A Vision of Hope - Obadiah
Hope
Life can be strange. Some have thought this about Obadiah's prophecy as well. It does not appear to be written to God's people per se. It seems to be addressed to Edom, the neighbors to Israel and Judah during the time when God's people were about to go into exile. Maybe neighbor's is kind of a loose term, since Edom simply stood by, and maybe even participated in, the plundering of Israel by Babylon as they were taken into captivity. It's not that they didn't know each other. Actually they were family, family that went back a long way, for the Edomites were the descendants of Esau. Even though Jacob and Esau had reconciled, apparently the family dynamics persisted, and when the time came to be there for each other, Edom looked the other way.
Life is not only strange, it is often very unfair as well. People are treated badly, and those who should take a stand, those who should be there for us, may decide instead to take advantage of us when we are down. There are lots of ways to rationalize it, or try to minimize or justify it, but in the end it is what it is.
You get the idea from Obadiah that God was not happy with Edom. This is not the way that family is supposed to work. God sees it all. Nothing escapes His notice. And while things do not always get better right away, and God's people may suffer along the way, God reminds us that He has the last word. No matter what is served up to us now, God assures us that the end is assured, and things will be set right again. God is with us all along the way, and He is there at the end when things will be as they are meant to be.
Obadiah's prophecy is one of judgement. Often times, when we think of judgement we assume it has to do with us getting evaluated, but in the scriptures, judgement is most often about God standing up for His people and setting things back to the way they should be again. Judgment is good news. It is the time that those who are hurting and oppressing others are finally stopped. Their power is removed, and things are restored once again. That is the good news in the midst of Obadiah's prophecy. The oppression will stop. Things will be put back right again. Real justice (see previous sermons in this series to be reminded of what justice is about) will prevail. We can count on it.
In the meantime, God invites us to continue to stand for, and work for, what will finally be realized when all things will made new. We are invited not to give up or surrender to the injustice, but to continue to live as Kingdom people working for the values of the Kingdom until that time - realizing and bringing into the present as much of the Kingdom as we can, and resting in the assurance that God has the last word.
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Obadiah
(TNIV)
1 The vision of Obadiah.
This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom —
We have heard a message from the Lord:
An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Rise, let us go against her for battle” —
2
“See, I will make you small among the nations;
you will be utterly despised.
3
The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rocks
and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
4
Though you soar like the eagle
and make your nest among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,”
declares the Lord.
5
“If thieves came to you,
if robbers in the night—
oh, what a disaster awaits you!—
would they not steal only as much as they wanted?
If grape pickers came to you,
would they not leave a few grapes?
6
But how Esau will be ransacked,
his hidden treasures pillaged!
7
All your allies will force you to the border;
your friends will deceive and overpower you;
those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,
but you will not detect it.
8
“In that day,” declares the Lord,
“will I not destroy the wise in Edom,
people of understanding in the mountains of Esau?
9
Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified,
and everyone in Esau’s mountains
will be cut down in the slaughter.
10
Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
you will be covered with shame;
you will be destroyed forever.
11
On the day you stood aloof
while strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
and cast lots for Jerusalem,
you were like one of them.
12
You should not gloat over your brother
in the day of his misfortune,
nor rejoice over the people of Judah
in the day of their destruction,
nor boast so much
in the day of their trouble.
13
You should not march through the gates of my people
in the day of their disaster,
nor gloat over them in their calamity
in the day of their disaster,
nor seize their wealth
in the day of their disaster.
14
You should not wait at the crossroads
to cut down their fugitives,
nor hand over their survivors
in the day of their trouble.
15
“The day of the Lord is near
for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
your deeds will return upon your own head.
16
Just as you drank on my holy hill,
so all the nations will drink continually;
they will drink and drink
and be as if they had never been.
17
But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;
it will be holy,
and the house of Jacob
will possess its inheritance.
18
The house of Jacob will be a fire
and the house of Joseph a flame;
the house of Esau will be stubble,
and they will set it on fire and consume it.
There will be no survivors
from the house of Esau.”
The Lord has spoken.
19
People from the Negev will occupy
the mountains of Esau,
and people from the foothills will possess
the land of the Philistines.
They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,
and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20
This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan
will possess the land as far as Zarephath;
the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
will possess the towns of the Negev.
21
Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion
to govern the mountains of Esau.
And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.