Season two of Love in Context podcast welcomes you. Get ready for engaging unscripted conversations
with your hosts, Ben and Spencer. Our mission remains unchanged to explore the Bible through
the powerful lens of love. In this new season, we'll embark on a journey together, unearthing
fresh insights and gaining deeper understanding of how we can love God and live out our faith
in practical ways. So let's dive into this season of Love in Context, where love in the
context of the Bible intersect to transform our lives.
New series, new series, new series. Little book, big message. I like it. It kind of reminds
me so people who listen and go to our church or in town probably know that we had a summer
series called Minor Prophets Major Implications. So immediately when our church secretary saw
that title, she's like, you came up with that, didn't you? And I was like, yes, yes, I did.
She's like, because we love Pastor Nick, but he doesn't come up with quirky titles. No,
that is definitely a Ben thing. So we are going to jump in. So the idea of little book,
big message is we're going to over the next I think it's five weeks, tackling the single
chapter books. Yeah. So today, we're in Obadiah, which is really cool because you actually
just preached on this not in like just a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. So it's all really fresh
in your head. So for those that are listening, that was a long time ago, two weeks, man,
two weeks. Listen, when you have kids and people who are listening who have kids will
come 100% agree. You have kids two weeks is a very long time. Sorry, I should specify
when you have kids that are under seven, seven, right? When they require just a ton of attention.
Yeah. Just a like, probably to help people because I mean, I don't think Obadiah is necessarily
like the first book that rolls off people's lips when they're thinking about which book
to read in the Bible. I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe for you it is just to
get some context on the book of Obadiah. So it it falls in. It's a prophecy against the
the country of Edom. And so if you know Edom, it's actually that a sentence of Esau. So
if you go back to our first season where we were talking about Jacob and Esau and this
this conflict that is going on between them. Well, it turns out that those those things
tend not to go away. Yeah, they if you have conflict in your family, it tends to follow
you generationally. Yeah. And so now we actually have this prophecy coming against the the
country of Edom. And what has happened to Israel at this point is God has warned him.
He's like, hey, come back to your covenant, come back to your covenant, come back to your
covenant. And then they just kept ignoring him. He's like, OK, well, I'm going to put
you in captivity so you learn your lesson. And then I'm going to have you come back and
put the covenant on display. Yeah. And so the so the prophecy to Edom is coming as the
Israelites are being invaded by Babylon and they're being carted off into captivity. This
prophecy is coming against Edom because Edom was doing some stuff during this time. A little
bit, a little bit like they were coming in and they were actually looting the areas,
which is what Obadiah is going to get into a little bit here. Yeah. And and taking things.
And it's actually interesting. I was listening to the Baymaw podcast where they had the episode
and they're actually talking about how you know that scene in Raiders of Lost Ark where
they go and there's like the they find the grail. But the city carved into a mountain
that's actually in the area that is Edom. And they have like these fortresses and stuff.
But I mean, obviously, the Holy Grail is not there. Yeah. But but like that was actually
the thing of the Edomites is they actually would carve their cities into the hills. Yeah.
And it's just really interesting. That's not really pertinent to what we're talking about,
except they do talk about retreating to your hills. It is pertinent. It is pertinent. Yeah.
No, it's 100 percent pertinent because like a lot of it is talking about how Edom is looking
down on how they were looking down on Israel and is referring to that through the Book
of Obadiah. And that is both a metaphorical reference and a physical reference of their
cities were carved in the hillsides. And so like to conquer their cities was a monumentous
task because they didn't have artillery or airstrikes or stuff like that. So it was a
monumentous task. And so they had kind of this chip on their shoulder being like they
can't take us. Yeah. They can't beat us because of where we're at. And they had this mindset
of we're looking down on our brother, both physically and metaphorically. Got flies in
our face. Yeah. So summer in Alaska is really fun. Flies in your face. That's the downside
to it. Now the Nats. Keto. The no CMs because again on your skin, you can't see them. And
then you're like, oh, look at all those bite marks. And then you're like, oh, I just got
20 bites. Yeah. Yeah. And so so that's how I kind of described eating a couple of weeks
ago. Jacob and he saw his relationship. I was like, whenever Jacob and he saw got in
the same room, you didn't know if they were going to hug or try to kill each other. That
was that was kind of a relationship. It was like it was like, what's going to happen next?
And and that relationship continued on through their descendants. Yeah. And it doesn't actually
even stop in the Book of Obadiah, because if you actually look further, the country
of Edom actually ends up being smacked out in the middle of spice trade. Yeah. Eventually,
there is a guy that rises up to incredible wealth and is given dominion over Israel in
the time of Jesus. His name is Herod the Great. And if you don't know him, he is actually
an Edomite that is trying to be the king of the Jewish people. Right. So you actually
and he's not accepted by the Jewish people. Surprise, surprise. Yeah. But he is actually
an Edomite wanting to actually be king of the Jews. Yeah. So that is that's some interesting
like history stuff that actually connects even into the New Testament. Yeah. So I was
thinking because these books are short, we should just read portions of them and just
talk about it a little bit. Read the Bible. I know, right. It's a boring concept. Yes,
we should. Sorry about that. I can't wait to clip that out and just like be like the
context. Yeah. I'm going to love and out of context. Yeah. So getting into the first few
verses that we want and just let's look at verses one through four to start with. And
it says this is the this is the vision of the sovereign Lord revealed to Obadiah concerning
the land of Edom. We've heard a message from the Lord the that the we heard a message from
the Lord that ambassador who was sent to the nations to say get ready everyone. Let's assemble
our armies and attack Edom. The Lord said to Edom, I will cut you down to size amongst
the nations. You'll be greatly despised. You have been deceived by your own pride because
you live in a rock fortress and make your homes high in the mountains. Who can ever
reach us way up here? You ask mostfully. But even if you soar as high as the Eagles and
build your nest amongst the stars, I will bring you crashing down says the Lord. So
that is that is by the way, one of the things I love about the prophets and one of the things
you should always know when you're reading prophets is poetic prose. Uh huh. Right. They're
using a lot of word pictures, but this one is like especially like potent because it's
taking something literally that's going on with them. And then it's speaking metaphorically.
Yeah. Yeah. And I just love that. Yeah. And like jumping on the literal side, the Lord's
literally saying we're going to cut you down to size. Yeah. Like we're going to you think
you're higher than everybody else. We're going to humble you. Yeah. And this also has like
some great callbacks to like the whole idea of the Tower of Babel. Yeah. Right. Because
like you're going to build our stuff all the way to the heavens. Right. We're going to
be high above everybody else. We're going to be like, yeah. Yeah. That's like turns
out I got a couple thousand feet on you. Yeah. And then you get to verse four and the Lord
basically saying it doesn't like this is a Spencer translation. It doesn't matter how
untouchable you think you are. Yeah. Right. We're like, he's like, I'm the Lord. You're
not. Yeah. Watch me do what I need to do. Well, I mean, and I mean, how true is that
for? I mean, I think always we need to be careful when we hear prophecies against Edom.
We're like, oh, well, those are some other people. They can very easily be us. Oh yeah.
Because how often are we like building our towers or insulating and we're like, we're
like, oh, I'm above the nonsense. Right. And or you look down on people because of their
socioeconomic status or because of where they are. And I was like, you could lose your job.
You could lose your house. You could lose like things so quickly. Uh huh. And and it's
one of the calls to actually live with a generous heart, which is actually the combination on
on the people who eat them is that instead of looking to Judah and being like, how do
we help them? Uh huh. They're like, what can we take from them for ourselves? Yeah. And
that gets into the next few verses. Yeah. Or says, if thieves come at the night and
rob you, what disaster awaits you? They would not take everything. Those who harvest grapes
always leave a few for the poor, but your enemies will wipe you out completely. Every
nook and cranny of Eden will be scorched and looted or will be searched and looted. Every
treasure will be found and taken. Right. So the Lord's going on being like, here's, here's
some of the traditions. Like you look at the tradition of gleaning, gleaning in the fields.
Like you see this in Ruth where, where she was, where Ruth went and she was working the
outskirts of the fields and gleaning the leftovers because Israel was called to leave a portion
in their fields for those who can't afford food to go glean for themselves. Right. And
so you have, this is something by the way, Eden, the Edomites know Torah. We need to
preface that too. Yeah. Like they know Torah. Well, they're not going to be that familiar
because it's the text of the people around you. It's like literally your extended family.
Exactly. So they, they know, they know the bullet points of it. Right. And so here they
probably know this idea of gleaning and the Lord says, yeah, that's not going to happen
for you. Yeah. Like you're not going to have that opportunity. Right. And then the Lord
starts going, uh, goes into a little bit more, but then you jumped down to verse 10 and it
goes into why Eden was being punished. Yeah. I'm going to read that here. Uh, so Spencer
and I are using different translations. So if you're following along, just know we're
using different translations, but they're going to be pretty, pretty close. You will
be covered with shame and destroyed forever because of the violence done to your brother
Jacob on the day you stood aloof on the day strangers captured his wealth while foreigners
entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem. You were just like one of them. Do not gloat
over your brother in the day of his calamity. Do not rejoice over the people of Judah in
the day of their destruction. Do not boastfully mock in the day of distress. Do not enter
the gate of my people in the day of their disaster. Yes, you do not clothe over their
misery in the day of their disaster and do not appropriate their possessions in the day
of their disaster. Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off their fugitives and do not hand
over their survivors and the day of distress. Now I've also, uh, just coming back to this
idea like handing over to the, the implication of a, of a, of a teacher, uh, in a little
testament, um, I forget where he, where he teaches that, but he was saying the, the implication
the picture you should get for what Edom was doing is essentially, uh, Israel's running
away and they're up in their, up in their stone fortress and Babylon comes and they're
like that way, that way. Yeah. You know, they're like, Hey, they went that way, you know, like
they're not even providing refuge for the people who are running. Well, and there's,
there's two different types of evil that's going on. So one, which is actually mentioned
in the first couple of verses is the evil of not doing anything. Correct. Right. Like
look at verse 11, uh, when they were invaded, you stood aloof, refusing to help foreign
invaders carried off their wealth, gassed lots of divide up Jerusalem and you acted
like one of Israel's enemy. Why they act like one of Israel's enemy because they still
were the roof. Right. Cause they sat back. Right. Right. So that's one, that's one accusation.
Then you get onto the next verses and then that's where they joined in the fun. Yeah.
Where they're like, Oh wait, they're doing that and they're succeeding. So why don't
I join in? So you didn't just do nothing. You actually became part of the problem. Yeah.
Which comes with, which leads to a personal application for us. Yeah. Like when we see
someone, when we see someone suffering, like if we don't do anything about that or try
to do anything about that, that's just as bad as adding to their suffering. Yeah. Well,
and I think, Oh man, I think when you actually have a heart that never does anything, you
eventually become the very person that is now oppressing. Yeah. Like it goes, it's,
it's a subtle shift, but it happens over time. Yeah. And I think the caveat here is you can't
do everything. No, Edom couldn't stand against Babylon. Like that's for sure. They could
not do that. Right. But you can do something. And I think the, the call to like the, the
believer, the follower of Torah, the follower of Jesus is when you see injustice and you
do nothing. I mean, coming back to James, do you actually care about justice? When you
see these, these things happening? Can we put that phrase injustice in this context?
Yeah. Okay. Cause a lot of times we have people nowadays who will see what they perceive as
an injustice and they'll go blasting all over social media or something like that. Right.
That's not what we're talking about. Like we're talking about physically helping somebody
in need. Yeah. Right. Um, we had, we had a situation in our town where a, where there
was this person who got stuck in our town, no place to stay. They were going to be out
on the streets and we were able to offer a couch for them to sleep on. Right. Right.
That was like serving a physical need. Right. Um, and, uh, and so like that's a way that
you can serve injustice. Right. Was it fair that that person's flights got canceled and
they were stuck here? I mean, no, I mean, there's there, but we could fill the need
and it doesn't really matter why that injustice happened. If we can actually provide a place
of respite. If you have somebody who, uh, let's say found themselves in jail and they come
out, but they're having a really hard time finding work, but they're dedicated to putting
their life back together and you don't do anything to help. Yeah. Nothing. You know,
it's hard. Yeah. You know, and, uh, like you, we can't do everything. No, but we should
do something. Eat them, commit defeat battle on them, but they could have welcomed those
who were defeated. Right. And at the very least they could have not plundered their
cities. Moving on to the next part, right? Right. Right. Where like you get into like,
what was some of the implications? Verse 13, you should not have plundered the land of
easier Israel, why they were suffering in such command, Clement, blah. Yeah. So I'm
tired. Now going back to your, uh, we're going to read the Bible. That doesn't sound so silly.
That doesn't, you should not have gloated in their destruction when they were suffering
such calamity. You should not have seized their wealth when they were suffering in such
calamity. You should not have stood in the crossroads killing those who tried to escape.
You should not have captured the survivors and handed them over in their time of terrible
and a terrible time of trouble. Yeah. Right. Like, so then they went from this, like, oh,
you still aloof to like, wait, we can get something for ourselves. So at this point,
when they're coming into verse 15, uh, Tim Mackie was talking about on the Bible project,
um, he was talking about how the, the authors use this word Edom and it's very close to
Adam, which is more about humanity. And like, there's this play on words here because on
15 it shifts and, and up to this point, it's been addressing a literal thing that happened.
Uh huh. Right. But then it uses Edom as a typecast for all the injustice that's being
done in the nation. Yeah. And then how God is going to address that. Yeah. Yeah. And
so then you get to verse 15 and on, and that talks about restoring Israel and destroying
Edom. Yeah. Right. And you get into this imagery of destroying what is wicked, what is evil.
And uh, and we gotta be very careful with this too, because a lot of times we can take
this and go into like militant Christianity mode. Correct. Which is not what we're supposed
to do here. What we're really supposed to do here is because you have to tie this whole
thing together and the verses before Obadiah is calling out Edom and then the next verses
it's calling Edom to in, in where retrospect to retrospect what they've done. Yeah. And
once again, we are, this is, this is prophetic literature means that it's supposed to evoke
pictures. Yeah. And so they're trying to evoke pictures that make sense to the people of
that time. Yeah. And so if you take the pictures from people of that time and you immediately
make them the exact same pictures for us today, you're gonna get the wrong conclusions because
they don't mean the same things to us. We have to understand what they meant to them
and then take that and say, as followers Jesus, what do we do with that? Yeah. Right. Yeah.
So in verse 15, the day of the Lord, the day is near where I, the Lord will judge all godless
nations. Yes. You have, as you have done to Israel, so it'll be done to you. Your evil
deeds will fall back on your own heads. Just as you swallowed up my people on the Holy
mountain. So you, so you and the surrounding nations will swallow the punishment I pour
out on you. Yes. You, all you nations will drink in stagger and despair from history.
Yeah. Very encouraging section. Well, it's been, it's this, I, it is an encouraging section
if you're Israel. Yeah. Because what God is saying is that he's like, Hey, this injustice
that is going around in all of these nations, because you were supposed to be the typecast
Israel. You're supposed to show people a different way. You're supposed to put my kingdom on
display to change the entire world. But injustice won't last forever. I will turn it on. Is
it. And one thing you need to know in this section is who is a judge. God. Yeah. Not
us. Right. We need to be really clear on that. Like, like, Oh, but I was levied the complaints
against Edom and then overdive delivering a message from the Lord saying that the Lord
is the judge. The day is near when I, the Lord will judge all nations. Yeah. Not the
day is near where you then will judge all nations. I, I'm okay with not being the guy
to judge. Oh, me too. Me too. God can have that responsibility. Right. The judgment is
for the Lord. Right. We are called to be conduits of his love, right? Conduits of his redemption.
And so you, so you can take that and you can actually put us in Obadiah's place where Obadiah
is being a conduit for Israel's redemption in this moment. Right. He's delivering a hard,
a hard message. Sometimes we have to do that, but it's not Obadiah being the judge. Obadiah
is not leaving an army to take over Edom. Right. The Lord's taking care of that. He's
declaring some move that is happening from God. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You want to take verse
17? Yeah. All right. I'm going to take 17 to the end here. Yeah. So continuing on in
17, but there will be deliverance on Mount Zion and it will be holy, which by the way
should indicate to you that it's not them. It's God doing it. Right. Yeah. The house
of Jacob will dispossess those who dispossess them. Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing
fire and the house of Joseph, a burning flame, but the house of Esau will be stubble. Now
hold on real quick here. There may be a blazing fire. So throughout the old Testament, who's
been the blazing fire? Then God. So they're saying the house of Jacob and the house of
Joseph are actually going to be representative of representing God. Okay. The house of Esau
will be stubble and they will be set on fire and consume them. Therefore, no survivor will
remain of the house of Esau for the Lord has spoken. People from the Negev will possess
the hill country of Esau. Those from the Judean foothills will possess the land of the Philistines.
They will possess the territories of Ephraim and Samaria. While Benjamin, that's not me,
will possess Gilead. The exiles of the Israelites who are in Halah, who are among the Canaanites
as far as Zarephath and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sarif, Sappharad will possess the
cities of the Negev. Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to rule over the hill country of Esau,
but the kingdom will be the Lord's. That's a lot of names.
Well, but here's the deal. Like you have this moment where the day of judgment is the Lord.
The Lord's going to restore Israel. The Lord lays out a plan of who's going to be where.
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Like the Lord, like here you have Obadiah declaring that the Lord has
this all under control. Like this is very encouraging if you're Israel because you're
like, our troubles are going to be over. They're going to cease. We're going to be restored
under God. Right. And we are going to be placed in the spots that he wants us.
So I think I hear two different things here. Yeah. One is this word to to the people. If
you are in a safe place and other people are not, is to have compassion, to reach out,
to take care of your brothers and sisters and to definitely not not participate in the
abuse. Yeah. Right. That is a good message for us to take that our call and it resonates
with the teachings of Jesus, with the apostles, with everything that we find in the rest of
the Bible. The other thing is. Yes, you're going into captivity. Yes, you're being displaced
because you screwed up. And I don't know a single Christian who hasn't screwed up and
been in this place. Yeah. Where they're like, I am reaping the reward for what I sowed.
Uh huh. Right. God still says, I've got a plan. I'm going to restore. I'm in charge.
I'll take care of it. I'll bring you back. Yeah. That's a that's a really good word of
encouragement when you feel like you're in the middle of chaos. Yes. As of your own actions.
Really good word of encouragement. And so, yeah. So when we are following Christ as a
household, right, like my my wife and I, like when we together as a household following
Christ, one of the things that we've recognized is that the culture of Christ in our household
is stronger than anything that he can throw at us. Yeah. And so so we recognize when those
quote unquote inconveniences come our way where we have to step outside of our comfort zone
and welcome someone into our house or take care of something that's an inconvenience
or doesn't fit into our time schedule for the day, right? That our culture in Christ
is stronger than whatever the world can throw at us. And sometimes there's going to be
struggles. Sometimes it's going to be really tough, right? Following Jesus isn't easy,
right? And sometimes there's tribulation. Sometimes there's persecution. Other times,
it's easy. There's things that are easy, right? Like it's both and. Yeah. And but we as believers,
we need to be willing to say, you know what, that is a difficult situation that I need
to step into. I think also this whole idea of interruptions, stepping out into places
maybe where we don't have a hundred percent footing and all. Yeah. Is also this invitation
to engage the spirit where he's working. Yeah. And they're actually some of the most profound
life altering life shaking moments. Yeah. When you're willing to get a little uncomfortable.
Yeah. For the sake of the gospel. Absolutely. By the way, the gospel, not just like declaring
the life, death, burial, resurrection of Jesus by the way that we live. Yeah. Right. Right.
Absolutely. That there's something different about us. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. There we
go. Little book, big message. By the way, like spend some time in the minor prophets
and spend some time in the prophets. It's difficult sometimes with the language, but
there is some really cool stuff that's going on in there. Yeah. There's always this massive
message of hope in the middle of chaos that God is bringing his people through. Yeah.
Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, till next time. And that's a wrap for today's episode
of Love and Context. We hope you enjoyed this engaging conversation and gained valuable
insights into the powerful message of love within the Bible. We'd love to hear from you
and continue the conversation. Connect with us by sending us your questions, thoughts
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