SPEAKER_00: Good morning, First Baptist Wimberly.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mike Gibbons.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Monday.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but when you prepare a sermon, you always have some leftover nuggets that you just don't have time to get to.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned the importance of mountains in Scripture yesterday, but didn't really have time to expand on that.
SPEAKER_00: Mountains and hills are referenced over 500 times in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Their biblical meaning is often contradictory.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they're a symbol of refuge and security, and sometimes they're a place of military conquest and slaughter.
SPEAKER_00: At times they are described as inaccessible, barren, and uninhabited, yet mountains are places where God's people will dwell in abundance.
SPEAKER_00: And mountains are a central symbol in Obadiah.
SPEAKER_00: Edom's territory centered on Mount Seir, a mountainous region south of the Dead Sea.
SPEAKER_00: It had fertile valleys and it had the capital city of Petra, which was nestled within towering mountain walls that were indeed formidable.
SPEAKER_00: The city itself was surrounded by a high ring of mountains with rough, rocky heights reaching as high as 4,700 feet above sea level.
SPEAKER_00: And residents lived in homes that were carved into the rock itself.
SPEAKER_00: But this geographic reality bred spiritual danger.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Edomites lived in the mountains, they trusted in those mountains and in their own strength and power to keep them safe rather than trusting in God.
SPEAKER_00: The seemingly impenetrable mountains and heights of Edom served as an emblem of their pride.
SPEAKER_00: The boast recorded in Obadiah 3, Who Can Bring Me Down to the Ground, reflects a confidence that's rooted entirely in geography rather than faith.
SPEAKER_00: These mountains that they depended upon became the stage for a little divine irony, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: The geography that seemed to guarantee Edom's security becomes the very terrain where God's judgment executes itself.
SPEAKER_00: Mountains thus represent not merely physical elevation, but spiritual deception, the false assurance that human fortifications can withstand divine judgment.
SPEAKER_00: The reversal from Edom's mountain-based pride to Mount Zion's mountain-based deliverance underscores Obadiah's central message: trust in God, not in earthly strongholds.
SPEAKER_00: God alone provides genuine security.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm asking myself today: Am I hiding behind a mountain of pride, self righteousness, or some other sin today?
SPEAKER_00: Confess it now and run to the safety of Mount Zion.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mike Gibbons, and I love being your pastor.