#DailyDevotion The False Church Does Not Have The Upper Hand

Ob. ⁷ All your allies will drive you to the border. Your friends will treacherously get the best of you. Those eating your food will set traps for you, and you won’t know about it.” ⁸ The LORD asks, “On that day won’t I destroy the wise men in Edom, and take away understanding from Esau’s mountain? ⁹ Your heroes, O Teman, will despair so that everyone coming from the mount of Esau will be killed off.

This section of Obadiah reminds me of this passage from Revelation 17: ¹²“The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet started to rule but for an hour get authority as kings with the beast. ¹³They have one purpose and give their power and authority to the beast. ¹⁴They will go to war against the Lamb, but the Lamb, and the called, chosen, and faithful people with Him, will conquer them because He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings. ¹⁵“The waters you saw where the prostitute was sitting,” he told me, “are peoples, crowds, nations, and languages. ¹⁶The ten horns you saw and the beast will hate the prostitute, lay her waste, strip her, devour her flesh, and burn her with fire, ¹⁷God has put it into their hearts to do what He has decided, to carry out one purpose, and to give their kingdom to the beast until what God has said is carried out.

Edom would be the great prostitute. The kings would be her allies. Her allies are only such until she serves no purpose for her any longer. Then they will turn against her. So this happened with Edom. Her allies drove her to the border. They, in fact, were driven into southern Judah. Those nations they trusted turned against her. Like the prostitute in Revelation, this is God’s doing. For they persecuted Judah and Israel in their times of need just as the prostitute persecutes God’s people today. She uses the kings of the earth to persecute God’s people today, which is why it always amazes me when Church people look to the government and those in government for help and protection. If they do help, we need to watch out for treachery is afoot! For now, earthly governments serve the false church represented by Babylon.

An interesting thing I found while studying Obadiah is that most scholars believe he himself was an Edomite. On top of that, it is believed, Job and his friends were Edomites. You know Job is a piece of wisdom literature. Apparently, Edom was known for having wise men. They apparently depended upon the wise men of their nation. Now, because of Edom’s sin, the LORD is going to destroy their wise men and take away understanding from Esau’s mountain.

Many in the world hold themselves to be wisemen. They are counselors to kings, presidents, and prime ministers. There is coming a day when the LORD Jesus will remove or confound these wise men. The rulers of the world will not find wise counsel. They will come to fight against the Lamb and His Church. They will not win. Jesus with His holy angels will wipe out those who have come against us. The false church will be no more. Those who worship power and wealth will be no more. They will all be cast out into utter darkness, into the Lake of Fire to be punished with the fallen angels who also rebelled against their God, their maker, Jesus Christ. We will be gathered and comforted in the Kingdom of the Lamb and rejoice forever.

Heavenly Father, help the people of Your Church not to despair when it seems the world is winning against them. Let them see the slippery stone they are standing on and help them to remember Your Son Jesus Christ rules over all and will soon overtake them in all their sin while we are gathered into Your heavenly kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.