Wicked Rulers and Prophets

Micah 3:1-12 

1 And I said:

"Hear now, O heads of Jacob,
And you rulers of the house of Israel:
Is it not for you to know justice?

2 You who hate good and love evil;
Who strip the skin from My people,
And the flesh from their bones;

3 Who also eat the flesh of My people,
Flay their skin from them,
Break their bones,
And chop them in pieces
Like meat for the pot,
Like flesh in the caldron."

4 Then they will cry to the LORD,
But He will not hear them;
He will even hide His face from them at that time,
Because they have been evil in their deeds.

5 Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets
Who make my people stray;
Who chant "Peace"
While they chew with their teeth,
But who prepare war against him
Who puts nothing into their mouths:

6 "Therefore you shall have night without vision,
And you shall have darkness without divination;
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
And the day shall be dark for them.

7 So the seers shall be ashamed,
And the diviners abashed;
Indeed they shall all cover their lips;
For there is no answer from God."

8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD,
And of justice and might,
To declare to Jacob his transgression
And to Israel his sin.

9 Now hear this,
You heads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who abhor justice
And pervert all equity,

10 Who build up Zion with bloodshed
And Jerusalem with iniquity:
11 Her heads judge for a bribe,
Her priests teach for pay,
And her prophets divine for money.
Yet they lean on the LORD, and say,
"Is not the LORD among us?
No harm can come upon us."

12 Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And the mountain of the temple
Like the bare hills of the forest.

Micah preached the bad news to convict the people of God of their sin.  He did this as a prophet, but also as one of God who was full of God’s Holy Spirit.  He confronted the leaders of Israel to know and exercise true justice and to love good instead of loving evil (Amos 5:15, Romans 12:9).  They were to stop using and abusing the people they were supposed to be serving and ministering truth and justice to.  Because they were unrepentant in these things, God would not hear their cries for help and prayers for relief from their sin’s consequences.  Yes, they cried peace, peace while feeding themselves and finding no peace for themselves (Ezekiel 13:10) in return.  God took away their vision and yes-man prophets who had no message from Him to give.  Micah was given a message because he was called, chosen, and faithful (Revelation 17:14).  He spoke plainly and directly of how their judges did no justice unless it was bought from them for a price and the priests did their work as a service for pay instead of service to God which brought them needed support.  This is unfortunately reflected in our days also with self-appointed pastors and priests serving their pockets and pride instead of following the example of scripture to serve God and His people in humility.  The sincere ministers of the Lord deserve to be supported but not as an employee, rather as to honor and enable them for service (1 Timothy 5:18, 1 Corinthians 9:14).  He called them to love justice instead of hating it and to be fair instead of perverting what is good and right.  They should not be bought for a price but at the price of Christ’s atoning work of righteousness to come as seen by those searching through the scriptures of His coming and work even then.  They continued to do all for monetary gain (1 Samuel 8:3) instead of as 1 Peter 5:2 instructs the ministers of God to do instead in humble service and as godly examples.  The penalty and consequences of refusing these things led to ruin and destruction of where the people of God should have been worshiping and serving the LORD in the temple.  We now serve Him in these bodies as temples 1 Corinthians 6:19) making up the larger temple which is the church (1 Peter 2:5).  May we learn from the bad examples to do according to the scriptures instead that we might please and honor God as we minister to one another in humility and fairness in all our service.  Remember the wicked self-seeking rulers and false prophets and the consequences of ungodly motives and actions.  Do not imitate them but Christ in others (1 Corinthians 11:1) according to God’s word. 

Woe to Evildoers and Lying Prophets

Micah 2:1-13 

1 Woe to those who devise iniquity,
And work out evil on their beds!
At morning light they practice it,
Because it is in the power of their hand.

2 They covet fields and take them by violence,
Also houses, and seize them.
So they oppress a man and his house,
A man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says the LORD:
"Behold, against this family I am devising disaster,
From which you cannot remove your necks;
Nor shall you walk haughtily,
For this is an evil time.

4 In that day one shall take up a proverb against you,
And lament with a bitter lamentation, saying:
'We are utterly destroyed!
He has changed the heritage of my people;
How He has removed it from me!
To a turncoat He has divided our fields.'"

5 Therefore you will have no one to determine boundaries by lot
In the assembly of the LORD.

6 "Do not prattle," you say to those who prophesy.
So they shall not prophesy to you;
They shall not return insult for insult.

7 You who are named the house of Jacob:
"Is the Spirit of the LORD restricted?
Are these His doings?
Do not My words do good
To him who walks uprightly?

8 "Lately My people have risen up as an enemy—
You pull off the robe with the garment
From those who trust you, as they pass by,
Like men returned from war.

9 The women of My people you cast out
From their pleasant houses;
From their children
You have taken away My glory forever.

10 "Arise and depart,
For this is not your rest;
Because it is defiled, it shall destroy,
Yes, with utter destruction.

11 If a man should walk in a false spirit
And speak a lie, saying,
'I will prophesy to you of wine and drink,'
Even he would be the prattler of this people.

Israel Restored

12 "I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob,
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;
I will put them together like sheep of the fold,
Like a flock in the midst of their pasture;
They shall make a loud noise because of so many people.

13 The one who breaks open will come up before them;
They will break out,
Pass through the gate,
And go out by it;
Their king will pass before them,
With the LORD at their head."

Woe was pronounced on the ones who sat around thinking how to doe evil against others, staying awake until they cannot wait to rise and put their wiles into practice just because they have the means and opportunity.  Their motive is just to kill and destroy like their father the devil (John 8:44).  Because of their wealth and influence they see someone else’s property or possessions and plot to take it for themselves like modern day crooked businessmen or political bureaucrats.  Their greed says whatever they have is never enough (Isaiah 56:11).  God therefore told them He would plot against them in return, bringing down their pride in such evil times.  Even what they had would be taken away like the land they had stolen from the weak and vulnerable among their own people.  When prophets were sent to warn them to turn from sin to following Him, they berated them and told them to stop their constant dripping of words which they refused to hear and heed for their good.  God therefore promised to stop the prophets from wasting their time with them because of their stiff necks and deaf ears instead of returning insults for their insults.  This is equivalent to not throwing pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6) as Jesus told us when the gospel is vehemently rejected and mocked when heard.  We do not return insults but pray and shake the dust of rejection off as we move on to receptive ears prepared by the Lord.  God further told His people that all their outward good deeds would not change the power of His Spirit behind the words He gives unless they sincerely walk in the obedience of righteousness as they heed what they have heard.  All their rebellious acts against each other only took away from His glory meant to be displayed through them as His chosen people.  They did not willingly enter His rest according to trust in His word (Hebrews 3:18-19, 4:10-11) and so faced the consequences of destruction.  They would rather listen to drunken nonsense than the hard truth.  In spite of all this, God still promised restoration to a remnant of the faithful sheep, herding them back to His fold to follow Him again and increase their scant numbers once more for His purposed glory and honor.  The King would once more pass before them as their head.  Jesus Christ did so and will do so forever for all His called sheep as our Head because He gave us ears to hear; may we faithfully follow Him!  Woe to evildoers and lying prophets, however.  He looks for us to follow His word and speak it faithfully (Jeremiah 23:28-29). 

Coming Judgment

Micah 1:1-16 

1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

2 Hear, all you peoples!
Listen, O earth, and all that is in it!
Let the Lord GOD be a witness against you,
The Lord from His holy temple.

3 For behold, the LORD is coming out of His place;
He will come down
And tread on the high places of the earth.

4 The mountains will melt under Him,
And the valleys will split
Like wax before the fire,
Like waters poured down a steep place.

5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob
And for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what are the high places of Judah?
Are they not Jerusalem?

6 "Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field,
Places for planting a vineyard;
I will pour down her stones into the valley,
And I will uncover her foundations.

7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
And all her pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire;
All her idols I will lay desolate,
For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot,
And they shall return to the pay of a harlot."

8 Therefore I will wail and howl,
I will go stripped and naked;
I will make a wailing like the jackals
And a mourning like the ostriches,

9 For her wounds are incurable.
For it has come to Judah;
It has come to the gate of My people—
To Jerusalem.

10 Tell it not in Gath,
Weep not at all;
In Beth Aphrah
Roll yourself in the dust.

11 Pass by in naked shame, you inhabitant of Shaphir;
The inhabitant of Zaanan does not go out.
Beth Ezel mourns;
Its place to stand is taken away from you.

12 For the inhabitant of Maroth pined for good,
But disaster came down from the LORD
To the gate of Jerusalem.

13 O inhabitant of Lachish,
Harness the chariot to the swift steeds
(She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion),
For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

14 Therefore you shall give presents to Moresheth Gath;
The houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.

15 I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah;
The glory of Israel shall come to Adullam.

16 Make yourself bald and cut off your hair,
Because of your precious children;
Enlarge your baldness like an eagle,
For they shall go from you into captivity.

The coming judgment on and mourn for Israel and Judah (Samaria) were given through the words of the prophet Micah.  The LORD called the entire world as a witness for His coming down from heaven to judge the nations, especially His own people.  All this destruction on the earth stemmed from the sin and transgressions of Israel and Judah centered in what should have been the center of worship in the beauty of holiness from Jerusalem where sacrifice and atonement were found.  Instead, altars to non-existent gods of wood and stone from man’s hand and imagination were bowed down to as they ignored the LORD.  God would reduce their idols to rubble and bury them in it to reveal their faulty foundations of spiritual adultery and immorality.  The prophet went about in mourning of sackcloth and ashes over the incurable wounds of their sin as disaster loomed over the people of God in impending judgment.  Still there was a promise of God’s glory to shine through on His people as they went into captivity to discipline and correct them in His steadfast love.  There is hope in the face of judgment still for those who find rest in Christ with His righteousness and grace to forgive and accept those who have opened ears to hear and hear the Shepherd’s winsome voice as His needy sheep.  There is a still coming judgment, yet there is also still the steadfast hope of reconciliation and restoration in God’s work on behalf of His chosen children. This is the gospel hope of good news in the face of bad.  Hear, receive Him (John 1:12) and believe His work (John 6:29), and live!  Amen. 

Condemnation or Compassion? (Jonah's Anger and God's Kindness)

Jonah 4:1-11 

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2 So he prayed to the LORD, and said, "Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. 3 Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!"

4 Then the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

5 So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. 6 And the LORD God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. 7 But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. 8 And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah's head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

9 Then God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?"

And he said, "It is right for me to be angry, even to death!"

10 But the LORD said, "You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?"

Job was angry and displeased at God’s lovingkindness and mercy shown to the wicked undeserving sinners of Nineveh.  He only wanted them to get what they deserved and was angry when God showed grace and mercy to those sinful and wicked people of renown in Nineveh.  He repeated scripture like Exodus 34:6-7 about God’s character of lovingkindness and being slow to anger while displaying grace and mercy, but he ironically he himself acted contrary to how God did in a display of his own sinful wickedness.  He bemoaned how he had run away from his calling to preach the bad news of judgment to Nineveh because he knew God had this character and would likely forgive and spare them.  He ran away because he wanted them to suffer justice for their sin against God and not get away with their unrighteousness, forgetting it was God’s kindness that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4), and that repentance then leads to forgiveness and life because the LORD is merciful.  Jonah went so far in his anger at not seeing that the sinners were smited that he wanted to die rather than see them happy when forgiven, probably because he had worked so hard his whole life to be righteous and felt those who lived in sin deserved only destruction.  He felt only the ones living right deserved God’s love and grace, which is not sound theology because God’s grace is undeserved and all our best efforts fall short because we are all sinners (Romans 3:20, 23).  He did not really understand God’s character and his own sinfulness with a humble heart and mind.  He still thought that Nineveh would end in destruction even though God had forgiven them because they had sincerely repented, and so set up camp outside the city to wait for their destruction.  God tried to teach Jonah a lesson by giving him a shade plant to ease his misery which then was eaten by a worm and died the next morning and a harsh wind.  Jonah again was asked if it was right for him to be angry about the plant dying just as he was about the people of the great city being spared from death.  God pointed out that he had pity of compassion on a plant provided by God but not for the one hundred and twenty thousand persons spared by God’s own compassionate pity who were made in the image of God and needed to hear what was right and wrong (Deuteronomy 1:39) according to His word delivered by a prophet like Jonah.  We do not have the rest of the story that ends so abruptly here, but we hope that Jonah took God’s correction to heart, repented of his self-righteousness, and learned to show compassion instead of Pharisaical judgment of hate and condemnation.  May we at least learn this lesson for ourselves as we consider God’s forgiveness of reconciling grace in Jesus Christ for each of us whom He has shown pity and compassion on! 

Deliverance by Preaching of God’s Word

Jonah 3:1-10 

Jonah Preaches at Nineveh

1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you." 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. 4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

The People of Nineveh Believe

5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,

Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?

10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

Jonah preached deliverance by means of God’s word.  His first command to the prophet was to go to Nineveh to cry out against their wickedness that had been so great as to reach to heaven and stirred up the call of judgment for her.  This second word of the LORD came after Jonah stopped running from that calling through affliction as of death for three days with life given when he repented and glorified God in heartfelt worship and prayer.  He realized that salvation, deliverance from God’s just wrath due on sin against Him, was from Him alone and not earned by man’s righteousness or kept from man by sin alone.  The seeds of the gospel of grace of forgiveness through God’s work were planted here for us to find (Luke 24:27).  The messenger preached the word of God to call the Ninevites to repentance as they heard the bad news of their impending judgment dooming them all for their sin.  He walked for a long time through that immense city with this warning until the inhabitants heard and believed God.  Their sincere repentance moved them to fast and pray with sackcloth to demonstrate their lack of being able to do anything able to earn God’s favor.  They were spiritually destitute and acknowledged that with confession of their sins and entreaties for forgiveness and mercy.  Even the king joined in by tossing aside his royal robes of position and power to confess he had nothing before God Almighty to be worthy of anything but the judgment of divine justice.  All was as ashes that they all possessed and had relied on, burnt and blown away as dust of chaff in the wind and dirty rags past making clean again (2 Peter 3:10, Psalm 1:4, Isaiah 64:6).  The king commanded the fast and mourning of repentance with a turning away from their wicked ways and violence against each other.  He prayed that God would see and hear them and turn from destroying them as they deserved.  The hope was that just maybe the LORD would relent of His just wrath and pardon them by keeping them from perishing at His divine hand of justice.  God saw their works out of truly penitent hearts and He relented from their sentence of death.  This is a shadow as a protogospel with the elements of hearing the bed news, active turning from sin to Him with a true heart, and finding the good news of grace’s forgiveness from the LORD as a gift unearned and saving the hearers who receive God’s work on their behalf from the destruction of a certain judgment.  We are all born in sin, not good as some liars tell us, and deserve only a certain judgment of divine anger on our rebellious sin against God and His word which we reject by disobedience.  Yes, only the unearned gift of God’s grace can deliver us to from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10) as He did for those of repentant Nineveh.  The bad news of our certain judgment is healed only with the eternally healing balm of the good news of God’s work (John 6:29) which we hear by the preaching of God’s word and believe through faith and repentance to life.  Hear, turn, trust, and receive Him!  That is the message Gods brings to us by His messenger and Son, Jesus Christ. This is the good news as soul-healing balm to answer the bad news of the certain judgment we are all born into in our sin.

God Answers Prayers for Deliverance

Jonah 2:1-10 

1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly.
2 And he said:

"I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction,
And He answered me.
"Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
And You heard my voice.

3 For You cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me;
All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.

4 Then I said, 'I have been cast out of Your sight;
Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.'

5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.

6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
O LORD, my God.

7 "When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the LORD;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.

8 "Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own Mercy.

9 But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the LORD."

10 So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

God answers sincere prayers for deliverance when He opens our eyes through dire circumstances and His word.  When we truly see who He is and His divine character in His presence revealed before us, we see His answer to save us.  Jonah cried out in despair in the dark confines of the stomach of the great fish and knew that God heard and answered him.  He had been running from the LORD until he found himself cast into the depths of the sea as despair and from there looked up again as the sea billows rolled.  He confessed his sin of leaving Him and vowed to look toward Him once again.  The temple was not a mere building Jonah had in his sight, but rather the God who dwelt there to hear his prayer (1 Kings 8:38-39, Psalm 5:7) as promised according to His word.  He recalled the deep all around, dark and cold, with weeds choking him and without ant foreseeable hope until He remembered his God and prayed to Him with expectation.  This LORD God lifted him up out of his pit of despair and the memory of worshiping Him as before when he was heard praying gave hope to the hopeless.  He acknowledged that the idols such as of those of the crew of the ship he was tossed overboard from, these idols were worthless and lifeless, unable to assist or answer any empty prayers.  They could promise nothing, especially no deliverance.  What then did Jonah do?  He offered his wholehearted thanks to the living God as his sacrifices and promised to follow God’s word according to His revealed will.  He most of all confessed that God alone can offer salvation.  Then God heard his heart cries and told the fish to vomit the reluctant messenger on dry land after three days.  How many will read the account of Jonah and be moved to believe that God hears and answers prayers for salvation?  Jesus said in Matthew 16:4 that few would hear Him for salvation (Luke 11:29-30, 32) even when a similar sign would be given them where He would be three days in the deep of the grave as Jonah was in the fish.  When we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ it is only as God speaks to open our ears to hear that we can truly listen, believe, and receive Him for our deliverance from the penalty of sin and death.  The sign of Jonah is recorded to point us to the one who was not disobedient to the Father (as the prophet was) and who willingly threw Himself for three days into the depths of death (unlike Jonah’s mere imprisonment in the great fish for three days) in order to bring a resurrection hope out of His actual death for us all (1 Corinthians 15:20-22) as He hears and answers our sincere prayers (Romans 10:9-10, 13) for eternal deliverance from sin and death and the deserved punishment of Hell holding us accountable.  This is the gospel shadowed in Jonah.  God answers prayers for deliverance! 

Disobedience and Deliverance

Jonah 1:1-17

Jonah's Disobedience

1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." 3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

The Storm 

4 But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.

5 Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.

6 So the captain came to him, and said to him, "What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish."

7 And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 

8 Then they said to him, "Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?"

9 So he said to them, "I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."

10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, "Why have you done this?" For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. 11 Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?"—for the sea was growing more tempestuous.

12 And he said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me."

13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they cried out to the LORD and said, "We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You." 15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows. 

17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

The man Jonah was the son of a prophet whose name meant “My truth.”  When Jonah heard God call him to speak against the great Nineveh for their greater sin against the Lord (presumably their idolatry and immortality), he flew away like the dove which his name meant.  He did not want to confront the sinful people there and warn them more out of disdain than fear.  It seems to have been a form of self-righteous judgment that kept him from obedience to the LORD’s call.  Heaven forbid that we ourselves should ever refuse to bring good news of forgiveness and deliverance to any people we look down on and consider unworthy of the gospel!  God stopped the runaway by ensuring that the ship he escaped on was buffeted by a huge storm to either destroy or turn Jonah back.  The tempest tossed the ship as the crew cried out in vain to nonexistent gods to no avail.  Then they woke Jonah and asked him to call for help to his God.  He remained silent until they cast lots to identify him as the cause of their calamity.  Then he testified to his God being the creator and who lived in heaven above this storm below and to fearing Him alone.  This caused great fear among the crew because they had heard of this powerful God and because this man before them had defied and disobeyed Him, bringing the calamity upon them all.  In running from His presence, Jonah had brought His presence to them all with fearful power and judgment.  That is why their imagined gods could do nothing and they knew it.  The tempest raged on until they realized that the only course of action was to do as the prophet told them and cast him into the stormy sea’s billowing waves.  They did not want his blood on their hands and so cried out in prayer to the God of heaven for forgiveness as they realized His sovereignty in the whole matter.  They tossed him in and calm settled in, leading the crew to turn to fear and worship the LORD with sacrifices and resolutions to follow Him.  These were the first converts to the LORD as it were by Jonah.  God still kept the messenger safe by providing a great fish, likely a whale shark, to swallow him and transport him to the predetermined destination.  We see that we can run from God’s calling only so far until He brings us back, even when we feel washed up in our disobedience and timidity (2 Timothy 1:7).  If we turn from our disobedience to remember His deliverance of our salvation, we will find the strength to face the ungodly with compassion and grace instead of prejudice and judgment of condemnation.  How much better to follow in trusting obedience when He calls a man to do what he is gifted and placed in the world to do! 

Final Triumph of Deliverance and Holiness

Obadiah 1:17-21

17 "But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance,
And there shall be holiness;
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

18 The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
And the house of Joseph a flame;
But the house of Esau shall be stubble;
They shall kindle them and devour them,
And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,"
For the LORD has spoken.

19 The South shall possess the mountains of Esau,
And the Lowland shall possess Philistia.
They shall possess the fields of Ephraim
And the fields of Samaria.
Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

20 And the captives of this host of the children of Israel
Shall possess the land of the Canaanites
As far as Zarephath.
The captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
Shall possess the cities of the South.

21 Then saviors shall come to Mount Zion
To judge the mountains of Esau,
And the kingdom shall be the LORD's.

God’s chosen people escaped final judgment by God’s grace and mercy for deliverance from sin’s punishment and towards holiness as they were created and called for.  This holds true still for all who receive the gospel call for the message remains the same as it has been fully revealed in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:3-4).  The LORD God promised this salvation and their righteousness, but they just had not yet quite understood that it would be His righteousness and not their own in that deliverance.  The promise to “possess their possessions” meant they would have what was predetermined as promised as His children to assure them of the veracity of God’s word and goodness.  They would once again burn bright with the worship of service to the LORD and shine that light to the nations from that hill (Matthew 5:14-16, Romans 11:25, 16:25-26, 2 Corinthians 4:6, 2 Peter 1:19).  The kingdom on earth was promised as a shadow of the unending one to follow at the end of time after the final judgment, a down payment as it were on the true inheritance of the people of God from Israel and out of all nations through them (Genesis 22:18, Acts 3:25).  The final Savior who is the long-expected Messiah has come and judged the enemies of Him and His people because the kingdom is truly the LORD’s as promised.  This short book of Obadiah has a lasting message of this kingdom as promised and fulfilled in the gospel of Jesus the Christ!  It is the message of the final triumph (1 Corinthians 15:26, 55-57) over sin and death of judgment through the grace of deliverance (salvation) and holiness which we find being in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30-31) and being formed in us day by day (2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Peter 2:24).  Let us rejoice and be glad in this! 

Edom Judged for Mistreating His Brother

Obadiah 1:10-16

10 "For violence against your brother Jacob,
Shame shall cover you,
And you shall be cut off forever.

11 In the day that you stood on the other side—
In the day that strangers carried captive his forces,
When foreigners entered his gates
And cast lots for Jerusalem—
Even you were as one of them.

12 "But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother
In the day of his captivity;
Nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Nor should you have spoken proudly
In the day of distress.

13 You should not have entered the gate of My people
In the day of their calamity.
Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction
In the day of their calamity,
Nor laid hands on their substance
In the day of their calamity.

14 You should not have stood at the crossroads
To cut off those among them who escaped;
Nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained
In the day of distress.

15 "For the day of the LORD upon all the nations is near;
As you have done, it shall be done to you;
Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.

16 For as you drank on My holy mountain,
So shall all the nations drink continually;
Yes, they shall drink, and swallow,
And they shall be as though they had never been.

Edom née Esau was judged by God for violently mistreating his brother Jacob who was later named Israel.  Edom would be shamed and cut off from the promises because of the rebellion according to the word of the LORD given through Obadiah.  He was already judged for rebellious pride and now this charge was laid on top of that.  Because Edom stood by and did nothing to help Jacob when under attack by other nations and leered with proud derision at Israel in his captivity while rejoicing in his destruction, judgment held Edom to account.  It is a similar derision which Christ suffered while crucified (Psalm 22:7-8, Luke 23:35-36) as His people mocked and hated their long-expected Messiah.  God told Edom that he should not have joined those set against His chosen ones nor acted in such hateful pride when Jacob was facing calamity and affliction or plundered them at the opportune moment when he was down at the hand of the enemy.  Edom should not have turned over his brother’s children to the enemy in their distress as collaborators with the ungodly.  The warning included the fact that judgment was closing in as the Day of the LORD came nearer and their sin would come back on their own heads.  Just as they had done, it would be done to them.  The nations set against God’s children would be defeated as if they never even existed, so any alliance with them was futile and their rejoicing over the difficulties of God’s chosen through Jacob would not bring joy, but eternal sorrow.  This applies to all who persecute the chosen children of God in Christ before and after His appearance on earth among us (Emmanuel).  God will avenge His people and magnify His name in honor and glory according to His grace and judgment (Colossians 3:24-25, Revelation 6:9-10).  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands as Hebrews 10:30-31 tells us. 

Judgment on Proud and Rebellious Edom

Obadiah 1:1-9 

1 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, saying,
"Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle"):
2 "Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
You shall be greatly despised.

3 The pride of your heart has deceived you,
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Whose habitation is high;
You who say in your heart,
'Who will bring me down to the ground?'

4 Though you ascend as high as the eagle,
And though you set your nest among the stars,
From there I will bring you down," says the LORD.

5 "If thieves had come to you,
If robbers by night—
Oh, how you will be cut off!—
Would they not have stolen till they had enough?
If grape-gatherers had come to you,
Would they not have left some gleanings?

6 "Oh, how Esau shall be searched out!
How his hidden treasures shall be sought after!

7 All the men in your confederacy
Shall force you to the border;
The men at peace with you
Shall deceive you and prevail against you.
Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap for you.
No one is aware of it.

8 "Will I not in that day," says the LORD,
"Even destroy the wise men from Edom,
And understanding from the mountains of Esau?

9 Then your mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed,
To the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau
May be cut off by slaughter.

The prophet Obadiah, "servant of Jehovah," brought this message against Esau’s descendants known as Edom for their pride in rising above the chosen people of God through Esau’s brother Jacob.  As it is written in Malachi 1:2-3 and explained in Romans 9:11-13 about God’s hatred for the sinful rebellious pride of Esau when he gave up what was given him (Genesis 25:34, Hebrews 12:16) as if a birthright from the Almighty meant nothing, this is the root of the judgment on the nation of his likeminded descendants.  God therefore pronounced this word to hold them accountable and destroyed after being humiliated to set them rightly in the place they chose for themselves.  These who relied on their physical strongholds in the mountains defied Jacob’s (Israel) descendants and rose up against them and even God Himself as the Deceiver did (Isaiah 14:12-13, 14-15) in puffed up self importance and perceived power over Him.  God’s messenger brought the clear answer, that Edom would be defeated and thrown down in humility from that proud stance.  They would be robbed of the glory of God they had supposed to take for themselves because they were His vessels of wrath (Romans 9:22) and not God’s chosen vessels of mercy (Romans 9:23).  The enemies of Edom would be brought to bear on them no matter who Edom tried to ally with.  Their end of doom was set and they would be cut off from the living for their pride of rebellion against God and His chosen people.  This passage has much to teach us about the election of grace and judgment on those not of the sheep of Christ, demonstrating the called and chosen versus the ones chosen to be left in their sin which they were born in.  It demonstrates how the grace and mercy of God is according to God’s choice of His chosen and not our own earned worthiness; we are saved by grace alone and not by earning salvation by seeking out God or doing enough good to be credited to our account.  No, rather we have unmerited favor of the choice of God as His children to credit His righteousness to us because we are His, while those not of the sheepfold (John 6:44-45, 8:47, 10:26-28) do not receive anything but what we are all due from birth (Romans 3:23, 6:23).  Like Jacob, those chosen by God from before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) and fall of man are spared judgment, while the children after the mindset of brother Esau are left to the judgment earned as wages of sin (Romans 6:23) which they earned.  God is infinitely fair and just in these things, not to mention infinitely merciful to those He chooses to lavish His love on.  The works of each reflect who they are (John 3:18-20).  May we read and take these things to heart in humility and gratitude for the grace of God and not think of ourselves as better than any other.  Remember the judgment on proud and rebellious Edom.