Obadiah 1:17-20 But on mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.… I. THE DELIVERANCE OF THE CHURCH OF GOD. Mount Zion signifies the Church, the entire mass of those who are given to the Lord Jesus Christ, and whom He has ransomed by His blood. It is remarkable that what is exhibited as the liberation of the Church is always conjoined with the destruction of some opposing power. The fact is, that the destruction of the opposing power is the means used for the liberating of the Church. Conquest in the world is triumph in the Church. Consolation is combined with liberation. Deliverance is the first and principal object which presented itself to the mind of the Lord Jesus. His death was a necessary step to His resurrection, His resurrection to His exaltation, His exaltation to the assumption of His mediatorial power. We see that Jesus Christ first fought and conquered, and then He became the liberator of the world. In the world He works liberation by instrumentality, and the great agency employed in carrying it on is the Holy Spirit. Liberation begins with Christ, but it does not end with Him; for, as He Himself obtained resurrection by the power of God, so there is another resurrection which takes place in the breast of every man who is the subject of His kingdom. II. THE GRAND EFFECT WHICH THE TEXT SETS FORTH. "There shall be holiness." The mount of deliverance is always the mount of holiness. Another name for holiness is spiritual health. Bring the whole to this one point, that the test of state is character; that wherever this holiness is met with, there the deliverance that has been effected on Mount Zion by the Lord Jesus is applied, and there the liberation that the Spirit of God works in the souls of His people is likewise brought to pass. III. THE PRIVILEGES TO WHICH THIS EFFECT LEADS, AND FOR WHICH IT PREPARES. "Shall possess their possessions." Canaan for the earlier saints. For us "the inheritance of the saints." (John Campbell.) Parallel Verses KJV: But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. |
    |