(note: I am really struggling these past several days to write. I keep looking at my notes from NYC and I don't know what to do with any of them now. I keep writing and then deleting. So, I will just have to hope for a better day tomorrow all around--it's raining and colder here, as well as darker, and I'm fighting melancholy once again.)
The two colors you hear repeated over and over in the news these days: red and blue. Headline this morning: "Polls Show Blue Tsunami." Headline this evening: "Which States Will Stay Red?"
"Red is the first color that humans mastered, fabricated, reproduced, and broke down into different shades. It is also one of the earliest colors used by artists during the prehistoric period," says an article on the website Color Psychology.
"Throughout the Middle Ages, red had a religious significance. It was the color of the blood of Christ and the fires of hell. In the Renaissance period, red colors were supposed to draw the viewer’s attention to the most influential figures in a painting.
"In the 19th century, red became the color of a new political and social movement such as socialism. So it was also when the color red was used to create specific emotions in art and not just for imitating nature.
"Red is known to have both physiological and psychological impacts on people, thus producing positive and negative effects on us . . .
"Compared to the rest of the colors, red provokes the most potent emotions, both healthy and unhealthy. It makes people feel dominant and powerful by boosting their self-esteem. In addition, red is a bold color, which makes one stand out from the crowd and influences the way others see them . . .
"For example, fast, luxurious cars are most often painted in red; famous people are usually given the red-carpet treatment, and women who wear red are considered more attractive."
*****
“In Genesis 21, Abraham and Sarah have two boys—Isaac and Ishmael. With his wife Rebekah, Isaac has the twins, Esau and Jacob. The reason God talks about being the ‘God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,’ is because He’s the God of Isaac, not Ishmael, and Jacob, not Esau. There’s a selecting by God going on there.
“After Sarah died Abraham took a wife named Keturah and they had six kids. He winds up with a total of 16 kids, but the seed’s going to be through Jacob.
“Genesis 25 says that when Rebekah was pregnant with Isaac’s sons, 'the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the LORD.
[24] And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
[25] And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
“Notice Esau is red. You know anyone else in the Bible who’s red? Revelation 12 talks about the great red dragon. You see the red heifer in Numbers 19. Same kind of association.
“Esau, in scripture, is going to be a type of the flesh, but he’s also going to be a type of the rebel that, instead of loving God’s plan and purpose for the nation Israel (God’s plan for Abraham and his descendants), hates it.
“People refer to Jacob as having stolen the birthright from Esau, but the truth is he bought it (with the pot of beans Esau traded it for). Obviously Jacob saw the value in being Abraham and Isaac’s heir. Jacob, for all his conniving, understood something about spiritual heritage that was being passed on from Abraham to his dad, Isaac, and would be passed on to Isaac’s heir. Esau, on the other hand, had no interest in it.
“Esau’s descendants are the Edomites and they populate the land on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, the land of Seir. It’s fascinating that there’s two dozen different passages about the Edomites as the thorns in Israel’s flesh.
“God says in Ezekiel 25, ‘And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance . . .Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred.’
“Notice the phrase ‘old hatred.’ When Christ comes back He’s going to destroy these nations because of an ancient, perpetual hatred they have against Israel. Esau hated Jacob and he taught his descendants to hate Jacob and Jacob’s descendants.
“Obadiah verses 8-10, says, ‘Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
[10] For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.’
“The Book of Malachi begins with, [1] The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
[3] And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
[4] Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.
“Malachi’s not talking about Jacob the man. He’s talking about Jacob the nation. Two nations are going to come of them. It’s brother fighting against brother in their descendants.
*****
“As Ezekiel 35: 5 says, [5] Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end.’
“That’s a passage about the fifth course of judgment. When Israel is carried off into captivity, the Edomites are there, watching it, going, ‘Hee-hee, get ’em! They deserve it! Hit ’em again for us!’ They don’t just say, ‘Hey, glad you’re going’; they go in and plunder and rob them.
“Even the ones Nebuchadnezzar didn’t get, the Edomites tattle, ‘Here, now they’re hiding over here.’ So full and complete was their hatred of Israel that they wouldn’t let any of them try and escape.
“Psalm 137 says, [7] Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
[9] Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
“People read that and get aghast, thinking, ‘How could these Jews say they were going to be happy when the Babylonians’ kids are punished and destroyed?!’
“Well, what the Israelites are saying is, ‘Him that curseth thee, I will curse.’ What the Babylonians are getting back is what they GAVE Israel, that’s all. They would come in and slaughter the whole family, babies and all.
“Remember Obadiah verse 15 says, ‘For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.’
“That is a statement of God’s foreign policy in connection with His client nation, the nation Israel. Israel is His nation in the earth, and His statement to all the other nations is, ‘You curse them, I’ll curse you in kind. What you do to them, I’ll do to you.’
“Psalm 137 is about curse-for-curse and that’s really what the Book of Obadiah is all about. There’s some sequences in it that are very helpful in ordering some of the events in the tribulation, but the functional issue of the book is, ‘He’s going to give them back what they gave to Israel.’
“Obadiah verse 3 says, ‘The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?’
“In other words, ‘You’ve exalted yourself and for that exalted position, I’m going to bring you down.’
“Notice how He does it in verse 7: ‘All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.’
“The Edomites get into a confederacy with other nations who use the Edomites’ pride to deceive them into being a vehicle to accomplish somebody else’s purpose. In other words, they’re overturned by treachery. Well, what did they do to Israel?
“They indulged in treachery against Jacob, so they’re going to be overturned by treachery of their friends. Obadiah verse 13 says, ‘Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;’
"So if you go back to verses 5-6: [5] If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?
“If you read down through the first 16 verses in Obadiah, what you see is the kind of tit-for-tat back and forth. And then you come down to verse 17: ‘But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.’
“Now, that’s a famous phrase you hear from preachers about how Believers need to ‘possess their possessions.’ It’s sort of like the verse, ‘Salvation is of the Lord.’ I’ve hardly met a preacher who knows where that verse is. By the way, it’s in the very next book, Jonah.
“What are their possessions? Well, it’s the land. God takes it and gives it to Jacob. God has a specific solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and that’s the kingdom. But inside that He has some very specific things to be done in order to resolve all of those territorial disputes in such a way that brings about a resolution to it all.”