Tuesday, July 10

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Tuesday

“The Pride of Edom”

Now that we’ve covered who Obadiah is we can dive into his message. Obadiah’s message is threefold. Throughout the short book he’ll look at the pride of Edom (vv. 1-4), the fall of Edom (vv. 5-16), and finally the restoration of Judah (vv. 17-21). Today we’ll focus on the first part of his message, the pride of Edom. The pride of Edom is displayed in the opening verses of Obadiah. In Obadiah 1-4 the prophet declares, 

¹ The vision of Obadiah.

This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom —

We have heard a message from the Lord:
    An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Rise, and let us go against her for battle” —

² “See, I will make you small among the nations;
    you will be utterly despised.
³ The pride of your heart has deceived you,
    you who live in the clefts of the rocks^[a]
    and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
    ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
⁴ Though you soar like the eagle
    and make your nest among the stars,
    from there I will bring you down,”
declares the Lord. 

Verse 1’s a very interesting and important verse. It’s interesting and important because it establishes that the coming prophecy, the coming “vision” is from the Lord about Edom. Now if you’re not a Biblical scholar Edom is probably a fairly unfamiliar word. Edom is one of a few names that will be used throughout this book to refer to one of the neighboring nations of Israel. By this point in this series I’m sure most of us are familiar with Israel right? In the Old Testament Israel was the nation that God had chosen to be His people. It was a small, relatively unimportant territory in Palestine. Edom then, is one of her neighbor’s, the Canada to Israel’s America if you will. 

What we quickly discover about Edom is that God is incredibly upset with her as a nation. Obadiah doesn’t beat around the bush with this, instead he frontloads YHWH’s critique of Edom in these four verses. God promises to make Edom “small among the nations,” because “The pride of your heart has deceived you.”  

What was it that Edom had done to incur such judgment from God? Well the Edomite’s sin was multifaceted, but it all circles back around to their relationship with the nation of Israel. As we covered earlier Edom is a brother nation of Israel. As we continue to read through the book we’ll see that I’m not referring to Edom as a “brother nation” of Israel just because they share a border with them rather I refer to them as a brother nation because of their national origin, let me explain. The country of Edom was founded by Esau, the brother of Jacob.

Unfortunately just like the brothers had issues with each other throughout most of their lives these two nations had issues with each other throughout most of their histories. Although it’s impossible to know exactly what the relations between the two countries were like in the time period leading up to Obadiah’s prophecy we can take an educated guess. Commentator Paul Raabe summarizes that, “It is plausible to suppose that in the preceding century the relationship between Judah and Edom had become amicable.”  If Raabe is correct on that, and I believe he is, then in the period before Obadiah’s prophecy against Edom Israel and Edom were living together in a time of peace. 

So what happened? Well the short answer is that the exile happened. In 588 B.C. the armies of Babylon stormed down on the nation of Israel, killing many, destroying the capital city and the temple, and repatriating those who weren’t killed. The exile was a crushing event that changed the course of Israel’s history drastically and, are you ready for this? Edom was a part of it. Yes, here we arrive at the meat of Obadiah’s prophecy, Edom is condemned for her pride because she participated in the Israelite exile with the nation of Babylon. Read with me as we get a clear picture of the reason for Edom’s condemnation before God in Obadiah 10-14

Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
    you will be covered with shame;
    you will be destroyed forever.
¹¹ On the day you stood aloof
    while strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
    and cast lots for Jerusalem,
    you were like one of them.
¹² You should not look down on your brother
    in the day of his misfortune,
nor rejoice over the people of Judah
    in the day of their destruction,
nor boast so much
    in the day of their trouble.
¹³ You should not march through the gates of my people
    in the day of their disaster,
nor look down on them in their calamity
    in the day of their disaster,
nor seize their wealth
    in the day of their disaster.
¹⁴ You should not wait at the crossroads
    to cut down their fugitives,
nor hand over their survivors
    in the day of their trouble.

Those verses make the situation that we’re looking at clear. Obadiah is prophesying against the nation of Edom because of her pride. He’s prophesying against her because in her pride when her brother nation Israel was attacked by the Babylonians instead of rallying to Israel’s aid Edom pridefully looked down on Israel and acted alongside the Babylonians with violence against the people and nation of Israel. Make sure to check back in tomorrow as we discover what any of this has to do with our lives today. 


Grant Diamond

Monday, July 9

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Monday

“Who was this Guy?”

Before we jump into this post let me get something out of the way right now. If you’ve read the book of Obadiah on your own before, I’m impressed. Let’s face it, most of us have never read Obadiah before. Most of us couldn’t identify the message of Obadiah if we had to, heck most of us probably didn’t know there was a book title “Obadiah” in the Bible! I’ll be honest with you in telling you that I was right there with you a few months ago. When I was assigned the book of Obadiah to preach my first thought was, “Oba-who?” 

Even though I was initially underwhelmed when I found out I’d have to preach Obadiah I’m now incredibly excited to work through the book this week on the blog. I’m excited because this short little book is jam packed with truth for us about God, His Judgment, and His Mercy. Obadiah is a book that shows in a powerful and tangible way how fierce the love of God for His Children is. Before we get into all that though we’ve got to start with some background, if you’re anything like I was a few months ago you don’t know the first thing about Obadiah, so we’ll start there trying to figure out who He is. 

Unlike some of the Minor Prophets who are introduced with a lengthy introduction that dives into their genealogy and gives valuable identifying information about them, Obadiah gets no such introduction. Rather the only introduction we’re given for the book is this in verse 1, “The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom.” So all we know about this prophet is his name, Obadiah. But just to make things a little murkier we actually don’t know that his name was Obadiah. In Hebrew the name Obadiah means “servant or worshiper of YHWH” and it was often used as a title, thus it could just be indicating this writer’s subservience to the Lord.  

So we don’t know much about the author of this book. The question then, is if we don’t know who wrote the book, how can we trust it? That’s a fair and important question. Even though we don’t know who wrote the book of Obadiah it’s included within the Canon and within the “Book of the 12” of the Minor Prophets because its message, themes, and content all fall squarely within the Biblical narrative. In other words we can trust the book of Obadiah because there’s nothing in it to suggest that its author was anything other than inspired. We can trust its inspiration as the message within it is consistent with the messages found throughout the other Minor Prophets, and within the rest of the Canon of Scripture. 

Commentator on Obadiah, Paul Raabe, goes as far as to summarize Obadiah like this, he says, “Obadiah flows in the mainstream of the Israelite prophetic tradition…this short book eloquently summarizes many of the great prophetic themes.” So all that is to say, even though we don’t know much about the authorship of Obadiah, we can trust its message. 


Grant Diamond

Friday, July 6

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Friday

“True Religion Restored”

If you’ve been reading this week’s posts on the book of Amos I wouldn’t blame you for thinking something along these lines, “Man all this stuff is just negative!” If you’ve thought that, you aren’t too far from the truth. Much of the book of Amos is a “negative” message of the judgment and wrath of God coming upon those who practice dead religion. However Amos is not a book without hope. Although Amos spends most of the book proclaiming God’s judgment on dead religion the book ends with a powerful message of the restoration of true religion. This restoration of true religion is marked by the restoration of relationship, justice, and blessing. Let’s take a quick look at all three. 

Restoration of Relationship:

Amos first speaks of the restoration of true religion through the language of relationship. In Amos 5:14 he gives the hope filled promise, 

Seek good, not evil,
    that you may live.
Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you,
    just as you say he is.

Here’s what’s significant about that promise. Did you catch the last line? Amos commands the Israelite’s to seek good not evil so that the Lord will be with you, “just as you say He is.” That last line terrifies me. It terrifies me because what it means is that there were a group of people who believed with all their hearts that the Lord was with them, when He wasn’t. It terrifies me because the Israelite’s weren’t pagans, they thought themselves to be God followers who would have absolutely affirmed that God was “with them,” but Amos makes it painfully clear throughout this book that God has never been with them. Here though Amos’ message is hope filled. He promises the Israelite’s that God can be with them if they’ll seek good, and not evil.

Restoration of Justice

With restoration of relationship comes restoration of justice. As the Israelite’s rediscover their relationship with YHWH they’ll have to walk away from the injustices of their lives. Amos beautifully calls them toward this restoration of justice in these famous verses from later in Amos 5. 

²³ Away with the noise of your songs!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.
²⁴ But let justice roll on like a river,
    righteousness like a never-failing stream!

So the restoration of true religion and the triumph of God is marked by the restoration of relationship, and the restoration of justice. It’s simply impossible to be restored into relationship with God without having a lifestyle that matches up to that relationship. When we enter into a relationship with God our lives are necessarily changed as we grow in godliness and justice is the end result. 

Restoration of Blessing

Finally the restoration of true religion is marked by this, the restoration of blessing. As negative as the book of Amos is, it ends with a hopeful message of restoration for the people of Israel. Here, God’s grace is highlighted. Though the Israelite’s had turned away from Him completely, though they were an abomination to His glory and name, God doesn’t give up on them. They will be punished, but not destroyed. Amos ends his prophetic work with these hope drenched words in Amos 9:13-15, 

¹³ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,

“when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman
    and the planter by the one treading grapes.
New wine will drip from the mountains
    and flow from all the hills.
¹⁴ I will bring back my exiled people Israel;
    they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
    they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
¹⁵ I will plant Israel in their own land,
    never again to be uprooted
    from the land I have given them,”

says the Lord your God.

God hates dead religion. He hates it enough that he destroyed it in Israel during through the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles. Though He hates it He is gracious enough to His people to continue in His Covenant with them, if only they’ll turn their backs on their sin and embrace Him. At the end of the book of Amos we see that true religion triumphs as dead religion dies. Mercy is promised to a broken people, and God is exalted. Check back in on Monday as we dive into the book of Obadiah together. 


Grant Diamond

Thursday, July 5

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Thursday

“Dead Religion Destroyed”

The end is in sight for our series of posts on the book of Amos. So far we’ve been introduced to Amos the man, the message of Amos , and yesterday we looked at the picture of dead religion that Amos paints. Today we’ll continue through Amos by looking at the second major theme of the book, dead religion destroyed. Dead religion isn’t just pictured in Amos; it’s judged and ultimately destroyed.

Dead Religion Judged:

As we’ve covered in previous posts throughout Amos it’s made clear that God hates dead religion. Because God hates it Amos promises the Israelites, and us today that God will destroy it. Let’s pick up in Amos 2:13-16 where God shockingly declares, 

¹³ “Now then, I will crush you
    as a cart crushes when loaded with grain.
¹⁴ The swift will not escape,
    the strong will not muster their strength,
    and the warrior will not save his life.
¹⁵ The archer will not stand his ground,
    the fleet-footed soldier will not get away,
    and the horseman will not save his life.
¹⁶ Even the bravest warriors
    will flee naked on that day,”
declares the Lord.

Let me tell you, when I first read verse 13 “Now then, I will crush you as a cart crushes when loaded with grain.” I stopped reading, sat back in my seat and just said, “Whoa.” I mean it’s not often that you read a sentence like that in the Bible right? God’s message through Amos is clear though; dead religion has one end and one end only, His judgment. I love how detailed Amos’ description of YHWH’s judgment is here. Amos makes it painfully clear that no one practicing dead religion will be able to escape this Day of Judgment. The fastest runners won’t be able to outrun Him, the strongest people won’t be able to fight Him, and the bravest warriors will be so terrified before Him that they’ll run away naked! The battle between dead religion and God isn’t really a battle at all, God wins and there’s no contest. 

Of course God’s judgment isn’t on our timeline, it’s on His. The Bible never promises that the wicked will be judged as soon as they’ve committed their wickedness; it just promises that they will be judged. That judgment we just read in Amos was a judgment that God made in time. It was referring to the coming Assyrian exile where the Israelite’s would be killed or deported as God judged them for their sins against Him. Amos’ covers both these bases though; he delivers promises of judgment to the Israelite’s in the here and now, and in the eschatological future. Amos 5:18-20 gives us an example of the latter as Amos declares, 

¹⁸ Woe to you who long
    for the day of the Lord!
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
    That day will be darkness, not light.
¹⁹ It will be as though a man fled from a lion
    only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house
    and rested his hand on the wall
    only to have a snake bite him.
²⁰ Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—
    pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

Here Amos is detailing the judgment to come on the Day of the Lord. This judgment will be withheld until the end of all things when Christ returns triumphant. Amos includes both pictures of judgment, judgment now and judgment in eternity to make this truth as clear to the Israelite’s as he can: God hates dead religion, and He is going to destroy it! If you’re a practicer of dead religion, flee from it. There’s no life in dead religion, only death, and the promise of judgment. Make sure you check back in tomorrow as we see book of Amos end with the hopeful picture of true religion restored. 


Grant Diamond

Wednesday, July 4

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Wednesday

“Dead Religion Destroyed”

We’ve been walking through the book of Amos this week and have so far looked at the person of Amos, and the message of Amos. Over the next three days we’ll explore the three main offshoots of Amos’ theme, “God Hates Dead Religion.” Those themes are dead religion pictured, dead religion destroyed, and true religion restored. Today we’ll look at dead religion pictured. 

As we discussed yesterday the entire book of Amos is more or less a portrait of dead religion. Amos paints his portrait of dead religion with three primary colors. The first color in the portrait of dead religion is economic injustice, the second color is forgetfulness of relationship with YHWH, and the third color is the worship of empty rituals. Let’s take a quick look at each of the “colors.” 

Economic Injustice:

We looked at this first color a little bit yesterday but we’ll expand on it some more today. The biggest marker of the dead religion of the Israelite’s was their economic injustice. The Israelite’s had become rich at the expense of the poor among them, and had even begun to sell their fellow Israelite’s as slaves to turn a profit. Needless to say, God was upset. In Amos 5 YHWH declares that, 

¹¹ You trample on the poor
    and force him to give you grain.
Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,
    you will not live in them;
though you have planted lush vineyards,
    you will not drink their wine.
¹² For I know how many are your offenses
    and how great your sins.

All right, so the Israelite’s were being judged for the great economic injustice in their lives, what’s that got to do with us today though? Well Amos message was spoken to a community that was overflowing in financial blessing. It was a message spoken to a people who had prospered while others were starving. It was a message spoken to a people who had become comfortable in their wealth, who had built mansions for themselves while others slept on the streets. Does any of that sound a little closer to home than a nation from thousands of years ago? Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying that everyone who reads this is as guilty of Israel’s economic injustice just for owning a home in the Tri-Cities area. What I am saying though is that given our socio-economic situation here in the Western Suburbs of Chicago, when we come to a book of the Bible that condemns those who “trample on the poor,” and have “built mansions,” we should probably be paying close attention. 

Relationship Forgotten:

The next color that Amos paints his picture of dead religion with is the color of relationship forgotten. Amos condemns the Israelite’s throughout the book for their forgetfulness of their relationship with YHWH. As far as we can tell what had happened was something like this. The Israelite’s had drifted away from YHWH for a number of reasons. At the center of the drift though was the belief that because the Israelite’s were YHWH’s people YHWH would love, protect, and provide for them regardless of their fidelity to a relationship with YHWH. It seems that during the time of Amos the Jews had become complacent in their calling as the “chosen people” of God. Unfortunately what they’d forgotten was that being God’s chosen people entailed not only blessing, but responsibility. 

Again, the question that remains is, what’s this got to do with us today? There are millions of self-professed “Christians” around our country who have no relationship with God to speak of, yet have spent their entire lives believing that God loves them because they were raised in a Christian home, got baptized as a child, and show up at Church most Sundays. Perhaps you’re one of them. If you are then this morning you need to hear what the Israelite’s of Amos’ day needed to hear, there is no relationship with God apart from a joyful obedience to His commandments and a faithful submission to His authority over your life. Dead religion damns, but Jesus saves. 

Worship of Empty Rituals:

The final color that  Amos paints his portrait of dead religion with is the worship of empty rituals. What’s so shocking about the Israelite’s during the time of Amos is that this group of people who were oppressing the poor, sinning against YHWH habitually, and forgetting their relationship with Him daily, continued to go through the motions of worship through religious rituals. Well, believe it or not God doesn’t like that very much. Indeed He saves His strongest words in Amos to condemn those who love the rituals of religion, but don’t love Him. In Amos 5:21-23 He declares, 

²¹ “I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
    I cannot stand your assemblies.
²² Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
    I will have no regard for them.
²³ Away with the noise of your songs!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.

You’re probably sensing a theme here, but once again I don’t think that this picture Amos paints of dead religion is that far removed from what so much of American Christianity looks like today. After all, is there a better image to represent a people that love religious activities more than they love God than the fact that every Church across the country, including this one experiences its two biggest worship services on Christmas and Easter? The reason we pack services out on Christmas and Easter is largely because we, like the Israelite’s to whom Amos is prophesying are a nation full of people who love religious rituals but don’t love God. Be sure to check back in tomorrow as we see dead religion destroyed in the book of Amos. 

Grant Diamond

Tuesday, July 3

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In yesterday’s post we explored the person behind the book of Amos; if you weren’t able to catch that you can read it here. Having explored who Amos is, I wanted to spend today’s post diving into what his message was all about. At nine chapters the book of Amos is a fairly lengthy read compared to many of the other Minor Prophets, but the book has one central theme running throughout all nine chapters. That theme that defines Amos’ message can be summed up in these four words: God hates dead religion.

Although those words aren’t directly said anywhere in the book as your read through it it’s clear that they’re right at the heart of what Amos is teaching. To understand the message though we’ve got to start with understanding its context. In the first verse of the book we discover that Amos prophesied, “…two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.” Although there’s a little debate on the exact date of his ministry we can safely date Amos prophesying somewhere between the years of 765 and 760 B.C. The importance of that date is this: Amos was prophesying before the Assyrian or Babylonian exiles happened.

Amos was speaking to a nation that was prospering economically and politically. Although Israel had gone through, and would go through difficult economic times Amos ministry didn’t fall during one of those times. On the contrary Amos was speaking to a nation full of well off, comfortable people. It was that wealth and comfort though that brought the harshest rebuke from YHWH. In Amos 6 God proclaims through Amos, “Woe to those who are comfortable in Zion.” The picture that is painted throughout the book of Amos is of a people who while rich materially, physically, and emotionally were dead spiritually.

Throughout the book Amos will give a few different markers of dead religion. He’ll point out a few different tell-tale signs to help us identify dead religion from true religion. The sign that Amos returns to time and time again though is summed up in his first rebuke to the Israelite’s in Amos 2:6-7,

“For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed.”

The great sin of Israel in the time of Amos, and the greatest marker of her dead religion was her economic sin. We’ll cover this in more depth in tomorrow’s post but for now I just want to make it clear that at the center of dead religion in Amos’ time was a disregard for the poor and daily increasing levels of comfort and leisure for the rich.

God hates dead religion. Religion can be dead for any number of reasons, but a failure to empathize and care for the poor was a sure marker in Amos’ time of its death, and it remains a sure marker for us today. It seems fitting to close this post with the words of James, a man who would write hundreds of years after Amos. James summarizes true religion in this way in James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” God hated dead religion in Amos day, and he continues to hate it in ours. Make sure to check in tomorrow as we see the other markers of dead religion we’re given in Amos.

Grant Diamond

Monday, July 2

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Monday

This week we’ll continue our series on the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament, “Who Were Those Guys?” by exploring the book of Amos. Before we can dive into the message and content of Amos though we’ve got to figure out who he was, and what he was writing about.  In short we’ve got to start our exploration of Amos by asking, “Who was this guy?” That’s what we’ll explore in today’s post.

The book of Amos is different than many of the Minor Prophets where we’re given little information about the prophets other than a name (Joel, Obadiah, and Jonah for example). The book of Amos is different though. In Amos we’re presented with a detailed superscription that gives us lots of identifying information about who he was. Amos 1:1 opens the book by stating that the book contains,

“The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa —what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.”

There are a few pieces of information there that will prove to be important in our study of Amos. First note the profession of Amos, Amos was “one of the shepherds of Tekoa.” Amos was not a priest, nor was he wasn’t raised by his parents to be a prophet. Rather Amos was what many of you reading this right now are, he was a businessman. Amos background makes his message throughout the book all the more remarkable. As we’ll discover Amos was not given an easy message to bring to the nation of Israel.

Although his message was not easy to bring, Amos brought it courageously. I love how Amos responds to the false prophet Amaziah who calls on Amos to end his ministry. Bear in mind as you read Amos’ response that Amaziah was a powerful guy. Amaziah was employed by the King of Israel and could have easily had Amos killed. So in Amos 7:14 when told to back down from his prophecies against the nation of Israel Amos courageously proclaims, “I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”

I love how Amos leans on his story to give his message its power. Amos makes it clear that he’s not saying what he’s saying because he wants to say it, he’s saying it because God has told him to say it! Pastor Mark Driscoll likes to describe himself as a “Nobody trying to tell everybody about somebody.” That description fits Amos quite well. Amos was a nobody called to tell everybody about somebody. He was a meager shepherd called out of a life of business into a life of prophesy. Amos was called to prophesy to everybody in the nation of Israel to warn them of the impending judgment of the Lord.

I want to close out today’s post by encouraging those of you who are not involved in ministry vocationally. For all of you that are faithfully serving the Lord while still holding down a day job , you’re in good company, Amos was one of you! Amos was a man just like you, an ordinary man called to tell of an extraordinary God. You don’t have to be a Pastor to make an eternal difference in people’s lives. You don’t have to be a “…prophet or the son of a prophet,” to speak for the Lord. You just have to be a nobody willing to tell everybody about somebody.  

Grant Diamond