ruled by a king. What was the name of the king at that time, church? Herod. Do you know where Herod was from? It said Herod was an Ijumean, which was the New Testament way of saying Herod was a descendant of the Edomites, a descendant of Esau. So that old bickering back and forth of a family separated, he said, No, they did this first. No, they did this first. Did you know what they did? All comes into the person of Jesus, the ultimate servant of the Lord. To bring peace, not further justification of distance and

The Peace Child Changes Everything

SPEAKER_00 22:52

betrayal. And this is where we're going to take a pin back out of that story with the Sawi people, both with Don and Carol. Because there was a point after that betrayal where they just retreated back to their hut. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know where to go next. How can you share the gospel if you think Judas is the prime character? He's got the main character energy. He is the top character, and betrayal and pride is the best thing in this culture. What are we gonna do? And as they are freaking out for how they're supposed to respond to the Lord, a war breaks out right in front of them. And we're talking like crude tool, nasty war with like rough spearheads and spears and arrows. And they start seeing people that they cared about dying without ever having heard the gospel right in front of them, and their hearts are breaking, and they have no idea where to go next with this. And they see that both are suffering massive casualties. And they see the chief of this tribe run back to his home because he had just had a baby, and he rips this baby out of the mom's hands, his wife. And he begins to run through the battlefield, dodging spears and arrows and like roughly, crudely made machetes, and he's able to do so, and he finally gets to the other village chieftain, and Don and Carol take off at a dead sprint because they're like, oh my goodness, they're gonna sacrifice this baby. They're right even eat this baby because that's what they all said they were gonna do. We need to be able to stop this. And they get there, and the other tribe chieftain accepts this child, raises it up above his head, and everyone in the battlefield in that moment drops every single weapon. And Don and Carol have no idea what's gonna happen next. And the man takes this child into his arms, the chief of the warring tribe, carries them back into his hut. Don and Carol follow because they don't know what's gonna happen. And the chief describes this is what happens in our villages. When we know that we're both gonna suffer if we continue to treat each other this way, the warring group will give a child to the other warring group, and it is our responsibility to treat this child as if this child was our own. And as long as this child is alive, there will always be peace between our families. This is what we call the peace child, and so Don and Carol knew exactly where they could go with sharing the gospel, and Obadiah can speak a very similar gospel to you today. Jesus is your peace child. Something bad's probably happened to you. You can let that go. It doesn't make it right, whatever happened to you, but it's too heavy for you to carry. And I think you're tired, and I think you want to let it go. But nobody ever told you you could, and that somebody else would carry it up for you. Jesus did this for Jacob, and he did it for Edom, and he did it for the Israelites, and he did this for the Edomites, he did it for the Sawi. And he is the peace child for you. In Obadiah, it says, As you have done, it will be done to you. Jesus stopped the cycle of violence because as it was done to everybody else, as we heard everybody else saying, Oh, they did it first. He took all of that unto himself, your sin, my sin, and brings peace to the Father and says, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. And at the cross, your pride is judged there, your bitterness is judged there, your judgment is judged there, your revenge is judged there, all of the betrayals are judged there. And Jesus, he makes peace. Because pride turns brothers into enemies, but Jesus turns enemies into the family, and that's how Obadiah can close off his prophetic vision by saying, The kingdom shall be the Lord's. Because that's what happens in Jesus' kingdom. It's not filled with retribution, it's just filled with peace.

Stand Down Stand With Surrender

SPEAKER_00 27:50

So here's three things that I want you to do as a result of Obadiah. Learn from the Jesus that Obadiah was looking for. Allow Jesus to reign as the peace child in your heart, in your life, in your marriage, in your family, in your city, in your church. Step one there is no reason for you to sit on the throne. So stand down. The greatest thing that you could ever do is serve another person in Jesus' name. You can serve on your knees by standing down. You can serve by helping someone, by being compassionate, by not seeking revenge, but actually lifting that person up so that the peace child can have his way with them too. And if you can step down, then you can take step two, and that is stand with. Someone has been wronged, and they're probably sitting right next to you. And we're so preoccupied with our stuff and our own indignations and our own self-righteousness that we don't realize that there are people right next to us that need peace and they need compassion. And they need you to stop worrying about yourself and me to stop worrying about myself and start worrying about those that Jesus has given to us. So step one is stand down, step two is stand with. Step three, surrender your judgment. That's not your job, it's not my job. Romans 12 has Paul quoting the Lord saying, Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. If he's sitting on his throne, he saw it happened, and he will take care of it. It may not be in the timetable you want, it may not be in the way that you'd want, but he'll take care of it by first taking care of you. So if we're gonna learn a Bible short message, and it can be condensed down to three sayings, it would be the same things that were judgments against Edom are great actions of peace for us to stand down, stand with, and surrender judgment. And in that way, the kingdom comes through us, because the kingdom shall be the Lord's. And if pride turns brothers into enemies, Jesus will turn enemies into family. Amen. Amen. Let's pray.

Prayer For Peace And Release

SPEAKER_00 30:21

I'd ask you, please stand for our prayer time. Lord Jesus, it is a difficult thing to relinquish control. It's a difficult thing to give all of our conflicts to you, but we know it's the right thing, even though it's hard. So we would ask that your spirit would live in us in such a way that we could stand down. That your spirit would live in us in such a way that we're not going to be focused on ourselves but on others, so we can stand with those who are actually hurting too. And Lord, we surrender all of our judgment that caused those previous conflicts to you to take care of, so that you may give us peace, and we may have the life that you've promised that is a life to the full. We ask all of these things in your name, Jesus, and all God's people said. Amen.