Obadiah - "The Deliverers (?)"

Think of some famous Brothers:  Wright brothers, Brothers Grimm… How about Jacob and Esau?

Well, for the descendants of Jacob, it has finally happened.  All of Israel is fully and finally exiled.  Assyria took away the northern tribes, and now the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin are gone too.  Nebuchadnezzar has destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, and left the city in ruins.  And even as we begin to look forward to the come back, to a promised future return from exile, something happened.  Something somewhat unexpected.  Jacob’s brother, Esau, Israel’s only brother - he did something.  Esau did a bad thing.

[1]

Two players here at the outset:

Obadiah —> it means “servant/worshipper of Yah” in Hebrew.  

Edom is the people who were the descendants of Esau… (cf Gen 25.30, Gen 36.8)

When sibling rivalry becomes perpetual hostility… Yes, brothers can be difficult.  Pains in the you know where.  The derriere.  I think Jacob was probably a royal pain.  He was a trickster, a deceiver, a usurper.  And Esau was the first born.  The eldest.  All the rights of the firstborn should have gone to him and his family.  But instead, they went to Jacob.  We know that God chose Jacob, but on the human level, Jacob finagled them away.  All more fuel on the fire of an already-simmering sibling rivalry.

This sibling rivalry was one for the ages.  It actually began in the womb [Gen 25.22-23], continued throughout their adolescence and on into early adulthood [Gen 27.41].  At one point they seem to have made peace with each other [Gen 33.4,9], or at least to peacefully co-exist.  Over the centuries, they grow apart.  They become neighbors - but also bitter rivals.  King David actually forces Edom to become servants to the descendants of Jacob [2Sam 8.14] - just as God said he would.  The older will serve the younger, God said.  Then 100 yrs after David Edom begins to revolt and fight back against younger brother [2Ki 8.20,22].  Family hostility.  Centuries of it.

This can happen to brothers, can’t it?  Brothers - or sisters.  We can get sideways with one another.  We can get so sideways that we are seemingly beyond the ability to care anymore.  Past the point of no return.  Past the point of being able to love.  To forgive.  To help.  To be kind.  Distance.  Separation.  Alienation.  I’d like to suggest that for us today, it is never too late.  There is no family tie which is so severed as to be beyond repair.  Not for the Lord.

“He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted”, Jesus said [Is 61.1].  To bring peace.  To heal that which is broken, wounded.  The word here is wrapping a bandage around a wound so that it can heal.  This is our Savior - He wraps up and heals hearts - AND hurts.  He brings hope to the hopeless.  There is never a heart which is so hard that He can’t soften it.  There is never a relationship so far gone that He can’t heal it.  Granted it may take some time and effort and prayer and forgiveness and humility - but that's His specialty.  He can do this.

Sadly, in this case, in Obadiah, we see where God has basically put out a contract on Edom.  Brother Esau.  The Lord is literally putting a hit out on the descendants of Esau - telling the nations to attack.  Edom is fair game.  What happened?  What is the straw that broke the camel’s back?  We need to skip down to verse 10.

Violence - to your brother.  Here’s one point which God is trying to hammer home.  We’ve seen it before - family is forever.  1000 years hence, and God still calls them brothers.  At this point we might actually consider them to be distant relatives - way distant.  But they are brothers.  In God’s house, in His heart, family means something.  Family is supposed to mean something.  God calls them brothers.

The early church shone in this - outsiders exclaimed, behold how they love one another!  And the explanation given was, their Leader has convinced them that they are brothers.  But what did Edom do?  He actually did nothing.  When Nebuchadnezzar showed up to finally destroy Jerusalem, on the day of his brother’s distress, Esau did nothing.  This is actually a phrase which gets repeated 10 times in this section.  The day of his distress.  The day of his distress.  Your brother’s day, the day of his misfortune, destruction.  God said it was coming, didn’t He?  Judah had it coming, didn’t he?  But look at verse 11.

Edom, you stood aloof [11] while foreigners [i.e. those SO NOT family] plundered your brother.  Literally, you stood opposite.  Instead of coming to the rescue, you did the opposite.  You in fact, did nothing.  You just stood there, and watched.  You were a spectator.  But family is not a spectator sport.  Love is not a spectator sport.  Love doesn’t simply pass by on the other side, much less just stand there looking.  Definitely not when it's family.  Love engages.  Love crosses the street.  Love reaches out and does whatever it can to bridge the separation and meet the need.  It might be the first to say I’m sorry.  Or I forgive you.  Or to pick up the phone and simply ask, how are you?  How can I pray for you?  If/when you and I don’t engage, don’t do something, we fall short.  Because love is a verb.  It’s also not natural.  It doesn’t feel natural sometimes.  Because it is a supernatural act, and therefore it requires supernatural enabling.  We turn to the Lord and depend on His Spirit to love through us - our neighbors, our enemies, our brothers.  A new command I give you… Love one another. 

It ought to be true in any family.  But it ought also be true in the family of God.  Among God’s people.  And yes, it usually does take two to tango.  Sometimes there is a whole lot of water which has passed under that bridge.  You can only do what you can do.  But for sure, you and I need to do all that we can do.  All we can do to reach out, to break down the separation.  And yes, it might require some patience and perseverance.  And prayer.  It might take some apologizing.  I’m sorry.  Please forgive me.  And some healing.  And some time.  Relationships always take time - especially the difficult ones.  But our God is in the miracle business!  Nothing is too difficult for Him!  This is not too difficult for Him!

But Edom, you did worse than nothing - you sought to gain from it.  You took advantage of the situation.  When he was down, you actually took some of your brother’s stuff, right alongside the rest of the looters.  Look at verses 12 and 13 - you gloated even.  You enjoyed seeing your brother get his comeuppance.  But wait - there’s more!  You even took captive some of the refugees, folks who were fleeing for their lives… [14]  You trafficked your brothers!

Yes, Judah probably had it coming.  Jacob definitely had some of it coming.  But by your actions, Edom, you are now complicit with the Babylonians, these ones who did violence to God’s chosen people.  And at the end of the day, these are still your brothers.  Are you even able to see that?  Instead of helping them, you hurt them - while they were down.  You just stood there and watched.  You didn’t step in - other than to help yourself to some of the spoils, and take some of them captive for yourself.  So, Edom - you’re fired.  Actually, a fire IS coming, and it is going to consume you.

[16] They will become as if they had never existed.  This was certainly to be the fate of Edom.  Today all that is left is ruins.  There is nothing else left of this nation - just fodder for archaeologists.  [18] The house of Esau will be as stubble, fire will consume them, and there will be no survivor.

[pic of mount seir] - this is all that’s left.  Ruins.

You wanna leave a legacy which is more than just ruins?  Learn how to love.  Hundreds of students getting ready to enroll in LeTourneau here in another month, learning (at least in theory) how to get a job.  But I say, with all our learning, we need to learn how to love.  One another.  Our brother.  Our neighbor.

The day of [Judah’s] disaster/distress/misfortune - 10x in this short book.  And there is certainly a day of destruction for Edom [in v 8].  But God here mentions another day.   There is another day, one which we’ve seen mentioned before.  The Day of the Lord [15].  The Day of the Lord draws near for all nations.  Judgment.  Just desserts - as you have done it will be done to you.  God’s righteous anger revealed against all unrighteousness.  The cup of His wrath finally poured out on all the nations of the earth.  Just as Judah got a taste, a sip of it there in Jerusalem, all the peoples of the earth will be made to drink of the same cup.

What we do see quite plainly here in these last verses of Obadiah is that God says Israel is going to make a comeback.  Jacob is going to possess their possessions.  They will repossess, they will take back possession of Mount Zion.  Jerusalem.  They will take back the Promised Land.  Their inheritance.  All these lands which God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants.  All the territory He gave to His people after He brought them out of Egypt - they are going to repossess it.  It’s the ultimate repo!  Only the bank isn’t coming to take something away - this Bank is giving back!

There is one other thing we need to look at.  Verse 21.  The Deliverers [21]

yasha in the Hebrew means to make wide or to make sufficient.  It is contrasted with the word sarar, which means to be restricted, to cause distress.  The root idea then of this salvation or deliverance is that of freeing up restrictions, widening the path, so to speak, so that it is free from restrictions.  Eliminating the bottleneck.  Relieving the distress.  Which is precisely what brother Esau did NOT do for brother Jacob.

There are different kinds of sarar/distress.  It can be economic stress.  Enemies [Moses at the well with the daughters of Reuel].  Catastrophes - plague, famine, sickness.  How about the distress, the daily stress of just living.  So many things which weigh us down.  In contrast, deliverers widen people’s lives.  Look at this guy…

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkU-SSKf758] - dancing traffic cop

Because even these pictures are distressing, aren’t they?  [pictures of gridlock] 

Did I ever tell you my most embarrassing moment?  It had to do with another kind of restriction, some intestinal "gridlock" and a corresponding gridlock in the septic system of a friend's home... But I digress... :)

Deliverers.  In all these cases, the one who widens, who delivers from these restrictions is known as the “savior”.  Moses saved Reuel’s daughters.  But mostly this term has huge theological undertones - over and over again, what the Old Testament communicates is that God is our Deliverer, our Savior [Ps 68.19].  Yes, salvation may come through a human agent, but it is only because God empowers the agent.

There is a long history of God saving His people:

• From Egypt [Ex 14.30 —> Deut 33.29]
• From the Canaanites [Deut 20.4]
• Through judges [Jud 2.16] or through a king [1Sam 9.16]
• Note the importance of godly leaders [Jud 21.25]
• From enemies [1Sam 17.47]
• For the sake of His Name [Ps 106.8]
• By His power [Ps 44.5-8, Prov 21.31]
• Not constrained by numbers [1Sam 14.6]

But here's the bigger point: God delivers His people - so that they will become Deliverers!  This is His plan, His plan for us.

This is precisely what Edom did not do.  He did not do anything to lessen the distress of his brother.  To widen things for him.  He didn’t even lift a finger.  He was an anti-deliverer, an anti-Savior.  Technically, we could call him here, a type of anti-Christ.

My guess is that the Lord has some ways for us, for you to "lift a finger" this week.  No, not give the finger.  Deliver someone from distress.  Could be physical.  Emotional.  Spiritual.

Last point - The kingdom will be the Lord’s - the paradox of the kingdom

• There is a fundamental truth of the kingdom that he or she who would gain the kingdom must be willing to break all other ties - including those of family.  It is truly the treasure in the field for which we are willing to sell everything.  The pearl of great price [Mt 13.44-46].  So yes, there are instances where earthly familial ties will be severed as part of the price to acquire the field, to enter the kingdom.  Sometimes following Christ will set one against one’s own flesh and blood.  Is He worth it?  Compared to the King of the kingdom, nothing has value…
• But this kingdom - God’s plan, His original design and ultimate destiny is not for people to live in this place of stress, of restriction, of slavery to sin and brokenness, broken relationships, to labor under these unbearable burdens.  No, our God, our Deliverer, is the One Who declares, come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden.  Yoke yourselves to Me, follow Me, learn from Me, and you will find rest for your souls.  Peace.  Shalom.  Hope.  Living hope.  There is hope.  For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light, says the Lord God our Savior [Mt 11:28-30].  And He commissions us, we His people, as His agents of deliverance.  To be deliverers!  Not like Edom, standing aloof.  Instead, we're helping to shoulder and lighten peoples burdens.  Yes, be we traffic cops or septic service technicians or you name it.  But also in pointing people to the One Who alone can ultimately lift and carry their unbearable burdens and restrictions.  Who can carry away their sin, Who did so on the Cross.  He bore our burdens away, carried away our sins, paid the penalty and broke the power of sin.  Truly delivered.  Thank You, Lord...!

Outline of Obadiah

1. God’s Word against Edom [1-20]
1. The Punishment [2-9]
1. Brought low [2-4]
2. Plundered [5-6]
3. Deceived and dismayed [7-9]
2. The Crime [10-14]
3. Final Judgment [15-20]
1. Nations judged [15-16]
2. Israel restored, Esau destroyed  [17-20]
2. Last word [21]