Obadiah Bible Sketch

Judgement will be a day of accountability.

 

Because of sin, all people die. God determines every person’s eternal destiny.

 

Believers in Christ have God’s mercy. Apart from Christ, it will be a day of wrath. 

God warns us to not neglect His Word or cover up the reality of our sin. God didn’t create robots. He allows His people to make good and poor choices. We make both kinds. God patiently offers grace and spiritual maturity to all who seek Him. Grieved over spiritual rebellion and corruption, eventually, His wrath brings down destruction on the high and mighty—the prideful and the oppressor. To blame others, hide, justify, or minimize the seriousness of one’s own wrongdoing, is, by one’s own choice, to throw away God’s precious gift of forgiveness and to reject His redemption. In and of ourselves, we are hungry, empty, and aren’t able to be fruitful. Energy depleted, we become cold, angry, distracted, anxious, troubled and selfish. We can’t trust ourselves. We constantly need to be filled and nourished by the Word.

Who will deliver me?

Holy Baptism and the Word bring on a free gift of faith. With any gift, there are two choices: 

1. receive it [good]
   
2. reject it [bad]

God creates and perfects faith because He cares. Faith believes and depends on God’s mercy in the work of His Son Jesus who endured our shame. He died for us on the cross, bodily rose from the dead, ascended and lives with God the Father. His compassionate Spirit cleanses, defends, and empowers us to face and grow through difficulties of life. Faith in us prompts a desire to repent and helps us to walk in the Light with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Even when God’s people have a loss for words to pray, there is One who intercedes for us to rescue and deliver us from evil. Loyal to love and tirelessly lavish forgiveness and restoration, Christ’s redeeming work at the cross saves all who receive the faith to fear God. We trust Jesus the Savior who offers protection from God’s harsh judgement.

Obadiah 15, 17a

“For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head.… But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy,” Obadiah 15,17a

 “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. …but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ” Romans 3:19, 5:8-9

Learn more

Listen to a Bible study discussion about Obadiah.

Obadiah tells of God’s harsh judgment. Watch an illustrated overview.

Zion is the name of the church I attend. I hope you find a similar church in your area. There’s more behind the meaning of Zion in the Bible—not only a mountain, it generally refers to the people of God and another name for the Holy Christian Church of all believers in Christ.

Prayer of the Day

  “Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love You and worthily magnify Your holy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. (211)” Treasury of Daily Prayer

Living proof I “chose life” and thank my grandma and mother for doing so.

My children Laura and Nathan having tire swing and sandbox fun.

Staying healthy with sweet corn and amoxicillin for dinner.

When I grow up, I could be an engineer or a pastor or an artist or a good friend…

Four-generation span shown in this photo. Great Grandma chose life for Mom who chose life for me and I chose life for Laura.

Life is reason to celebrate every moment. The only way to offer an unborn baby a Happy New Year is by choosing life.

I Googled “charity” and came up with 368,000,000 matches. It is amazing how much information is at my fingertips. When I Google “human life” there were 24,000,000 results. Topping the list is an organization dedicated to protecting life from fertilization to natural death.

Why do organizations need to promote life? The answer is because of sin. God gave us The Ten Commandments to help us recognize sin in our lives. Sin takes a gift God has given and uses it in a way God does not want it used. Each commandment also teaches us how God’s gifts are used to His honor and glory.

The Bible’s fifth commandment is You shall not murder. The Lutheran (LCMS) explanation interprets it along with the verses listed below: 

Curb anger, do not harm or kill, hate not, repay not ill with ill. Be patient and of gentle mind, convince your foe that you are kind. Have mercy, Lord!*

Human life is the crowning gift of God’s creation. We are not to end human life through murder, abortion, euthanasia or suicide. Prejudice, bigotry and abuse of those less fortunate are forbidden. We recognize that we can “murder” a person with our thoughts, certainly with our words, and then most dramatically with our actions. As God’s representative, the government has the authority to execute criminals and to wage just wars in order to punish evildoers, protect us, and maintain order. As we continue to receive mercy and kindness in Christ, so we support our neighbors when they need help. (Gen.9:6; Matt. 26:52; Jer. 1:5; Prov. 31:8; Matt. 5:22; 1 John 3:15; Eph. 4:26; Rom.13:4).

We cannot keep the commandments because of sin. Good news is that Jesus Christ sacrificed his perfect life for our sake and rose again on the third day so we may have eternal life.

I was recently invited to participate in an event called “Walk for Life”. It is a great reason to get some exercise and vitamin D (if the sun is shining) along with others who care about life. Every dollar raised will go to support the ever-expanding work of the Pregnancy Service Center. This organization is dedicated to helping meet the needs of those facing an unplanned pregnancy. You can easily donate to help! To learn more about how this organization is sharing the mercy and kindness in Christ by offering education and support to women, visit my page where you can GIVE. You will be happy you did!

*From Martin Luther’s hymn on the Ten Commandments, Here Is the Tenfold Sure Command, Hymn in Lutheran Worship (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1982).