Prophetic Voices (Wk 1: Obadiah) - Kyle Hanawalt

SPEAKER NOTES

As I watch that opening video again, I am struck by all that has already happened in 2020. The fires in Australia, the rising tensions and threat of war with Iran. Crazy to think we aren’t even 2 weeks into this new year. And I think all of this has put me in a strange reflective space. Even that we are in 2020, we are in the future people. 2020, that feels like some science fiction stuff. All of it, even just looking at WWIII memes online get my existential anxiety up.
And whenever I begin feeling like this, being someone who looks to the Bible for help and insight, I tend to find myself gravitating towards reading the Old Testament prophets.
There is a whole section about 1/3rd of the Old Testament of the Bible that consists of the writings of Hebrew Prophets written over hundreds of years, in the midst of the rise and fall of Israel. Perhaps and I think I find myself reading this part of the Bible when world feels like it does to me, because it puts me in the right frame of mind, and mood to read the writings of the Hebrew prophets. The prophets were writing about heavy things in times that were full of existential threats, and violence, and war, and suffering, and rampant injustice. The Hewbrew prophets - people like Elijiah, Ezekial, Hosea, they were trying to speak truth to power in times where it seemed like those in power were going unchecked. They were calling out injustice in times where it felt like injustice was winning the day, with no accountability in sight for the suffering around them. the Old Testament Prophetic writings are resistance literature. People calling out the evil and injustice of the status quo, both condemning the wrong they see around them, and then speaking hope for a different way forward.

SLIDE And the truth is, I often have to be in this kind of mood to read the prophets, because truth be told, when the world is feeling stable and somewhat under control I find these Prophetic books to be extremely hard to access. This was especially true for me as a privileged religious white kid growing up in middle class America…because,in many ways you have to be acquainted with and affected by injustice to fully access them, to really get what they are saying… Most of these prophetic writings have intense, aggressive, and violent language in them. And when I am sitting in my privileged experience of life, it feels too extreme for me. However, when I feel the existential crisis of things that are truely high stakes, things of oppression, suffering, violence, war. Then the language of the prophets begins to feel like a protester in Hong Kong calling out of Justice. And another thing that can often make accessing the prophets difficult is the unfortunately common religious teaching to “try to make the prophets relevant” by squeezing individualistic middle class pop-wisdom out of the prophets… That the suffering of injustice of the people of Israel is akin persecution of the American Christian, or the war on Christmas. Or the promises of the restoration of people of Israel is akin to to promises to restorations of Christian way of life. And what happens is that eventually powerful white middle class Christians believing themselves to be aligned with a persecuted minority… With all of that said, I have come to learn that the wisest response to that abuse is not to throw the prophets out as inaccessible, but to understand them on their terms: as resistance literature

So, I am going to be starting a series looking prophetic writings of the OT, and asking together, how the resistance the literature of the ancient Hebrew people might be a help to us in world today that has protests and resistance happening world-wide.

And to start this series I thought I would ease us in, you know we just came off the holidays, no need to bite off more than we can chew.

So today, we are going to take a look at Obadiah, SLIDE: Obadiah points of interest the shortest book in the Bible. It consists of 1 chapter of 21 verses. It is a little unique too, in the fact that it is one of only 4 prophets (out or the 18) where the injustice being addressed is that of a nation other than Israel. Edom, which I will get to in a moment. Which makes sense, all the prophets are Hebrew and therefore most of them are addressing the unchecked injustice they are seeing in their own people.
The specific injustice that Obadiah is responding to is that Edom, a nation just that lays protected in the mountains just of the East of Israel, stood by as Israel was Conquered by the Babylonians, then rejoiced over the suffering and defeat of Israel, and slaughtered the Isrealite refugees that fled the siege to Edom’s border. And this injustice was made worse by the fact that Edom traced it’s ancestral heritage back to Esau, who was the twin brother of Jacob the father Israel. That in their ancient culture, their shared heritage should have made the nations be as brothers to each other. Now reading the Obadiah SLIDE: Obadiah scripture 1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom— We have heard a message from the Lord: An envoy was sent to the nations to say, “Rise, let us go against her for battle”— 2 “See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised. 3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ 4 Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord. 5 “If thieves came to you, if robbers in the night— oh, what a disaster awaits you!— would they not steal only as much as they wanted? If grape pickers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes? 6 But how Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures pillaged! 7 All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it. 8 “In that day,” declares the Lord, “will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, those of understanding in the mountains of Esau? 9 Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified, and everyone in Esau’s mountains will be cut down in the slaughter. 10 Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever. 11 On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. 12 You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble. 13 You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster. 14 You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble. 15 “The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head. 16 Just as you drank on my holy hill, so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink and drink and be as if they had never been. 17 But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; it will be holy, and Jacob will possess his inheritance. 18 Jacob will be a fire and Joseph a flame; Esau will be stubble, and they will set him on fire and destroy him. There will be no survivors from Esau.” The Lord has spoken. 19 People from the Negev will occupy the mountains of Esau, and people from the foothills will possess the land of the Philistines. They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead. 20 This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan will possess the land as far as Zarephath; the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the towns of the Negev. 21 Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

Man, when I first read that, I think, harsh words Obadiah, “there will be no survivors from Esau”, harsh.
But, remind myself, that this is resistance literature. Obadiah, an Isrealite, is writing this as Israel is in the hands of Babylon, and Edom is thriving, protected up in mountains, the landscape around them like a fortress. Their injustice unchecked and seemingly without consequence. I think about the anger I feel around the immigrant children being held our border, and I can only imagine what it would be like to see Edom, thriving after they rejected and killed the fleeing to them for help. Then reading this resistance literature doesn’t feel so harsh. (Pause) I think there is a little more context to this, that I find helpful. How did Edom and Israel get like this, how did two nations sharing their heritage get to the place where one is rejoicing over the suffering of the other Well, it goes back to their ancestors, Jacob and Esau. (A famous set of brothers from the book of Genesis in the Bible) You see, Esau was born first, even though it was only by a matter of seconds as they were twins and it is said that Jacob came out holding Esau’s heel, none the less Esau was born first, and in that culture that meant that he had the birthright and blessing of being the oldest son. And along with that birthright and blessing, meant that he would have the inheritance of the promised land. The fertile and blessed promise land, the land of Gods people. However, Jacob with the help of his mother. Tricked Esau out of his birthright and blessing, and took it for himself. And Jacob, who’s name was changed to Israel took ownership over all the lord had promised. And this began generations of resentment from the Edomites.
They did not just suddenly get to the place where Edom delighted in the suffering of Israel, it was a result of their resentment. And to be honest, they were done wrong, they were cheated by Israel. The hurt and injury done to the Edomites was legit. However, just because they as a people had been wronged, even though the rift between these two nations was started by an act of Injustice done by Israel.
It doesn’t actually make it ok what Edom did.
That in the end, regardless of what others have done. I think the message of Obadiah is. We destroy ourselves when we rejoice in the suffering of others. SLIDE: we destroy ourselves when we rejoice in the suffering of others As I read that message through the lense of resistance literature. When I think of suffering I see around the world. Think of the protests, and injustice. When I think of the smug comments of certain political commentators, or the dismissive words of some of those in power, this really hits home: we destroy ourselves when we rejoice in the suffering of others.

So, what does that mean for us today?
And in asking that question, we put ourselves at risk, at risk of doing what too often Christians in America living in privilege do.
Taking the high stakes example of God speaking words of condemnation to a nation who has committed true injustice and then trying to make it an object lesson for our daily life. So, I do think that it would be helpful and wise for all of us to think about the co-workers, bosses, friends, and neighbors who have wronged us, and try to keep our hearts soft and open to them so that we don’t rejoice when our coworker who stole our idea gets fired, or rejoice when our boss who always yelled at us, gets yelled at by their boss, or that our ex who cheated on us gets cheated on. I think it is sound and healthy advice to not rejoice in that but keep our hearts soft. However, that is not what Obadiah is talking about. Obadiah is not trying to be an object lesson for workplace relationships. Obadiah is trying to address what happens in the midst of generational war and violence. Obadiah is trying to emplore us to keep our hearts soft and pained to the suffering of others. To never let ourselves get to the point that the suffering of a people group, or the suffering of another feels permissible or acceptable.
That we as a people lose something about who we are on foundational level when the suffering of other people is anything but heartbreaking.

And to be honest, I actually think that is really hard to do today. It feels overwhelming to let myself be affected by all the suffering I am made aware of in this world. Thinking about it all just leaves me feeling a little cynical. Like there is nothing I can do about it. If I were to let my heartbreak over it all, I’d just be crying all the time. And that to me is the challenge, how do I allow myself to say affected, keep my heart soft to it all.

And I don’t think I have the perfect answer, but I can tell you what had made the biggest difference for me. Prayer. I have found that praying for others who are experiencing suffering actually makes a difference And one level that can feel a little trite, like, I’m sending my thoughts and prayers to the people affected by the fires in Australia.
But, when I say praying for those experiencing suffering - I don’t mean saying or posting it for others to see. I mean set aside time to do it yourself. And that I think is really different, because I have found spending time in prayer to be the one of the very few ways to actually change my heart, and keep it from getting cynical. And the truth, all of the action I have ever done, all of the times I have actually stood up to change something it was because my heart was feel affected by it, my heart was feeling soft to it. I have never acted out cynicism, it has always been a result of my heart being moved

As a man who tends to be cynical I pray to change myself. SLIDE: Resist the urge... // Rohr quote

“Prayer is not changing God’s mind about us or about anything else, but allowing God to change our mind about the reality right in front of us (which we usually avoid or distort).” -Richard Rohr

If you would stand with me I would love to pray