Look to Zion - Obadiah

0:51So we will be in Obadiah as promised. It is in the minor prophets after the book of Amos. We will be beginning in verse 15. Before we get started, though, I would like to give an ongoing image, an illustration, if you will, that will be carried throughout this message. Kind of a frame of reference, if you will. And that is A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. And those of you who haven't read it, I'll just give you a quick synopsis of the important part. You'll remember one of the main characters. It's hard to narrow it down for any of his books, but one of the main characters is a fellow named Charles Darn.

1:31And Darnay has a unique identity, shall we say, in that he's two persons. On the one side, he's Charles Darnay, lives in London, England, and is a rather simple man, modest means, family man. But on the other side, he is Monsignor Edmund, from a wealthy family in France, a family who has made its means through usury and just overall being a very vile bunch of people. And Charles Darnay, in this book, rejects his identity, the family name he was born with in France, the name Edmund, and assumes a new identity, Charles Darnay. One man, two identities. And as we go throughout this scripture selection, we're going to see two identities, two cities, if you will. On the one hand, we have Edom, the descendants of Esau, and on the other, we have Zion, Israel, and the followers of God. And I'll make this clearer as we go. So, first, before we get too far into it, let us read what we have. Obadiah, starting in verse 15. For the day of the Lord draws near on all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will be done. Return on your own head. Because just as you drank on my holy mountain, all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and swallow. They will become as if they had never existed. But on Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. And the house of Jacob will possess their possessions. Blessed be the reading of God's word. Now, and I was a little bit remiss. I am reading out of the NASB, just so you all know, and I'll also be using occasionally the New King James. So as we look, you'll see in what I'm going to, the case I'm going to make to you, these three verses come in three stages. In verse 15, we're going to get the setting, the context with which we need to understand the following two verses. And in verse 16, we're going to get a detailed description of who Edom is and understanding what it means to us. And then finally, in verse 17, we're going to get a glimpse of Israel and Zion. And then, after having gone through these three verses, having gotten this picture of these two cities, these two nations, and understanding the setting, I will then try to give us the application. So let us begin by looking at verse 15. So, and also, let me take a step aside. If you take this, and I encourage you to do this, take this home with you, read through everything, contemplate what I've said, and when you do so, look at Ezekiel chapter 35 and 36. It is a wonderful companion to what we're going over today. All right, we'll move back. All right, verse 15. So the first things it gives us is the what.

4:53What are we looking at? You'll notice one of the first phrases in verse 15 is a day of the Lord. Now, this phrase appears, I believe it was 25, 28 times, somewhere around that, throughout the Old Testament, and explicitly that way, the day of the Lord. It also appears, you'll see it, that day, or in various other similar ways. It is a theme that runs throughout the Old Testament. It is a theme that was touched on, in fact, this morning, and I believe will be touched on as you go through Revelation. It is absolutely pivotal to understanding the general gist of prophecy. Unfortunately, we can't go into a deep dive today. But the day of the Lord is a pivotal part of the Old Testament and thus gives us the what. What we are looking at is prophecy. And in this, it is looking at the now and the not yet. What is happening, but ultimately, we're looking at a future. This book is of a genre looking towards a future fulfillment.

6:00So, when we read these words, while there might be echoes, there might be typologies, there might be some things that come to pass, there is a day coming where the words we are reading will come to a final conclusion. We can look forward to the final event. So, the genre, the what, is given to us in this way. The day of the Lord, also, you can think of this phrase, while I said we can't go into it in depth, is the day that belongs to the Lord. Right now, we have been given our day, but in the future, there will be the day that is his. It's kind of like when somebody is talking to you, a mama or a daddy, and they say, You've had your turn to talk. Now it's my turn. Something along those lines. You've had your chance. I gave you your moment. Now it's my day. And there's a future day coming when there will be judgment, and the Lord will enact his will. His will is accomplished here and now, but we are in rebellion. And there comes a day when all rebellion will cease. The Lord's day.

7:09Then we see that this day is coming. We see the what, this prophecy, this future day, but this day is coming to who? It's coming to all nations. And we need to pause here and think about this just briefly. When it says all nations, it's referring specifically to Gentiles, but also more than Jews. Just everybody who's not a Jew. So it is referring to those who are not Jewish, but it is not just the ethnicity Jew. I will make the case throughout the message tonight that it's referring to all those who are accomplices of Edom, the greater context of this book. It is the surrounding enemies of Israel, those who would mean harm for them, all the nations that are doing the things that have been described in the greater part of this book. That we will not have time to go through all tonight, but it describes all the things that Edom has done in the past, all the things that they will do in the future, all of the conflict that is going to take place between all these nations and God's people. So, this is a book of prophecy talking about a future in which the Lord will take his day, will take his vengeance, will ultimately resolve the conflicts we have. And he will resolve it because of the conflicts that have been brought about by the enemies, by all the nations here. Those, as verse 15, says that you, you nations, have done. If you look at verse 2 briefly, it says, Behold, I will make you small. The pronouns here are being important. This book is not just informational, it is written. To the enemies of God. It is written to them. He says, you, all of you, and he points a finger.

9:11Well, I'd like to know who I am. And we will get to that, but I don't want the Lord pointing his finger at me. Before we get there, there's one more thing in the setting we need to look at, and that's the why. At the end of verse 15, it talks about your dealings will return on your own head. If you look, as I mentioned in Ezekiel, it talks about the Lord's people, and it talks about him defending his people. We can go deep into retribution theology. We can go deep into what it means for God to punish sin. But in very short terms, God has a people, and those people have been opposed. Edom, there's a long catalog in the book of Obadiah that they have been opposed by Edom. They have been hurt, wounded. And God, the Father, will vindicate his people. He will defend those who belong to him. The fact is, he loves his people. And he is not going to sit by as they are wronged. He is going to, in fact, show his love to them. And he will show his love to them now. But then again, remember the context. There's also coming a day when ultimately he will resist.

10:30All things. He will wipe away all tears. There will be a final resolution in which he takes his children home to himself. So that's the context. That is our setting today in verse 15. And then we move to verse 16. And we see exactly who these nations are that he's pointing his finger at. We see exactly who has been hurting the children of God. And we see Edom described first as a people who drink. And that's a little bit puzzling, perhaps.

11:06What does this mean? Slightly poetic language. What does it mean to drink that they drank? It means, the best that I can tell, if you look, it is following very closely with Jeremiah chapter 25. And you will see a similar language being used in 25, 27, where it is said, Therefore, you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, drink, be drunk, and vomit, fall and rise no more, because the sword which I will send among you.

11:49It's very similar, and it is exactly what it looks like. Imbibing spirits, getting drunk on alcohol. And this is an image. If you will, of a people who are partying, living it up. And it reminds me of one of Aesop's fables, the grasshopper and the ants. And in that fable, you see the grasshopper is living it up. He's partying. He's having a good time. Meanwhile, the ants, they're laboring, they're storing away for winter. And in this fable, the grasshopper, who's living it up, eventually, in the future, when the time comes, what happens? The winter comes, there's no more food. He has no provisions, and he reaps what he sowed. He dies. The ants, meanwhile, they've been preparing and they go underground where it is warm. They live off of the stores they have prepared, and they live to see another day. This is the sort of image we have here: a people who have not listened, who have not heeded the words, the word that has been given to all of us. They have been partying it up. They have been neglecting, ignoring, in fact, purposely spurning the word of God. Not only have they been doing that, but they've been doing it on Mount Zion. Now, this is strange because if you look, Edom does not extend. The classical kingdom of Edom does not extend up to Jerusalem, to Mount Zion. For the Edomites or any nation other than Israel to be in the holy city, Gives you a pause. Why are they drinking in Zion? And that is because they're living off of the backs of God's people. A number of times, thinking especially of Babylon, the kingdom of Judah was overthrown. And as they were overthrown, the kingdom surrounding Israel, while they may not have participated with Babylon, they celebrated. They lived it large, they kicked it back, and they were happy that Israel had fallen. They celebrated the downfall of God's people. So not only are they not heeding God's warnings and God's word, they're also happy when God's people are hurting. So this is the kind of people we are dealing with, the Edomites and all the nations that are like them.

14:24And then what's going to happen to them? They are a people who will be judged. They are a people who will be, as we see at the end of 16, they're going to keep drinking. They're going to drink until they swallowed. They're going to get the repercussions of their actions, and then they will become as if they had never been. So quick show of hands, who's been on a trip real quick to Edom? Anybody been over there? Didn't think so. Okay. Has anybody, you know, talked to an Edomite? Do we have any Edomites in the congregation tonight? No.

15:00No, I didn't think so. Funny thing, it's as if they never existed. In fact, God's word has, in part, come to pass. However, Israel, I understand quite a number of y'all, are going to be going over there and seeing them. They happen to still exist. God's people happen to have been kept in the hands of God. You see this difference between those who have followed and the city of God and those who have rejected the Edomites, the Edmunds, if you will.

15:38And that's not it. In fact, some Edomites did, in the scriptures, continue. The line continued in some way. We'll see this a little bit later. But if you look at Isaiah chapter 65, starting in verse 16, it talks about the bad, the troubles, not being remembered. If you look in Revelation 21, 4, it talks about all things being made new. And the fact is, someday, those who belong to the Lord will be in heaven, and those who do not will be out of mind. It is my interpretation of that, that all those who are evil, all those who have been on Mount Zion celebrating the downfall of God's people, they will be forgotten. It will be as if they had never existed in the minds of those they persecuted. So there is a now and a not yet.

16:41So we move to verse 17, and we see a different people, the Darnais, the people of God. And in this, we see, first of all, Zion. And we've used this word a couple times, but I think it bears explaining a little bit. What is Zion? And it can actually be used several different ways throughout Scripture. Here, I believe, it is, at first blush, a picture of the geography. Zion is, in fact, a reference to the hill, the highest point of Jerusalem, the city. And there, this location, is where it says there will be those who are saved, in this place.

17:27It is also a picture of God himself. You have a place where those people will be saved. You have a God in which we are saved. In Christ, we are saved. And these people, those who are in God, are in fact a saved people, a delivered people. Now, translations are a little bit different depending on what you look at in this place. Some will say that there are those who will be delivered. Some will say there are those who will be escaped. I like the word remnant. I don't believe any translations actually use it. It would be a little bit awkward. But the idea is of a remnant. This particular word that is translated deliverance or escape is used several times through the Old Testament to talk about those who are saved from Assyria. So when Assyria came down, took out the northern kingdoms, they surrounded the city of Jerusalem, geographically, Zion. They surrounded the city. They came up to the gates, but it was saved. There was a remnant of the people, as the word is used, that were saved. And not only them, but all those who came from the surrounding villages into the city. And that's this picture. Those who have escaped, who have come out, who have been delivered from something.

19:03They have been delivered from loss, from punishment. They've been delivered from physical loss. You see, 16, at the end of 16, those who will become as if they never were. And in Zion, you have those who have been withheld physically. Israel is physically still here as a nation, as a people. Whereas these others are not. It's a juxtaposition between these two in the physical way. But also from apostasy. Also, from a loss of faith, from sinful behavior. If you look through the book of Judges, for example, is the number one example. That there's constantly a period in which the people reject God.

19:58And then there's a punishment. And that punishment, many times, if not always, is physical. And there will come a nation or a people that will punish, be a tool by which God punishes the people, and then they are brought back, and a remnant is saved. A remnant is saved through and in God. And in so doing, they come back to the Lord. They come back to truth. They come back to a right standing before God. And the cycle continues. But God always maintains this remnant. So we see this deliverance, this escape, this remnant that is maintained in God, in his designated place, held by the Father. It is a place that is holy. It is a place that is set apart. It is a people that are set apart, we see. And I'll be speaking more. Specifically on the holiness that we see when we get to the application.

21:07Finally, we get to the last line, this idea of the house of Jacob. And we see that it is a house united, a people united. You'll see in several places that it refers to the house of Judah. You'll see in several places that it talks about Israel, meaning the northern kingdoms, and here we have the house of Jacob, which is all of the above. The northern kingdoms, most likely at the time that Obadiah is written, have already been taken. The northern kingdoms have been dispersed, and Assyria, as is its typical pattern, assimilates the people. Later on, these would largely become the Sumerians, people that have been, they've lost their identity. And yet, we have here in this people that have been set aside, that have been delivered in God, in his set-aside place, we have the fact that God has maintained a people for whom there was no hope, a people that were gone for all intents and purposes. And I'll skip just a second ahead to the application and say it is never too late. You are never. Too far gone for God to work. There is nobody, nowhere, at any time, to whom God cannot offer his grace, to whom God cannot call out from this position of lostness. And I would say that as a word of encouragement to anybody here who believes they've done too much and been too far. The house of Jacob, a united Israel, has in fact been saved at this point. And then it says that they will possess their possessions.

23:04And we will see in verse 18 and 20, all of these peoples, it talks about the historically promised lands of Israel that will be restored. And we'll look, there's a little bit more to that as well. So, okay, fair enough. Fine, we got the history lesson. We see two people. Sure, they existed. There was Edom. There's Israel. Someday there's going to be a punishment, and great. But we don't live in Israel. Nobody in here said they were an Edomite. So what?

23:42What do we do with this? And I would say, first of all, that is a right attitude we should have. We should always ask: does this apply to us? Too often, we take promises meant for Israel and we try to take it all and make it for us. We try to acclaim everything, and I don't think we can do that. But I would contend with you that this scripture here does, in fact, apply to us as a church. And it applies for those who may be here who are not part of the church. And here is why. First of all, when you look at the wording, as I already said, all nations, it is nondescript. It is talking about all those who have identified with Edom.

24:30When you look, it is everybody who is opposed to Israel. So here's the question. Are there those still in existence who are opposed to Israel? Yes. Are there those living amongst us who are opposed to Israel? Yes. And we can take this farther. Are there those who are opposed to God's people? Yes. And there's different places that talk about God's people that would be more broad. For example, let us look, if you will, at Acts chapter 15.

25:06In Acts chapter 15, verses 15 through 17, James, after the Council of Jerusalem, is speaking, and there's a funny thing that's been happening. Some of these Gentiles have been getting saved. And what do we do about that? They've come to a faith in God. They're discussing this, and James, in conclusion, quotes Amos. Chapter 9. He quotes Amos chapter 9, and he says, starting in verse 15, and with this the words of the prophets, plural, agree just as it is written. After this, I will return, I will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up, so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord who does all these things.

26:08I believe rightly that there is a distinction, as your church agrees with me in your statement of faith, there is a distinction between Israel and the church. But I also believe, and I believe we can agree, that the church is part of God's people. We are all joined in the root. We are all part of God's family because he has given us grace. And he has seen fit to call us. And he has seen fit to make us his children. And because of that, those who are not naturally part of the vine, we have been given an extraordinary gift. We have been given the protection of God. While every promise may not apply to us that was given to Israel, the promises to his children, the promises to love, the promises to care for. Do. And that is something that is quite sobering to me and should be quite sobering to you. So as we look at this particular scripture and it says that there will be a people who escape judgment, I see that he is going to judge those who have sinned. And then I see that by his saving grace, we have been saved from judgment. When it says that he is going at the end times to have a people who have been set apart, then I see in the entirety of Scripture that we too will be set apart with the ability to go and see heaven. We will be able to participate in new Jerusalem. We will be able to see the glory of God. Amen. We will be able to experience the goodness He has set apart for us. And in this, we can take these promises and we can apply them today.

27:57We look then. We see that this does apply to us, at least in part. We see that there are two peoples. What then do we do with this application? First, I would call on all of us, as I believe Obadiah is calling on all of us, to search and see who do we identify with? Which is your identity? You have before you two identities, just as Charles Darnay did, one man, and he could reject. And repent of his family's sins and take on a new identity, or he could take the wealth, he could take all the lands, he could drink and be merry, he could celebrate and have fun at the cost of the people around him, at the cost of the church.

28:53And we have this same choice before us today. And if you are not heeding the call, if you have not made that decision to follow, I would say, listen now. You are not guaranteed tomorrow. You are not guaranteed the next moment. You have been given a picture. You have been given a warning of what is coming. And you can be like the Edomites who have said, no, thank you. I will keep going. I will just keep drinking. I'm just going to keep having my party, my time in the sun. Or you can decide right now, this moment, to become the child of God that he is telling you he has called you to be.

29:42So you can make that decision. If he has called you to do that, make it now. Next, I would like to the rest of us: if you are a part of the church of God, look at yourself very carefully. Another quick history lesson. The Edomites, if we look in Mark chapter 3, verse 8, fun fact, the Idumeans are still existing at the time of Jesus. So Obadiah, written in BC, written far before. Jesus comes hundreds of years later. And the Edomites as a country have ceased to exist, but their descendants are still around, and they're called Idumeans. And it says in Mark that they go and they listen to Jesus, these long parted descendants.

30:38And the funny thing is, when the Maccabees took over and Israel was independent or quasi-independent, they forced them to become Israelites. They lived in Judah. They assimilated to the culture. At least in words, they were Israelites. They had some cultural difference. They had a different family line. But largely, they were hard to tell from anyone else. You might have been sitting in church all of your life. You might go to Bible studies. You might be part of every single event and program this church has to offer. You might lead some of these programs. You teach Sunday school. You play in the band, in the choir. Are you saying you've been part of the cultural practices? Well, so were the Pharisees. They knew an awful lot. They were pretty smart. They had degrees. They were to seminary, if you want to call it that. That is not what saves us, folks. Works do not save us. There is nothing that saves us but the grace of God, the hand of God, which has reached down and taken those Idumeans who, after all those years, heard the words of Jesus. And guess what? They were no longer identified with all the nations. They were now children of God. The fact is, like I said before, it doesn't matter your history. It doesn't matter your past. Galatians 3, 28, doesn't matter if you're a Greek, doesn't matter if you're a Jew. Doesn't matter if you're a man, woman. Let me add a little bit and paraphrase to the idea. It doesn't matter if you have a lot of money or a little. Doesn't matter where you live, where you're from, if you're an American, or if you're from some foreign country. All that matters is whether God reaches down and saves you or not. And the fact is, he has offered to do so now if you're willing to repent. And if you repent, he will take you from wherever you are, pull you up, and you will no longer be identified as an Edomite. You will move sides. You'll have a new. New identity. You will be a child of God.

33:05If you are part of the church, examine yourself and make sure that you are, in fact, doing what you're supposed to be doing. The final portion of verse 17 talks about possessing your possessions. 1 Peter 2, verse 9 says, and this is, I believe, there's some contention on this scripture. I believe it's primarily speaking to Israel, but again, I think there's parts of it we can take. He says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So the fact is, if he has pulled you up, if he has made you his child, you have a purpose in life. So my question is, for those of you who are Christians, are you living that purpose?

34:11He called that you may proclaim the praises of him, that you may, you who are called out of darkness into his marvelous light, that you who are a possession of God. Put in other terms, Spurgeon wrote: The saints annex the territories of their enemies, which were theirs in Christ Jesus. The whole world belongs to Christ, and in his name we are to possess it for him. If you look at verse 21 of Obadiah, it talks about the judges, the deliverers will be judges. If you look in Revelation, it's talking about the millennium. There will be the Christians who are the judges in the millennium, the elect that will serve God.

35:09You are not a nobody. You are a child of the king. You have an identity. Let nobody belittle his calling, and please let nobody neglect their calling. I would end with an admonition that you leave here today. You go, you tell others, you give them the choice that Obadiah has given us. You show them the warnings, and you force them to either go to God and seek forgiveness or openly reject and condemn themselves. Through their sin.

36:03It is a sad thing, but we stand to deliver this message that we can reach the few for God to save. We should be about that. Let us pray. Dear Lord, I want to first thank you. I thank you that you have equipped us. I thank you for your word, for the warning that you have provided, for the future that we already know is yours, the victory, that your day looms in our futures. Lord, I pray that you will embolden your people here tonight, that you will give us the words, that you will give us the opportunities, that we will begin to reach this community, we will begin to reach all of those in our lives, all of those that you will bring into our lives, and that through this church, your kingdom will be glorified, emboldened, broadened, and ultimately glory to your name. I pray this. In Jesus' name, amen.