Monday, December 18th: Obadiah 1; Revelation 9 ~ Tammy

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Obadiah 1; Revelation 9

I found Ray Stedman's sermon on Obadiah to very helpful in understanding this OT book.  Here is a portion of it......

God is a great illustrator. He is always using pictures for us so that we can understand truth more easily, more graphically. We are children in this respect. We like to have a picture. We would rather see something than hear it, so God has many pictures. He has taken these two men and the subsequent nations that came from them and used them through the Bible as a consistent picture of the conflict between the flesh and the spirit -- Jacob and Esau, Israel and Edom....

Obadiah turns the spotlight first on Esau, who is the man of the flesh, and Edom, the proud nation that came from the flesh, and he answers the question "Why does God hate Esau?" The trouble with Esau, the prophet says, is this (verse 3):

The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rock,
whose dwelling is high,
who say in your heart,
"Who will bring me down to the ground?" (Obadiah 1:3 RSV)

The trouble with Esau is pride. Pride is the root of all human evil, and pride is the basic characteristic of what the Bible calls the flesh that lusts against, wars against, the Spirit. The flesh is a principle that stands athwart God's purposes in human life and continually defies what God is trying to accomplish. Each of us has this struggle within us if we are Christians, and its basic characteristic is revealed here as pride. That is the number one identifying mark of the flesh...

One way it may be expressed is in self-sufficiency (verses 3, 4)..

This kind of self-sufficiency is clearly evident in the man who says, "I don't need God. I can run my own life without God, in my own wisdom, my own strength, my own abilities, my own talents -- that is enough. that is all I need to make a success in life." But self-sufficiency is also seen in the Christian who says, "Well, I need God, yes, in times of danger and fear and pressure, but I am quite able, thank you, to make my own decisions about the girl I am going to marry, or the career I am going to follow, or the friends that I have, or the car that I buy or anything else like that." That is the same spirit of self sufficiency, isn't it?

The thing that characterized the Lord Jesus Christ and marked him as continually opposed to this spirit of self-sufficiency was his utter dependence on the Father. We Christians have to learn that if there is any area of our life where we think that we've got what it takes to do without God, it is in that same area that we are manifesting the flesh, the pride of Edom....

Violence is a form of pride (v10); the man who strikes his wife, a child who has been beaten, a baby whose bones have been broken, and who has been damaged internally. What is behind this violence of the human heart? An unbroken ego, a spoiled and cowardly spirit. Pride is centered only on self and it strikes out against anything that dares to challenge its supreme reign in life....

Indifference is a form of pride. (v11)...

God charges Edom with the sin of gloating as a manifestation of this basic problem of pride.(v12-13)...

Another manifestation of pride is exploitation (verse 14)...

the worse thing, the tragedy of Esau, is back in verse 3, where God says,
The pride of your heart has deceived you. (Obadiah 1:3 RSV)

You are this way, but you don't know it. Blind to your own problems, you go on thinking that everything is fine, but suddenly everything falls to pieces, just as it did here to Edom (verses 6, 7)...

God has determined judgment upon Edom, and there is no escaping it. (v15-16)...But the day of triumph is for Jacob (verses 17, 18).....

He has his heart set to destroy Esau. After all, that is the whole story of the coming of the Holy Spirit into the human heart; he has come to destroy Esau and all these characteristics of the flesh. He will destroy them in those who are his and bring Jacob into the full inheritance of all his possessions -- and the weapon he uses is the judgment of the cross.

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage: Jonah 1-4; Revelation 10

Friday, September 9th: Obadiah 1, 2 Kings 25:22-26, Jeremiah 40:7-41:18 ~ Conrad

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is: Obadiah 1, 2 Kings 25:22-26, Jeremiah 40:7-41:18

"The day of the Lord is near  for all nations.  As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head." Obadiah 1:15

Obadiah prophesies judgment against the people of Edom.  God would destroy them as a result of their violence against Israel, for their delight in the destruction of Jerusalem, and for their involvement in plundering the city.

Reading this reminded me of how much God wants us to love our brothers.  Not only our blood brothers, but all people, as we are all an offspring of God.  God loves His people and because of this love, He will not allow anyone to remain unpunished for their actions.

This reading was directed towards the people of Edom, but it is relevant for us today too.  We will be held accountable for all our actions and thoughts.  Just as God restored Israel, we too can be restored through Jesus Christ.  If God loves and offers His gift of restoration to all, we too should show love to all.

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage: Jeremiah 42-44

Thursday, July 9th: Obadiah, Acts 8:1-25 ~ Tammy

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Obadiah; Acts 8:1-25

There are several things we can learn from our Obadiah passage.

The first is a theme that is a very common one, and that is that God is sovereign.  If He wasn't, He couldn't promise Judah that Edom would receive judgment.  But He is and He did.

Pride is deceptive (v3) and results in destruction.  Both proud individuals and proud nations will reap what they sow.

The good news is that God has made a way of escape from wrath in the salvation provided by Jesus Christ, and one day He will rule the entire earth.

In our Acts passage we see that Simon appears to accept the gospel, but in the end he does not seem to have truly repented and believed.

People can respond favorably to the gospel without becoming genuinely saved.  Sometimes they are attracted to the message itself, or to the fellowship, or the tradition, or fear of judgment.

It is impossible for our to know, at the outset, if someone's conversion is genuine.  And it is not our job to determine it - we are to treat them as genuine believers.  However, saying you are a Christian, doesn't make it so, and eventually such a profession is proved false by open sin and lack of repentance.   Of course perfection is never possible - but there should be evidence of God's goodness and progress in our lives.




Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Ruth 1-4; Acts 8:26-40

Saturday, September 3-guest post by Pamela

Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is 2 Chronicles 21; Obadiah; 2 Corinthians 8

I'd like to focus on Obadiah today because I liked the thoughts on it that preceded that book in Conrad's study Bible. I think that sometimes in the grand scheme of life, we can feel insignificant and small. The book of the Obadiah has just 21 verses and may appear insignificant and small when we take the Bible as a whole. However:

"No part of the Bible, however short, is without significance. Even the brief walk on appearance of the prophet Obadiah has its place. It was Obadiah's assignment to give voice to God's word of judgement against Edom.

In the early stages of Biblical narrative, we are told the story of the twins Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25-36). They came out of the womb fighting. Jacob was ancestor to the people of Israel; Esau was the ancestor to the people of Edom. The two neighbouring peoples, Israel (who lived mostly to the west of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea) and Edom (who lived to the southeast) never did get along. They had a long history of war and rivalry. When Israel was taken into exile-first the northern kingdom by the Assyrians in 721 BC and later the southern kingdom by the Babylonians in 586 BC- Edom stood across the fence and watched, glad to see her old relative get beat up.

At first reading, the brief but intense prophecy of Obadiah, targeted at Edom, is a broadside indictment of Edom's cruel injustice to God's chosen people. Edom is the villain and God's covenant people the victim.

But the last line of the prophecy takes a giant step out of the centuries of hate and rivalry and invective. It is suddenly revealed that to Israel, so often a victim of Edomite aggression, is to be saved from the injustices of the past and take up a position of rule over their ancient enemies, the Edomites. However, instead of doing to others what had been done to them and continuing the cycle of violence they had been caught in, they are to take over the reins of government and administer God's justice. They find themselves in a new kingdom-God's kingdom-and realize they have a new vocation-to represent God's rule. It is not much (one verse out of 21!) but it is a glimmer and it is the final verse.

On the day of judgement, dark retaliation and invective do not get the last word. Only the first rays of the light of justice appear here. But these rays will eventually make up a kingdom of light, in which all nations will be judged justly from the eternal throne in heaven."

I'm sure we have all felt pushed down by various circumstances in our lives. We've probably even felt the sting of others who have seen our struggles and been cocky in their responses to us. It is often hard during troubled times to get up, dust ourselves off, and keep going. We have probably regrettably been on the other side too where we feel that we do have it under control and it is us with the attitude that we do not have to rely on God because everything is going great. The book of Obadiah addresses both sides of this- a warning to those who think they are untouchable and hope for those that think circumstances are more than they can bear. Did you know that 21 verses could hold so much? I didn't.

No matter what our circumstances right now, ultimately God is in control and Obadiah reminds us of this fact. Whether we think we have it all together and we whether we think we are at the top of the world like the Edomites thought-God is in control. Whether we feel we have been conquered by others and whether we think there can be no positive outcome to our situation-God is in control. What a great and timely reminder for me and I hope it has been an encouragement to you as well today.

Tomorrow's passage: 2 Chronicles 22 - Joel 1 - 2 Corinthians 9

August 28th

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Lamentations 5, Obadiah, 2 Kings 25:22-26, Jeremiah 40:7-41:18.

The book of Obadiah has a fair amount to say about pride, which is likely the root of virtually every sin.

In his sermon Eagle Edom Will Come Down, John Piper shares five lessons we can learn from this book....

First, God rules in this world right now and turns the course of nations and history as he pleases. If this were not so, he could not promise Judah that he would cut off Edom and establish Jacob. No Christian should have the jitters that the world is careening out of control toward a meaningless catastrophe. We may feel like people tossed around in an old stagecoach pulled by six wild horses, but fear not, God sits serenely over our heads, and the hands that made the world hold the reins.

Second, pride is deceptive. Verse 3: "The pride of your heart has deceived you." Pride makes us think we are independent, self-sufficient, invulnerable. Pride is based on a lie. The person who yields to the temptation of pride surrenders his capacity to think and feel and act without deception. Pride distorts every area of thought and life. My own conviction is that most of our perplexity regarding moral and theological issues is owing to the distortions caused by our pride, not to the complexity of the issue.

Third, God abominates pride and will bring it down. Verse 4: "Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, thence I will bring you down, says the Lord." Or as Jesus says in Luke 16:15, "What is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God."

Fourth, therefore proud nations and proud individuals will reap what they sow. Verse 15: "As you have done, it shall be done to you, your deeds shall return on your own head." If we choose in our pride to live without God, then he will grant us our independence in the day of the Lord. And he will not be our refuge or our righteousness in that day. And our self-confidence will be like a feather in a hurricane when God's wrath is revealed from heaven (cf. Psalm 76:7).

Fifth, God has made a way of escape and salvation from his wrath. Verse 17: "In Mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and it shall be holy." Those who have fled from the wickedness of pride to the holiness of humility will find refuge on the day of the Lord. Zion, the city of God, shall be holy because it will be filled not with people who never sinned, but with people who have been broken and humbled by their sin and have thrown themselves for mercy on Jesus and have come to love him more than anything and any person in the world, because "he loved us and gave himself for us." (emphasis in bold mine)

Turns out that small books packs a pretty big punch.

Tomorrow's passage: Jeremiah 42-44, Ezekiel 33:21-33