Well, in our ongoing study of Genesis, we have come to the 36th chapter of the book. So it is, of course, perfectly natural that I would ask you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Obadiah. So we turn into the book of Obadiah, and you may have forgotten where that is. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah. And you're thinking to yourself, why on earth are we turning to the book of Obadiah when we're studying Genesis together? Well, Genesis 36 consists of 43 verses that are given by the Holy Spirit to document the genealogy of Esau's descendants who became known as the Edomites. And I believe that the Holy Spirit gives us those 43 verses for two reasons. First of all, to show that God cannot lie. That what God promises to do, He will perform. Because God had said to Rebekah, when Esau and Jacob were in her womb, they were fighting with each other. They were wrestling with each other from the very womb itself. And it was bad enough that she was troubled, and she went to the Lord and said, what's going on inside of me? And you remember what the Lord's response was. There are two nations inside of you. Two nations that will come forth, but the older shall serve the younger. And of course, Jacob's descendants became the nation of Israel, and Esau's descendants became the nation of Edom. And the point of this is to say God is screaming, as it were, through that entire genealogy, as tedious as the reading may be. Let's admit that reading through the genealogies is not our favorite thing to do when we're reading our Bibles. But nonetheless, that being said, God is saying something. He's saying, I am faithful. What I promise, I will perform. And so whenever you look at God's promises and you look at things like these genealogies, you can say what God has promised in His word, He will always do. I can take Him at His word and believe that He is right and He will perform everything He has said. As the old song says, faith, glad faith, the promise sees and looks to God alone, laughs at impossibilities and cries, it shall be done. The second reason, however, that I believe that the Holy Spirit gives us this long and detailed genealogy is because the fierce struggle that began between these two little babies inside the womb of their mother would continue in the lives of their descendants, because Edom would prove to be a thorn in Israel's side more than one time. And not only a thorn, but oftentimes a very snare. As a matter of fact, it is a reality that Edom would persecute Israel in a number of ways that followed them even into the New Testament. There are descendants of Edom who severely persecuted the Israelites in the New Testament. And you are very, very familiar with these stories, whether you know it or not. As a matter of fact, I'll just hint at this, and I won't tell you until next week, God willing, what the conclusion of the matter is. But I'll tell you this, every time it's Christmas time, you think about a story of how an Edomite persecuted God's people. But more about that next week. But I believe these are the reasons that God puts this before us. Which brings us to the book of Obadiah. The book of Obadiah is a prophecy written entirely against the Edomites. And as we examine the Edomites through the lens of Obadiah, we see both the rise and the fall of Edom. As we do so, we're going to be able to survey their history of persecuting Israel and see how God brought about their ultimate destruction. And in doing so, I believe we'll find a timely warning for our own nation. And we'll also find encouragement to persevere through persecution as we think through these things together. So I'm going to read to you from Obadiah verses 1-9. It's the shortest of all Old Testament books. It's only 21 verses long. Next week, God willing, we're going to give the balance of this. And so I'm going to preach through the entire book of Obadiah to you, which will only take me two Sundays to do. So, think about it. You get two expository series for the price of one. We have two entire Old Testament books that we're going to expound under the heading of going through Genesis together. Not a bad way to spend a Lord's Day morning. Well, let's look at Obadiah together and read verses 1-9. The vision of Obadiah thus says the Lord God concerning Edom, We have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying, Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle. Behold, I will make you small among the nations. You shall be greatly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high. You who say in your heart, Who will bring me down to the ground? Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord. If thieves had come to you, if robbers by night, oh, how will you be cut off? Would they not have stolen till they had enough? If great gatherers had come to you, would they not have left some gleanings? Oh, how Esau shall be searched out, how his hidden treasures shall be sought after. All the men in your confederacy shall force you to the border. The men at peace with you shall deceive you and prevail against you. Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap for you. No one is aware of it. Will I not in that day, says the Lord, even destroy the wise men from Edom, and understanding from the mountains of Esau? Then your mighty men, O teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau may be cut off by slaughter." Let's pray. Father, as we study the way you dealt with Israel and with Edom, we pray that we will see how relevant this is for us in the 21st century. We pray that your Spirit will exalt your Son, Jesus Christ, that you will help us as we think through these matters, and that you will teach us many important things. Lord, we thank you that your Word, written so many thousands of years ago, is timeless. It is timely. It is always relevant to our need. And so, minister to us in ways that only you can. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as we consider the rise and fall of Edom this week and, God willing, next week, I want to do so under five headings. I'm going to give you all five headings this morning, and then we're going to work our way through the first two. The first is we're going to consider, from Genesis 36, the rise of Edom. Edom is E-D-O-M, the rise of Edom. Secondly, from Obadiah 1-9, we're going to consider the pride of Edom. And then next week, we're going to begin with Roman numeral three, the treachery of Edom, then the judgment of Edom, and finally and fifthly, the exaltation of Israel. But for this morning, the rise of Edom and the pride of Edom. You can be turning with me to Genesis chapter 36, and we're going to do some things surveying that chapter and the genealogy to bring out some highlights from it. And we're going to be turning to a number of other scriptures as well, so be prepared. As we consider the rise of Edom, there are three things I want to set before your attention. First of all, the significance of Edom's name. Secondly, the geography of Edom's land. And third, the glory of Edom's kingdom. So first of all, the significance of Edom's name. If we had taken the time to read through Genesis 36, you'll find that the Spirit of God is giving great emphasis to the name Edom. For example, in verses 1, 8, and 19, three different times in this chapter, the Holy Spirit says, Esau is Edom. Esau is Edom. Esau is Edom. The land south of the Dead Sea that his descendants took possession of is called the land of Edom, which is referred to four times in the chapter. And then the descendants are referred to as Edomites, or the nation of Edom, three times. So by my count, the name Edom is emphasized ten times in this one chapter. That's the Spirit of God's way of giving it boldface type and italics so that we think about it and understand the significance of it. And when we think about the fact that the Bible is saying to us repeatedly that Esau is Edom, it takes us back to Genesis 25. Now you don't have to turn there, but you remember the story as we work through it together. Esau came in, tired and weary from his day's labors, and he was hungry as he could be, and there was Jacob cooking up some stew. It was red in color. And Esau said to him, give me some of that red slop. Give me some of that red stew. And Jacob saw an opportunity. He said, well, sell me your birthright, and I'll give you this red stew. So here's a man who gave up something priceless, his birthright, something he could never reclaim, for a bowl of soup. And so his name from then on was called Edom. The New Testament calls him a profane man, a man who took something holy, a man who took something of great value and treated it as if it was worthless. He's a profane man and therefore the name Edom is a reminder, here's that guy, Edom, the red fella, the fella who sold his birthright for a bowl of red bean soup. And so, applying that name to his descendants is basically trying to convey something to us, that those who followed after him are just like him. That is, they're not just his physical descendants, they were also his spiritual descendants. They were profane, godless men just like their founding father, Esau. And that's the emphasis of the name that's being given to us. In other words, spiritually speaking, the acorn just didn't fall far from the tree. That's the point that the Spirit of God is making. We can see this in two different ways, at least. First of all, as we'll see next week, the Edomites openly persecuted the people of God at different points in their history. As a matter of fact, those who plundered Israel oftentimes will find the Edomites allying themselves with Israel's enemies. But there's another way that Edom was a snare to them. Esau's descendants, the Edomites, were not loyal to the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in that they worshipped other gods, and this would prove to be a snare to Israel. Turn with me to 1 Kings 11, if you will. 1 Kings 11 talks to us about Solomon. Note verses 1-6 together. But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughters of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Moloch, the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burnt incense and sacrificed to their gods." Now you see what's happening here. He is a man who's not content to be married to just one woman. His sensuality, his love of sensual pleasures led him to not be content with one woman. And so he got for himself a thousand wives so he can indulge in his pleasures and somehow try to sanctify it with a marriage certificate with each one of them. And yet his discontentment with one woman translated into discontentment with one God. And so he began to follow other gods and to worship other gods. But notice that among them were descendants of Edom. That is, because they did not worship the God of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob, but rather served their own gods. This would prove to be a snare for Solomon. We see it being a snare for someone else's life, and that is King Amaziah. Turn with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 25. Now remember, I forewarned you we would be turning to a lot of different scriptures, but I want you to see this as it plays out in the Word of God. 2 Chronicles 25, beginning in verse 11. When Amaziah strengthened himself in leading his people, he went to the Valley of Salt and killed 10,000 of the people of Seir. Also, the children of Judah took captive 10,000 alive, brought them to the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, so that they were all dashed in pieces. So, they had a great victory, they almost wiped out the Edomites at this point. But notice what happened, despite the victory God gave to this king. Verse 13 says, But as the soldiers in the army which Amaziah had discharged, so they would not go with him to battle, they raided the cities of Judah, from Samaria to Beth Horon, killed three thousand in them, and took much spoil. Now it was so, after Amaziah came from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the people of Seir, set them up to be his gods, and bowed down before them, and burned incense to them. Therefore the anger of the Lord was aroused against Amaziah, and he sent him a prophet, who said to him, Why have you sought the gods of the people, which could not rescue their own people from your hand?" And the irony is that God took one man who survived the slaughter of the Edomites and used him as a snare for Solomon back in his day. Now, this man Amaziah, he conquered the Edomites, but then the Edomites in their own way conquered him, because he stumbled at their gods. Now, the point I want to make is this. Certainly it's true that Solomon's sin was Solomon's sin. He could not blame anyone else for his sin. Amaziah's sin was Amaziah's sin, and he can't blame anyone else for his sin either. And yet, Jesus would tell us many hundreds of years later that beware of being a stumbling block to anyone else. Because if you are a stumbling block, it would be far better for you to tie a millstone around your neck and be cast into the sea than you should cause someone else to stumble. When you and I are presented with temptations and stumbling blocks, we are responsible before God for how we respond to them. Because think about it, Jesus Christ Himself had stumbling blocks placed in His pathway, and yet He did not succumb to sin or to temptation. We can't blame other people for our own sin. That being said, when we place a stumbling block in front of someone else, God holds us responsible for provoking them to sin. We materially contribute to their sin. And the Edomites were clearly a people who contributed to the sin of Israel by their idolatry. And so they became a snare in this particular way. Now, there's something else that we need to notice, and that is, as I read the 2nd Chronicles passage, did you hear what it said? It said 10,000 Edomites were thrown down from the top of the rock. That tells us something about the geography of Edom, which is very important if you're going to understand what Obadiah is saying. So let's look next at the geography of Edom's land. Turn back with me to Genesis chapter 36. The place that became known as the Land of Edom is a region that was just south of Judah. It was south of Israel's borders that extend about 100 miles long and about approximately 40 miles wide. It went from the base of the Dead Sea to the northern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba. It was a dry, dusty, arid region that had few water bodies in it. And the region was dominated by a mountain called Seir. And Seir is about 50 miles south of the Dead Sea. Mount Seir apparently took its name from Seir the Horite. The Horites had occupied the land before Edom did. Deuteronomy 2.12 says, The Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their place, just as Israel did to the land of their possessions, which the Lord gave them. Note in Genesis 36, verses 6-8, Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the persons of his household, his cattle, and all his animals, and all his goods, which he had gained in the land of Canaan, and went to a country, away from the presence of his brother Jacob. For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together, and the land where they were strangers could not support them because of their livestock. So Esau dwelt in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom. And this is the genealogy of Esau, the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir. So obviously Mount Seir was the central location of where the Edomites lived. Now this is important. This is important for you to understand if you're going to understand what's going on in Obadiah. Mount Sera was 3,800 feet above sea level at its highest point. It was extremely hard to access. In order to climb up it, you had to go up a steep vertical climb in order to get to the top of it, which meant it was very hard to invade. The capital city of Edom, Sela, was built on or near the site of a city that would later be called Petra. And I guarantee you, you have seen photographs of Petra before, especially its famous Temple of Isis, which is carved in the red sandstone that is there. If you've seen the film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the climax of the film is actually filmed there at Petra. Well, the capital city of Edom was in this place. If you remember, there's about a mile long passage that's closed in by cliffs on either side in which you had to go in to get to Petra. That makes it very hard for an army to overtake the capital there. because imagine trying to go upwards as people are shooting arrows down at you and you're trying to climb up the steep ravine to get up to the top or you're trying to go through a narrow passage where you can't walk side-by-side, maybe two side-by-side can walk through that narrow passage in order to gain access to it. So in other words, it was virtually impregnable. It was a place where it was easily defensible and gave a false sense of security to the Edomites as we shall see. And that brings me to a final point before we get into Obadiah, and that is considering the glory of Edom's kingdom. As you read through Genesis 36, it becomes obvious that Edom became a very extensive and a very powerful empire. As a matter of fact, look at chapter 36 of Genesis verse 31. Now these were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the children of Israel. So before there was ever a king in Israel, there were kings in Edom. As a matter of fact, think about it. It would be a thousand years before there would be a single king over Israel. God had promised Jacob that I will bring kings from your body. And yet, he makes his descendants wait a thousand years before he actually brings those kings to pass. Meanwhile, Esau is breeding like rats, and he's having all kinds of kings that are coming from his body, and he's seeming outwardly to prosper. It brings us back to something we've seen in Genesis over and over again, and that is, God is not in any big hurry. He makes His promises, but He answers those promises in His own time, and causes His people to wait. Here is Esau prospering, his kingdom growing mighty, and yet Jacob, obscure, held in the shadows, not with any kings coming from his body until a thousand years later. Isn't it just so in the kingdoms of men to this day? So often the church isn't thriving. We're struggling just to survive. We're struggling just to keep our heads above water. Meanwhile, the kingdoms of the world are prospering. Unregenerate men are growing powerful and rising up. And we look and say, but the church is struggling just to survive. We're struggling to keep the flame from being extinguished on the earth. And isn't it so in every generation? Isn't this how it always seems to be? But it only seems like that, because Jesus has given us a promise. I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. There are lampstands burning brightly in this day and age, even though, yes, we're in obscurity, even though we seem to be in the shadows. Nonetheless, God always has His remnant in every place, and so we shouldn't grow faint or discouraged. Just because the outward world seems to be prospering doesn't mean they really are. Edom seemed to be prospering compared to Jacob, and yet it wasn't so. God would bring them to an end, but His kingdom goes forward and continues until the end of the time. As a matter of fact, even when you persecute us, even when people slaughter us, we know the famous motto that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The more you try to destroy God's people, the more we grow, because we are kept by God's singular care, and so we should take comfort from this. When we've considered the rise of Edom, that allows us then now to go to the book of Obadiah, and helps us to understand it with its background, because the entire prophecy is a prophecy given against the Edomites. So turn back to Obadiah and we're going to work our way through verses 1-9. We considered this morning the rise of Edom, that's our first point. The second point then is the pride of Edom. We know very little about the prophet Obadiah. As a matter of fact, it's a very common name. There are 12 different men in the Old Testament who have the name Obadiah. We're not even completely sure at what century he lived. There's two possibilities that I'll mention in just a moment. But we're not even sure at what time he wrote because nothing else is said about him. As a matter of fact, the opening words of the book are all the biographical information we have about Obadiah. It says, the vision of Obadiah. That's it. Nothing else. So we don't know that much about him. We simply know he was a prophet. Prophets spoke by revelation of God. The Holy Spirit gave them revelation directly into their soul, and when they opened their mouth, they spoke what God put in their hearts, so that what came out of their mouth was literally the very word of God. Now, whenever we preach today, we are preaching our interpretation of Scripture, and because it's our interpretation of Scripture, we unfortunately cannot say that all of our preaching is infallible and inerrant. Inasmuch as it accurately conveys what the Bible itself says, it's true. But of course, we look back and we realize we're fallible. We see through a mirror dimly. Our interpretation is not infallible and perfect. God's Word is infallible and perfect, but our interpretation of it is not. But when the prophets spoke, What they spoke wasn't just their interpretation of the Word of God, it was itself the Word of God. As a matter of fact, so much so, that the tests of a prophet were things like if he told you to do something contrary to God's written Word, for example, like bowing down to idols, then you realized he was a false prophet. But furthermore, if he made a prophecy and said, this is going to happen in the future, and then the time came and went, and whatever they prophesied did not come true, God's people were commanded to stone them to death. because that was a proof that they were false prophets. They were not truly sent from God. So when he says, this is the vision of Obadiah, what he's saying is, this is the revelation God gave me directly. And you'll notice that beginning in verse one, he says, the vision of Obadiah, thus says the Lord God concerning Edom. And then look at verse two, behold, I will make you small among the nations. And for the rest of the entire book, he speaks in the first person as if Obadiah himself is God himself. Well, Obadiah is not God, but what it is, is he is God's mouthpiece. And so God is speaking very directly through Obadiah to say these things. The other prophets recognized Obadiah as a prophet is obvious, because in Jeremiah 49, he quotes verbatim from Obadiah, or Obadiah is quoting verbatim from Jeremiah. We don't know which, but it's probably the first case that Jeremiah is quoting him. Ezekiel may be alluding to Obadiah's prophecy in his 25th chapter. But that being said, there's also two different possibilities as far as dates when Obadiah gave his prophecy. and they are 300 years apart. The first possibility is in the 9th century BC during the reign of King Jehoram. There are others who believe it was written about 300 years later, after Nebuchadnezzar had sacked Jerusalem in 586 BC. If that's the case, that would make Obadiah a contemporary of both Jeremiah and Daniel. I favor the latter date. I believe it was written after the sack of Jerusalem. But it doesn't matter which date you hold to, because it doesn't materially affect the prophecy and its interpretation, nor does it make it any less true, depending on which century you believe. But that being said, the Lord rebukes Edom for two things, as we're going to see. We're going to focus on the first of those things this morning. He rebukes them for their pride. And the other thing he rebukes them for is the fact that they persecuted the children of God, Israel. But this morning, it's the pride. And as God speaks, something I should point out to you, when you hear the word you, that personal pronoun, with the exception of one case, all the uses of the word you are you singular. He's talking to the entire nation as if they were one individual, and it's God looking at them eyeball to eyeball and saying, I'm telling you something. You are the man. You are the one that this judgment is coming against. Now, can you imagine receiving a letter like this, realizing God has pronounced judgment to you and is saying to you, I'm against you and I'm about to bring you down. How terrified would it make you to receive a letter like that? When the Almighty God says, I've set my face against you. That means I'm going down, if God says that. So with that in view, let's look at what He has to say. Notice the first thing, the vision of Obadiah, thus says the Lord God concerning Edom, We have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying, Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle. In other words, we've heard a report, a report that God Himself is moving the surrounding nations to rise up against Edom, to bring her down. And then notice in verses 2-4, here's where the prophecy itself begins, where Obadiah is being used as God's mouthpiece to speak to Edom. Behold, I will make you small among the nations. You shall be greatly despised. And then notice verse 3, he gets to the central sin. The pride of your heart has deceived you. God despises pride. Sometimes, in our own hearts, pride becomes a respectable sin, doesn't it? because it's so common with us, it's there. We can look at all the good things we do, we look at all the morally upright things we do, and pride can reside in your heart even as you supposedly are promoting Christ's glory and honor. But pride is hideous in the sight of God because it tries to steal something from God that belongs to Him alone. Glory belongs only to our God, and even our abilities spiritually are gifts given by His grace that we cannot take any credit for. And yet, our heart wants to do it all the time. Think of the fall of man. How did man fall? It was pride. I want to share the throne of God. I want to be equal with God. I want to be His co-ruler. Let me share His throne. Let me share His authority. And so this pride of his heart is what made man fall in the first place. And he rebukes them for their pride. He says, "...your pride has deceived you. It has made you believe things that simply are not true." And as we're going to see in verses 1-9, they trusted in four things. Four things that they thought made them impregnable. That no one could ever bring them down for these four things. And the first thing was their geography. Look, we're up in the cliffs. Nobody can pull us down. We're on top of Mount Seir. You want to try to get us? You've got to go through narrow passes. You've got to climb up steep climbs and take all your military gear and equipment up with you. You can't reach us. Notice what it says, verse 3. 3. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the cliffs of the rock, whose habitation is high. Do you see why the geography matters? Because now you understand what God is saying to them. He's saying, Hussein, your heart, who will bring me down to the ground? No one can mess with me. Because look at my geography, look at our fortifications, they're impenetrable. No one can do this. God says, though you ascend as high as the eagle, go even higher than you are right now. And though you set your nest among the stars, go ahead, launch a rocket. Live in space. Notice the fearful thing, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord. You trust in your might, you trust in your fortifications. I am God and I will bring you down. I am a God of almighty power and nothing is too difficult for me. I will bring you down. I will humble you. Many hints in verse 5 at how thorough their devastation is going to be. If thieves had come to you, if robbers by night, oh, how you will be cut off! Would they not have stolen till they had enough? In other words, someone robs your house. They can't take everything. They don't have the power to take everything. They'll leave some things of your possessions behind. If grape gatherers had come to you, would they not have left some gleanings? In other words, if you go to a vineyard and you watch very skilled grape collectors pulling grapes off the vine, go back after them after they're done with their work, and you're still going to see here and there individual grapes sitting on the vine here and there. But he's saying, not even that's going to be left to you. I'm going to devastate you. I'm going to wipe you out so much that nothing is left, is the point. Verse 6, O how Esau shall be searched out, how his hidden treasures shall be sought after." It's interesting, this reminds me of the language of Babel. When the people said, we're not going to go and scatter into all the earth and fill the earth and subdue it like God has commanded us to. Rather, we'll build vertically. We'll go straight up. We'll ascend to the heavens. We'll overthrow God's throne. We'll build this great tower and we'll be great and unconquerable. And it's fascinating, the language of Genesis says that God looked down from heaven and said, let us go down and see what they're doing. Now, as they thought they were building themselves up so high, but the language is, God is so great, God is so vast, God is so superior, that he has to descend down to look at us and see what's going on. He's using figurative language, of course. God is omnipresent and omniscient, but he's saying, he's conveying, you think you're building yourself up so high, but you can't even reach me. I have to come down and stoop down to see you. And of course, he scattered the languages and showed them that they weren't so strong. He's saying the same thing to Edom. You think because of your height, somehow you can't be brought down, and I'm going to bring you down, because I am a God of unlimited power. But they trusted in something else. They trusted in their confederacy. They had strong allies. Other nations that they had allied themselves with. And it's like, well, even if our cliffs can't save us, our allies will. And notice that God addresses that. Verse 7. All the men in your confederacy, that is, in your league of nations, shall force you to the border. They'll drive you out of your own land. The men at peace with you shall deceive you and prevail against you. Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap for you. No one is aware of it. You're trusting them and you don't even suspect that I'm going to use your very allies to bring you down. They will be your destruction. The people you eat bread with, think about that. He's saying you've shown hospitality to them. You've received hospitality from them, because sharing of a meal with one another is one of the most tangible signs of love for one another we can show. And here are people that you've exercised hospitality with, and yet the very ones that have eaten at your table are the very ones who are going to destroy you, and you have a false sense of security believing that they're going to save you. The reality is, what this is telling us is that God has the hearts of all kings in His hand. And He turns them like a watercourse, wheresoever He wills. He's saying, I am sovereign. My providence will turn the hearts of those you're trusting in against you. And it's fascinating just how strong this thing came into play. I mentioned earlier that Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem in the year 589 BC, and it was either 587 or 586 when the Temple was destroyed and Israel was taken into captivity. As we'll see next week, the Edomites joined in this. They divided the spoils of Jerusalem. They were allied with Babylon. Fascinatingly enough, 33 years later, in the year 553 BC, Babylon, who was in confederacy with Edom, turned on Edom, and went after and conquered them, and invaded their territory and their land. That's exactly what God had said, and so it was fulfilled. Again, when God says something's going to take place, it will take place. Men can't resist it, devils can't stop it, because God is almighty and powerful and sovereign. Well, if our canyon fails, our cliff fails, if our allies fail us, well, we've got some other things we can fall back on. How about our wise men? How about our politicians and our philosophers? They'll save us. Everything will be okay because we're so strong and we're so wise and we're so mighty. Verse 8, he says, Will I not in that day, says the Lord, even destroy the wise men from Edom, an understanding from the mountains of Esau? Then your mighty men, O Teman, Teman was a city five miles away from Petra. We think it was, which is fascinating. Here was this mighty city. We're not sure where it is anymore, because God has wiped it off the map. He says, I will destroy not only your wise men, I'll destroy their wisdom. Your politicians? They can't save you. Your philosophers? They can't save you. Your engineers and your scientists? They are not powerful enough to save you. What are they before Me? says the Lord. And then what about your mighty men? Well, how about, okay, the Cliffs don't protect us, and our allies don't protect us, and our politicians don't, but we've got a big army full of strong men. Look at verse 9. Then your mighty men, O temen, shall be dismayed, to the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. In other words, your armies will not stand before the Lord, because the Lord is almighty. The Lord is omnipotent. The Lord is so powerful, there's nothing that can stand before Him. The nations are counted, as Isaiah says, as a drop in the bucket before Him. There's nothing that can stand against the Lord. Notice how systematically their pride said, our geography will save us. I'll bring you down. Our allies will save us. I'll turn them against you. Our wise men will spare us. I'll destroy them and bring their wisdom to nothing. Our mighty men, our armies, they'll save us. They're nothing before the Lord. Everything that their pride trusted in, God brought low. And what's fascinating is just how thorough God was in fulfilling His prophecy. Do you realize that today there are no descendants of Esau left on the face of the earth? The last of them were destroyed in 70 AD. because some of the Edomites joined the Jews in Jerusalem to defend them against the invasion of Titus when Rome came in to destroy them and they were completely wiped out and obliterated from the face of the earth. Well, we want to pick up on Obadiah's prophecy next week and get the balance of it next week. But for this morning, I want to make three applications to you. First of all, as I have described the spiritual condition of Edom this morning, and her pride that she was so great and mighty that no one could ever conquer her, did any of the rest of you recognize that in saying all the things I said about Edom, I just described the United States of America? I described our own nation. We are a nation that is full of pride. We are the mightiest nation on earth at the present time, and we have many powerful allies, just as Edom did. Our reputation for arrogance precedes us among the nations. We think we're smarter than everybody else. We think we're better than everybody else. We think our technologies and all of our military might and all of our politics make us stronger than every other nation on the earth. We boast in our wealth. We boast in our technology. We seem to think that our nation will never perish. We are a Christian name in name only. We're a Christian nation in name only. Think about it, does not the blood of tens of millions of aborted babies cry out to God for vengeance in our land? Sexual immorality runs rampant in all places. We are people who not only are rebellious to authority, we boast in it. We are a people where the Lord's Day is not a day of worship and rest. God is not given his day, he's not given his time. When I drive to church, I rarely run into a traffic jam on the way in, because people are sleeping in. It's a day for our pleasure and what we want to do, rather than honoring God and worshiping him. And the poor example in all these things that we are is spreading to other nations around us, through social media, through the internet, and being a stumbling block for them. Sounds a lot like Edom, doesn't it? As a matter of fact, you realize that our nation is not waiting for God's wrath to fall. We are already under God's wrath. because whenever the LGBT perversion becomes normal in a culture, I can tell you right now, we are under God's wrath because God has already given us over to vile affections. I've been amazed when I've gone to the gym, I can't have been able to go to the gym here in a while because they're all closed down. But when I go to the gym, I look up and they'll have these televisions on that have soap operas on them and some of them have these house building places or renovation programs on them and things like that. And over and over again you see sodomite couples being set forth as normal in those situations. And when that becomes normal, we can guarantee we are under God's wrath. God has given us over to vile affections. But that being said, in the midst of all this darkness, God always reserves a remnant. There are His people in this land, and His Word is being preached in various places. Despite the fact that we have so many church buildings all around us, not many of them are really preaching God's Word and the whole counsel of God's Word, but some are. Some are. And there are people who are hungry for God's truth and who love the old paths set down, because what we need today is not the invention of new things or new doctrines. We need to recover the old things, the old paths, the faith once for all delivered to the saints. And there are lampstands burning in the midst of all the unfaithfulness. And in the midst of our corruption, God can turn the tide. He can bring revival. His spirit can begin to turn people to Himself. And perhaps, perhaps He's using the current pandemic to wake people up to spiritual things, to help people realize we need to be contemplating eternity. But we shouldn't despair in the midst of all these things because God will always have His lampstands. And while the kingdoms of men can rise and fall, the United States can perish from the earth. God's kingdom will never perish. And that gives us great hope and great comfort in the midst of all these things. Second thing I would set before you is this, is the Lord detests pride in all of its forms, but He delights in humility. I find it remarkable that of all the things that God could have said about Edom, He could have rebuked their idolatry, He could have rebuked their bloodthirstiness, and He will do that later. But it's interesting, the very first thing on His mind is to rebuke them for their pride. This is the great, horrible thing that you've done. It's interesting, in Jeremiah's prophecy, when he speaks against the Edomites, he rebukes them and God says, I will make you like Sodom and Gomorrah. That's a fascinating thing, because the book of Ezekiel also talks about Sodom and Gomorrah. Turn there with me, if you will, to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 16. Look at verses 49 to 50. In this particular place, Ezekiel is comparing Sodom and Gomorrah to Jerusalem, to Israel. In verse 49 he says this, Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride. Did you hear that? She and her daughter had pride. It doesn't say she was full of perversion, even though she was. It says she was full of pride. He goes on to describe that pride. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away as I saw fit. He talks more about their pride than he does about their perversion. because that was hideous in his sight, and it was because of their haughtiness and pride that he took them away. The scriptures tell us in Micah, He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, but to do justly, To love mercy, and what's the next thing? And to walk humbly with your God. I emphasize this because it's not just the Sodomites and the Edomites who had pride, is it? We have pride. And the reality is, we carry pride with us all the time, to a greater or a lesser degree. I'm convinced for myself that when the prophets say to us that all our righteous acts are as filthy rags, it is our pride that makes those righteous acts filthy rags. It's like taking an omelet that's made up of 10 really good fresh eggs, but then mixing an 11th egg that's rotten into that fresh omelet. It's going to corrupt everything else it touches. Even so, our pride corrupts even the righteous acts we offer to God. Because no matter what I do, anytime in this present age, always is mixed with something of me in it. There's always something of my own pride in everything I do, which corrupts it. Which is why I must offer my worship through the mediation of Christ in order for it to be accepted by Him. and you must do as well. But there's always this pride that's about us. And the reality is, I don't think that we can completely be rid of it in this present age. But that doesn't mean, brothers and sisters, we shouldn't keep fighting it and keep trying to put it to death. It is far better to humble yourself before the Lord than to have the Lord humble you. And so I find myself crying out to God, Lord, help me to humble myself. And believe me, I can tell you, I know what it is to have Him humble me, because He's done it so many times. And frankly, I'm positively sure He's going to do it more in my future, because my heart wants to lift itself up in pride, and wants the praises of men rather than the praises of God. So for all of us, we need to continue fighting these things. Interestingly enough, Nebuchadnezzar, who would ultimately take down Edom, He was lifted up in pride himself, if you remember. In Daniel chapter 4, God had warned him, there's going to be a day of humbling. And so he went out one day and he looked out and he looked at all these vast treasures of Babylon. And he says, look at great Babylon, which my hands have built. And immediately there came a pronouncement from heaven that says, you will be brought low. And so literally, God turned him into a cow for seven years, where he literally fed on the pasture land and the grass. And then he brought him back to his senses. And if you remember, Nebuchadnezzar himself wrote a letter to the nations. And he ended that letter in Daniel chapter four, verse 37, by saying, those who walk in pride, he is able to put down. Brothers and sisters, let us humble ourselves. There is always such a thing as being too proud. There is no such a thing as being too humble. and we need to humble ourselves before the Lord continually, to walk humbly before our God. If humility is such a rare treasure that God delights in, let's give Him what He loves. Let's give Him because He delights in humility and wants us to walk humbly with Him. Third and finally, Esau and Jacob were both the physical descendants of God's servant Isaac, but only one of them was his spiritual son. Whose son are you? And who is your spiritual father? God did not contemn the Edomites because they were the physical descendants of a godless and profane man. God doesn't charge the sins of your father or your grandfather to you, unless you're talking about your father Adam. But besides Adam, He doesn't charge the sins of your forefathers against you. The problem was not their ethnicity. It wasn't that they were the physical descendants of Esau. It's that they were his spiritual descendants as well, and their behavior proved it. As a matter of fact, Deut. 23.7, in the Law of Moses, the Israelites were commanded, You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. In other words, not just because of his ethnicity should you look down on him. But rather, it was the spiritual fact that they proved they were his spiritual sons, his spiritual descendants. They were not seeking after God. Well, conversely, in Paul's day, there were many a Jew who believed that they were right with God because they were the physical descendants of Abraham. We're the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We've got the sign of circumcision, so we must be all right with God. And yet Paul could say to them in Romans chapter 2, He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that in the flesh. But what does he say? He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart. Which tells us something. It tells us that just because you are a physical descendant of Abraham, does not make you a spiritual descendant of Abraham. But there are physical descendants of Abraham, Jews, ethnic Jews, who are his spiritual sons, those who have put their faith in the same Messiah that Abraham put his faith in. But it tells us something else. There's also uncircumcised Gentiles, who are not the physical descendants of Abraham, but they believe in the same Messiah that Abraham believed in, and therefore they are spiritual Jews. They are his spiritual sons and daughters. Jacob was the spiritual son of Isaac, not just his physical son. But Esau was only the physical son and not the spiritual son. It's a point made in Romans chapter 9. They're not all Israel, who are of Israel. because he goes on to say that Abraham had two sons. He had Ishmael, and he had Isaac. Both were the physical sons of Abraham, but only one was a spiritual son, and the other was not. And then Isaac himself had two sons, Esau and Jacob, and one was his spiritual son, and the other was not. Even so, my question for you is, whose son are you? According to Jesus himself, either you're, by the grace of adoption, a son or daughter of God. or you are the son or daughter of the devil. There's no third option. And the sad news is, the bad news, is this. We were all born as sons of the devil. Every last one of us. That is what we are by nature. And it's only by putting our faith in Jesus Christ and experiencing the grace of adoption that we become the sons and the daughters of God. If you're here listening to me, saying these things, hearing the gospel preached to you, listen. If you haven't believed on Jesus Christ, it's not that you're going to be condemned, it's that you're condemned already. Jesus says, he who does not believe in me is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of God's only begotten Son. But the good news is, there is a way of escape. There is a way of escape as to faith in Jesus Christ. But the longer you sit under the preaching of the gospel, the longer you hear these things, and don't repent, you are increasing the wrath. You have God's wrath in a bank, as it were, and you're storing up interest. and His wrath is building against you. But if you hear the gospel and you repent and you flee to Christ, there's mercy to be found, mercy from your judge. If you can come to Christ and put your faith in Him and trust Him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. God promises that He will receive you to Himself, He will reconcile you to Himself through His Son, He will forgive you for all your sins, and He will dress you in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, so that He will view you as if you had kept all of God's law perfectly, because His Son's righteousness is given to you in exchange for your sin. So I urge you, if you are outside of Christ, fly to Christ and cry out to mercy for Him. because there is mercy to be found in Christ. Flee to him that you might be saved. Let's pray. Father, we praise you and thank you for your goodness and your kindness to us. We pray, Father, for anyone who's hearing these words that does not know you. that you would have mercy upon their souls and grant that they might be drawn near to you. We pray that you'll save sinners. And for us who are in Christ, Lord, help us to humble ourselves. Help us to put to death our pride and our arrogance and to truly sanctify our desires so that we desire your glory and not our own. Would you do this for your own namesake? For we ask in Jesus' name, amen.