Propheting: Making Room

Propheting:= Making Room

Obadiah 1:1= -4, 12

Today we come to message number four from the Minor Prophets. Now, if you will re= call, I warned you at the outset that, given the nature of these writings, this wou= ld not be an easy journey for us. There are twelve of these books, and we’re taking them one per Sunday; so…we’ve still got a ways to go!

I hope you realize that we are making our way through = some of the most neglected portions of Scripture. Most people, including lots of preachers, avoid them. A semi= nary professor asked one of his less-than-stellar students to name the Minor Pro= phets. The young man responded, “Wh= o am I to judge?”

You’re probably aware already that what separate= s the Major Prophets from the Minor Prophets is simply the length of their writings. The book of Isaiah, for example, h= as sixty-six chapters. That qual= ifies him as a Major Prophet.

On the other hand, Obadiah, our text for today, has on= ly one chapter…with just 21 verses. This makes Obadiah the “most&= #8221; minor of them all. Those 21 v= erses comprise the shortest book in the Old Testament, and they are all we have to go on to try to discover something about this man and the message God inspired him to deliver.

I promise you that there are preachers who go through = their entire ministries without ever preaching from Obadiah—and before we’re done today, you may very well be wishing I was one of them!

As I told you earlier, however, it’s my convicti= on that if it’s in this book, God has it here for a reason; and He has a message in it for us. This mo= rning, we’ll try to discover what it is.

First, I need to tell you something about the backgrou= nd of this prophecy. To do this, we= need to go all the way back to Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebeka= h.

They were not the first brothers to have a difficult relationship—and certainly not the last either. But this has to be one of the most interesting and eventful sibling rivalries of all time. Back in the 25^th chapte= r of Genesis, we are told that, even in the womb, these two had trouble getting along!

Verse 22 says, “The babies jostled each other wi= thin her, and Rebekah said, ‘Why is this happening to me?’” I bet she did!

Now, here is how the Lord explained this to Rebekah: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will s= erve the younger.” (Genesis 25:23)

So we know at the outset, before they are even born, t= hat these two boys are going to have major problems! And so they did. Jacob and Esau’s descendants became two separate nations. Jacob’s name was later changed to Israel, and his people were k= nown as the Israelites.

Esau’s descendants settled in the land of Edom, and they were called Edomites. And here is why this is important for us today: it was against the people of Edom, the descendants of Esau, that Obadiah directed his prophecy.

Now, if you have ever known brothers who didn’t = get along, and families that were affected by this division—and sadly, th= ese controversies can go on for generations—but if you have ever observed anything like this, then you are already beginning to see how this ancient little book is still relevant today.

The fracture in the relationship between Israel and Edom could be traced all the = way back to these two brothers, Jacob and Esau. Their long history was punctuated = by awful outbursts of jealousy and hostility. And this continued for centuries until finally tragedy struck the descendants of Jacob in 587 BC.

That’s the year when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. The city was destroyed. Her leading citizens were carried = off into captivity. Anythin= g of any value was taken, and Jerus= alem entered into its darkest days—the time we call “The Exile.̶= 1;

Now, here’s what led to Obadiah’s prophecy against Edom. When Jerusalem fell and was destroyed, the Edomites loved it. They celeb= rated the fall of Jerusalem. They also sent raiding parties int= o Judah t= o take whatever they could find that the Babylonians had somehow missed.

You’ve heard of “kicking somebody when the= ir down.” Well, Jerusalem was down, and the Edomites ki= cked them. So as we turn now to re= ad a few verses from this book, I want you to remember that this is why it’= ;s so negative. It’s a word o= f judgment. It’s a very harsh condemnati= on of the people of Edom. So with that, look with me, please= , at verses 1-4:

Obadiah 1 ¹ The vision of Obadiah.
      This is what the Sovereign LORD says ab= out Edom—
       We have heard a message from the LORD:=
       An envoy was sent to the nations to sa= y,
       "Rise, and let us go against her = for battle"-

² "See, I will make you small among the nations;
you will be utterly despised.

³ The pride of your heart has deceived you,
       you who live in the clefts of the rock= s
       and make your home on the heights,
       you who say to yourself,
       'Who can bring me down to the ground?'=

⁴ Th= ough you soar like the eagle
and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,"= ;
declares the LORD. <= /p>

I want us to focus on= one key word here. The word is PRIDE. Obadiah begins his prophecy by pronouncing God’s judgment upon= the Edomites’ pride.

Did you notice how he describes where the Edomites live? They “live in the clefts of the rocks,” he says, and the= y “make (their) home on the heights.” And because of this, they boast, &#= 8216;Who can bring (us) down to the ground?'

Several years ago, our family took a trip out west. = Among the places we went was the national park called “Mesa Verde.” It’s a fascinating place. There once was a well-established group of people living there. Today, we call them “the cli= ff dwellers.”

Have you heard of them? They built their houses= into the side of mountain cliffs. = This was evidently done for security reasons. It made them feel safe, perched as they were high above the valleys below. What enemy could ever = overtake them?

There’s a probl= em, though. These people and the civilization they established there in what is now the southwestern corner = of Colorado have vanished. You can still see t= he elaborate structures they built. They’re quite impressive; but the people themselves are gone. As far as we know, no one survived= .

Their story came back= to me as I thought about the Edomites last week.= Edom was a land of well-watered plains with three fortified cities. One of these cities, Petra, which means “Rock City,” was considered to be one of the wonders of the ancient world.

To get into the city, people had to pass through a narrow ravine. This ravine was fully a mile long; = and on both sides of the ravine were 700-feet-tall cliffs.

The Edomites built fortifications into the sides of the cliffs so that in times of danger, the= y could man those fortresses. From th= ere, anyone attempting to enter their city would be an easy target. They felt sure they could repel any invading army from that lofty vantage point.

Now, the Edomites wer= e very proud of Petra, and very proud of themselves for possessing it and being so clever in what = they had done with it. It seems th= eir great fortified city made them feel a little too great–a bit too invincible.

Obadiah warns them, however, that their days are numbered.&nbs= p; Life on such a high perch, he implied, was simply setting them up fo= r a great fall!

Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goes before destructi= on, and a haughty spirit before a fall."&= nbsp; It is a wise person who hears those words and takes appropriate acti= on against any pride in their life!

Listen to what Benjamin Franklin had to say about prid= e. He recorded this observation in his autobiography:

&nb= sp; “There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to su= bdue as pride. Beat it down, stifl= e it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive.” Then he added, “Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”

Pride has been called the deadliest of all our sins be= cause it keeps us distant from God—and from one another too. Pride convinces us that we have no= need of any person, or power, or wisdom beyond our own. And that we are not accountable to anyone but ourselves for our actions—which rules out any need for repentance or faith or even God Himself.

There is strong evidence that this is how pride worked= in the lives of the Edomites. Th= is is interesting: nowhere in the Old Testament do we find any reference to the g= ods of the Edomites. Evidently, in their pride, they had no room for God.

Maybe our world is not so different from theirs after = all. We’re thousands of years rem= oved from their culture, of course; but the Edomites are a very short trip away = when it comes to human nature. It&= #8217;s easy enough for any of us to contrive our own reasons for wedging God out of our lives and our families—giving Him no space when it comes to our t= ime, our money, our love.

It has been said that a proud person has no God. But that’s not quite it. A proud person has really put hims= elf in the position of God. He serve= s as his own god, if you will.

So, “making room” for God—the One an= d Only God--is our challenge today. = We have to get pride and self-sufficiency out of the way enough to allow Chris= t to be the Savior and Lord that we need…that we all need much more than w= e are willing to admit.

Obadiah simply warned the Edomites--as he would also w= arn us--that when we think we’re soaring with eagles and making our nests up in the stars, we may be just setting ourselves up for a very rude discovery: namel= y, that we really can’t fly after all.

I’ll go ahead and apologize for this in advance,= but there’s a story about a turtle that lived “up North,” but= he wanted to spend his winters down in = Florida. Being a turtle, though, he knew he= could never walk that far in time. = So he convinced a couple of geese to help him.

He got the geese to hold a rope between them while he clamped his strong jaws to the middle of the rope. When those geese took to the air to= head South, the turtle was right there with them.

The flight was going fine until someone on the ground = looked up and noticed the two geese with the turtle in tow. That person was astounded. He recognized that this level of cooperation in the animal kingdom was absolutely ingenious.

So he yelled up to the three of them and asked, "= Who in the world thought of this?" The turtle, unable to resist taking credit for such ingenuity, shouted back, "I diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid!"= ;

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty sp= irit before a fall.” This is something we would all do = well to remember at any time, but especially when we find ourselves flying a lit= tle too high!

Okay, there’s another aspect to the Edomite̵= 7;s pride—and perhaps to ours as well.&n= bsp; As I studied this book, it seemed to me that after Obadiah blasted t= he Edomites for thinking of themselves too highly, he then blasted them again = for thinking of other people too lowly.

The specific verse I = have in mind is the twelfth: “You should not look down on your brother in = the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah i= n the day of their destruction,
nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.”

Well, of course they shouldn’t. But aren’t we like that too?= Our fascination with car wrecks ha= s been well-documented. Many acciden= ts occur as people slow down too quickly and get rear-ended, or simply stop pa= ying attention to their driving and sideswipe another car while trying to see someone’s else’s fender-bender. Sure, it seems kinda’ sil= ly; but most of us do it, don’t we?

But we do this kind of thing in lots of other ways too= . Have you noticed that when one of = our celebrities takes a fall—whether its someone in politics, sports, entertainment, ministry, or whatever—this is all your hear about for = days. Let me refresh your memory: think = John Edwards, Mark Sanford, or Tiger Woods—just to name a few.

What’s that about? What does this do for us to get so consumed with the faults and failures of others? Obadiah accused the Edomites of do= ing something like this—deriving some kind of sick pleasure from the misfortunes experienced by the people of Judah. When the Babylonians moved in and = destroyed Jerusalem, the people of Edom lo= ved it, he said. They rejoiced over i= t!

Friends, pride is such a crazy and destructive force i= n our lives. Again, it causes us to= think too highly of ourselves, too lowly of others, and in the process, to disreg= ard God completely.

Our pride destroys lives and relationships and the sen= se of community that we all need. O= badiah recognized the problem, and condemned it.&= nbsp; He never really offered any fix for it though.

I invite you now to listen for the fix—the only = real solution for our pride--in these words from the New Testament (Phil. 2:5-11):

⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
⁶Who, being in very nature God,
      did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
⁷but made himself nothing,
      taking the very nature of a servant,       being made in human likeness.
⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
      he humbled himself
      and became obedient to death—
         even death on a cross= !   (Philippians 2:5-8)
        =             &nb= sp;            =             &nb= sp;            =             &nb= sp;            =             &nb= sp;       This is what fixes our pride: when our attitude becomes the same as Christ’s—who humbled Himself, sacrificed Himself, and put our n= eeds ahead of Himself. He did this= , not to fix His own pride—it wasn’t His problem. He did this to fix = our pride--to show us the better way to live.&= nbsp; And the result of this—listen:

⁹The= refore God exalted him to the highest place
      and gave him the name that is above eve= ry name,
¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
      in heaven and on earth and under the ea= rth,
¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
      to the glory of God the Father.   (Philippians 2:9-11)

How does our pride problem get fixed? We bow the knees of our hearts bef= ore the Savior, Jesus Christ, and we confess Him as Lord of our lives. This begins for us a whole new way= of living, a new and much-improved way of relating to God and to each other.

Following Christ humbles us; so now, at last, there= 217;s room in our lives for someone other than just us! And believe me, that’s very = Good News! And it’s abundant= life as well!

So make room, friends. Let Christ get all that self-centered pride out of the way, so you c= an make room for God; and make room for one another!

3D"Wide

Cliff Dwellers ~~~ Mesa Verde National Park<= /o:p>

Obadiah 1 1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign LORD says ab= out Edom— We have heard a message from the LORD:= An envoy was sent to the nations to sa= y, "Rise, and let us go against her = for battle"-

Obadiah 1 ¹ The vision of Obadiah.
This is what the Sovereign LORD says ab= out Edom—
We have heard a message from the LORD:=
An envoy was sent to the nations to sa= y,
"Rise, and let us go against her = for battle"-