Sunday, October 27, 10:00 am worship
Failure after failure, set back after set back. Do you know what it feels like to think you will never win?
In our march through the Minor Prophets this fall, we have seen stirring images of God, but a dismal view into the faithlessness of his people. In mercy God sends his spokesman, his prophets, to call his people back to covenant faithfulness. Yet they continue to rebel against him, to violate the dignity of others, and even to violate their own dignity. As God warned, their refusal to live out their mission as his covenant people meant the destruction of their nation by foreign powers. In 722 BC the Assyrian army crushed the northern Kingdom of Israel and those ten tribes of Israel were lost to history. Tragically, the southern Kingdom of Judah followed the same path. After generations of repeated warnings, God allows the Babylonians to destroy the northern Kingdom and God sends his remnant people into exile.
The book of Obadiah, likely written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, announces God's judgment against Edom, a neighboring nation to Judah. Edom delighted in the destruction of God's people, refused aid to Judah's refuges, and even handed those refuges over to the Babylonians.
Failure after failure, set back after set back. Is there any hope for God's people as they suffer under the weight of their self-inflicted tragedy?
God commissions Obadiah to speak into this shadow with a message of hope. God wins and so do you if you are on his side. Those who hurt you are not going to get away with it. Take heart. All is not lost.
God wins.
I look forward to worshipping together this Sunday.
Pastor David