Tom Groelsema | The Kingdom is the Lord's

Sunday Morning, July 5, 2026

Given by Tom Groelsema | Executive Pastor

Christ Covenant Church

The Kingdom is the Lord's

Sermon Text: Obadiah

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I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Obadiah. Obadiah. I don't have a pew Bible in front of me, otherwise I'd give you the page number, but you'll have to search for it. The Book of Obadiah. We are turning to this book this morning because over the next five weeks, while Kevin is on his study leave, we're having an interlude in our study of the book of Romans. And what we're going to be doing over these five weeks is looking at the five one-chapter books of the Bible. Can you name them? Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude. So those five books of the Bible over these next five weeks. And so, Obadiah this morning. Before we read and study, let's turn to God in prayer. 

Our heavenly Father, we do praise you for your Word, even for what we might call a hidden book of the Bible, buried in the Old Testament, an ancient book written long, long ago. And yet we believe that all Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness so that the man of God, the woman of God, may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. And so, we believe, God, that you have something important for us here in this book of Obadiah. Would you teach us, instruct us? Help our minds to be focused. Help our hearts to be open. Father, we wait upon you for your Word. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

So, let's read together the book of Obadiah. 

“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 grape 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, and understanding out of Mount Esau? And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman, so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter. Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. But do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune; do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin; do not boast in the day of distress. Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity; do not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity. Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives; do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress. 

For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deed shall return on your own head. For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as those that had never been. But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy. And the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions. The house of Jacob shall be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken. 

Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. The exiles of this host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb. Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.”

Well, dear people of God, of all the minor prophets, Obadiah is probably the most minor of all. And why would we say that this morning? Well, a few reasons. First of all, Obadiah is a hidden book – meaning, you know, in the Bible, in the Old Testament, even in the minor prophets, only 21 verses long, the shortest book of the Old Testament, and a book that is easy to overlook and hard to find. I don't know how many times this week as I was turning in my Bible to Obadiah, I had to do this exercise. Maybe you did this morning as well. Hosea, Joel, Amos, ah Obadiah, there it is, and turn to in my Bibles. Another reason why it's maybe the most minor of all the minor prophets is that most of us don't know a whole lot about the book. So, sometimes in Presbytery exams, we'll say to a candidate, “Outline the book of Philemon for me, and tell me its theme.” Now, imagine this morning if I were to do that to you: “Outline the book of Obadiah, and tell me its theme.” You didn't read it ahead of time. You're getting examined this morning, Presbytery exam. Outline the book of Obadiah for me, and tell me its theme. How many of you would have been able to do that? Probably not a lot of us. And then one other reason why it's a minor of the minors, we really don't know much about Obadiah who wrote this book. His name isn't that uncommon – 12 different men in the Old Testament with this name – but none of them seem to be identified with this prophet. And so, he's a bit unknown to us. Now, put all of that together, and maybe you're asking the question, why are we studying this book? Or what might God have to say to us this morning through the book of Obadiah? Well, let me simply say this that Obadiah, although a minor prophet, had a very major message. And his message is this – if we could summarize it, his message is this – God is sovereign over all things, even the nations, and he will punish those who oppose him but will deliver his people, for the kingdom is the Lord's. 

Let's approach the book two ways this morning. First, exposition. So, we're just going to walk our way quickly through this book, kind of touching down, highlighting parts of the book, and then we'll have four pieces of application in the end. 

So, first of all, exposition. We see the background of the book at the very beginning. Verse 1, “The vision of Obadiah,” and then notice this line, “Thus says the Lord concerning Edom.” So, this is a book about the nation of Edom. Another name for Edom is Seir. S E I R. You'll see that sometimes in the Bible. It’s a nation that lay just to the east and south of Israel. So, you cross the Jordan River or go across the Dead Sea, and Edom was at the very bottom of the Dead Sea, stretching down to the Gulf of Aqaba, modern-day Jordan. Major cities in Edom: Teman in the south (it's referred to in verse 9), Bozrah in the north, Sela (or you may have heard of this city – another name for Sela – Petra). Some of you may have even visited Petra before, this ancient city built into the cliffs in Jordan. It was the capital city of Edom. And then there were two prominent features to Edom. First, it had two major trade routes that ran through it. So, as people moved from Egypt to the Middle East to Mesopotamia, they often took one of those highways, those major highways through Edom. And because it was such a major trade route, or these two trade routes were there, Edom was wealthy. Edom was prosperous. Much trade happened in that nation. And then the other prominent feature is that Edom had a rocky, mountainous spine – mountains running right through the heart of the country – which made it a protected nation. 

Now, here's what's most important about Edom. It’s that the Edomites were descendants of Esau. So, we have Jacob and Esau. Jacob becomes Israel. Esau becomes Edom. Genesis 36:1, “These are the generations of Esau – that is, Edom.” And you'll remember from your biblical knowledge that there was an ongoing battle between these two brothers right from the very beginning. Right? So, God had made a promise. The older, Esau, would serve the younger, Jacob. In Genesis 25, we read that the children, these two boys, Jacob and Esau, they struggled within her, within their mother. Already, there's a tension. There's a battle in the womb between these two sons. Genesis 27, Jacob steals the birthright of Esau, and the Bible says Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And then one more biblical reference, Numbers 20. As Israel was making their way from Egypt to the promised land, and they're going through the wilderness, and they come up to Edom, they say, "Can we pass through on our way?" The Edomites said, "No, you are not allowed to pass through our country. You have to go around." And so, this book is a prophecy about this brother opponent of Israel. 

Now, let's quickly make our way through it. Look at verses 2-9. You see in that section Edom's pride and punishment. The root of Edom's sin was that she was proud. Her pride was connected to two prominent features in the nation: her wealth and her security. Look at verse 3, “The pride of your heart has deceived you. You who live in the clefts of the rock in your lofty dwelling, you say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down?’” The Edomites, in other words, they're living in this mountainous region in the clefts of the rock. They say, "Nobody can touch us. Nobody can defeat us." Boastful, proud, considering themselves impenetrable. You see another picture of their progressive self-assurance, kind of it grows in verses 3-4. They live in a lofty dwelling, but then verse 4, “not only that, but you say you soar aloft like an eagle.” They're going higher and higher, right? Their pride is lifting them up farther and farther. “And your nest is set even among the stars.” Images and pictures of their big head, as it were, their pride – but God is going to punish her. So, you back up to verse 2, the Lord says about Edom, “I will make you small among the nations” – where at the end of verse 4, from there, from those lofty heights that you consider yourself to be there, I will bring you down. What Edom had failed to do is acknowledge the greatness of God. And God says, I'll take care of you. You think you are great, I will make you small. You are lofty, and I will bring you or cut you down to size. 

You see their transgression. Moving on, verses 10-14. Their pride ended up resulting in practice, and you see it here in these verses. These verses actually hold the historical context for the book. A disaster had fallen on Israel, most likely the Babylonian invasion of 586. And rather than coming to the help of Israel, what Edom did is that they served the enemy. They helped the enemy. And you can see this in these verses. So, verse 11, “On the day that you stood aloof.” Edom like Cain, as disaster is coming upon Israel they asked the question, "Am I my brother's keeper? Why do we have to come and help Israel?” They stood at a distance. They watched. Again, verse 11, they were like those who cast lots for Jerusalem. They were opportunistic with Israel's destruction. What can we – how can we profit from it, they're asking themselves. And then you see a series of commands, verses 12-14 – do not, do not, do not, and so on, and these commands further describe their sins. So, verse 12, they gloated over what was happening to Israel in the day of their misfortune and rejoiced in Israel's destruction. Verse 13, they entered the gates of Jerusalem, and they looted the wealth themselves, pillaged the city. Then verse 14, they stood at the crossroads to cut off the fugitives. So, as people are escaping the city of Jerusalem, escaping from Israel, there was Edom ready to cut them off, or if they did not cut them off to hand them over as survivors, giving them over to the Babylonians. Friends, we read a little bit earlier from Psalm 137, the psalm lamenting Israel's exile to Babylon, but there was a verse in there about Edom. “Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites, the day of Jerusalem and how they said, ‘Lay it bare. Lay it bare.’” That's what the Edomites did. As Israel is crumbling, as Israel is falling, as the temple is toppled, there were the Edomites, saying about their brothers, "Lay the city bare. Let it be destroyed.” 

Well, God responds to this – verses 15-18, the coming day of the Lord, a familiar theme of the prophets, a day when God is going to visit and turn the tables. On the one hand, he comes with justice and judgment against those who have not worshiped him. You can see the justice there in verse 15. God says, “As you have done, it shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return upon your own head. You drank on my holy mountain, so now you will drink, drink and swallow the cup of God's wrath.” But the day of the Lord is not just a day of judgment. It's also a day of deliverance for those who belong to the Lord, and you see the important word there at verse 17 – the first word, “but.” “But in Mount Zion, there shall be those who escape, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.” In other words, God's people will inherit the land, and in fact, the house of Jacob, verse 18, shall be a fire; the house of Joseph a flame; and the house of Esau, stubble. Esau, Edom, will be burned up and destroyed. 

And then the book climaxes, verses 19-21, with the Lord's kingdom being established. Vision of an established kingdom as God's people return to their land. What an amazing promise when you think about this book coming just after the Babylonian exile. God's people have been dispersed, but here God says they will be re-gathered. And look at all the places that they're going to possess. Those of the Negeb (southern Israel) will possess Mount Sinai. Those of the Shephelah (the area between the mountains of Israel and the coastline), they will possess the land of the Philistines. They will possess Ephraim and Samaria and Gilead. The exiles, verse 20, will possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath (a city on the coast up near Tyre and Sidon). And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad, which is eastern Turkey – they, too, will come back and possess the city of the Negeb so that the kingdom will be the Lord's. 

Now what can we learn? There's a quick tour through the book. What can we learn from this book? Let me give you four points of application. Number one, Obadiah teaches us that God is the Lord of the nations. God is the Lord of the nations. The sovereignty of God, friends, is front and center in this book, and you see it in a number of different ways. First of all, God is a God who speaks. So, verse 1. That's where we began. “Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom.” God has a word for the nations, and his word decrees what comes to pass. When God speaks, the very thing he says – just as at creation when he said “let there be light,” there was light. When God speaks concerning peoples and individuals and nations, what he says comes to pass. And so, he speaks. He also acts. So, verse 2, God says regarding Edom, “I will make you small. I will bring you down” (verse 4). Now that is not to say that God doesn't use secondary means. When God acts, God often uses means, doesn't he? And it's very clear in this book. God is going to use Babylon to bring destruction to Israel. And God will use Israel to bring destruction to Edom. Secondary means it's how God works in our own lives too, isn't it? So, we pray for daily bread, and God gives it to us. And then he says to us, "Well, go get a job.” You want daily bread? Get a job, so you get a paycheck, so you get daily bread. He works through means, and you see that here in this book as well. But ultimately, what we're saying this morning is ultimately – and Obadiah teaches this – ultimately behind all that happens is the sovereign hand of God's providence. He uses means, but behind it all there is God. And that is true here in this book, because in this prophecy, I want you to notice that God's name is first and last. So that very first verse, “Thus says the Lord God,” and you go to the last line of the last verse, “The kingdom shall be the Lord's.” God the Lord is first and last, and everything in between in this book, he is the sovereign actor. And so, while this book is about Edom and Israel, ultimately this book is about God and his sovereignty – his sovereignty in our lives, all of our individual lives, but his sovereignty over the nations, to kings, to Israel, to Edom and its judgment. 

I remind you of a couple of different passages in the Bible that spell this out as well. Daniel 2:21, “God changes times and seasons, and he removes kings and sets up kings.” God takes kings down, and God lifts kings up. Proverbs 21:1, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord, and he turns it wherever he will.” The heart of our president is in the hand of the Lord. He will direct it as he wants to direct it. People of God, I think this is an important reminder on this weekend of the 250th anniversary of our independence, isn't it? That God is Lord and sovereign over the nations and over our nation – that the freedoms that we enjoy as a nation are the result of God's sovereign direction. It's interesting that our founding fathers understood this. Maybe their faith in God may be a little bit different at times than ours, but they spoke of this often. They saw the founding of America as a result of divine sovereignty and providence, that God was at work in the founding of this country. John Adams – a letter to Abigail, his wife, on July 3, 1776, the day after the Continental Congress voted for independence – he said, "I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling providence in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe.” Go to the close of the Declaration of Independence, and it closes like this: “For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” Firm reliance on the protection of divine providence. America is what it is today because of the providence of God, his sovereignty. Edom is what it is today because of divine providence and sovereignty, and every other nation of the world. God is the Lord of the nations. 

Second application or lesson: this book teaches us that God's sovereignty demands our humility and allegiance to God. It's very clear – one thing that stands out in this book is the pride of Edom, that it was the root of their sin. It's what led them to hand Israel over to the Babylonians. This was also the root of Israel's disobedience and wickedness. Why had the Babylonians come? Because of the pride of Israel. Because of their failure to acknowledge and worship God. And this ought to be no surprise to us when we see what happened to Edom, when we see what happened to Israel, because pride is the root of the first sin in the garden. Go back to the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve's failure to obey God – the root of it – is pride. They wanted to be like God, right? If we just eat that fruit, we will be like God. That's where it stemmed from. It's not only the root of their sin. In fact, it's the root of Satan's fall. Isaiah 14:11, “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven. Above the stars of God, I will set my throne on high.’” Look at the comparison this morning between what Satan said, "I will make my home in the stars," and what Edom said in verse 4, "Your nest is set among the stars.” This pride, lifting ourselves up, making ourselves lofty – I'm going to live among the stars, I'm going to rule, I'm in charge – and God comes along to Edom and says, "Oh, your pride has overtaken you, and it's for that very reason that you're going to be brought low.” People of God, God crushes proud people. There's a lesson here for us to learn. God crushes pride. James 4:10, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” God is opposed to pride and proud people. And James goes on, "Humble yourselves, therefore, before the Lord, and he will exalt you." God cannot stand pride – in us, in others, in nations. God is jealous for his own majesty. God will not share it with another. And when people or nations or kings or whomever becomes proud, God opposes them, and God says, "I will bring you down." And you see, as a result of that, his sovereignty begs for humble dependence on God. This is what we say all the time when we make our confession from our Shorter Catechism – what is the chief end of man? It is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Right? Not glorify ourselves. It is to glorify God. We are in a position of being beneath God and honoring him and exalting him and humbling ourselves. That is how we are supposed to live. Well, the same is true for us as a nation. I don't know if you were here last week. I was gone last weekend, but I read Kevin's prayer – just a beautiful prayer – thanking God for our country, which we should do, and then confessing the sins of our nation to God, which is something that we also must do. This need to acknowledge and to lean upon God as our king, this need to humble ourselves before the Lord or face the threat of his just judgments. And in fact, this gives the mission of the church, or this gives the church a mission to accomplish, and that is to go and call sinners to repent and to believe in Christ. To go call our nation – not just corporately but individuals – to come to Christ, to humble themselves, to cast themselves upon the Lord. So, the sovereignty of God demands our humility and our allegiance to God. 

Lesson three: God's kingdom will prevail. What a great prophecy at the end of this book. Israel possessing the nations. God drawing his people out of exile from the east and the west. The kingdom of God established. People of God, this is nothing less than a promise of God's coming kingdom. A kingdom that, yes, is coming, because what Obadiah prophesied is happening today. And this ought to give us great hope in the triumph of the gospel. Think with me just for a moment about some things happening right now – our church sending people all over the world this summer with the gospel, to the Middle East, to Kenya, France, Indonesia, Peru, Detroit. The kingdom, as Obadiah said, the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Mike sent me a picture. Mike Miller sent me a picture the other day of pastors gathering in Indonesia, some traveling over 2,000 miles to get trained in church government so that they can order their churches by the Scriptures. The kingdom shall be the Lord's. Gospel Church Munich, Stephen Mueller's church – 130 to 150 people in worship, 40 nations represented, and a large majority of the church under 35 years old. 130 to 150 people in Germany is probably a megachurch. The kingdom shall be the Lord's. Think about our church plants in Monroe and Myers Park and Lumberton or Viva Charlotte. We were asked as a staff this last week, and I would ask you this morning – this came from Trent Thomas – to pray for Will. This young man named Will – pray for Will, that he would come to Christ. The kingdom shall be the Lord's. This Tuesday night, O Nights. As Eric has told some of us, there are increasing conversations with our neighbors about Christ. The kingdom shall be the Lord's. And then today, as we celebrate the Lord's supper in just a few minutes, we're going to take an offering for Metanoia Prison Ministries. About 35 members of our church right now corresponding, writing letters to prisoners, discipling them in the Lord, hundreds of prisoners being discipled. The Lord has his church behind bars, and you can be a part of it. The kingdom shall be the Lord's. Obadiah says the kingdom is going to prevail. God's kingdom is going to prevail. As we read earlier, the kingdom of our Lord shall be the kingdom of Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever and ever and ever. Hallelujah. 

And then a final lesson: the kingdom is the Lord's, it is coming, all because Jesus has conquered sin and death. Friends, where do we see Jesus in this book? Well, I think we get a picture of him in the very last verse: “Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau. The kingdom shall be the Lord's.” God says, I will send deliverers. I will send saviors. Sometimes they were prophets. Sometimes they were kings. Ultimately, it would be the Messiah, King Jesus. Friends, all that Obadiah saw in this vision, all that God promised is true because of Jesus. I want you to turn with me as we wrap up this morning one other place here in the Bible, Isaiah 63. Turn over to Isaiah 63, verses 1-4. And there's a dramatic picture here of God conquering the nations. Really a picture, ultimately, of Christ. Many similarities between Isaiah 63:1-4 and Revelation 19, where we have the vision of Jesus coming on the white horse as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, his second coming. Coming to conquer, to triumph, Revelation 19 says, to wage war. But not only to do that, but also in doing that to bring redemption to his people. And I want you to look – just notice one thing here as you're looking at this text. We'll read in a second here, but notice one thing. Where does God come from? So, Isaiah 63:1-4, “Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? ‘It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.’ Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me. I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come.” This is a picture of Christ. His second coming. Coming to establish his kingdom once and for all. Coming to save us, his people. Friends, the Lord is sovereign. He is sovereign over the nations. He will be victorious. He will conquer all of his enemies. He will bring us into his presence one day, and all of it because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. 

So, Father in heaven, we do praise you for this minor prophet with a major message for us. Father, we rejoice to see your kingdom coming. And so, now we pray that you would bless us as we celebrate the Lord's supper together. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.