Obvious truths from Obscure Scriptures
The Unconcerned Spectator
Obadiah 1:11
 
So far, we’ve looked only at New Testament passages to find our “Obvious Truths from Obscure Scriptures” as you can imagine, the Old Testament is full of examples.  I want us to look at one today found in the little book of Obadiah.
 
Obadiah is one of only five books in the Bible that has only one chapter and it is the only one in the Old Testament to meet that criteria.  And it is a rather odd book, because we don’t know the details or circumstances that led up to its writing.
 
It is written to the Edomites. To learn who Edom was  we've got to go back to the book of Genesis 36.1 and there we discover that Esau, the brother of Jacob and son of Isaac, is also known as Edom.  So the Edomites are descendents of Esau.
 
Now just to refresh our memory, Isaac and Rebekah are unable to have children and Isaac prays to God on behalf of his wife and God answered his prayer.  She not only conceived, but had twins.  And as you know, sometimes you get more than you ask for when you pray and that was certainly true with these boys.
 
There was a constant struggle between them that began in the womb before they were ever born.  It was worrisome to Rebekah and she asked God what was happening.  He told her there were two nations in her womb and eventually the older would serve the younger.
When delivery time came, out came Esau first.  He was covered in red hair.  Right behind him was Jacob holding on to his brother’s heel.  Esau grows up to become the father of the Edomites; Jacob is the father of the Israelites.  In fact, God eventually changed Jacob’s name to Israel.
 
And through a series of events, God’s prophecy becomes true in that Esau trades his birthright as the older brother to Jacob for a bowl of soup.  And as a result of that there was constant tension between these two brothers, and by the way, the world is still experiencing that tension in the Arab world today and their attitude regarding Israel.
 
And the little book of Obadiah, even though it is the epitome of obscurity, is dropped into the Old Testament as a direct word of judgment to the Edomites. The entire book is only 21 verses in length.  We know nothing about Obadiah. We can’t be sure about the date of its writing. It is not quoted in the New Testament.  But we find there a little nugget of inspired warning regarding God’s judgment on those who despise Israel.
 
And out of the 21 verses, I want to draw your attention to one phrase found in
 
verse 11
 
As I said a moment ago, we know nothing of the precise details that lead up to this writing.  All we know for sure is Jerusalem had been captured; its enemies had come against it and the city had fallen.  And while all that was happening, Edom “stood on the other side” and watched and did nothing.
 
Now Edom was not a distant country.  It was just across the Jordan to the south. Edom was not a land of foreigners.  The Edomites were the children of Esau, Jacob's brother. These folks were cousins.
 
But in the day when Israel was in the greatest peril, when her enemies were thundering at the gates, Edom was content to be an onlooker. And it is that apathetic indifference that burns in the pit of Obadiah’s stomach as he writes.
 
To think that Jerusalem had been destroyed while a brother-nation never raised a finger to help them is what drives this prophecy. And if you read the book, you discover Edom is cursed for being an unconcerned spectator while Jerusalem is destroyed.
 
Why was that such a grievous sin?  It is because the
the cause of Jerusalem is the cause of God. There was far more being carried out across Jordan than the simply one tribe attacking another.  Those who are the enemies of Jerusalem are the enemies of God.
 
This was far more than a quarrel between military rivals. It was simply another battle in the unceasing war between light and darkness and good and evil and Satan and God.  Jerusalem was God's city.  God said it’s where He lived.  She stood for the cause of God, and it was against God that her enemies were fighting.
 
If it was nothing more than a mere quarrel between two jealous states, Edom could have rightfully stayed out of it.  She could tend to her own knitting, so to speak.  After all, she had her own battles to fight and cities to defend.
But from Obadiah’s perspective, this is right against wrong; it was goodness against evil; and it was because in that conflict Edom took no part and stood as an unconcerned spectator that Obadiah pronounces God's curse on her.
 
And if you are an attentive student of the Bible, you know it consistently takes that view.  Anytime  moral and spiritual issues are at stake, it tolerates no  neutrality.
 
“I could wish you were cold or hot," says Christ to the Laodiceans, "But because you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” Is that not amazing?  Jesus says, “I wish you would take a stand one way or the other.  Even if you are for the enemy, it would be more tolerable than being in the middle.”  They were in the same shape as Edom, nothing more than a casual observer unwilling to get involved. 
 
There is another example nestled away in the pages of the Old Testament involving the city of Meroz.  It is found in Judges 5:23.
 
Deborah and Barak had gained a great victory over the Canaanites under their captain Sisera. It was a dangerous venture and men had taken their life in their hands to be involved.
 
And Meroz was just this little sleepy highland village in the hills, nothing more than an insignificant place far away from the lines of Battle.  In fact, they had very little interest in what was going on.
 
 
 
But the angel of the Lord cursed the place because it did not come to the help of the Lord against the mighty.  God will accept many an excuse for honest error; but God does not accept excuses for being neutral in His battles.  And Meroz perished.  Nobody even knows where it was.  It was cast into oblivion because, like Edom, in the hour of need, it was content to stand on the other side and casually observe.
 
And unfortunately, the Edomites and Merozites are still among us.  Today’s society in general and the church in particular is full of them.
 
These are the kind of people who have little signs on their desk reading: "Shrug off apathy!"
 
They want the honey but aren't willing to take the stings.
 
They want the gravy but aren't willing to cook the meat.
 
I wouldn't say they are worthless to the organization, but I do feel it appropriate for their paycheck to come gift-wrapped.
 
Now it seems to me, there is a couple of ways this plays out in the eternal scale of things.
 
The first one applies at a national level.
 
When He called Abraham to father the nation of Israel, God made him a promise.  It is found in
 
Genesis 12:3-4
 
Later on, through the prophet Zechariah, He said, “
He that touches [Israel] touches the apple of [My] eye.”  (Zec 2:7-13).
 
Then in the book of Joel we read, “I will gather all nations and enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land Multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.”   (Joel 3:1-14).
 
I believe it is imperative that America stand with Israel. No one else has rightful claim to that land. God Himself gave the title deed to the land of Israel to the Jews. God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendents forever by a solemn oath and covenant (Gen 15:18; 17:2-8). He renewed the covenant with Abraham s son, Isaac.  The Land Record is found in Scripture. God’s covenant with the Jews regarding the land and the entirety of their history and future is all about the time when Messiah eventually comes to take the throne of Israel.
 
That’s what all of history is about.  Listen, the church and the Gentile nations, we are nothing more than a time-out in the history of mankind.  The center of attention has always been Israel.
 
And the fact that we’ve had the privilege of living in the very era when God has brought the dispersed Jews back to Israel and restored the land to them should be a matter of awe and wonder for the entire world, but especially for Bible-believing Christians.
God’s keeps His promises.  He is a covenant- keeping God.
 
And the fact that He is at work on behalf of the Jews is abundantly clear, especially in recent history.
 
After WWI, when the Allies ceded control of Palestine to the British, they controlled multiplied thousands of square miles of Middle East land. They could have given the Jews any of a hundred pieces of real estate for their homeland, but the God of History long ago ordered the return of the Jewish People to the land of Canaan.
 
Later, in 1948, after the Holocaust had created world sympathy for the Jews, God used the U.N., now a chief opponent of Israel, to create the nation
 
Since its independence in 1948, Israel has fought four wars: The War for Independence (1948-49), the 1956 war, the Sinai campaign; the Six-Day War in 1967; and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. In all four cases, Israel was attacked. They were never the aggressor. They won all four wars against impossible odds.
 
Ask any military strategist and they will tell you Israel should have never survived. One primary example is the Six Day War of 1967.
 
Israel had only been a recognized nation for only 19 years when four well-supplied enemies announced their plans to obliterate Israel. Causality estimates ranged from 10,000 to total annihilation.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Days before the war, President Nasser of Egypt declares “The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel...to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. This act will astound the world. Today they will know that the Arabs are arranged for battle, the critical hour has arrived. We have reached the stage of serious action and not declarations”
 
This combined army stands strong at roughly 465,000 troops, 2,880 tanks and 900 aircraft compared to Israel's 264,000 soldiers (of which 200,000 are reservists), 800 tanks, and 300 aircraft.
 
The United States and Britain have chosen to stay out of the conflict in both military might and support due to conflicting interests in the middle east and the stigma of the Vietnam war.
 
Planning for the worst case scenario, Israel begins to convert its national parks into mass burial grounds and school children dig sand to protect their homes. The UN removes its troops from the Sinai and Israel stands alone.
 
But as we know, Israel is not destroyed by overwhelming odds. Instead, in a matter of six days, facing four competent enemies, the small nation miraculously quadruples its land and retakes many holy sites including Jerusalem and the temple mount.
 
Israel reports 760 casualties, while the Arab deaths hover somewhere around 18,000 men. The conflict is filled with many first-hand accounts of awe-inspiring happenings that are hard to explain even today and stand very clearly as fulfillments of Scripture.
And as a nation, America must concentrate on doing what we are scripturally compelled to do and support the nation of Israel.  We dare not stand on the other side and look away in complacent apathy.
 
But there is a second application of these verses that I see and this one hits much closer to home because it applies at a very personal level.  We cannot afford to “stand on the other side” when it comes to reaching people for Christ.
 
In Romans 10:1, Paul says “his heart’s desire and prayer for Israel is that she might be saved.”
 
Even though God called him to minister to the Gentiles, he never got over the fact that his Jewish brothers and sisters were dying and going to hell.  This was his family and his nation.  These were his countrymen and women.  In fact, so heavy was this burden on his heart, that he said, “He has great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart, so much so that he wished himself cursed and cut off from Christ if it would result in their salvation.
 
You and i have our own nation before us. You and i have our own relatives, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, uncles and aunts, grandchildren and great grandchildren who are without Christ in this world. Does their present condition of being lost and the consequences of remaining in sin and being hell bound concern you?  Or are you content to stand on the other side and look away?
 
What is it that develops this hot-hearted passion in the Apostle Paul?
 
I think it flows, firs tof all, from his own relationship with Christ.
 
Obviously those who have never been saved have no regard for the salvation of others.  Paul knew how lost he was when Christ knocked him off his horse.  He came to understand just how far from God was his life.  He knew he deserved everlasting punishment and hell.  But, wonder of wonders, God had been merciful and had saved his soul and it was the driving passion of his life that others come to discover what he had.
 
And when Paul got saved, Christ got all there was.  He took full possession of his life and it just makes sense if Christ is living in us, then there will be a concern for the lost in us.
 
Charles Spurgeon said, “Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that…. The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to perishing sinners and his blessed master, will be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others….. If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
 
As I mentioned a moment ago, Paul was willing to forfeit his own salvation in order to see the Jews saved.  There is in that statement a picture of the substitutionary love of Christ.
 
Paul is prepared to die in the place of others. He is prepared to be damned in order that the damned might be saved. I’m confident Paul wasn’t speaking theologically.  He knew the sacrifice of Christ was the only way to atonement.
 
He’s just speaking from his heart.  And it just makes me ask myself, “How much are we prepared to sacrifice for others, those out in our community who are lost?  How much of our time is given over to that concern? Are we prepared to sacrifice our money, our energy and our gifts?  Are we prepared to give our whole being, to sacrifice ourselves to see others won to Christ?”
 
That’s one of the reason, come this fall, we are going to make some changes in our Sunday School structure.  No one will be asked to teach who is not willing to make an all-out commitment to meeting scriptural requirements to teach.
 
We are going to expect them to set the example in every area of church life including attendance, giving, worship and evangelism.  There will be no more of this just showing up for Sunday morning and thinking your work is done.  They will be expected to be a regular part of outreach visitation.
 
They will be expected to be a part of Sunday school teacher’s meetings and training events.  They will be expected to come to church regularly and consistently.  We will tolerate no more those who are satisfied to simply “stand on the other side” while someone else does the work.     
 
 
 
James Hudson Taylor in challenging English students during his time in China mission work, used to tell of the story of a young man named Peter.  He was a Chinese convert and disciple of Taylor.
 
On one of their sea journeys, Peter (who did not know how to swim) fell over the side of the boat. Fortunately, there were fishermen nearby, just a grab away from where Peter fell. Taylor shouted at the fishermen and asked them to help his friend.
 
However, the fishermen didn’t even bother to look up.  They were busy loading their catch from the nets to their boat. Taylor continued to yell, “Stop what you are doing, and help my friend. He is just n arm’s length away.”
 
But the fishermen continued with their work until the last fish was loaded to the boat. Then they jumped in  and got Peter out of water, but it was too late.  Peter drowned that day.
 
He could have been saved because he was just an arm’s length away from the fishermen but he drowned as they took care of their work.
 
As he told that story, Taylor would then ask his students what they thought about the Chinese? Some said, “They are bad, evil, selfish, people who are unconcerned about the salvation of a dying man.”
 
But Hudson Taylor said, “I saw it differently. I think the Chinese are like most Christians today.  They are unconcerned about the plight of the sinners who are now just a grab away from them. The reason is they are so busy with their work.”
I think the saddest part of “standing on the other side” is that it reveals just how far from God we are.
 
God could have been neutral and uninterested when it came to you. But God was passionate about your salvation, so much so that He literally bankrupt heaven to make your salvation possible.
 
And it seems to me, if God had been neutral to the welfare of humanity then I could be neutral also.  But if God is so intensely passionate that the lost should be saved, for me to be neutral is to tarnish and disgrace His image in me.
 
How could God be neutral?  He has a Son involved in the action.  Have you ever known a mother to be unconcerned when her daughter is on a mission field somewhere?  Have you ever known a dad who was indifferent when he had a son serving in a military campaign on a foreign field? 
 
God is not an unconcerned spectator in the unceasing struggle between light and darkness.  How could He be when in the fullness of the time He sent to earth His only begotten Son our Savior Christ and watched Him die so those who are lost could be saved?
 
The great heart of God is passionately interested in the battle.  He does not “stand on the other side” and if we would be like Him, we must avoid the temptation to be a casual observer and come to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
 
Let’s pray.