Trust the Solid Rock

Please take his precious word and turn to the book of Obadiah. It's a tough one to find.! It's after those two big books of Ezekiel and Daniel.

! 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.

See, I will make you small among the nations, and you will be utterly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you.

You who live in the clefts of the rock and make your home on the heights. You who say to yourself, Who can bring me down to the ground?

Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord.

If thieves came to you, if robbers in the night, Oh, what a disaster awaits you! Would they not steal only as much as they wanted?

If grape pickers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes? But how Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures pillaged.

All your aliens will force you to the border. Your friends will deceive and overpower you. Those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it.

In that day, declares the Lord, will I not destroy the wise men of Eden, men of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified, and everyone in Esau's mountains will be cut down in the slaughter.

Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame. You will be destroyed forever. 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.

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.

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.

You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble. The day of the Lord is near for all nations.

As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head. Just as you drank on my holy hill, so all nations will drink continually.

They will drink and drink and be as if they had never been. But on Mount Zion will be deliverance. It will be holy, and the house of Jacob will possess its inheritance.

The house of Jacob will be afire, and the house of Joseph aflame. The house of Esau will be stubble, and they will set it on fire and consume it.

There will be no survivors from the house of Esau. The Lord has spoken. People from the Negev will occupy the mountains of Esau, and people from the foothills will possess the land of the Philistines.

They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead. This company of Israelites, exiles who are in Canaan, will possess the land as far as Zarephath.

The exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharod will possess the towns of the Negev. Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will be the Lord's.

You can keep your Bibles open to Obadiah or turn back in your Bibles there. It comes just before Jonah would be another way to find it in addition to the direction Stan gave you.

I want to thank you for welcoming us back here today. It's good to come back to the church that we called home for eight years and to worship with you today. We sometimes sing a hymn here, at least we did when I was here, and I assume you still sing it.

It has a chorus that goes on, Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. And whatever else is true in your life today, whatever difficulties you're facing, whatever joys you're experiencing, if you're a child of God, you can confess that, that you stand on solid ground today.

Christ is that solid ground. And I trust as we consider the plight of an ancient nation called Edom this morning, you'll see really huge modern day relevance for yourself.

Is the ground that you're standing on solid rock or is it sinking sand? How many of you groaned inwardly when Stan said, turn with me to Obadiah?

Yeah. Sometimes the minor prophets, and they're not minor because they're not important. That just means they're shorter than the major prophets who wrote more than the minor prophets.

All the prophets sometimes are hard to understand, if we're honest. And down in Warsaw, we've begun a short series on a few of the minor prophets. We're looking at Obadiah and Haggai and Malachi, and it gave a message just to introduce the prophets and some principles for interpreting the prophets and some background.

And let me mention just a few points from those things. One, I trust you know, is that the prophets spoke for God. They were messengers of God. God gave his word to his people, or to his prophets, and his prophets gave that word to his people.

They were messengers from God. And so you see at the beginning of Obadiah, for example, the vision of Obadiah, thus says the Lord God. This is the word of the Lord through Obadiah to his people.

But his word wasn't always just for his people. Sometimes he had a word for his enemies, for enemy nations, and that's the case with Obadiah. He's got a word for the people of Edom.

It would be a word that would comfort the people of Judah, his own people, but a word of judgment on Edom. I'll tell you who Edom is in a minute. So the first thing is God spoke through his prophets.

Second, you should always look for Jesus when you read the prophets. You say the prophets are full of gloom and doom and judgment, and Stan read Obadiah earlier, and you're thinking there's a lot of calamity and distress and disaster, but you should always look for Jesus because the New Testament tells us that Jesus is in the Old Testament, tells us that Jesus is in the prophets.

And ultimately, Jesus is the great prophet. Don't just look for Jesus in the message of the prophets, trying to figure out what they're saying and how that refers to Jesus.

Look for him in the role of the prophets, the function they fulfilled of giving God's word to his people. And again, this morning, Stan talked about Jesus as our prophet, the one who taught and preached.

And so you see Jesus as he fulfills the role of prophets. But Obadiah's message from God was one of judgment on one of the enemies of God's people.

He had a vision from God regarding Judah's neighbor to the southeast. Here's the Mediterranean Sea, and here's Israel and Judah. And down here, sort of southeast of the Dead Sea, is a nation called Edom, or was a nation called Edom.

And they are no more. And it wasn't just any ordinary enemy nation or neighbor. And I don't have time to go back and show you all of this this morning, but Edom, the Edomites, were descendants of Esau.

And you know who Esau is? He's the twin brother of Jacob. The history of Israel and Judah on the one hand, and Edom on the other hand, is the history of Jacob and Esau.

And so the conflict between them goes all the way back to Rebekah's womb. You remember how the children struggled within her. And so when you read about judgment on Edom and the prophet of Obadiah, don't just think, oh, it's another nation like Babylon, like the Philistines.

No, no, no, no. This is Jacob's brother. This is a child of Abraham. Not through Ishmael's line, but this is a child of Isaac, the son of promise.

One of Isaac's children was Esau. The word Edom is the Hebrew word. It sounds like the Hebrew word for red. And you remember that Esau traded his birthright for a bowl of red stew, and so therefore he was called Edom.

And so this history goes much farther back than it does with other nations and the people of God from the womb.

They didn't get along, and it was born out in their history as brothers Jacob and Esau, and then in the history of their descendants not getting along as nations. And it's come to a head here in Obadiah's prophecy with judgment from God being pronounced against Edom.

And Edom's sins against Judah are exacerbated. They're made worse by the fact that this is their brother. This is Jacob that they're fighting against.

So what would that judgment from God look like? Well, it's a sad story of putting your trust in the wrong place. Standing on sinking sand.

That's what Edom was doing. They were on sinking sand. And you'll see this morning, Lord willing, that God, one by one, takes their sources of trust and kicks them out from underneath them. They had put their trust in things that are very similar to what we tend to put our trust in.

And God comes along, and he says, just, and that's all it takes for God. It's nothing for him to come along and just flick out from underneath us the things that we have put our ultimate trust in.

And that's what Edom had done. They had put their ultimate trust in something other than the one true and living God. And so we're going to look just at the, really, we'll focus on verses two through nine this morning to see how Edom had misplaced their trust and to see what our trust should be in.

And you should be able to clearly see Christ today by his total absence from Edom's source of confidence. They didn't put their trust in Jesus where their trust should have been.

Now, there's so much more we could say by way of background and the role of the prophets and all of that, but to dig into the text, we're going to limit it to just that. You can find, there's two other messages on our church website with more information on the prophets in general and Obadiah and Edom in particular.

But I want to reread verses one through nine. And as I do, see if you can catch the sources in which Edom put their trust. I'm going to give you five of them today, but what things was Edom trusting in or were Edom trusting in that they shouldn't have been instead of the Lord?

And so follow along again as I read from God's word, Obadiah verses one through nine. The vision of Obadiah, I'm reading from the ESV.

You'll find it's a little different than the NIV if that's what you have, but fairly similar. The vision of Obadiah, thus says the Lord God concerning Edom. We have heard a report from the Lord and a messenger has been sent among the nations.

Rise up, let us rise against her for battle. Behold, I will make you small among the nations. You shall be utterly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you.

You who live in the clefts of the rock in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground? Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there, I will bring you down, declares the Lord.

If thieves came to you, if plunderers came by night, how you have been destroyed, would they not steal only enough for themselves? If great gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings?

How Esau has been pillaged, his treasures sought out. All your allies have driven you to your border. Those at peace with you have deceived you.

They have prevailed against you. Those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you. You have no understanding. Will I not on that day, declares the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom, an understanding out of Mount Esau?

And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O temen, so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter. So first of all today, what are Edom's sources of their misplaced trust?

What's Edom's misplaced trust? And then secondly, we'll talk about God's judgment and then we'll see rightly placed trust. What should we be trusting in? But we start with Edom's misplaced trust and I count five things he trusted in, that nation trusted in that they shouldn't have and the first is their dwelling place.

It seems that one of the foundation stones of Edom's confidence was its secure position geographically. You see in verse 3 how Obadiah talks about them living in the clefts of the rock in their lofty dwelling.

I'll read you what the Moody Bible Atlas says about Edom geographically. The combination of natural and man-made fortifications rendered Edom an impenetrable barrier to lateral traffic with one possible exception, the pass at Poonan.

The gigantic cliffs and steep gorges of Edom even from the more gentle slopes of Poonan's pass represented an inaccessible objective that an Edomite whim would continue to exist in splendid isolation.

In other words, you couldn't touch it. They were secure in their rocky fortifications and the cleft of the rock. Cleft of the rock could be clefts of Sila.

Sila was the capital city of Edom and the word for rock is the word Sila in Hebrew. So when you read verse 3, the cleft of the rock, you can also read cleft of Sila, the cleft of their capital city.

They had a position that was naturally defensible against attack. And it seems that in their minds they were high and mighty, untouchable. And we may not think that way quite exactly about our dwelling places, but don't we find comfort and security in the four walls of our house?

Monday, at least down in Warsaw, the wind was whipping through Warsaw. Probably here too. And I bet you found security in the four walls of your house.

You trusted in your dwelling place. When a storm comes, a tornado warning, you're thankful, if you have one, that you have a basement so that you can go down in there and we find security.

Not like Edom did. An army could run over your house pretty easily. So not that kind of security, but don't we put trust in our four walls? There's a comfort zone there.

People tend to put their trust in those sorts of things, but their position wasn't their only source of pride. That was number one, their dwelling place. Second was their riches. You see it in verses five and six.

And it's in the context of them being plundered, pillaged, but in order to be plundered, they had to have plunder. They had to have riches and wealth.

Talks about Edom's treasure in verse six. And it seems they relied on this. And isn't that an easy thing to put our trust in? As long as the bank balance is good, we're at peace.

Not worried about the next whatever, emergency that comes along, the furnace breaking. I've got some money in the bank. I'm okay. I'm at peace. I've got a good retirement fund.

I've invested wisely. I've got my money. I'm okay. Now back then, money could buy you allies. Possessing it demonstrated influence and power. And apparently, it was a measure, gave you a measure of confidence, just like it does today.

So many people trust the fact that they've got some money tucked away here and there. It keeps them at peace in times of a tumultuous economy or even times of unemployment.

They've spent their money well, they've invested it well, and they are secure because they've got some money. The lesson of Edom is that such trust is falsely placed.

Another place they put their trust was their allies. You see it in verse seven. All your allies have driven you to your border. Strong alliances.

Surely that will help us. We've got a pact, maybe with Babylon in that day for them. Maybe other nations. That'll be good, right? Obadiah talks about the men of your covenant. That's allies.

The men of your peace. Those at peace with you. The NIV has friends there. The men of your peace. Maybe you know enough of Israel and Judah's history to remember they had various alliances at various times in their history that came and went, and that was true of Edom as well, apparently.

They had alliances. It was true for other nations. And there's something comforting in numbers, isn't there? Two is better than one. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

And when you're headed off to war, it's nice to know that there's other nations on your side. You're not going it alone. But being that closely allied with someone also opens you up to betrayal.

Psalm 41 in verse 9. Even my close friend, that's that expression, the man of my peace. Even my close friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

And maybe you too have rested your confidence in well-placed or close friends. That's good. But when push comes to shove, will they stick around? We don't know.

We sing a hymn with a line that says, Put no confidence in princes, nor for help on man depend. That whole hymn is taken from Psalm 146.

And verse 3 says, Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that very day, his plans perish.

If you put your trust in men, ultimately, they may let you down. And so whether you're trusting in the princes of your own country or your allies, that's not a rock on which to rest your trust.

But Edom apparently was confident with their alliances. Another source of their trust was their wisdom. Verse 8. Will I not in that day, declares the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom.

They had wise men. They had wisdom. But wisdom, you say, is good. And that's true. Allies are good too. Money can be a good thing as well. A dwelling place is a good thing also.

But we're not to put our final trust in any of them. Edom may have been known for their wisdom, as we see in verse 8. The loss of wise men at the hand of God indicates that they once had wise men.

Jeremiah has a very similar prophecy against Edom and he makes this even clearer about the loss of wisdom. Jeremiah 49 in verse 7. Concerning Edom, thus says the Lord of hosts, is wisdom no more in temen?

Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom vanished? And how often do you find yourself relying on your wisdom?

You've always been able to figure it out. Whatever comes, you've been able to outsmart it. You've been able to think your way through it and use your brains and figure it in. And you find a way.

I'm smart enough. And I'll figure it out. Maybe it's a pious thing. You fear the Lord and believe that you've truly gained wisdom and that's good. We read Proverbs, the rest of Scripture, and believe that we should strive for wisdom, but we also know that knowledge puffs up.

It leads to pride and then our pride gets in the way. And we show just how foolish we are, just how much wisdom we still need. True wisdom leads to humility, not to pride. And we of course should remember Proverbs 21 and verse 30.

We might have all the wisdom in the world, we think. Proverbs 21, 30, no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord.

You can't match wits with the one who gave you yours. But Edom, it seems, trusted in their wisdom.

The last source of their trust that I want to point us to is in verse 9, their might, their strength. Edom had mighty men, then NIV has warriors there. And there's a source of comfort to any nation, right?

Don't you like knowing that the American military has massive firepower? Offensive and defensive capabilities? Of course. Those with great might rest easier at night.

But should they? Proverbs 21, 31, the horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord. what good were all of Egypt's mighty men and chariots when they chased Israel into the midst of the Red Sea?

What good were their mighty men then? How about Sennacherib's massive Assyrian army knocking on Jerusalem's door?

Could they stand in the face of the angel of the Lord that went out and slaughtered them in a night? Of course not.

And so for us, whether we're trusting in our nation's firepower, or maybe you've managed to amass for yourself a nice little arsenal in your gun safe at home, that makes you feel pretty secure, or maybe it's your literal physical strength.

You say, I haven't always been able to outsmart anybody, but I've been able to outwork them. I'm strong. I can always work. I'll always be able to find a job because I'm strong. I've got my strength.

Any trust in our might and our strength is misplaced. I love this quote from Matthew Henry. He says, it is vain, it is in vain to depend upon mighty men for our protection if we have not an almighty God for us, much less if we have an almighty God against us.

Now, a secure dwelling place. Here's, there are five sources of trust. A secure dwelling place, riches, allies, wisdom, and strength. What does that add up to? Well, for Edom, it seems it added up to pride.

And if you had all of those things going for you, wouldn't you be proud? Self-confident, I have built a pretty secure place for myself. My home, I've got my bank account, I've got my guns, I live in a pretty secure country, I've got strength, and I'm pretty smart.

I'm good. Good to go. And that seems to be what Edom thought. They were so confident they had become proud and that pride had deceived them.

Look at verse 3 again. The pride of your heart has deceived you. Now, the words about pride are directly tied to their secure location there in verse 3, but probably all of these other factors, these five things, played into their overconfidence and presumption, we could say.

Pride, you could translate that word presumption. We presume our position is secure. And in our society, the self-made man, a man who has made a situation like that for himself, he's taking care of those five things, he's got all that going for them, self-sufficient, self-confident, that kind of man is admired.

But Scripture shows us the reality, such a one is actually deceived. Isaiah 66 in verse 2, this is, but this is the one to whom I will look he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

To look to yourself instead of to the Lord is to be deceived. Whatever the source is, the point is, your pride deceives you. And the problem is, you don't see it because you're deceived.

You probably wouldn't say it out loud, but maybe you're saying in your heart, right this moment, this morning, along with Edom, who will bring me down? You see that at the end of verse 3? Who will bring me down to the ground?

I've got all of this going for me. I'm secure. I'm good. Who will bring me down? Listen. Proverbs 18.11, A rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his imagination.

You think you've got this fortified wall, this secure position. The reality is, your pride has deceived you. It's only strong in your imagination.

It's not real. And isn't that true in our experience? Has your pride ever deceived you? Your pride ever convinced you of something that wasn't true? There's a line in a movie that captures this.

It says something like, your ego is writing checks that your body can't cash. You get it? Your ego, your pride is saying, I can do this.

And you go and try to do it and your body can't do it. And that could be a minor thing. It could be comparatively harmless. As you get older, you think that you can still play basketball and hang with the young kids.

You can keep up with them. And so you go play. And not only do they show you up, you can hardly walk the next day. All right? Right? Your pride has deceived you.

Your ego wrote a check that your body apparently couldn't cash. And you're paying the price for it. Now, now that's no big deal, but what do you do when it's more significant?

When you're proud enough to think that you can beat the stock market and buying and selling single stock and you bankrupt your family? Your pride has deceived you.

What do you do when it's even more significant? What do you do when you go a lifetime getting by on your gifts, your talents, your good deeds, your kindness, your generosity, your hard work, your brains, and you die and you stand before God and he brings you down because your pride deceived you into thinking that you were okay?

Edom's pride deceived them. Secure, strong country, good alliances, and the Lord brought them down.

There's all sorts of sources for our pride. It doesn't have to be a high, rocky fortress. People read Obadiah and say, I don't live in the cleft of the rock. I don't struggle with that. But what is it for you? What is your source of pride?

Maybe you think you'll always land on your feet because of your charm and good looks, your sense of humor. Maybe your nest egg, that money you've got put away, that's your confidence. Maybe it is that arsenal that you've put together that could hold off a small army.

Maybe it's your superior intellect. You can outsmart anyone out there. It's your strong body, capable of hard work. Maybe it's your youth and your marketability. Take a moment this morning and ask yourself, what is it about you or your situation that makes you proud and confident?

It might match up with some of Edom's five. It might not. What is your source of confidence today? And don't just look around at the people around you and think, I know what his is.

That might be a sign of your own pride. And pride is so insidious that you can even be, you can even be secure in your humility.

I'm humble. The Lord has really humbled me. And I've really grown in godliness and therefore, I think I'm secure. Do you see how twisted it is?

I want to be really godly and I want to be really humble and I start to get complacent. Oh, the Lord has given me grace to avoid that pitfall that I see that person over there falling into and I'm falling into my own pit.

Isn't sin ugly? Isn't pride ugly? Doesn't it deceive us? Edom's pride deceived her. What about yours? So what happens to a nation like that?

What happens to Edom or to any others who misplaced their trust? Why is trust in these five things that we've seen misplaced? Well, in the second place, let's talk about God's judgment.

Here's Edom's misplaced trust. Now, God's judgment. As we see what the Almighty God says He's going to do, you'll see their trust for the folly that it is.

Verse 2, He'll make them small and despised. You add up those things of their secure position and their wealth and their allies and their wisdom and their might and in their own eyes you get the idea at least they were a force to be reckoned with.

They thought they were. It seems. But from that position they will be made small and despised. They'll be insignificant. And it's certain, this isn't just some other enemy nation hoping that this happens to Edom.

This is the word of God. He has declared it. This is what will happen to Edom. And what a humiliating thing. What a curse for those who desire significance, especially for those who have previously been big and important or at least in their own minds big and important.

Imagine, for example, the nation in which we live. A nation of great significance in the world. Great importance. Great might. What a humbling thing. What a humiliating thing it would be to be made small and insignificant where nobody thinks about what the United States is doing.

Nobody cares because it doesn't matter. Can you imagine our nation, the pride of our nation being reduced to something small and insignificant? Now, Edom's place in the world was not comparable to the United States place in our world today.

But, they were a pretty strong nation. They were pleased. It seemed, they were pleased with themselves. Imagine being reduced to nothing. That's what's coming for Edom. They'll be made small and despised.

Interesting then, when the prophet comes, Jesus is, Moses tells us that there will be another prophet like me. And then there's all these prophets, Amos, Obadiah, and they were like Moses in some ways, but Jesus is that ultimate, final prophet.

And so, should we be surprised when we hear Jesus say, in Matthew 23, 12, whoever exalts himself will be humbled. And whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Doesn't that describe Edom? They're about to be humbled. You remember that lofty, secure perch in which they dwell? The cleft of the rock, the cleft of Silah, where they say, who will bring me down to the ground?

Verse 3, God is glad to answer their arrogant with his strength. I will. Verse 4, I will, says the Lord. From there, I will bring you down.

Who will bring me down? I will, says God. You think you're high and mighty like the eagle nest above the stars, untouchable, but you're wrong.

And that's what God does with his self-exalted. Proverbs 15, 25, the Lord tears down the house of the proud. Should we be surprised that the testimony of Scripture is so consistent?

Edom proud and self-exalted, the Lord tears them down. Proverbs warned us, he tears down the house of the proud. Jesus says, whoever exalts himself will be humbled. See, the danger of being inflated by your pride and deceived.

And it's so for all of God's enemies, not just Edom. He brings his enemies down from the very stars. Verse 4, even Satan himself, one of the things that we've looked at with the prophets is that as you read of judgment falling on God's enemies, it's comforting knowing that ultimate, final judgment will come on all of his enemies in the last day, in the day of the Lord.

The prophets, even Obadiah, we read it earlier, talks about the day of the Lord. And that came in history on various nations. There was a day of the Lord for Edom. They were judged. They were punished. But the day of the Lord ultimately is the day when Jesus comes back.

And he comes as judge. And he brings destruction on all his enemies. And so when you read Obadiah and judgment coming on Edom, you can take comfort in knowing that ultimate judgment will come on all of his enemies.

Isaiah 14, verses 12-15. How you were fallen from heaven, O day star, son of dawn. How you were cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low.

You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. Above the stars of God, I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of assembly. In the far reaches of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will make myself like the most high. But you were brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. That was likely spoken against the king of Babylon, but we understand it to be true of Satan himself.

He exalted himself and the Lord brought him low. And when Christ comes again, will ultimately and fully and finally bring his doom.

In Obadiah, we see it's true of Edom and so it will be with all who exalt themselves against God and his people. That's comforting if you're God's people. It's terrifying if you're God's enemy.

Has your pride deceived you into thinking that you're high and secure and untouchable? God will bring you down from there. What about their wealth?

So God takes their high, secure dwelling place and says, I will bring you down. What about their wealth, their money? God's going to take it away. He'll send the nations to plunder them, to pillage them.

Verses 5 and 6. A thief only takes what he can carry with him in a hurry on the way out the door in the middle of the night. Even harvesters leave gleanings behind.

But those who come against Edom will be far worse than grape gatherers and thieves. They'll dig through all of their hidden, all their hiding places and the clefts and crags of their hideaways and they'll carry away everything.

All of it. How you have been destroyed, Edom. In other words, they'll grab your wallet and your credit cards and they'll find your bank accounts and your IRA and your 401k and the rest of your investment portfolio, the account that you had at another bank that nobody knows about.

They'll find the money that's stuffed in your mattress and hidden in the cover of the book, you know, there and the stuff that's buried in the backyard and everything that's in your safe. They're going to get all of it.

That's what's coming for Edom and it can just as surely come upon his enemies today. Are you trusting in your money?

It can be gone in a moment. All it takes is a stock market crash or hyperinflation or a pickpocket. It's gone. Trusting in your secure dwelling place?

Tornado can level it flat. It can be gone in a moment and it's coming for Edom. Their dwelling place? God will bring them down from there. Their money?

Plundered by the nations. What about their allies? Well, verse 7 is there's some hard expressions to understand but ultimately it looks like their allies betray them.

They'll deceive and turn against Edom as their pride deceive them so do their so-called friends. So the conclusion is there is no understanding in Edom. I have these friends if they turn their back on them and your friends could be gone in a moment too.

God's judgment comes and your friends are no help. What about wisdom? They've got that still. Verse 8 Will I not on that day declares the Lord destroy the wise men out of Edom and understanding out of Mount Esau.

The Lord himself you see the one acting against Edom he might use pillagers or untrustworthy allies or he may act directly. He can take their wise men or he can take their minds away like he did with Nebuchadnezzar.

You might be confident in your wisdom but God can take your mind in a moment. An accident with brain trauma maybe a slower thing like dementia and it can be gone and your wisdom does you no good.

Maybe you feel secure that all of your knowledge is stored up safely in your phone's memory or on your computer or in the cloud I feel really good with my stuff in the cloud don't you secure if my computer crashes it's not all local man it's somewhere else somewhere else can crash too you might be double or triple backed up and all of your wisdom and your understanding is vaporized there's a reason I carry this with me it's because this one doesn't work as well and so I've got a lot of knowledge stored up in here not wisdom really but knowledge knowledge be gone in a moment Job 12 verse 20 and 24 he deprives of speech those who are trusted and takes away the discernment of the elders he takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth they had understanding and he takes it away well I've still got my strength mighty what about those mighty men

Edom well they're either shattered or they're dismayed either translation could be appropriate here and your mighty men your warriors shall be dismayed I think the NIV has terrified there so they're dismayed terrified or they're shattered and either way it's not good as they see their stronghold and their wealth and their allies and their wisdom all their sources of trust disappear they're either frightened beyond usefulness or they're shattered themselves and that leaves Edom vulnerable to being cut off by slaughter all of them you trust in your strength God can take it away disease accident can be gone in a moment and you know what happened to Edom it came true within 300 years some say others by 70 AD but eventually Edom was no longer a nation strict justice from God would fall on them now we've applied this personally as we've gone along and please don't misunderstand what I'm about to say this is a prophecy about

Edom in history and ultimately all of God's enemies there was a day of the Lord for Edom and there will be a day of the Lord for all of God's enemies this is not a prophecy about the United States of America don't hear me saying that but don't you see in our own nation and others around the globe confidence in the very things that Edom placed their confidence in their security military might and power our alliances our wisdom we've got lots of people to think our way through any economic problem or whatever else comes along got our brains hope and don't get me wrong I'm very thankful to be a citizen of this country but that isn't my hope what should our hope be our hope is being part of the kingdom of the Lord look at the very last verse of

Obadiah verse 21 saviors shall go up to mount Zion to rule mount Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lord's the key thing is not being a citizen of Edom or the United States of America it's being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven that's true security and anyone or any nation who puts their hope in anything else is foolish and so let's talk about in the last place that rightly placed trust seen Edom's misplaced trust God's judgment that comes just kicks out all of that things that we trusted right out from under us and leaves us with nothing so what should we put our trust in and remember this is a prophecy against God's enemies if you claim to be a believer today but you find yourself trusting to re-examine your life true believers know where their trust lies and it's not in any of these five things at times our sinful selfishness and pride misdirect us and we start to trust in those things but

God opens our eyes we repent and we return to the rock and so if you're an unbeliever today eventually if not in this life then in a day of judgment all of your security will be removed we all be taken away and you'll face judgment like Edom all of those supports removed from out from underneath you just like Edom and so consider yourself warned as you read the book of Obadiah it's not irrelevant as some would think it's highly relevant to you today the good news is that there's a true refuge so where is it that we put our trust well let's look at the opposite of these five things don't trust in a rocky fortress trust in the rock 2nd Samuel 22 verses 2 and 3 the Lord is my rock my selah the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer my God my rock in whom I take refuge my shield and the horn of my salvation my stronghold and my refuge my savior you save me from violence the

Lord is my rock think about it for a minute should you should you trust in the rocks or in the God who made the rocks and has the power to crush them and you instead of a high wall in your own imagination rich man's wealth is like high wall in his own imagination instead of that you can have a real security not imaginary proverbs 18 10 the name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous man runs into it and is safe trust in the rock not a rocky fortress second don't trust in money trust in God first Timothy 6 17 as for the rich in this present age charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy third don't trust in allies trust in the Lord Isaiah 31 verses 1 through 3 woe to those who go down to

Egypt for help Israel is thinking about going down to Egypt to get their help for their ally woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong but do not look to the holy one of Israel or consult the Lord and yet he is wise and brings disaster he does not call back his words but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work in equity!

all and they will all perish together the Egyptians are man not God don't trust in man and allies trust in the holy one of Israel what about wisdom you're still holding on to that wisdom you man when you were a pastor you preached wisdom you preached the Proverbs to us well don't trust in wisdom trust in the Lord most of you could recite with me Proverbs 3 5 to 7 trust in the Lord with all your heart do not lean on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths and then the next verse verse 7 be not wise in your own eyes fear the Lord and turn away from evil don't trust in your wisdom and understanding trust in the

Lord who gives that wisdom and understanding and don't trust in your might but rather the name of the Lord Psalm 20 in verse 7 some trust in chariots and some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God they collapse and fall but we rise and stand upright Ephesians 6 10 finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might you see how scripture has an answer for each one of those five things we don't trust in them but in the Lord and it's not as though this mighty God is unwilling to have you place your trust in him he welcomes!

you James 4 6 but he gives more grace therefore it says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble 1 Peter 5 verses 6 and 7 humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you there's the place to put your trust and trusting in the Lord will require humility that's true if you're talking about your physical well-being providing for yourself and your family or if you're talking about salvation itself and that's the offense of the gospel we can't save ourselves we can't trust in ourselves it's entirely outside of us we can't even humble ourselves apart from his work in us and so by his grace we have to shed any semblance of self reliance and fall on

Christ and him alone and that is why sadly there will always be those who reject the savior Jesus because it means that they have to say that they are nothing and their pride won't let!

they're so deceived by their pride that they can't imagine total and complete dependence on the Lord they can't see their inability to meet their need and so they go right on trusting themselves all the way to hell and so it is often that God brings people to the absolute low point to an end of themselves he strips away everything from them he takes away all the things that they've been trusting in and makes them realize how totally dependent they are upon him he'll do that to unbelievers to draw them to himself he'll do that to believers maybe you've experienced that there's a believer you've been brought to an end and the Lord removes everything that you've been trusting so if you're an unbeliever today pray he'll open your eyes to your need and humble you and come and trust in him get rid of all your false sources of trust and believer where is your trust today is it in the

Lord Jeremiah 9 23 to 24 thus says the Lord let not the wise man boast in his wisdom let not the mighty man boast in his might let not the rich man boast in his riches see there's three of our five things right there but let him who boasts boast in this that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love justice and righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight declares the Lord it's not wrong to have a secure dwelling place a nice bank account friends wisdom and might don't don't go home and get rid of all of those things but what are you trusting in you trusting in the God who has given you those things or in the things themselves may

God give us grace to not be so foolish and proud is to trust in ourselves and to be deceived by our pride when our only trust should be in him salvation and hope and strength for this life and hope for the life to come are found only in Christ the solid rock may we stand on him not on sinking sand not on our own foolish sources of trust we've got we've got a beautiful savior we sang our expressions of love to him this morning are you taken with the beauty and the wonder of a savior who lets you fix your feet firmly on him he says come and trust in me and I will be that rock for you we don't have to be like Edom we don't have to trust ourselves we don't have to be deceived on

Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand let's pray together father we pray that you would give us grace to trust in Christ our rock not in our secure dwelling place not in our riches not in our wisdom not in our might not in our allies but in the Lord we pray that you would give us grace to fix our feet on the rock Jesus Christ and if any here are yet apart from the Savior Jesus we pray that you would do a great work that you would humble themselves that you would show them the emptiness of the things in which they are trusting and that you would show them the glory of the Savior Jesus in whose name we pray Amen