Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Text:

So far in Obadiah, we’ve been talking about two houses: the house of Jacob (Israel), and the house of Esau (Edom).

I was heavily involved in the drama program at my high school, and one of the plays we performed was Romeo and Juliet. I was given the role of Mercutio. One of my lines that sticks out to me was while I was dying, “A plague on both your houses.” Neither of the families in the play were godly, and neither were doing the right thing, so it didn’t matter which house you sided with, because both were in the wrong.

But when it comes to spiritual matters, you must be of the house of Jacob, because the house of Esau will come to ruin.

“But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions. The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the LORD has spoken. Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. The exiles of this host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb. Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.” (Obadiah 1:17-21)

The nation of Edom, who would not humble themselves, would come to ruin. But the nation of Israel would escape God’s wrath (v. 17a). In this passage, several terms are synonymous for the nation of Israel. They all refer to that people who God chose to show His grace. It’s a people who we must join in order to experience God’s grace as well.

I’m not saying we need to become Jewish in order to be saved. I’m saying we do become part of that family when we trust in Christ. Paul wrote that becoming a Jew was an inward matter, not a matter of outward obedience to the Law (Romans 2:29). We are more Jewish than many of those who claim to be Jewish! So we fall into this category of people who will escape God’s wrath.

Not only that, but they will get back all of the things that were taken from them (v. 17b). Israel would be like a fire which consumed the resources of Esau (v. 18). God would return lands to them (v. 19-20). God would use them to execute justice, just as God had used other nations to execute justice against them. It’s God who is the consuming fire, and we must yield ourselves to being His instruments.

In this life, we’re going to experience many setbacks, but don’t lose hope! Everything that people steal from you in this life will be returned. Not in the sense that if you lose your car, you’ll be given a car. But Heaven is so much greater of a reward that everything else pails in comparison.

There’s a funny verse at the end of this passage (v. 21). It mentions “saviors” who go up to Mount Zion to rule over the nation of Esau. What in the world is it talking about? We only have one savior: Jesus Christ! The language is referring to those who would call the nation of Israel, and all the world, to repent and believe the gospel. They would save the people who heard their message. Kind of like the judges of the Old Testament, who the Israelites followed when they were active, but rebelled when they were not. We need people like that in our lives. We need people to call us out on sin and challenge us to live more holy, godly lives.

There’s one more aspect of verse 17 that we did not mention. We shall be holy (v. 17a). Israel could not achieve this on their own. They were about to be exiled because they weren’t holy! But what they could not do on their own, God would do for them. When we trust in Christ, we, too, wait for God to make us perfectly holy.