August 11, 2024
Obadiah 19-21
“From Days to Kingdoms”
Let’s gain some footing with a quick peek back at verse fifteen:
For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.
As you have done, it shall be done to you;
your deeds shall return on your own head.
Do you remember what he’s talking about? Edom’s sinister, wicked behavior will come back to haunt them. We all understand how that works.
Last month, as you might recall, there was the murder of a political rally attendee and the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate. Some people lost their minds. They made some truly ghoulish, reprehensible comments. One such person bemoaned the fact that the assassin missed. She posted it on her social media. She was a mom, probably in her 30s, who worked as an education specialist somewhere in South Dakota.
She posted it sometime on the day after the shooting. On Monday morning she was informed she no longer had a job. She was not the only horrible human being to do such a thing and suffer such a fate.
Eastern religions call it karma. John Lennon sang that sometimes karma gets you instantly. However long it takes, karma will strike.
While the Bible doesn’t call it karma, its use of the general concept was first on the scene. In verse fifteen, “your deeds shall return on your own head,” is an expression of retribution. In this case, it was from the sovereign hand of God. As Esau had done to others, so others will do to him. Some call it poetic justice. However you slice it, the evils he has rained down on his brother Jacob will now rain down on him.
There are two responses we can give to this Biblical truth.
First, if we’ve ever been grievously wronged, we can say “Amen” to however and whenever God expresses his retributive justice.
Second, if we’ve ever grievously wronged another person or people, we can repent. It is never too late. God forgives. As Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Amen? Amen all day long.
Here’s something you might want to write down:
JUSTICE IS ALWAYS SERVED AND EVIL IS ALWAYS REPAID.
So we’ve passed through the promise where justice is served. The Judean and Israelite survivors of the devastation wrought and facilitated, in no small part, by their kin, the Edomites, is behind them. Edom has been served a healthy dose of God’s wrath. Remember, the Day of the Lord announces divine punishment upon the enemies of God.
Verse eighteen brings the day of the Lord to a close. Figuratively speaking, all will be burned. The word Obadiah uses, “stubble,” refers to the dried remains of grain after the kernels have been removed.
When my wife and I visited our son in Minneapolis back in June, we toured
an old flour mill on the Mississippi. I’m telling you, it was fascinating. One of the displays described a fire that broke out when the mill was at its peak. A bit of friction could spark a conflagration of epic proportions. Fortunately, the one the display portrayed was contained. It was horrific, nonetheless.
Obadiah then ends this paragraph with “For the Lord has spoken.”
What he wants us to understand is that this is not Obadiah’s hunch or suspicion or some private dream of justice restored. No…no…no…it is the Word of the One, True, Holy God. And anyone who rejects this message of judgment rejects God. God is the Divine Guarantor of Obadiah’s words.
We now transition from The Day of the Lord to The Kingdom of the Lord. As we would suspect, while The Day of the Lord does not end well for unbelievers, The Kingdom of the Lord brings things to a positive close. Here’s something else you might want to write down:
THE GOOD GOOD NEWS.
Here’s how verses nineteen through twenty-one capture it:
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.
This is a huge pivot. All who flee from the wickedness of pride turn to the holiness of humility, peace, and joy in the Kingdom of the Lord. To help set up our understanding of these final verses, the Kingdom of the Lord…or the City of God…will be filled not with perfect people, but instead 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. {John Piper}
Before we further develop these final verses, we’re going to take a short excursion into a way of looking at life that has impacted many people, Christian and Jew alike. It is a philosophy of life developed by Viktor Emil Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, psychologist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor. He was the inspiration behind “Jesus and Logotherapy,” a groundbreaking book on Christian counseling by Robert C. Leslie. It had a profound impact on my worldview.
Here is a distillation of seven lessons that ground us in meaning for life. They point to the difference between living and merely existing. As we go through them, think of their connection to the teachings of Jesus.
LIFE HOLDS A POTENTIAL MEANING UNDER ANY CONDITION, EVEN THE MOST MISERABLE ONES.
We can find purpose and value in the worst of times. Think about the
Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor…blessed are the meek… blessed are those who are persecuted. It’s not about denying pain or hardship. It’s about acknowledging them. Those things drive us deeper into the presence of Jesus Christ.
TO LIVE IS TO SUFFER, TO SURVIVE IS TO FIND MEANING IN THE SUFFERING.
Does that sound bleak? I know, it kinda does. But since suffering is an inevitable part of life, what we do with it is what really counts. Where was our salvation from sin and death found? In the crucifixion. Suffering as redemption. As Frankl said, and it’s worth repeating, “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.” Many of us have had our own faith and character bolstered by the courage of a loved one going through one kind of suffering or another. As Charles Spurgeon once said:
“If it should come to losing all you have for Jesus' sake, be of good courage, for he that loseth his life for Christ's sake shall find it, and he that becometh poor for the cause of Christ shall be rich eternally. Be of good courage!”
FREEDOM TO CHOOSE ONE’S ATTITUDE.
Frankl was on the cutting edge when he asserted that even in the face of extreme adversity, we still have the freedom to choose our attitude. As he wrote:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Two of the most common…ubiquitous…expressions I reject are:
“I’m bored.” Really? The world owes you entertainment and engagement? Be honest…”I’m bored” really means, “I’m boring.”
“You make me so mad.” No…I chose to get mad over something you said or did. That is such a sign of weakness. Why would anyone give control of their emotions over to another? Jesus teaches us to rise above anger.
You might not have control over your circumstances, but you most certainly have control over how you respond to them.
THE SEARCH FOR MEANING IS THE PRIMARY MOTIVATION OF LIFE.
That is an almost universal drive and desire. Meaning. What is life about? What happens when my life is over? Does it matter what I leave behind? These questions matter. And while it isn’t usually easy, embracing the journey for finding your unique purpose in life brings great joy. As Jesus said in John 15:11:
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
LOVE IS THE ULTIMATE AND HIGHEST GOAL TO WHICH A PERSON CAN ASPIRE.
Love is not an emotion. Love isn’t something you feel or fall into. Love is a force capable of infusing life with profound meaning. Here’s something you might want to write down:
Love is about connecting deeply with others.
This is now the third time I’ve shared the same quote from Kurt Vonnegut, but’s it’s well-worth the repeat:
“You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.”
That’s what choosing to love means. Love is an active endeavor. There’s
nothing passive about love. Love isn’t something we wait to have happen to us. Love is something we choose to give and receive. As Paul captured it in 1 Corinthians 13:
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
SUFFERING CEASES TO BE SUFFERING THE MOMENT IT FINDS MEANING.
It sounds counterintuitive, right? What is our natural instinct in the face of suffering? Escape. Resist. But what if we saw it as opportunity for learning
and growth? Now, I’m not suggesting that we romanticize suffering. That would be bizarre. I’m only saying that we look for what suffering can teach us. Especially how it leads us to appreciate the small joys of life. It’s easy to find meaning in the easy moments of life. But why be ordinary? Find meaning in all things.
WE MUST NEVER FORGET THAT WE MAY ALSO FIND MEANING IN LIFE EVEN WHEN CONFRONTED WITH A HOPELESS SITUATION.
When life throws its worst at you, it’s easy to stay down in the pits. It’s easy to let despair wash over you. I recently read about a suicide pod that will soon be operational in Switzerland. It replaces the oxygen inside it with nitrogen, causing death by hypoxia. It would cost $20 to use. You climb inside, push a button, and you’re done. What a brave new world. The exact opposite of everything Frankl stood for. Never forget. As long as we’re breathing, there’s potential for meaning. Hold on to hope. When you’re being held by Jesus, that’s an easy thing to do.
Next week, we’ll connect this little excursion with the last three verses of Obadiah. Until then:
SOLI DEO GLORIA…
To the Glory of God Alone
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