“We’re on a Mission from God.” Quick, name the movie! It was Jake and Elwood in The Blues Brothers (1980) who used this
line to justify their zany, law-breaking antics. In way that only he could, John Belushi
delivered that line and since then, fans have tried to repeat it, saying it
just as he did. And those fans have
failed.
Iconic – that movie and Belushi’s
delivery of that line; this is ‘iconic’ in American movie lore. But is the line anything more than a pretext
to “put the band back together?”
“We’re on a Mission from God.”
When someone in real life and not in a fictitious story says, “We’re on
a Mission from God,” what do they mean?
Mission from God. Are people really sent on missions from God? Does God actually talk to people and with
purpose? Are there real, actual people
in the world in which we live today, in 2014, who are truly on a mission from God?
You are reading the ‘honest talk with God’ blog, which you know is
written by a pastor who travels to Ethiopia every year believing he is on a
mission from God. So, you know my answer
to the previous question is of course yes!!
Yes, God calls people. If you
have read posts of mine on this page, you know I believe followers of Jesus
Christ as always on a mission from, even in the normal places of our daily
lives. In my role as a preacher and
spiritual encourage, I implore people to think about their lives in terms of
mission.
Live with purpose. Think
about and do two things constantly: (1) Announce that Jesus Christ is Lord, God
in the flesh, savior of all (and all people need salvation). And (2), in every relationship and venue of
your life as a Christ follower, find opportunities and ways to tell everyone
who will listen than in the coming of Jesus, God’s final, eternal Kingdom has
arrived and will be fully inaugurated as His second coming. Whatever Christians do, our lives are to be
lives announcing that Jesus is Lord and His Kingdom has come.
But, does this overarching purpose help us understand what it
means to be on a Mission from God. Kingdom is the long range vision, but how do
I understand mission today, as I live right now? In this particular piece, I won’t directly
answer this partly because all my writing is an attempt to answer this
question. So I will look toward how the
average 21st century American lives out the Christian mission, but I
won’t offer specifics. Rather, here I
want to address God’s invasiveness and assertiveness and most importantly, God’s
authority. All this is a response to my
reading of the writings of the Old Testament prophet Obadiah.
This of course raises a serious question. I have already said that the core elements of
the mission to which every Christian is called are the proclamation of the Lordship
of Jesus and the announcement of God’s Kingdom, seen in Jesus’ coming. Put more simply, we say, “Jesus is Lord,” and
live as citizens of the Kingdom of God (Philippians 3:20). Obadiah prophesied, probably, in the 6th
century BC, shortly after Judah was overrun by the Babylonians. The leaders of Judah were either killed or
taken as slaves into exile in Babylon where they would stay through the end of
the Babylonian empire and into the Persian period, a span of 70 years. Those left in Judah, the poor and landless
were derided and taken advantage of by their distant kinsman and geographic
neighbors, the Edomites. Obadiah’s short
prophecy is a word of God against Edom for Edom’s sin of piling on God’s people
when they had already clearly been punished by Babylon.
Obviously, Obadiah has a very specific context – 6th
century BC Judah. The target of Obadiah
is Edom, the recipient of a very angry word from God. Is it not obvious how removed this is from
the early 1st century AD, when God came in human form, died for the
sins of all, and then, through the empowering Holy Spirit began a church
movement that truly transcended the nationalism that would divide Judah and Edom. In Obadiah’s day, Edom was condemned for evil
committed toward Judah. In Jesus’ day
and because of whom Jesus is and what he did (crucifixion, resurrection), all
are called to God – Edomites, Judeans, Babylonians, Americans, and everyone
else. So how does the person who is “in
Christ” learn about God from such a specific and ancient prophecy like Obadiah?
Obadiah was on a mission from
God. Unlike Jake and Elwood, Obadiah
was a real person in history, not a goofy movie character. Obadiah may seem like he’s unreal because he
is so removed from present-day cultural understandings. And there are scholars who question what we
can really know about the man for whom the prophecy is named. But, I trust that while Obadiah as a
historical person is basically unknowable, there was someone by this name who
live in Judah during the exile and spoke this angry prophecy. Equally, I believe that while he came before
Christ and likely had no idea that Christ was coming, Obadiah’s words were Holy
Spirit inspired, so the truth about God transcends Obadiah’s specific
historical situation.
He begins, “The vision of Obadiah.
Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom” (Ob. 1).[i] “Lord God” comes from ‘Adonay Yahweh.’ Yahweh ties to Moses’ very first encounter
with the Lord. And Adonay denotes God’s
sovereignty, God’s absolute authority.
Obadiah gives the highest attribution to God he could give. In other words, his mission comes from the
top. The Contemporary English Version renders this “The Lord gave Obadiah a
message about Edom.” It was not a happy
message.
Even so, with it, the first connection to Jesus becomes
clear. In the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus, we see God acting in history. The sovereign God, the ruler and creator of
the universe, is at work. The evidence
is what Jesus said and did, and who Jesus is.
Similarly, though in a much more localized way, when Obadiah speaks his
prophecy, God is acting in history. In
both cases, it is same God. So all who
worship and follow that God ought to listen, learn, and live according to what
is said.
The nations report that God is summoning them, calling them to battle
against Edom (end of verse 1). “The Lord
said, I will make you the weakest and most despised nation” (Ob. 2).
Imagine you are an ancient Edomite walking in the ruins that once
was Jerusalem. The city, after being
burned by Babylonian forces, is not much more than rubble. But this firebrand of a prophet stands on a toppled
bit of rock that serves as his pulpit. A
crowd has gathered and you join him to hear the angry man’s sermon. Only, to your horror, you realize he’s
reporting that God has judged you, the Edomite, and sentenced you for
destruction. How does that feel? Do you dismiss him as a desperately crazy
Jew? Does his word spike your heart with
fear?
If we step back and receive Obadiah’s word as word of God (and we
should do just that) we have to ask: why is such divine vitriol leveled against
this small ancient Middle Eastern people?
Obadiah tells us. “You were cruel
to your relatives, the descendants of Jacob” (Ob. 10a). “You
stood there and watched as foreigners entered Jerusalem and took what
they wanted. In fact, you were no better than those foreigners. 12 Why did you
celebrate when such a dreadful disaster struck your relatives? Why were you so pleased when everyone in
Judah was suffering” (Ob. 11-12).
As Jerusalem burned, Edom cheered.
Certainly this goes back to the enmity between Esau (for whom Edom is
named; Genesis 25:30) and his brother Jacob (whose 12 sons were the progenitors
of the 12 tribes of Israel). From the
time the younger twin stole the birthright from the older (Genesis 25:29-34);
the peoples descended from each man have hated each other. Additionally, for Edom it would have appeared
advantageous to side with the might of Babylon.
But Edom forgot the might of God and their own heritage.
Here we cite another connection.
When we are in Christ, we are the people of God. If we, Christ followers, forget who we are
and live as people of the world, we will suffer for it. This is put beautifully in 1st
John 1:5-9.
5 Jesus
told us that God is light and doesn’t have any darkness in him. Now we are
telling you.
6 If we say that we
share in life with God and keep on living in the dark, we are lying and are not
living by the truth. 7 But if we live in the
light, as God does, we share in life with each other. And the blood of his Son
Jesus washes all our sins away. 8 If we say that we
have not sinned, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth isn’t in our hearts. 9 But if we confess our
sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.
10 If we say that we
have not sinned, we make God a liar, and his message isn’t in our hearts.[b]
God is the light. To receive Jesus and then return to darkness
is to deny our very selves. It is
abominably stupid and abominably bad. We
are in Christ so we are in the light and should live in the light and according
to the light.
The Edomites were not Jews, but they
were cousins. They were not descendants
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but of Abraham, Isaac, and Esau. They knew who God was and is. They knew the stories of how God sees. They joined the bully, Babylon, piled on the
victim, Judah, and turned their own backs on God.
What if, when Babylon invaded,
instead of seeing it as an opportunity to stick it to Judah, Edom did the opposite? What if Edom had mounted their war horses and
come to fight Babylon and aid Judah?
Would Edom have been slaughtered too?
Maybe. It would have been a fool’s
errand for anyone to stand in the face of Babylon’s might. Maybe they would have joined Judah in
exile. Maybe Edom would have been
steamrolled.
But maybe, and I think more likely, God would have noticed Edom’s
courage and faith. God would have laid
protection over Edom as God saw them stand for God’s purposes and God’s
people. Maybe Edom would be now renowned
for their faithfulness.
Instead, Edom is a footnote in the Old Testament. The prophet Obadiah rails against Edom, but
how many people, especially Christians, even read this book, the shortest in
the Old Testament? Edom, because of
giving in to the impulse to heap cruel taunts on her beaten rival, is in the
crosshairs of God’s wrath and the story is told in a book of the Bible that the
lectionary ignores and few believers read.
But we should. We should
read Obadiah. This prophet in a small
but forceful voice asserts that God is Lord – the Lord who sees every sin and
deals with each one. God is
Sovereign. The Old Testament message is
that Judah went to exile for her sins.
Yes, Babylon was the vehicle, but God was the cause. In time, God dealt with Babylon. And for God, a side story like Edom was as
worthy of attention as the main event.
We do not slip past God’s notice, not ever. From Obadiah to Jesus, we have noted two
points of connection: (1) we, like the Jews of ancient Judah, are the people of
God. Because of Jesus, we are the people
of God. (2) Like Edom, also descended
from God’s chosen one, Abraham, we have a choice. We can live in reverence of the God we know
to be true (live in the light as 1 John 1:5-7 says), or we can act as if God is
uninvolved. Edom chose this second
option and as a result fell under the judgment and verdict Obadiah delivered.
When we read Obadiah and hear it as word of God, we recognize that
the prophet is on that mission from God. His mission is to proclaim God’s
authority. He promises that in the end,
justice will be served and God’s chosen will be with God on God’s mountain (Ob.
21). However, those who oppose or taunt
and deride the broken and fallen, God will judge and punish them. Obadiah was sent to declare these things with
prophetic authority.
We are left with our imagination.
What would it have been like if Edom has stood with Judah?
We are left with questions.
Are we guilty of acting as if God could care less about how we
live? Are we ignoring, failing to help
or even heaping pain upon those around us who are already beaten, already
hurting? Are making the choice Edom made
which landed Edom in the path of God’s anger?
Finally, we are left with our imagination. What if?
“What if” questions should always accompany our reading and living of
scripture. What if we read Obadiah,
imagine Edom, and then imagine how the story would go if Edom had done the
opposite and instead stood with God’s people?
What if we today, diligently search until we see where God is active and
who God loves, and what if we go there and love them? What would the prophet say to us if we acted
the opposite of how Edom acted?
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