Higher than an eagle

(sorry for delay--new article tomorrow)

In Exodus 19:3, God says to Moses, [4] Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
[5] Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

When you exalt yourself like an eagle, who is exalted that way? You see, the Edomites in Obadiah are using the very terminology in their mind that describes how God protected, then blessed and used the nation Israel.

Isaiah 40:30 says, [30] Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
[31] But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

These folks look at themselves as being on a mission from God, strengthened by divine protection and enablement. You see, there’s a religious component to their thinking. Obadiah 1:4 says, "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD."

Who set himself among the stars? Lucifer did. They see themselves as being the leader of a divine campaign under the protection of God, being empowered by Him and being on a mission for God. That was "the pride of thine heart" that deceived them. It’s this thinking process whereby they’ve been deceived into thinking their God dwells with them and endorses their tactics of attacking Israel.

Folks, there aren’t any atheists; you understand that. All this stuff you read about is a part of the power of darkness. Psalm 119:130 says, "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple."

What happens when you turn off the light? You create darkness. Paul writes in Romans 1: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
[22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
[23] And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.’

That process is exactly what’s going on here. So that perpetual hatred had a spiritual component behind it. The verse says, "Thou hath exalted thyself as the eagle." One of the things about being exalted as an eagle is an eagle is a bird of prey that dwells on high. It’s like they’re a bird of prey nestled in these inaccessible heights that only THEY can achieve to. "Among the stars." They see themselves connected with the host of heaven.

Obadiah verses 5-7 describe what’s going to happen to them: [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?
[6] How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!
[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.

In other words, He’s warning Esau, "If men judged you, they’d leave you something." I mean, you can hide something. God says, "But that ain’t gonna happen with me! I’m coming and I’m going to get everything!"

Verse 7 says that all the men of the confederacy deceived them. Their prideful arrogance and vengefulness made them easily manipulated by the confederacy and the people who deceive them prevail against them. They sit at tables with them, telling them, "You’re good guys and so forth," and the (Edomites) can’t see (they're being taken) because they’ve got no wisdom; they don’t have the wisdom to see through the deceit.

They’ve completely rejected the wisdom they would have had from the Abrahamic Covenant that said Israel is going to exist in the land as God’s people. They think, "Well, we can destroy Israel and take possession of the land." That’s really been the whole issue all along.

*****

Here’s an interesting insight into studying the Minor Prophets:

“When I teach something I read it; if I’m teaching a book I try to read it about a hundred times a week. If I’m on the airplane people think I’m sleeping but I’m reading that book in my head. I got to thinking, ‘You know, I’m spending all this time reading these prophetic things; how much time am I spending over . . .?’ 

"So I decided, with the Minor Prophets, I’m only going to think about this one day a week. One day a week I put about 15 hours into thinking about these things.

"The reason for that is I don’t want to crowd out everything else because at one point, back when I was doing Hosea, I spend a whole week doing nothing but studying Hosea and that’s when it dawned on me, ‘I’m spending too much time studying something that ain’t me.’

"Like I said, I’m curious and I like to look over your shoulder and see what you’re reading; we all got that in us, but you have to keep it in perspective. I’m teaching it to you because, hey, some of you can be real good students and it’s just interesting to show some (further) stuff, letting you see there’s more there.

"If it goes over your head, understand there’s a whole lot more to know than what you know now and boy, it can be some fun to understand it and figure it out. And if you don’t understand it yet, then you just let it roll around in the back of your brain, and as you keep reading, every now and then a verse will come up and you say, ‘Oh, there’s that verse! Aha, there’s that!’ ”