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November 10, 2007 ©Homer
Kizer Commentary — From the Margins
The Vision of
Obadiah ___________ For the day of the Lord is near
upon all nations. / As you have done, it shall be done to you; / your deeds
shall return on your own head. / For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, /
so all the nations shall drink continually; / they shall drink and swallow, /
and shall be as though they had never been. / But in ____________ In
2004, four men jointly purchased real property at Port Austin, Michigan, in the
name of a sacred purpose trust: Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community
(PASCC). These four all claimed belief in the necessity of keeping the
commandments of God, but when one of the four found that he could not get along
with the other three, he filed a revised Purchasing Agreement in a similar
sounding name of a trust—Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community Sacred
Purpose Trust (PASCCSPT)—with himself as its sole trustee. With a few
strokes of a pen, Norman Scott Edwards eliminated Terry Monte Williams, Paul
Douglas Drieman, and Philip Daniel Frankford from any ownership position in the
real property having a contracted value of $670,000. Edwards’ blatant theft of the
property—he filed the revised Purchasing Agreement that eliminated the
other three on 17 September 2004, but neglected to tell the three until 29
October 2004—has served as a schism to divide the Sabbatarian community
as little else has: Edwards has supporters who see nothing amiss in his
elimination of Williams, Drieman, and Frankford. Apparently the position that
Edwards’ supporters take is that if he could do so, why not? Others
Sabbatarian disciples, though, have a problem with Edwards’ acts, and
have marked Edwards as a person to be avoided; as a person with whom a genuine
disciple shall not eat or have any fellowship. The schism formed because of Edwards’ theft
and subsequent marking is akin to the schism that caused Jacob Amens’
followers to separate from more liberal Mennonites in the late 17th-Century.
And here is where understanding the vision of Obadiah begins. The Apostle Paul writing to Gentile converts at In his juxtaposition of Spirit and flesh, Paul
writes, “Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise” (Gal
4:28). Paul further writes, “But just as at that time [in the days of
Abraham] he who was born according to the flesh [Ishmael] persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit [Isaac], so
also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? ‘Cast out the slave
woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the
son of the free woman.’ So, brothers, we are not children of the slave
but of the free woman” (vv.
29-31 emphasis added). Ishmael as a teenager did not “persecute”
the weaned child Isaac (Gen 21:8-10) as English speakers understand the word.
Rather, Ishmael laughed at, or sported with Isaac, as a teenager might with a
child, who could well have been five years old, thereby making Ishmael as old
as nineteen. But the Jews of Paul’s day were not merely laughing at or
sporting with converts to the sect of the Nazarenes; rather, they were killing
them as Paul well knew. So Paul read the account of Ishmael laughing at Isaac
not in a “literal” way, but as a metaphoric way that would having
mocking equating to murdering a person. According to Paul’s understanding of
figurative language, disciples in the 1st-Century and since have
been the spiritual reality foreshadowed by the patriarch Isaac. In this
analogy, Ishmael, who dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, represents physically
circumcised Israel; for it was in the wilderness of Paran where Israel believed
the ten spies rather than God and thereby refused to enter the Promised Land
when the promise of entering stood (Heb 4:1). So bondage and disbelief are
linked in the person of Ishmael, and since God consigned all of humankind to
disbelief, death, and disobedience (Rom 11:32) because of the transgression of
the first Adam, Ishmael and the kingdom of the Midianites (descendants of
Ishmael) also represent humankind prior to being born of Spirit. Note the above: with the exception of Jesus of
Nazareth whose Father was Theos (John
3:16), all of humankind since Adam’s transgression has been born
consigned to disobedience and as such were born as sons of disobedience (Eph
2:2-3). This includes the natural nation of There was, however, only one son of promise born to
Abraham, not many: there is only one spiritual Body of Christ, a Body without
division (1 Co 12:25), not many bodies or many divisions formed by schisms of
the one Body. So as Jesus’ physical body, crucified at Calvary, died and
was buried in the Garden Tomb only to be raised from the dead after three days,
His spiritual Body, crucified with Him, also died and was buried in Eden and
now awaits resurrection after the third
day. Resurrection from death is a continuation of life
that is not a continuation, a seemingly contradictory statement that is seen in
analogy through one generation of human beings producing another generation:
Isaac as the single son of promise produces offspring by promise (Gen 25:21).
Hence, Esau and Jacob are the continuation of Isaac as the son of promise. A carnal son of disobedience who receives a second
birth through receipt of the Holy Spirit becomes part of spiritual Isaac. This
is what Paul taught. Thus, the new creature that is Spirit dwelling in a tent
of flesh (together, the new creature and its tent of flesh) form a disciple of
Christ Jesus. The new creature is born free to keep the commandments of God
(Rom 8:1-2; 6:14), but the tent of flesh remains consigned to disobedience as
Paul found out but did not like (Rom 7:21-25). Therefore, a war is created
within the person with the law of God imbedded in the mind and written on the
heart contesting for control of the tent of flesh in which the law of sin and
death continues to reign. Not until this person is liberated from indwelling sin
and death at the second Passover will the person truly be freed from sin (1
John 1:8-10). The new creature that has been born of Spirit
continues to dwell in a tent of flesh, but continues as Esau and Jacob are
continuations of Isaac. This new creature has not yet been resurrected in
glorify [i.e., the perishable flesh having put on imperishability] to become a
spirit being that is a younger sibling of Christ Jesus (Rom 8:29). But an
intermediary step between being part of spiritual Isaac and glorification
exists for endtime disciples: since the spiritual Body of Christ died with the
first disciples, who were personally taught by Jesus and had need of no other
teacher, the need to restore all things by the last Elijah now exists (Matt
17:11), with John the Baptist being a type of this last Elijah. This
restoration of all things includes resurrecting the Body to first empowered
spiritual life in tents of flesh, then to glorification of the flesh. When a disciple is “filled” with the
Holy Spirit, there is neither indwelling sin nor death within the disciple.
Literally, the disciple will not die from so-called natural causes, but must be
slain by another. And because the liberated disciple will no longer have sin
dwelling within him or herself, he or she must take on the sins of others to
die—the disciple becomes the Body of Christ, the Lamb of God sacrificed
at Both the head and body of the paschal lamb dies
when sacrificed. If disciples truly form the Body of Christ, the
Body of the Son of Man, the Body of the Lamb of God, then disciples can expect
to be sacrificed as Jesus was, for the disciple is not above his or her
teacher, nor a servant above his or her master (Matt 10:24). It is enough for a
disciple to be like his or her teacher and a servant to be like his or her
master (v. 25). Hence, the person who has been liberated from
indwelling sin and death no longer is within the womb of Grace, but has been
revealed as the Body of the Son of Man (Luke 17:30). The garment of
Christ’s righteousness has been stripped away by liberation from
indwelling sin and death—and the disciple who was of spiritual Isaac a
day before will become part of children Zion brings forth in a day. Quoting the Lord, the prophet Isaiah writes,
“‘Before she was in labor she gave birth; / before her pain came
upon her she delivered a son. / Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such a
thing? / Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in
one moment? / For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her
children’” (66:7-8) … the pain that will come upon Zion is
the Tribulation, and the son Zion delivers is the son of promise that will become one with the glorified Christ
through marriage. Prior to In the womb of Rebekah were two sons of promise who
would be born in a day: the Lord [YHWH] told Rebekah, “‘Two nations
are in your womb, / and two people from within you [from birth] shall be
divided; / the one shall be stronger than the other, / the older shall serve
the younger’” (Gen 25:23). The younger son, Jacob, wrestles with God and will
not let God go until he receives a blessing: “Then he said, ‘Let me
go, for the day has broken.’ But Jacob said, “I will not let you go
unless you bless me.’ And he said to him, ‘What is your
name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ Then he said, ‘Your name shall no
longer be called Jacob, but What’s seen is that a son of disobedience (akin
to Abraham’s natural son Ishmael) receives a second birth through receipt
of the Holy Spirit to become a disciple of Christ Jesus. This second birth
makes the former son of disobedience like Abraham’s son of promise,
Isaac. Thus, the disciple who died in the 1st-Century formed the
living but nailed to the cross Body of Christ—this disciple should not
have needed a teacher, for as John writes, “But you have been anointed by
the Holy One, and you have knowledge. I [John] write to you, not because you do
not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the
truth” (1 John 2:20-21). Under the new covenant, “‘[T]hey
shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying,
“Know the Lord,” / for they shall all know me, from the least of
them to the greatest’” (Heb 8:11). Therefore, if disciples are
under the new covenant, then all have knowledge and there is no need for anyone
to teach neighbor or brother to Know the
Lord. But the reality of the 1st-Century was
that disciples were in need of instruction, and most of the instruction was
contrary to the gospel that Paul taught; thus, while he still lived, all in
Asia turned away from Paul (2 Tim 1:15). Paul wrote elsewhere, “For many,
of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies
of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and
they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (Phil
3:18-19). The proof of anything is in the reality presented
by the thing: in the 1st-Century, within the womb of Grace were two
peoples, one of which was a people of the field or flesh, with their end being
destruction. The other was a people that had to wrestle with God and prevail
… the blessing Jacob received was in wrestling with God and living to
tell about the experience. The blessing those disciples who are of The physical descendants of Esau became Christendom is presently divided by the writings of
Moses. On one side of this schism is all who are Esau, hated by God but today
still covered by Grace. On the other side is all who are loved by God even
though covered by Grace. What is the difference? What separates the one who is
hated from the one who is loved—and this question should concern all of
spiritual Isaac, for all who are Isaac will become either spiritual Esau or Jacob wrestles with God: how is a disciple to
wrestle with God? Surely no one who is physical expects to prevail over what
cannot be seen, or is not of these four unfurled dimensions. Therefore,
wrestling with God can only be accomplished by wrestling with obedience to God;
i.e., commandment keeping. And this is where Moses enters the fight. Jesus said that if an Israelite believed Moses, the
person would believe Him, for Moses wrote of Him. “‘But if you do
not believe his [Moses’] writings, how will you believe my [Jesus’]
words’” (John 5:47). Yet visible Christendom rejects Moses and
actually uses rejection of Moses as the determiner of whom should be identified
as a “Christian.” Thus, the disciple who wrestles with God will
believe Jesus’ words by believing Moses’ writings, which puts this
disciple at odds with the visible Church, thereby causing this disciple to
fight against what is accepted as Christian
while knowing within the person that he or she is genuine whereas those with
whom he or she contends are not. Wrestling with God morphs into wrestling for
God against disobedience and lawlessness. Today, disciples compose spiritual Isaac, in whose
womb (Rebekah’s womb is Isaac’s womb) are two sons, one hated and
one loved, with the prophecies against the hated son having this son utterly
destroyed to the person. Disciples will not enter the heavenly realm as they
are today. The flesh will perish. The new creature that has been born of
Spirit—this new creature being likened to the next generation of a human
family—will receive a new body that is composed of spirit, a body that is
like the person’s present body in form but not in substance. This new
creature is today either hated by God or loved even though no sin is imputed to
this new creature because it remains covered by Grace, or in the womb of Grace. Sin separates man from God, and causes man to hide
from God as in the case of the first Adam hiding in the garden (Gen 3:10). Sin
does not separate God from man although sin causes God to hide His face from
man (Deut 32:20) so that man cannot find God, but sin per se does not separate God from man. If it did, then Theos would not have entered His creation
as His only Son to die at Calvary by taking on the sins of The above should not pass by quickly: both the son
that is loved as well as the son that is hated will, today, prior to liberation
from indwelling sin and death, commit sin. All sin and come short of the glory
[righteousness] of God. But the person who truly hates sin is loved by
God; whereas the person who is not appalled by sin is hated by God. Jacob becomes Esau was born as the son of promise that bore his own
bloody hair coat (Gen 25:25); endtime Esau consists of those
“Christians” who do not strive with God through obedience, usually
outwardly discerned by keeping the commandments, especially the Sabbath
commandment. But the Pharisees outwardly kept the commandments; yet Jesus said
that not one of them actually kept the commandments (John 7:19). Thus, it is
not enough to attend services on the Sabbath, then to show no love—the
weightier manner of the law—to one’s brother. Rather, the person
who keeps what is truly important will “‘sigh and groan over all of
the abominations that are committed in [ Membership in spiritual Esau is determined not
through when the Sabbath is observed, but through failure to sigh and cry aloud
about the abominations committed within Christendom. No one of endtime Esau, the hated son, shall be
spared. God will not have pity on any, regardless of how well they sing praises
to Him or create websites dripping of blood. If the disciple will not sigh and
cry about the abominations committed within and without the Church, then the
disciple is of the hated son. It isn’t legalistic commandment-keeping that
causes the one son to be loved; it isn’t a matter of all Sabbatarian
disciples being Returning now to Port Austin: those who support
Edwards do not sigh and cry about his wrong-doing. They are, or would like to
believe that they are, in the sanctuary, where the slaying will begin (Ezek
9:6). It will be their turn to cry aloud when they are cast into the lake of
fire. The Lord [YHWH]
told Ezekiel, “‘The guilt of the house of * "Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by
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