Fresh Manna 2021

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Strong Tower Radio

Through the Bible

Cody Francis

Joshua & Judges: Right in Our Own Eyes

Ruth: Next to Kin

1 & 2 Samuel: After God’s Own Heart

1 & 2 Kings: A Divided Heart

Ezra & Nehemiah: Moving Mountains

Psalms: Praise the Lord

Job: Trusting God in the Dark

Song of Solomon: The Flame of Yahweh

Isaiah: The Lord is Salvation!

Jeremiah & Lamentations: Beware of Your Heart

Ezekiel: The Lord is There

Daniel: God is My Judge

Hosea: A Heartbroken Lover

Joel: Rend Your Heart

Jonah: On the Run

Micah: Before the Divine Tribunal

Nahum: The Good News of God’s Vengeance

Habakkuk: Yet I Will Rejoice

Zephaniah: Hidden by the Lord

Haggai: Is It Time?

Zechariah: The Lord Remembers

Malachi: My Jewels

Matthew: Behold Your King

Luke: The Savior of the World

Mark: Follow Me

John: The Word of God

Acts: All Who Believed Were Together

Romans: The Obedience of Faith

1 & 2 Corinthians: One Body

Galatians: A Different Gospel

Ephesians: In Him

Esther: Unlikely Deliverance

Proverbs: Two Paths

Ecclesiastes: The Meaning of Life

1 & 2 Chronicles: From Temple to Temple

Amos: The Danger of Success

Obadiah: The Tale of Two Mountains

Fresh manna fell to the ground as a gift from God while the Israelites were in the wilderness.

It was fresh from the ovens of heaven, baked by the master baker himself.

How the Israelites must have anticipated the taste and the smell of each morning's delivery.

Just like the Israelites, you too can now experience the taste and the smell of fresh manna.

Today, you'll be listening to Cody Francis, Ministerial Department Director for the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

We are studying from the book of Obadiah.

Now I'm just curious, when's the last time you heard a message on the book of Obadiah?

I don't know that I can ever recall hearing a message on the book of Obadiah except just a couple hours ago at Carp Lake.

But Obadiah has a message for us today just like any other book in the Bible.

Obadiah is actually the shortest book in the Old Testament.

It's the only book in the Old Testament that only has 1 chapter.

It's also unique in that Obadiah is 1 of only maybe 2 books in the Old Testament or in the Bible for that matter that deal almost exclusively with another nation other than with God's people.

And we're going to look at, I'm going to call it the tale of 2 mountains, Or we could call it the tale of 2 twins who reside in 2 different mountains.

And I want to begin with just an account of the 70s, I believe it was.

There was a study in the University of Minnesota, and it's still ongoing I believe, but it was the study of twins reared apart.

And you probably heard of some of these twins.

The most famous of them are referred to as the Jim twins.

And they were given up for adoption in like a few weeks or something like that old.

They just vaguely knew that there was another twin to them.

They only lived about 40 or 45 miles apart from each other.

They got in touch with 1 another at the age of 39, and they found out some very fascinating things about each other.

First of all, they both looked quite a bit alike, but not only that, they were both named James or Jim, and they both had beloved childhood dogs named Toy.

They had similar experiences in high school, even though they were at different high schools.

They both married women by the name of Linda.

And then they both had trouble in those marriages and ended up divorcing their wife Linda, and they both remarried women named Betty.

And then they both had sons, and they named their son James Allen.

1 spelled Allen with 1 L, and another spelled Allen with 2 Ls.

Now there were some other differences, but they were strikingly similar, And it was fascinating to these researchers to study.

Now there is another set of twins that are not as well known as the Jim twins, Jack and Oscar Uffe.

They were born in Port of Spain, Trinidad on January 6th, 1933.

Now they lived there in Trinidad for about 6 months and then their parents split up And Oscar went back to Germany with his mother, and Jack stayed with his father and grew up in Trinidad.

Now in Germany in the 30s and in the 40s, Oscar did what almost all young people did.

Every morning when he went to school, he greeted the principal and teachers with the greeting, Heil Hitler.

Now, Jack, back in Trinidad, was being raised Jewish by his Jewish father.

And he watched the events of World War II and all of that from a distance.

Obviously, he was separated from its son being in the Caribbean, And it wasn't really real into him until he went to stay with his father's sister, his aunt, who had gone to live in Argentina.

She was the only 1 of his father's family who had lived in Europe that survived.

And she told of her experiences of living through Dachau.

And right about that time, the nation of Israel was joining and she encouraged Jack to immigrate to Israel and he did and joined for a short period of time the Israeli army.

Oscar, growing up in the Hitler Youth Movement, sworn to secrecy that his father was Jewish.

And Jack, eventually moving to Israel and joining the Israeli army.

Didn't work out in Israel, he wanted to move on.

His father had come to the United States.

And so at the age of 21, Jack went to the United States.

But on the way to the United States, he stopped in Germany and met Oscar for the first time.

They didn't really speak the same language, and so it was a very awkward visit, but something fascinated them, or maybe bewildered them would be the better word to say, as they met each other, they were wearing identical clothes.

I forgot, we have twins right here, don't we?

You're not wearing identical clothes, though, are you?

And they became, 25 years later, part of the Minnesota study of twins reared apart.

Similarities were found, but their upbringing was vastly different from the Hitler youth to the Jewish young boy.

And while they found those similarities, there were stark differences, and they said that they had a love-hate relationship.

They were both repelled and attracted to 1 another.

They were what some people call twin enemies.

And the book of Obadiah is the sad commentary, the sad conclusion of a sibling rivalry that had devolved into twin enemies.

What is the message from Obadiah for us today?

The vision of Obadiah thus says the Lord God concerning Edom, We have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent from among the nations, saying, Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle.

Behold I make you small among the nations, you shall be greatly despised." So here we find that Obadiah comes with a message to Edom.

Edom is south and to the east of the kingdom of Judah.

It's a very rocky, mountainous, and primarily desert environment.

Now Edom today is in the country, although there's more to this country than just where Edom was, of Jordan today.

And as we look at this book of Obadiah, we see that God is directing a message of judgment to Edom.

And Esau had a twin brother, Jacob and Esau.

And unfortunately as we look throughout the Bible, Jacob and Esau were more like twin enemies than anything else as we look at it.

But notice the reason why judgment is coming upon Edom.

Notice verse 3, the pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, you who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground?

Verse 4, though you ascend as high as the eagle and though you set your nest among the stars from there I will bring you down says the Lord.

Notice here's a first reason why Edom is being judged.

What is the reason that it gives for the judgment upon Edom?

We see it says, the pride of your heart has deceived you.

Now it also seems that they had a very secure fortress of where they were dwelling.

Notice he says, you make your habitation high, though you ascend as high as the eagle and you nest among the stars, I will bring you down.

But there's even a greater reason why Edom is judged here in the book of Obadiah.

Your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever.

For violence against your brother, Jacob.

The primary reason in the book of Obadiah that Edom is judged is because of violence against their brother.

Now when we think about that, Esau and Jacob had been born a long time ago.

It was somewhere in the neighborhood of about 1, 500 years previously.

Certainly over a thousand years, but probably much longer than that.

We don't know exactly when the book of Obadiah was written.

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Through the Bible

Obadiah: The Tale of Two Mountains

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