Obadiah #1

Pablo came by to introduce me to his 5 year old daughter whom I had not met. He is doing well. Wendy came to church today also as well as a dozen other young adults who left a while back. It makes Dottie & I feel good because it means those young people are coming “home”.

I asked the teens in church this morning if they had been “touched by the Lord this week” and truly EVERY hand went up. So the discipleship team did a great job. I know they are exhausted.

Gladys & a group of girls helped makeup the bags of candy for each child for Christmas.

We now come to the minor prophet Obadiah. His name means “Servant of the Lord”.

The theme of his book is “Jehovah, Lord over all”. The key verse is verse 15 “For the day of the Lord draws near to all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return to your own head.”

It does not take a Bible scholar to realize that this is what Paul would write many years later. “You will sow what you reap”.

Obadiah teaches that Israel has a special place in the heart of God. All nations one day will be judged by their relationship to Israel. In the end no nation will be standing with Israel, not even the USA. You can see in the daily news how America is caring less and less about Israel and more and more helping her enemies in the Middle East.

Obadiah does not speak of sin, mercy or righteousness but only doom on Edom in bitter resentment at Edom’s cruelty to Israel. Edomites were the descendants of Esau. Their territory was only 100 miles long and 20 miles wide.

Genesis 36:9 makes it clear “And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir”.