We are continuing our study of the book of Genesis, so of course it's perfectly natural that I want you to turn to the book of Obadiah. And we want to continue our study that we began in Obadiah last week and bring it to a conclusion. The 36th chapter of Genesis gives us the genealogy of Esau's descendants who became the nation of Edom. God had prophesied to Rebekah while her twin boys were in her womb. He said, two nations are in your womb. And so we see it being fulfilled just as God had said. Because Jacob's descendants became the nation of Israel, Esau's descendants became the nation of Edom. And what we are doing is looking at the rise and fall of Edom through the lens of Obadiah's prophecy, which is directed entirely against Edom. So we're going to read the entire book together, it's only 21 verses long, and pick up our study from last week. 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, O how you will be cut off! Would they not have stolen until they had enough? If grape-gatherers had come to you, Would they not have left some gleanings? Oh, how Esau will 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 temen, shall be dismayed, to the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. For violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried captive his forces, when foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were as one of them. But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother, in the day of his captivity, nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Nor should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress. You should not have entered the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. You should not have stood at the crossroads to cut off those among them who escaped, nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained in the day of distress. For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near. As you have done, it shall be done to you. Your reprisal shall return upon your own head. For as you drank on my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually. Yes, they shall drink and swallow, and it shall be as though they had never been enough. But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness. The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions, the house of Jacob shall be afire, and the house of Joseph aflame. But the house of Esau shall be stubble, they shall kindle them and devour them, and no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken. The south shall possess the mountains of Esau, and the lowland shall possess Philistia. They shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria. Benjamins shall possess Gilead, and the captives of this host of the children of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath. The captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south. Then saviors shall come to Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdoms shall be the Lord's." Let's pray. Father, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to be our teacher. Lord, I need the Spirit to anoint my heart and my mind, my lips as I preach. Lord, we need your Spirit to anoint the ears and the hearts of your people as they hear. Father, I pray for anyone who is here, listening to the things that we are preaching, if they are outside of Jesus Christ. This very day, show them, Lord, the danger that their soul is in, and show them the refuge that they can find only in Christ Jesus. And for those of us who are in Christ, Father, would you comfort us, would you encourage us, could you remind us that we do not belong to this present age. We belong to the age that is to come. And our citizenship is there in heaven. So comfort us and encourage us as only you can. And we ask all these things in Jesus' name and for your glory. Amen. I'm preaching to you about the rise and fall of Edom under five basic headings, and we considered those first two headings last week. The first heading was the rise of Edom, which we considered from Genesis chapter 36. We saw there's a specific emphasis given to Edom's name. Because Esau was given the name Edom, which means red, when he sold his birthright for a bowl of red bean soup. And so the very fact that the Edomites were called the Edomites is a reminder that they were profane people, just like their father Esau. In other words, the acorn just didn't fall far from the tree spiritually. They weren't just his physical descendants, they proved to be his spiritual descendants. They were profane and godless, just as he was. And then we consider as well the geography of Edom's land, which you have to understand in order to interpret Obadiah correctly. Edom came to inhabit a land, an arid land, south of the Dead Sea. Its prominent feature was the region of Mount Seir. Their capital city was Sila, which is now where modern Petra is built. And so they were in this huge canyon area that was hard to access by any army. around them. And then we consider the glory of Edom's kingdom. Genesis 36 goes on to expound how many kings came from Esau's body, even when Jacob had to wait for a thousand years before there were any kings in Israel. But then we consider in the second place, from Obadiah verses 1-9, the pride of Edom. The Lord could have pointed out any sin he wanted to in Edom. He could have focused in upon their idolatry, the fact that they did not worship the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. As a matter of fact, there's a good reason why we speak of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we don't speak of the God of Abraham, Ishmael, and Esau, because he was not the God of Ishmael and Esau. But instead, the Lord singled out something else in Edom, her pride. That's the thing he focused on. Because God detests pride. He detests pride when he finds it in the world. And he detests pride when he finds it in his own people. And so he rebukes them for all these things. And he begins to talk about the thing that pride had made them self-confident and made them believe that things, they were more secure than they really were. And systematically, God begins to break down all those things. They trusted in their geography. We're up in the mountaintops where no one can reach us. We are impenetrable. But God said, though you build your nest with the eagles, though you build your habitation up in the stars, I will bring you down from there. But if their citadel fell, they trusted in their alliances with other powerful nations, nations like Babylon, for example. And God said to them, I will turn the hearts of the people in your confederacy against you, so that the very men you trust in are the very ones who plunder you. Third, they trusted in their wise men to save them, their politicians and their philosophers. And God said, I will bring your wise men to nothing, I will destroy them, and I will destroy their wisdom as well. They had one final refuge, and that was their mighty men. We have a strong army. We have strong, mighty warriors who will defend us. And yet he said, I will bring them down as well. Matthew Henry said it this way, quote, it is vain to depend upon mighty men of war for our protection if we have not an almighty God for us, much less if we have an almighty God against us, end of quote. So those were our first two headings. We're going to pick up right where we left off with Roman numerals three, four, and five. 3. The treachery of Edom. 4. The judgment of Edom. 5. The exaltation of Israel. First of all, the treachery of Edom. Look at verses 10-14. Having rebuked Edom for his pride, the Lord now turns his laser focus upon another sin that they had committed. Specifically, Edom's mistreatment of Israel. Verse 10, For violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. The Lord had promised Abraham, I will make of you a great nation, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you." And here was his brother Edom cursing Israel. Israel and Edom were family. Their forefathers were twin brothers. They should have regarded Israel as their next of kin, and they should have been compassionate to them. As a matter of fact, it's interesting that in the Law of Moses, God himself commanded Israel to treat Edom that way. In Deuteronomy 23, verse 7, it says, You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. And yet, the language of Obadiah is, you have despised your brother. For violence against your, notice the language, your brother, Jacob. For violence against this, shame shall cover you. This points again to their pride, doesn't it? Pride desires glory. Pride desires fame among men. Pride desires notoriety, and yet here he's saying, I'm going to take away your glory, I'm going to take away your notoriety, and I'm going to make you a shame and a watchword among the nations. And then he says, you shall be cut off forever. You'll be cut off forever. Think about that. If you received a letter from God, and he said to you, I'm going to cut you off forever, how much would that make you tremble? How much would that make you fear? One of my favorite verses in all the New Testament is Romans 8.31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Every time I read that verse, I marvel. Because when I think about how holy, infinitely, immutably holy, how infinitely, morally pure God is, when I think of Him being a God of exacting justice, it almost seems unbelievable that a God like that would want to have anything to do with a sinner like me. Why would He care about me? Why would He love me? Much less, why would He be for me? And yet, the Bible itself, because it's God's Word, tells me that God is for me if I'm in Christ. If you're in Christ, God is for you. He is ordaining everything in your life, the good, the bad, and the ugly, for your good, to make you more like Jesus and less like yourself. And that is true for every believer in Jesus Christ. Why in the world a God like that would have anything to do with a man like me, I don't know. So it's almost unbelievable to think that God in heaven would be for us. But in Obadiah 10, notice the contrast. He's looking, as it were, Edom eye to eye, and saying, I'm against you. I've set my heart against you. I've set my face like flint against you, and I'm going to destroy you until you are no more. It is a joyful thing to read in God's word that God is for you. It's a terrible thing and a fearful thing to read that God is against you. And yet he was against Edom. And the reason I make the emphasis here, and the contrast, is that all throughout Scripture, we learn that humanity is divided into two different groups. The sheep and the goats. The saved and the unsaved. The family of God and the family of Satan. Either you are dressed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, or you're dressed in your own sin. There's no third option. You're either forgiven by God or you're not. You're either justified or you're condemned. For the Lord to say, I am for you, is a great blessing indeed, but for God to say, I am against you, is a great curse. And if you're outside of Christ, God is against you. The Bible says in Psalm 7, verse 11, God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If you're outside of Christ and you're listening to this, I hope the Spirit of God will drive home these words from Hebrews chapter 10. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It was fearful for Edom. And if you die outside of Christ, it's going to be fearful for you. As a matter of fact, your punishment will be far worse than that that came upon Edom. In verse 11, the Lord begins enumerating the sins that Edom had committed against Jacob. He says, in the day that you stood on the other side, in that day that strangers carried captive his forces, when foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were as one of them. In other words, foreign armies invaded Israel, and they plundered it, and you stood by gawking and rejoicing to see them destroyed. Now, is that how you're supposed to treat a brother? If your brother is being plundered, you grieve, you weep, you rush to his defense, you aid him. Instead, not only did they sit back and rejoice in what they saw, they came in and were part of the plunder. They cast lots, that is, they cast dice with the surrounding nations who had invaded Jerusalem to take the spoils of war from them and to make themselves rich at Israel's expense. And perhaps it would be helpful at this point to mention some of the specific instances in which the Edomites acted treacherously against Israel, because it recurred over and over again throughout the Old Testament. During the wilderness wanderings, in Numbers chapter 20, we won't turn there, but if you want the reference, Numbers 20 verses 14 to 21, Israel was in Kadesh, trying to make their way into the promised land. And Moses sought permission of the king of Edom to have safe passage to pass through their land. But the king refused. And he said to him, we won't take anything from you. We won't take your food. We won't take your water. We just want safe passage. And he refused. Then Israel appealed again. And they said, if our cattle drinks anything, if our people drink anything, we will gladly pay for it. Just let us have passage. And still the Edomites refused. And not only did they refuse, they sent their armies to the border to harass Israel and not allow them safe passage. Again, that's not how you treat your brother. But that is how Edom treated Israel. Years later, in 2 Chronicles 28, verse 17, the Edomites, quote, attacked Judah and carried away captives, end of quote, under the reign of King Ahaz. Now, it was a punishment against Israel because Ahaz had turned their hearts away from the Lord. And so God, as He often did, sent the surrounding Gentile nations to invade them and plunder them. So Edom plundered them at that time. But perhaps the most notable time that it happened was in 586 BC, which is when King Nebuchadnezzar had laid siege to Jerusalem, he razed it to the ground, and he destroyed the temple. And the Edomites were there. Turn with me to Psalm 137. Because I want to show you something from that particular place that corresponds with the things we're considering. Psalm 137. Obviously a psalm that was written during the time of the Babylonian captivity. It was a time when whoever wrote this was a contemporary of Daniel and of Jeremiah. Perhaps it was Daniel or Jeremiah. We don't know. Scriptures don't tell us who wrote it. Look at what it says, By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept. When we remembered Zion, we hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it. For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, and those who plundered us requested mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth. If I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy. And then, in verses 7-9, they call upon God to remember the enemies who had done this to them, and to return to them the very things that they had done to them. Look at verse 7, Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, who said, Raise it, raise it to its very foundation. Here we have the Edomites conspiring with the Babylonians in the plunder of Jerusalem. And then, what about Babylon herself? Verses 8 and 9 deals with that. O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, happy the one who repays you as you have served us. Verse 9 rubs against our modern sensibilities, certainly, when it says, Happy the one who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock. But what you need to understand here, is this is exactly what Babylon had done to Israel. It destroyed their little ones, dashed them against the rock, in an effort to wipe them out. And what they're saying is, Lord, give them exactly what they have given to us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, bring judgment against them. But you see what he's doing, he's crying out for judgment against Edom, and he's crying out for judgment against Babylon. They had joined in with the sack of Jerusalem. Now, a question may arise in your mind, and the question would be this. If these nations were coming against Israel because God had moved them to judge Israel, why is God turning around then and bringing vengeance upon those nations? And this really comes down to the mystery of God's decretive and preceptive will. God decreed that these nations would be used to bring judgment against Israel, and yet, nonetheless, it was sinful for these nations to do what they did. They violated God's preceptive will, His commandments. Nonetheless, it served God's purposes, just like Joseph would later say to his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. But God judged these nations because they were held responsible for the sins and the atrocities they committed against His people. With this being said, let me go ahead and tell you this. This wickedness by the Edomites continued into the New Testament age. I hinted about this to you last week and told you you're probably more familiar with this than you realize. But now I want to tell you what I'm talking about. After Edom had helped Babylon sack Jerusalem, just as God said it would, remember He said through Obadiah, those you are in confederacy with, in the nations you trust in, they will turn on you. 33 years after the sack of Jerusalem, Babylon invaded Edom and conquered it, just as God said they would. They trusted Babylon and yet Babylon betrayed them and conquered them and took them into captivity. They were taken into captivity again in the 3rd century BC by a group called the Nabateans. who built Petra on the place of the old capital of Edom. And then in the second century, a Jewish man that you've probably heard of, whose name was Judas Maccabeus, again conquered the Edomites under the Jews. And a man named John Haranus, who was also a Jew, compelled the Edomites to be circumcised, basically absorbing them into the Jewish world. And the Edomites were no longer called Edomites, they became known as Edomians. And from the Edomians, a dynasty of kings rose up in Jerusalem who were called the Herods. The Herods were the descendants of Esau. Now, I told you, you're familiar with this more than you know. One of those Herods was ruling on Jerusalem's throne when a group of astrologers from the East came and visited him and said, Where is he who has been born, the Messiah, the King of the Jews? Because we have seen his star, and we have come to worship him. You know them as the wise men." But the wise men came to Herod, and remember what Herod did? He says, go and search for him, and when you find him, come back to me and tell me, so that I can worship him too. But he was deceiving them, because he was jealous for his throne, and he thought the Messiah would usurp his throne, so what did he do? He slaughtered all the children in Bethlehem, two years old and under, who were male, in an effort to wipe out the Messiah. We know of another Herod, another descendant of Edom, who stole his own brother's wife, and the last Old Testament prophet rebuked him for it. That Old Testament prophet's name was John the Baptist. He rebuked him for his sin, and what did Herod do in response? He put him in prison, and ultimately had him beheaded, so he killed the last Old Testament prophet. We read of this same Herod later being tried at the trial of Jesus Christ, and he consented along with Pontius Pilate to his death, so he was instrumental in the murder of the Messiah. We read of yet another Herod, who became the first to martyr one of the apostles, a Herod who had James, the brother of John, beheaded And then, because he saw it pleased the Jews, he further added to his sin by arresting Peter. And would have killed him, except that God miraculously set him free. But you remember what happened to him. He went to see a people, was giving a great speech. The people trying to please him said, the voice of a God and not of a man. Herod did not give glory to God, and so God struck him with worms, and he died. But here's my point that I'm wanting you to see. I keep on telling you that the Edomites, the acorn did not fall far from the tree. They were showing by their persecution of Israel that they were the spiritual sons of Esau, not just his physical sons. And so this was the treachery. Do you see why God was angry with Edom? And because of the treachery against them, they helped slaughter the Messiah. They helped slaughter the prophets and the apostles. They were wicked, wicked men. Well, back in Obadiah, verses 12-14, The Holy Spirit further enumerates the sin that was committed by them, the atrocities against Israel. There's two things to note as we work through these verses, verses 12-14. First of all, when you see the word you, it's you singular. God is personifying all the Edomites as one man, and addressing them as one man, and it's basically looking them eye to eye and saying, you're the man, you have sinned in this way. The other thing you should note in verses 12-14 is our New King James and a lot of modern English translations translate these as past tense verbs, and that's appropriate because these were things that they had done against Israel, but it's interesting that in the original, these were actually present tense verbs. It's as if the Enamites were at the foot of Mount Sinai, And God is saying, you should not do these things. Let me read it to you again from the New American Standard, which has a more precise translation. Do not gloat over your brother's day, the day of his misfortune, and do not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their destruction. Yes, do not boast in the day of their distress. Do not enter the gate of My people in the day of their disaster. Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity in the day of their disaster, and do not loot their wealth in the day of their disaster, and do not stand at the fork of the road to cut down their fugitives, and do not imprison their survivors in the day of their distress. God is giving moral law to them. He is telling them, this is what you should not do. He is showing them, you are accountable to me, I expect you to obey me, here is what you must do. And I emphasize that for a reason. Do you know why God gave us the Law? He didn't give you the Law so it could save you. Because the Law, ever since the fall of Adam, has been powerless to save anybody. If you're trying to be saved by keeping God's Law, you're running on a treadmill performance because you cannot satisfy the righteous requirement of the Law. The Law is given to show you that you need a Savior. You need someone who can fulfill the law for you. And you need someone who can pay the penalties of the law for you. And that is exactly what Jesus Christ came to do. As we share the gospel with the lost, brothers and sisters, use the law. Start with the law. Don't start with the gospel, start with the law. To show men their need for Christ. And then, when they see their need, tell them of Christ who fulfilled the law and satisfies the law for sinners like us. But this is what God is doing here. He's not calling them to repentance. He's not calling them to salvation. He's saying, I'm going to destroy you, but here's why. Because you have violated my law. As you look through verses 12-14, it's interesting that the sin gets worse and worse. Each verse shows more and more how wicked and vile the Edomites had been. You should not have gazed on the day of your brother. That means to look upon him with glee and rejoice and squill with delight because he is being destroyed. In the day of his captivity, nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. They should have mourned. not rejoiced, but they watched their downfall with glee, and rejoiced in it. Nor should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress." There's pride again, isn't it? Alright, they're being put down, that means I'm going to be exalted more and more. Here's your pride, and you should not have done that. But it gets worse in verse 13. "...you should not have entered the gate of my people." They didn't just stand on the outskirts and watch, they entered in. And they participated in the slaughter, and they participated in the plunder, in the day of their calamity. Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction in the day of their calamity, and laid hands on their substance." Again, you cast lots and you took the spoils of war and made yourself rich at their expense. But it gets still worse in verse 14. You should not have stood at the crossroads to cut off those among them who escaped, nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained in the day of distress." In other words, while the Babylonians were slaughtering the people inside of Jerusalem, what did the Edomites do? They went to the outskirts, because there were some people who escaped and were fleeing for their lives, and they stood at the crossroads, and they intercepted, and they took them captive, and delivered them to Babylon, and said, here's the ones you missed. Here are the ones who got away. And it's before all these things that God was rebuking them and bringing his judgment and his wrath upon them. What he's basically saying to them is this, my eyes are in every place, keeping watch over the evil and the good. I saw what you did to my people. I heard what you did to my people. I've seen it, I've marked it out, and I have not forgotten. And the day of your judgment draws nigh. So we've seen the rise of Edom, the pride of Edom, the treachery of Edom, and in the fourth place we see the judgment of Edom. And this is spelled out in verses 15 to 18. For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near. Notice what he says. He doesn't say the day of the Lord against Edom is near. Rather, against all nations is near, of which you're going to be included. You're going to be included in the number upon whom God brings judgment. It's important to recognize, as we come to a text like this, that throughout the last 6,000 years of human history, there have been many days of the Lord. Many days of judgment, what we might call temporal judgments, brought upon people. Think, for example, the days of Noah. The nations that existed in that time were wiped out by the flood. That was a day of the Lord. In the day of Babel, there was another day of the Lord, in which a different kind of temporal judgment was poured out, the dispersion of the languages and of the people. You can say, in many ways, that the day that King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem, that was another day of the Lord, in which judgment was poured out. Furthermore, there was a day of judgment in 70 AD, when Rome sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the nation and wiped it out. My point in saying this is that all these days of the Lord in which temporal judgments are poured out are but foreshadowings of the great day of the Lord which is yet in our future, which will not be the outpouring of temporal judgments but of eternal judgments. In other words, it's preparing us to that day and looking to that day when we're going to stand before Jesus Christ and give an account of our lives. Think about the language of Matthew 25. When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit upon the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them from one another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. In other words, this is an anticipation of that great day when all the nations will be judged before the Lord. In verses 15-16, He continues to articulate the judgment that will come upon them. It shall be done to you. Verse 15. Your reprisal shall return upon your own head. This is a principle of God's justice that theologians call the lex talionis, what is referred to in the law of Moses as an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. You will be treated exactly as you have treated Israel. You will be judged in accordance to what you have done to them. You did not show them mercy, and so you shall not receive mercy. Verse 16, For as ye drank on my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually. In other words, when you invaded Jerusalem, when you helped plunder them, you took a hold of their wine vats, and you drank down all their wine and depleted their wine cellars completely. Well, the nations are going to do the same thing to you. They're going to come and take away all your surplus, and they're going to drink all your wine, and say it's just not enough. They're going to leave nothing behind. They're going to wipe you out completely. They're gonna treat you as though you had never been. But then notice verse 17, Israel itself will be instrumental in your downfall. That is, the very nation you plundered, God will use to overwhelm you. On Mount Zion, there shall be deliverance. There shall be literally salvation. And there shall be holiness. Now it tells us something right there, doesn't it? It tells us that the recovery of Israel isn't just a political thing. It's a spiritual revival. There will be holiness in Jerusalem. Think about that for a moment, because we're gonna capitalize on that in just a second. Then he says, the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. In other words, you've plundered Israel, Israel is now going to plunder you. The house of Jacob shall be afire. And there's a vivid imagery here. Imagine Israel is like a great torch with a great fire lit on the top of it. And the house of Joseph aflame, but the house of Esau shall be stubble. They shall kindle them and devour them." That is, when the flame of Israel touches you, you're going to be consumed and turned to ash. And then he says, "...and no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken." It's frightening just how fully this was actually met. I've already told you. that Babylon turned against Jerusalem in 553 BC. Then they were conquered again by the Nabataeans, they were conquered by the Jews, which again is part of the fulfillment of all this under Judas Maccabeus. But then they continued to reign through the Herods in the 1st century AD. But here's the thing, in 70 AD, Titus, General Titus, led an onslaught against Jerusalem. Jesus prophesied this in the Olivet Discourse. And they come against Jerusalem. And of all things, the Edomians, the descendants of Esau, came alongside their Jewish brothers in the city of Jerusalem to defend Jerusalem from the Romans. But when the Romans stormed the gates, came in and invaded the place, they burned down the temple of Solomon, or it wasn't the temple of Solomon, it was the temple built by Herod, but they tore down the temple yet again, just as they did in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. And it is said that they began slaughtering every person in their path, that literally the streets ran with blood. And, in that slaughter, not only were many Jews killed, every last descendant of Edom was destroyed. One commentator pointed this out. It's ironic that the Edomites were wiped out defending the very city their ancestors had helped to plunder. But God fully fulfilled what He said He was going to do. There are no descendants of Esau left upon this face of the earth. They haven't been for almost 2,000 years. What God promised to do, He did. So what have we seen? We've seen the rise of Edom, the pride of Edom, the treachery of Edom, the judgment of Edom, and finally what we see is the exaltation of Israel. I'm referring to verses 19 to 21. It really begins in verse 17 because it says there's going to be salvation in Mount Zion. Jerusalem was built upon Mount Zion. There will be holiness instead of lawlessness. And Israel will be instrumental in Edom's downfall. Verses 19 to 21 Really, you get the impression that when Israel is restored, she's going to become this great superpower that dominates all the surrounding nations. The question is, has that ever happened? Have we ever seen that happen, literally, since after the siege, the Babylonian captivity? And the answer is no. Israel was restored, certainly, to their land. At least two of the tribes were. Judah and Benjamin were. The other ten tribes were not. But what's going on in this prophecy? What is the Lord saying? Well, the first hint we have is this. There's going to be a spiritual revival. There'll be holiness. And it also says, notice how the entire prophecy ends, the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Have you heard that kind of language before? Have you seen it anywhere else in your Bible? Have you seen it, for example, in the Revelation? The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever, as is said in the Hallelujah Chorus. What's going on here? Well, I think something we have to wrap our mind around is this. Old Testament eschatology, that is, prophecy in the Old Testament about future things, has to be interpreted very, very carefully. Because it was given during the days of the types and shadows of the Old Covenant. And very often, that eschatology and those prophecies are expressed in the language of the Old Covenant so that Old Testament saints could understand it. But what happens when Old Testament prophecy is fulfilled in the New Testament? That is, it's fulfilled in a time when the old types and shadows have been done away with. You see, we have to understand that sometimes the Bible will say things like that in the Old Testament, and yet their fulfillment in the New looks very different from what we might have expected. And I'll show you a very pertinent example of what I'm talking about. You're in Obadiah. Turn back one book to the book of Amos. One book. We're going to see something here that may astound you if you haven't seen it before. Amos chapter 9, verses 11 to 12. Sounds very, very similar to the language at the end of Obadiah. On that day, I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages. I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom." There it is again. and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the LORD who does this thing." Now on the face of it, if you just had this prophecy and no commentary on this prophecy anywhere else in scripture, wouldn't you come to the conclusion that what this was saying was that a descendant of David is going to ascend the throne? and he's going to be a great king over all Israel, and he's going to establish him as a great superpower in all the earth, and they're going to conquer all the surrounding nations, and it's going to be this great political empire, greater even than the days of David. That's how the Jews understood it to mean. What's interesting is the New Testament quotes this very text. Turn with me to Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15. is the Jerusalem Council. You remember what was happening. Paul and Barnabas had returned from their first missionary journey. Many years earlier, Cornelius the Gentile had been converted under the preaching of the apostle Peter. But then there arose a great dispute. There were believing Jews who had believed on Christ who said, alright, Paul and Barnabas, Peter, you've got to go back to all those Gentiles and tell them they had to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, plus believe in Jesus if they're going to be saved. And a great dispute broke out about it. So, Peter rose up and said, I was there, let me tell you about my experience. I saw when Cornelius was converted. He said he never was circumcised, and yet the Holy Spirit fell upon him and did great and mighty things and saved him. God received him without him having to be circumcised, therefore we have to receive him without him being circumcised. And then Paul and Barnabas talk about all the Gentiles whom they had seen believed, and they were never circumcised. Well, then James, the half-brother of Jesus, stands up. He was a great, respected pastor in Jerusalem. Look at verse 13. After they had become silent, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, listen to me. Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. This is the experience he has related. But, brothers and sisters, experience in and of itself does not determine truth. So what James is about to do is to show this has scriptural warrant. The Bible itself shows that this is right. Notice what he says. Verse 15. And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, and notice what he does, he quotes from the prophecy we've just read. And from Amos chapter nine, after this I will return and 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. In other words, here's the way that prophecy is fulfilled, not by seeing a political leader established on the throne of Israel, but by the Son of David, Jesus Christ, ascending His throne at the right hand of God the Father, and grafting in the Gentiles into our blessings, by expanding Israel so that Israel is no longer defined as a nation-state, rather the true Israel of God. is the church of God. And this puts together all the things we've been seeing in the last week or so. He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly. Nor is circumcision that in the flesh, but that of the heart. It's an inward thing. In other words, there are ethnic Jews who are circumcised in body, but they are not spiritual Jews because they don't have faith in Jesus Christ. And so even though they're circumcised in their body, they're uncircumcised in their hearts. Thankfully, there are other Jews, ethnic Jews, who are circumcised in body, like Paul, like the apostles, like the Jewish believers that were in Jerusalem, and even to this present day there are Jewish men and women who have believed on Jesus Christ. But they are not just Jews outwardly, and they are not just Jews physically in the body. They are Jews spiritually, and they have been circumcised in their heart through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. And furthermore, here is the point that James is making. There are Gentiles, who physically are not ethnic Jews, who have not been circumcised in their bodies, and yet they have been circumcised in their heart, and they are spiritual Jews, and they are the Israel of God. all who believe in Christ. In other words, Israel is no longer isolated to the land of Canaan. It's no longer isolated to one people and one place. It's now a multi-ethnic group who have been born again spiritually from above, and they are the true Israel of God. Paul says it in the book of Philippians. He's writing to a bunch of Gentiles, a predominant Gentile church, and this is what he says in Philippians 3, verse 3. For we are the circumcision. who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Jesus Christ, and have no confidence in the flesh. In other words, what Obadiah, I believe, is prophesying isn't the restoration of a physical nation of Israel. Rather, he's saying there will be holiness. there will be salvation in Mount Zion. Where did the Gospel first get preached? In Jerusalem. And then it spread to the outermost part of the earth. In other words, he's prophesying the day will come when Israel will expand its borders, not as a nation state, but as the true Israel of God, as Gentiles from every nation and every tribe and every ethnicity are added to the kingdom through the preaching of Jesus Christ. He's prophesying the missionary enterprise. Brothers and sisters, we think of missions as starting here and going outward. The reality is, missions came here because we are the people who are at the outermost part of the earth, from where Jerusalem is. And so the gospel has come to us. This is a prophecy that we would be engrafted in as Gentiles because of the gospel being preached. What did Jesus say? All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples out of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. We need three applications from the things we've seen this morning. First, God is for those who are in Christ, but His face is set against those outside of Christ. and the day of the Lord is drawing nigh. Edom was full of goats. Israel had some sheep among them. My question for you this morning is, which are you? Are you in Christ, or are you outside of Christ? Because there was a day of judgment that came upon Edom, but there's a greater day of judgment coming upon all of us. And we are 2,000 years closer to it than we were when Jesus was here the first time. He's gonna come back on the last hour of the last day of this present age, and all the nations are gonna be gathered before Him. Every individual who's ever lived, even those who have died, are gonna be resurrected, and they're gonna be standing before His throne, body and soul, to receive their judgment. And He's gonna put His sheep on His right and His goats on His left. Those on His right, He's gonna invite into the eternal joys and pleasures of heaven forever. Those on his left will be cast into hell, where they will suffer body and soul under his torments forever and ever, without fail and without stop." If you died right now, which side of Christ's hand would you be? Would he say to you, come unto me, blessed are you, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world? Or would he say, depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels? There's a great judgment coming. God promised judgment upon Edom, and it happened just as He said it was. God also promises there's a place called heaven, and there's a place called hell. And there is no third option. There's no purgatory, there's no middle ground. There's either heaven or there's hell. Only through eternal destinies. You can convince parents, you can convince pastors, you can convince other people that you're a Christian, but you don't have to convince us. It's the Lord who knows those that are His. With Judgment Day honesty, do you know Him? And if you don't, Jesus Christ is a wonderful Savior. John Newton said it this way, he says, two things I know, I'm a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior. And if you're outside of Christ, flee to Him this day. Flee to Him for refuge from the storm that's coming, because there's a storm coming. Flee to Him that you might find mercy in the days to come. God will avenge Himself upon those who persecute His chosen people with temporal and ultimately eternal punishments. God punished Edom because she had tormented His chosen people, Israel. And so He brought judgment upon them because He promised Abraham, those who curse you, I will curse. When he realized that the church is God's chosen people, And when people torment the church, and when they persecute the church, if they do not repent, God's judgment will fall upon them. You and I, as we are receiving persecuted, our Lord has told us that we are to love our enemies, and we are to pray for those who persecute us. We should desire their salvation and not their damnation. You remember when Jesus was headed toward Jerusalem, his face was set like flint there, and he preached to a group of Samaritans, but the Samaritans did not believe on him. And remember James and John, they thought they were being really zealous and holy and said, Lord, shall we call fire down upon them to consume them as they did in the days of Elijah? Remember what Jesus said, he rebuked them. He says, you know not what spirit you're of, for I did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. You should desire their salvation, not their damnation. You shouldn't be looking for these things. Nevertheless, while we are in this present age to love our enemies and pray for them and desire their salvation, if they do not repent, ultimately judgment will come upon them. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 1 where Paul begins his second epistle to the Thessalonican church in this very way. Notice that there's a contrast, an exchange that takes place between God's people and the world in this present age versus the age that is to come. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure. You're going through tribulation, you're being persecuted by the world, he says. which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer." Notice the contrast between the now and the not yet. Right now you're suffering, but you're going to inherit something else, the glory of God's kingdom. Verse 6, Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels." You have trouble. You have tribulation in this present age, but you'll have rest in the age to come. The world has rest in this present age, and they're troubling you, but they're the ones who are going to be troubled and have tribulation in the age to come. 8 In flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he comes in that day, to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all those who believe. Because our testimony among you was believed. This should comfort us. We want our enemies to be saved. But at the end of the day, if they stubbornly refuse to repent, God's judgment will fall and that will bring about our peace. Because in the kingdom of God that is to come, there will be no enemies there to trouble our peace, to despot it, no one who bring a defile the place or bring in a lie or an abomination of any kind. God will make for our peace. So, endure, brothers and sisters, in this present age. Press on and persevere, knowing that the ledger books of justice will ultimately be perfectly balanced by our great God. Which brings us to the third and final thing I would drive home to you. The kingdoms of men rise and fall, but the kingdom of God is the only one that shall know no end. The older I get, the more this comforts me. Because nations rise and fall all the time. Kings and kingdoms are overthrown. They come into being, and then the next day you don't even remember them or know who they were. You can't even find the remains of their cities, because God sweeps them clean. Edom was a place that persecuted Israel, and it seemed that Israel was just going to be absolutely destroyed and toppled over. And yet, what did God do? He preserved His people. He kept His people, and He has now expanded Israel into all the earth through His spiritual Israel, the Church. But it encourages me when I read what Jesus says, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Sometimes we start doubting that, don't we? The church just doesn't seem to prosper. We seem to be eclipsed by the church itself sometimes. The falsehood, the compromises of the modern evangelical church overwhelm us. We see so many people just throwing aside God's truth, not preaching the old paths. And yet God always has His remnant. His church will never perish, because it's kept by His singular care. And someday, that which is invisible will be made visible. And we're going to see just how glorious Jesus' kingdom is. And His church, with tens of thousands of people, millions upon millions, an innumerable host that no man can count or number, standing before the throne, singing His praises at the top of their lungs. It's going to be a glorious thing, and it comforts me. It comforts me to know that His kingdom can never end. No one can depose Jesus from His throne. No one can stop His rule. The worst of devils and the worst of men can't stop it. Because God has given Him the kingdom, and He's never going to rescind that. As it says in Psalm 2, which we're about to sing together, it says, I have installed my King on my holy hill of Zion. No one can overthrow Him. And that should comfort us, brothers and sisters. So again, in an age when we're surrounded by so many compromises and persecution, let's bear in mind who's in charge, who's on His throne, and that the Kingdom of God will never perish. Let's pray. Father, help us to remember these things, fill our hearts with hope, which helps us to endure in this present age. We pray, O Lord, for many people to be brought to faith in Christ, even those who are persecuting us, even as you saved Paul. So, Lord, save our persecutors and bring them into your kingdom. But ultimately, Lord, we do pray for your kingdom to come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.