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Obadiah Messenger 3. Voice of the Watchman "Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though you set your nest among the very stars, yet even from there will I pull you down," says God. What a downfall is yours! " (vs.4). The supreme example of this overweening ambition is that of Lucifer, the Morning Star, related in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah. The coming downfall of the king of Babylon is made the symbol of the splendid vision of Lucifer's doom. One who aspired to share the throne of God is cast down to the lowermost hell. "I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of God...I will be like the Most High." That was Lucifer's aim and intent. But he refused to believe that "the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he pleaseth." The One who was exalted above all and made to sit at the right hand of God was One who humbled himself, became of no reputation, and was obedient to the Father's Will, even unto death. Here is a contrast which the Edomites of this Age have utterly failed to grasp. They have followed the way of Lucifer rather than the way of Christ. Like the builders of the Tower of Babel of old time, they have sought to build their own edifice and storm the gates of heaven, entering the presence of God in the might of their own power, knowing not that against the restraining hand of God the whole of their puny efforts are as nothing. There is only one way into the celestial realm and only one avenue of approach to the throne of God; it is by the strait gate, and narrow way, that leadeth unto life. Jesus said "Few there be that find it". He knew men, and He knew that so many would attempt the way of Lucifer; few would understand the depths of his own teaching. One is led to wonder if our Lord's foreview of the powers of the heavens being shaken, (Matt.24.29) has not something to do with this threatened "pulling down" of Obadiah 4. During this present Age the "powers of the heavens", the principalities and authorities of the merely nominally Christian institutions and systems, have had matters very much their own way. One of their number, one of the most infamous of Popes, is reported to have said on one occasion "This Christianity, how profitable a farce it has been to us." That is the type of man from which these "powers of the heavens" have been built up. The ecclesiastical leader whose faith has been truly in Christ, who has endeavoured, however imperfectly, to lead his flock in the way of the Lord, and has honoured his Master above himself, has never been part of these "powers of the heavens". There have been many such throughout the Age and they have exercised a spiritually beneficent influence and in many cases left their mark on history. But many in high positions have sooner or later yielded to the seductive influences of the world around them and forsaken the narrow way for one that offered greater ease and more of the plaudits of men. And in so doing they have incurred the Divine sentence "From there will I pull thee down, says God". It is a noticeable thing in this present time, when the powers of the heavens are being shaken, that the pronouncements of ecclesiastical leaders on world affairs are given less and less attention by secular leaders, politicians, and the masses whom they lead. If a dignitary of the Church does venture to express an opinion on a political or social matter he is as often as not told, by the Press or otherwise, to confine his remarks to religion and leave other matters to people who understand them. Such treatment would have been unthinkable in earlier generations. Nothing can be more obvious than that the day of earthly power of "princes of the Church" is past. Though they attempted to exalt themselves as the stars—the stars have fallen from heaven. "What a downfall is yours!" says the prophet, wonderingly, as he contemplates the ruin of what was once a mighty power. So it is in this Age when the great ones of the earth cry out "Alas, alas, that great city...for in one hour so great riches is come to nought." (Rev.18.16-17). "If thieves and robbers came to you by night, would they have stolen more than they required? If grape-gatherers came to you, would they not have left some gleanings? But now what a pillaging of Esau there has been, what a rifling of all his treasures! Your very allies have betrayed you and brought you to the ground; your accomplices have deceived you and overcome you, and your most trusted friends have set a trap for you that you had not the sense to perceive." (vs.5-7). In these words Obadiah shows the futility of that trust which Edom has placed in her worldly allies. Notwithstanding many services rendered to the kings of this world and her allegiance to them in opposition to God, they have no hesitation whatever in discarding her completely when she has served their purposes and can be of no further use. Not only so, but they have no scruples about taking from her such possessions as she holds, leaving her poor and naked. If ordinary thieves enter a house by night, says Obadiah, they take what they want and leave the rest. The hapless householder does not waken in the morning to find himself bereft of all his possessions; he still has something left. When the vineyard labourers gather in the grape harvest, they do not strip the vines completely bare; they leave some of the grapes for the gleaners. But not so with Edom's erstwhile friends when they become her enemies. They rifle as they will and pillage her treasures. Sorry indeed is the condition of those who have forsaken God and trusted to Mammon, whilst retaining the name of God on their lips. They finish up by being miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. (Rev.3.17). "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help" said the Lord through the prophet Isaiah. All through the Gospel Age (Christian era) there have been those who have gone down to Egypt for help, putting their trust in the arm of the flesh, and although for a time they have appeared to prosper in the things of this material world, it has been at the expense of their standing before God. When it has been a so-called Christian institution that has so allied itself with the world, then sooner or later the word is fulfilled "your very allies have betrayed you and brought you to the ground". "'In that day' says God, 'I will destroy the wise men out of Edom, and the men of understanding out of Mount Esau. The powerful men of Teman will be dismayed, for all the men of Esau will be cut off. Because of the wrongs you have perpetrated upon your brother Jacob you will be cut off for ever'." (vs.8-10). The men of Teman were renowned for their wisdom. It is not clear from the Scriptures just why; there is a cryptic note in Jer.49.7 in which the Lord asks "Is wisdom no more in Teman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? Is their wisdom vanished?" and the prophet goes on very evidently to quote from Obadiah's prophecy. This alleged wisdom of Teman is that which is to be destroyed when the Lord executes judgment against Edom, for Teman and Edom were intimately connected and from the prophetic point of view are taken as one. Teman was the grandson of Esau, and even in his natural descent affords a picture of the worldly wisdom which is thus to perish, for the father and mother of Teman were Eliphaz the son of Esau, descended thus from Abraham the faithful, and Timna the daughter of Seir the aboriginal inhabitant of the land and the one who gave his name to "Mount Seir". Thus Teman was the fruit of an alliance between the favoured line of Abraham which held the promise and the truth of God, and the earthly line of Seir having nothing in common with the promise and no share in the purposes of God. What more apt picture could we have of this alliance between the apostate ones described in this prophecy under the general title of "Edom" and the powers of this world with which they have allied themselves? Very truly Teman is a symbol of the worldly wisdom which is foolishness with God and which will be revealed at the end to be without firm foundation and doomed to be swept away as God arises to put the last great phase of his Plan into effect. "I will destroy the wise men out of Edom and the men of understanding out of Mount Esau. The powerful men of Teman will be dismayed, for all the men of Esau will be cut off ." It is in this verse that we are brought back to the vision of Isaiah where he saw a mighty conqueror coming from afar, bearing the signs of a great conflict upon his person. "Who is this that cometh from Edom" asks the prophet wonderingly "with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?" Swift and confident comes the answer "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." "Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?" Again the strong reply "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." (Isa.63.1-4). The glowing passage goes on to describe how the victorious Lord in his own power and by the might of his own right hand overcomes his enemies and crushes all opposition to his incoming Kingdom. That is a prophecy of the end of the Age, the time when all that is opposed to the Kingdom of light and peace is to be scattered, as the vision of Daniel shows it to be, like the chaff upon the summer threshing floors. This passage alone is sufficient to assure us how completely and thoroughly the Lord will banish false religion from the earth at the time of his Kingdom, how the men of hypocrisy and deceit will find themselves, like their prototypes in the days of the First Advent, thrust out of the Kingdom in which Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets and the faithful of Gospel Age times too, will have entered. Isaiah shows this work as an accomplished thing. Obadiah takes an earlier view and depicts the Lord as viewing Edom and decreeing its eventual and early destruction. If we want further assurance of the intensity of God's determination to make an end of false worship and set the true faith of Jesus supreme in the earth we have it in Isaiah's 21st chapter, where we have additional indication that the end of the Age, when the faithful are watching with ardour for their returning Lord, is the time when these things take place. In that vision the prophet is bidden to set a watchman and tell him to declare what he sees. The watchman has his eyes fixed on the great desert which lies between Judah and Babylonia, and in the vision he sees, crossing that desert and advancing in the direction of Judah, and therefore coming away from Babylon, a strange procession. He sees, first, a horse-drawn chariot, followed by one drawn by asses and finally one drawn by camels. That is symbolic. The horse-drawn chariot is indicative of the military conqueror returning in triumph from the scene of his conquest; the chariot drawn by asses contains the captives who have been taken prisoner and are being transported to a strange land, and the chariot or waggon drawn by camels contains the spoil and booty that has been plundered from the defeated city. The whole tableau, for that is what it is, tells of a great and overwhelming defeat inflicted upon the city of Babylon by the victorious forces of Judah, and how the watchman sees the triumphant soldiery returning with their captives and booty. Needless to say no such thing ever occurred in history. At no time did Judah ever overthrow Babylon. So the watchman's triumphant shout must refer to something of which these things are but figures. It is the downfall of symbolic Babylon at the hands of the returned Christ that is pictured in Isaiah 21, and the watchman who discerns these things pictures the Church in the flesh, living at the time they are imminent and fully aware of their significance. To the watchman's cry comes an answer from heaven "Babylon is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground." That is a cry which has already gone out but has yet to be justified to the full; the fall of great Babylon is not completed and will not be until the final cataclysm of this present Time of the End. But in the meantime the message has been given to a people able to understand it. There has been a Harvest of the Age and those who have been subjects of that Harvest realise these things. "O my threshing, and the corn of my floor" cries the watchman "that which I have heard of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you." In this end of the Age those who can rightfully be described as the watchman's "threshing," the "corn of his floor" have had this message given to them in no uncertain terms and are in consequence "not in darkness" that the day should overtake them as a thief. There is a passage in Isaiah 21, a charming picture of the earnest watcher for the Lord's coming and his kingdom, imprisoned still among the Edomites, but longing for enlightenment and the means of escape. "The burden (message) of Dumah" (Idumea, Edom) cries the prophet (vs.11). "Unto me, is one crying out of Seir (Edom) 'Watchman! how far gone is the night'?" That is Rotherham's rendering and it is most eloquent in its appeal. Here is one, imprisoned in the darkness and worldliness of modern Edom, longing for the morning when the Kingdom of light and love shall take control and the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, calling to the Watchman for enlightenment and comfort. "Said the watchman 'There cometh a morning, but also a night. If ye will enquire, enquire ye—come again'." Truly, says the watchman, the Millennial morning is at hand but there must first be the dark night of trouble which closes this Age. But if you will know more, says the Watchman, keep on enquiring. Come again and learn of the gracious Plan of God which is to bring blessing to all families of the earth. Come out of Edom and rejoice in the light of the Truth. Separate yourself from the worldliness and hypocrisy and Christlessness of the Edomites and be joined to those who are truly one in Christ Jesus. This is a theme on which we can speedily find ourselves in error. It is all too customary to assume that the "coming out" is the separating from one body of Christians where the Divine light has burned low and joining another body where at the moment it burns more brightly. So very many thus placed have later found that in the fellowship of their choice the light has in its turn burned low again and they have had to make another move, and the Christian lives of some have been characterised by a succession of such changes. In point of fact the call to come out of Edom is one to relinquish the last vestiges of the spirit of Edom and to live in that maturity of Christian character which recognises the true servants of Christ happily and faithfully in just that sphere to which He may guide. Many have taken up fellowship and service within a new circle of Christians under claim of having thus "come out of Edom" but without relinquishing the spirit of Edom, and their influence has tended toward disunity and the degrading of spiritual experience rather than the opposite. What we need to do above all other things is to see to it that we do not come under the condemnation of this tenth verse of Obadiah "Because of the wrongs you have perpetrated upon your brother Jacob you will be cut off for ever." That is what it means. If we have failed to partake of the spirit of Christ and treat his brethren as He treated them; if we, like the unfaithful steward in the parable, begin to smite our fellow-servants, then we shall be cut off from future participation in the glories of the glorified New Creation, and that without remedy. That "cutting off for ever" does not mean eternal death or anything like that—such thought is absurd—but it does mean that, having failed to attain the high degree of character-likeness to our Lord which is necessary before we can be afforded the "abundant entrance", we shall be like the unworthy of so many parables, found unfit for the high responsibility of association with Christ in his work for humanity in the next Age. "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." (To be continued)
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