Obadiah: Very little is known about Obadiah. He probably lived around 586 BC. He prophesied against the nation of Edom, an enemy to Judah. Edom was settled by the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother. Residents of Edom jeered at the Jews as they were led away captive by Babylonians and looted their belongings after they were gone.
Obadiah 1: 3-4 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. *They think they will be safe in their rugged, mountainous land. ...But also our pride often deceives us. Pride can lead us to think we know more than God or more than the prophet. Pride causes us to think we can solve our own problems, and that we don’t need God. It was pride that led to the downfall and destruction of the Nephites. Pride was what led Lucifer to fall.
Quote #1... President Benson taught: “The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.
Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s. When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of “my will and not thine be done.” As Paul said, they “seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” (Philip. 2:21.)
Our will in competition to God’s will allows desires, appetites, and passions to go unbridled. (See Alma 38:12; 3 Ne. 12:30.)
The proud cannot accept the authority of God giving direction to their lives. (See Hel. 12:6.) They pit their perceptions of truth against God’s great knowledge, their abilities versus God’s priesthood power, their accomplishments against His mighty works.
Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren’t interested in changing their opinions to agree with God’s.”
Quote #2 President Benson taught: “Another major portion of this very prevalent sin of pride is enmity toward our fellowmen. We are tempted daily to elevate ourselves above others and diminish them. (See Hel. 6:17; D&C 58:41.)
The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others. In the words of C. S. Lewis: “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”
President Benson explained: “The antidote for pride is humility—meekness, submissiveness. (See Alma 7:23.) It is the broken heart and contrite spirit.” We can choose to humble ourselves or God will choose to humble us. He also taught that it is universal and that we all experience it to one degree or another.
Have you found anything that helps you to be humble? How do you avoid or overcome pride?
*Obadiah warns the people to repent. That seems to be a huge part of the responsibilities of prophets!
Obadiah 1: 11-15.... How do WE react when we see others experiencing trouble or hardship? Do we mock? Do we rejoice and feel like they are getting what they deserve? Do we turn a blind eye? Or do we feel empathy and compassion and desire to help? What kind of character do we have?
Obadiah 1: 17-18 Zion to be a light to world. A place of holiness. A place/people that offer deliverance.
Mount Zion is a place where God , where God’s presence is. And he tells them that deliverance is going to be there on that mount. Where God is, that’s where rescue happens. We hear about kind of a happy ending where Israel will be taken care of. (Follow Him podcast)
Obadiah 1:21 What does it mean to be a Savior on Mount Zion?
Follow Him podcast explained that this word Savior is the same word used for judges in the time of the Judges in OT. It means deliverer. When Israel asked for help, God would send a deliverer...someone to free them from captivity. The day would come when there is no earthly king, but the king is the Lord.
Follow Him gave this thought about what it means to be a Savior on Mount Zion: “Going back to the idea of the judges,...what gave them power to deliver Israel was the Spirit of the Lord. ...When we think about what it means to be a savior who stands on Mount Zion? Well, a savior, in this sense, a deliverer, is someone that rescues others from captivity is one that has the Spirit of the Lord come upon them. And as disciples of Christ, that’s one of the things that we’re given just like Jesus Christ.” I love this thought...as we invite the Spirit and act upon its promptings, we become Saviors on Mount Zion. This weekend I was able to attend Time Out for Women and several stories were told about times when people were moved by the Spirit to do something for someone. Laurel Day told about a really hard day about a month ago. She was overwhelmed and struggling, and when she got into her car after work, she broke down into tears. Suddenly her phone vibrated and there was a message from her friend Emily saying that Laurel was on her mind and she was saying a prayer for her right now. It testified to her that God knows her...He knows each of us and He is intimately aware of us. And Laurel said that it was so simple but made such a difference and that now whenever she thinks of someone she sends a similar text. What if we all did that? It is so simple...but what if when someone was on our mind we said a prayer for them AND let them know?
Quote #3 President Hinckley gave one interpretation: He explained that in the temple “we literally become saviors on Mount Zion. What does this mean? Just as our Redeemer gave His life as a vicarious sacrifice for all men, and in so doing became our Savior, even so we, in a small measure, when we engage in proxy work in the temple, become as saviors to those on the other side who have no means of advancing unless something is done in their behalf by those on earth.”
Any other thoughts about ways we could be Saviors on Mount Zion?
Amos:
Contemporary of Hosea and Isaiah. He was a shepherd from Tekoa, about 6 miles south of Bethlehem and 12 miles south of Jerusalem. The Lord assigned him to prophesy to the Northern Kingdom. His ministry was about 750 BC (about 160 years before Obadiah.) His major message was on the perfect moral character of Jehovah and that the sacrifice God most wants is for us to live a righteous life. He taught the people to repent and taught them how to gain exaltation.
Amos 1: 3 They are treating the people as objects...threshing them as they would wheat, enslaving them. God does not look kindly on those who treat their brothers and sisters as objects.
“For three transgressions and for four”....many, many sins. And over and over it says God will send fire. 5 BYU professors wrote an article in BYU’s Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy, Volume 39 entitled “Analyzing Anger References in Scripture”. They wrote, “When His children forget to acknowledge Him or when they deviate from the covenant path, He disciplines in wisdom, and His anger and justice are manifested and appropriately tailored to individual trajectories. Just as we cannot be lenient as parents around certain conditions that will cause future difficulties, for our children, God is not a boundary breaker. He does not try to make us happy with His behavior toward us, but, rather, He sees the bigger picture and must use His agency to set firm limits. His unwavering intent is to bring His children back to His love and presence. In His mercy, He continues to warn us again and again until we turn to Him or sadly lose this opportunity through our own unrepentant sin...”
Amos 3:7-8 and Amos 7:10-15
What truths about prophets do we know?
How has having a prophet of God on the Earth blessed your life? How have latter-day prophets helped you draw closer to Jesus Christ? How has following prophetic counsel provided safety or guidance or comfort or helped you feel God’s love? Why do we need prophets?
On November 2, Sheri Dew gave a really beautiful devotional at BYU Hawaii. (Side note: I could listen to Sheri Dew EVERY DAY...there’s something about the way she speaks that touches my heart and soul.) Her devotional was entitled, “Prophets Can See Around Corners.” Through her job and her callings, she has had opportunities to interact closely with prophets. She shared several experiences.
Experience 1:
In 2014, then-Elder Russell M. Nelson chaired the Missionary Executive Council or MEC. One day in the MEC, Elder Nelson held up his smartphone and said, “We need to put these into the hands of every missionary.” You can imagine the discussion that ensued about all the challenges missionaries with smartphones would create. But in time, the MEC began allowing missionaries in a few test missions to carry iPads or smartphones.
Every problem the MEC predicted happened. But Elder Nelson never wavered in his conviction that missionaries could be taught to use the internet righteously and that they should have smartphones. The tests continued and over the next few years, more and more missionaries received phones.
Now fast forward to January of 2020. That month, President Russell M. Nelson, now President of the Church, authorized every missionary worldwide to have a smartphone. Then, just weeks later, the pandemic shut down the world and proselyting as we knew it stopped.
Elder Brent H. Nielson, then executive director of the missionary department, was initially concerned that baptisms might drop to nearly zero. But they didn’t. Inspired missionaries working from their apartments found and baptized 125,000 people in 2020—largely because they had smartphones.
Says Elder Nielson: “I quickly learned that the Lord had prepared us for this day. Prophets can see around corners.” [1]
Experience 2: In 1998, President Hinckley encouraged everyone to get out of debt. Sheri acted and paid off her mortgage. It took sacrifice and effort, but she did it. Ten years later, the economy plummeted. She was CEO of Deseret Book and she was worried about saving jobs and saving the company. But one day she realized that she was not worried about herself. Because her home was paid off and she had no debt, she was going to be okay.
Experience 3: September of 2020, she was in a communications meeting with President Nelson. The pandemic was in full swing and they recommended that President Nelson give a message of hope to the Church. He told them to flesh it out more and then they’d discuss it the next week. The very next day, he asked them to meet with him again. He said the idea was good, just not quite right. He told them what day the message should be given, how long it should be, and that it needed to be a message to the world—not just the Church—about gratitude. Some of the things he said went against conventional wisdom for communication (releasing on a Friday, making it so long)...but he had received revelation and they followed his counsel. “But a prophet had spoken, and we went to work. The result was the #GiveThanks video released on November 20, 2020. And the results? Unprecedented. That video’s reach dwarfed anything the Church had ever released, especially to those not of our faith. Never in the history of the earth had so many people heard a prophet’s voice. Prophets see around corners.”
Quote #4 Sheri Dew testifies: “Brothers and sisters, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, acting unitedly, will never send the Church in the wrong direction. And here is why: Because even THE prophet is not the head of this Church. Jesus Christ is, and He is perfect. Prophets take their instructions from Him who knows all, sees all, and understands all things.”
Quote #5 Sheri Dew said, “Your greatest spiritual safety will come by following the prophet. My dear friends, there may be times when you find yourself wrestling with teachings from prophets. But this isn’t rocket science. I can promise you two things: First, you will question your testimony all your life if you do two things: break your covenants and turn your back on prophets. But the reverse is also true: You will enjoy a growing testimony all of your life if you keep your covenants and follow the prophet. That is a promise.
Let prophets of God be your spiritual anchor. Listen to them. Study their words. Follow their counsel. It will protect you from deception and keep you from making major mistakes. Prophets will make you smarter. They will help you see things you cannot see.”
Amos 4: 1-3 Women of Bashan oppress the poor and care only about their own pleasures. They shall be destroyed. Are we caring for the poor and needy?
Quote #6: Elder Holland in a talk entitled Are We Not All Beggars? Said, “Down through history, poverty has been one of humankind’s greatest and most widespread challenges. Its obvious toll is usually physical, but the spiritual and emotional damage it can bring may be even more debilitating. In any case, the great Redeemer has issued no more persistent call than for us to join Him in lifting this burden from the people. As Jehovah, He said He would judge the house of Israel harshly because “the spoil of the [needy] is in your houses.”
“What mean ye,” He cried, “that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor?”4
The writer of Proverbs would make the matter piercingly clear: “He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker,” and “whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor … shall [also] cry himself, but shall not be heard.”5
In our day, the restored Church of Jesus Christ had not yet seen its first anniversary when the Lord commanded the members to “look to the poor and … needy, and administer to their relief that they shall not suffer.”6 Note the imperative tone of that passage—“they shall not suffer.” That is language God uses when He means business.”
Amos finds himself going to a nation where they are exploiting the very people that they are to help take care of. A place where it’s survival of the fittest, just looking to get what’s yours and don’t care how your actions affect people around you.
Quote #7 Come Follow Me manual says, “God chose Abraham’s seed to be his covenant people so that they would be a blessing to all people, but instead, by the time of Amos’s ministry, many of the covenant people were oppressing the poor and ignoring the prophets, making their acts of worship empty and meaningless. True the nations surrounding them were also guilty of great sins, but that has never been an excuse for God’s people. So God sent a herdsman from Judah named Amos to preach repentance to the kingdom of Israel.”
Amos 4: 4-5 They are going through the motions of religious worship...paying tithes, going to Bethel to worship, making sacrifices...but their hearts are not turned to God. Their worship doesn’t extend to their hearts...the only thing that God really wants us to give! Because it is the only thing that will change us and help us become like Him.
Amos 4: 6-10 God reminds them of what He has done for them in the past. He rescued them. He reached out to them and lifted them out of their trials and captivity. It was an unearned act of love and deliverance.
Follow Him says that Jesus is the kid on the playground who rescues you from the bully. And then He asks you to be His friend and help rescue others. But instead Israel is turning around and being the bully. We are His covenant people and we’ve covenanted to mourn with those who mourn, comfort those who stand in need of comfort, and to be a witness of God at all times and all places. We are to go to the rescue. We are to find those who are suffering (in any way) and help them. We shouldn’t wait for them to earn it or deserve it. We should go help. We should be different than those around us. We should NEVER, EVER treat people as objects or as obstacles. Because Jesus Christ has helped us, saved us, what it means to be a covenant follower of Christ is to do the same for others. You can’t have a relationship with God without seeking to have good relationships with others around you.
(probably skip...but something for me to ponder)*Do we see a connection between drought/famine/natural disasters and the need to repent?
Amos 4: 13 God created Earth. The Lord God of Hosts is His name. Do we recognize His power and ability to create?
Amos 6:1 ease in Zion
What does that mean?
in Doctrine and Covenants 1:16: “They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world.”
Quote #8 Elder Snow said, “We can live as a Zion people if we wish to. Will it be hard? Of course it will...We seek Zion because it is the habitation of our Lord, who is Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. In Zion and from Zion, His luminous and incandescent light will shine forth, and He will rule forever.”
What can we do to establish righteousness and build Zion? How can we be pure in heart and have our hearts knit together in love?
