NO. 75 THE JUDGMENT ON EDOM

TEXT : OBADIAH 1- 21 1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.

2 Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.

3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?

4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.

5 If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how are thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? If the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?

6 How are the things of Esau searched out! How are his hidden things sought up!

7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.

8 Shall I not in that day, saith the lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?

9 And thy mighjty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.

10 For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.

11 In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.

12 But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.

13 Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;

14 Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.

15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

17 But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and thee shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it.

19 And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

20 And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.

21 And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s. (KJV)

The whole of the book of Obadiah tells of the sin of and the judgment on Edom. Today we are going to see this book.

Edom is the descendants of Esau and Esau is the elder brother of Jacob, Israel. So Edom is the brother of the true God’s people. There are some true God’s people who do His will and make a martyr of themselves. But there are other God’s people who persecute and deliver them to death. They are the people of Edom.

Edom means the red and one of the seven churches of the end time is also called “the red,” Sardis. This book of Obadiah writes of the sin of the God’s people, Edom, in the en d time.

We go along the text.

“An ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.”

The day is to come when the judgment on the God’s people, Edom is given and executed in the end time.

That is the recompense for the blood of their brother Jacob, the true God’s people that they shed. In the past the Jews have killed Jesus on the cross and cried and said, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” And they surely have received the recompense for the blood. The same thing will happen in the end time. The judgment on Edom is the recompense for the shed blood of his brother. And this is also understood as the judgment on the harlot Babylon. For one of the great reasons of the judgments on her is the blood of the saints shed by her.

“Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?”

They are God’s people. The rock is derived from the word of Peter as below.

MATTHEW 16: 18 And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (KJV)

“Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down.”

And they sit in the heavens and are the descendants of stars, the descendants of Abraham.

HEBREWS 11: 12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. (KJV)

“If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?

How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!”

The word “thieves” here is related to the one of Sardis as below. And it suggests that Sardis is Edom.

REVELATION 3: 3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shall not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. (KJV)

So if they think they belong to the church in Sardis, they should watch out. For the Bible repeatedly says that Sardis is Edom. The word grape means the God’s people as known well.

“All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.”

When we find the saying, “they that eat thy bread,” it probable means the communion in the Bible. We see the verse below.

JOHN 13: 18 I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. (KJV)

Accordingly it says of them betrayed by their intimate brothers.

“Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?”

The Bible often tells of “the wisdom” as to the end time. The word wisdom corresponds to the words “the mystery” or “the parable.” They are excellent in human interpretation, wisdom and knowledge, they do not seek the wisdom of the Person who is superior to Solomon. And so they will receive the reward of their own wisdom in the end time. They interpret the Word with their own wisdom and consequently distort the true meaning of it. But the day of the end time will not come as they interpret. Then they will be captured and made shame.

They are the same people as the wise men of Babylon symbolically mentioned in Daniel. They belong to Babylon and mean the wise men that belong to the world in the end time as the parable. The king of Babylon says that the reward for the wise men who cannot interpret the dream is the destruction.

This is surely the prophecy and it will happen to the wise men of Edom, the theologians and commentators in the end time.

“In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.”

The word lot has the hidden meaning. We are going to see it. It has connection with the incident when they cast lots for Jesus’ garments. For the same word is applied.

MATTHEW 27: 35 And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots. (KJV)

What does the word garments mean? I suppose that the garments mean symbolically the people who follow Jesus. For example the garments of Peter go along with him wherever he goes. If he goes to the mountain or sea, they go there. Likewise the garments of Jesus do the same.

The word lot has relation with the days of Purim, too. For the days of Purim are the days of lots. These days of Purim derive from the lot that Haman who is the enemy of the Jews casts in order to destroy the Jews who are the people of Mordecai, the type of Christ. These days of Purim have the hidden meaning that tells of the plot that they try to destroy the people of Mordecai, the people of Christ in the end time.

For that reason the day when they “cast lots upon Jerusalem” is the day of the plot that Satan fixes for the true God’s people.

“But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possession.”

It is written that there shall be some escaped in Zion, Jacob’s house. So some delivered will be able to meet the Lord in the end time.

How does this Edom’s betrayal to Jacob happen? My personal opinion is now as the following. The bill of regulating the cults is at present about to pass in each country of EU such as Germany and France. And some groups like the Pentecostal and so on are listed among the sects which they regulate as cults. And the reason for that is because they do not join to WCC. As long as I know WCC is the group like antichrist. It is considered that the opinion of Esau, the majority worldly Christians, has the great influences on that behind the scenes of their decision like this. And the scribes, the theologians may agree with them. I think that such a movement will be stronger and stronger among EU countries or in the world. Then the persecution will come up to Jacob, the people who follow the voice of the Holy Spirit. But it is the time when the Word will be fulfilled, and the judgment on Esau will be done some day.

The movement to divide all the Christians into Jacob and Esau is coming more and more.

Let’s do the will of the Lord in the end time.

End.