Upon Mount Zion

There is a dilemma many sincere believers wrestle with and rarely say out loud. We learn how to do battle in the realm of the spirit — to stand against the schemes of the enemy, to resist the darkness. That is good and necessary. But at some point a harder question surfaces: when do I stop binding and rebuking the devil, and start dealing with myself? When do I finally admit, 'This one is not the enemy. This one is on me'?

You know the feeling. Yes, maybe something dark got a foothold in your life years ago — but at a certain point, this struggle is no longer a demon, it is a habit you keep feeding. Yes, maybe there was real opposition against your family — but after all the prayer, perhaps the issue now is your own temper wrecking your home. You cannot cast out your flesh, and you cannot crucify the devil. The devil is not at fault for everything that happens to you. So where does binding the enemy end and crucifying the flesh begin? God must have known we would struggle here, because He devoted an entire book of the Bible — the single chapter of Obadiah — to answering it.

The Long Feud of Two Brothers

Obadiah prophesied against Edom, the nation descended from Esau. To understand it, you have to go back to Genesis, to Esau and his younger twin Jacob. Before they were even born, God told their mother Rebekah that two nations were in her womb and that the older would serve the younger. But their father Isaac loved Esau, the outdoorsman who brought him wild game, while Jacob was a quieter man who stayed near home. When the aging, nearly blind Isaac prepared to bless Esau, Rebekah and Jacob schemed to steal the blessing, dressing Jacob in his brother's clothes and covering his arms so he would seem hairy like Esau.

The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

Genesis 27:22

The deception worked, the blessing could not be reversed, and Esau swore to kill his brother. Jacob fled hundreds of miles to save his life. The two men eventually reconciled, but their descendants did not. Fifteen centuries later, Esau's line had become the nation of Edom and Jacob's had become Israel, and Edom still hated the people of God. When Israel came out of Egypt and asked to pass through peacefully, Edom refused and threatened war. Again and again the Edomites gloated over Israel's disasters, handed their land to Israel's enemies, and ambushed her fleeing refugees. Obadiah names their sins plainly: they were proud, violent, gloating, treacherous, and cruel to the helpless.

Reading an Old Story with New Eyes

Now, why does any of this matter to us? Scripture says whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through it we might have hope. The Old Testament holds types and symbols that help us understand what we face today. Lay this ancient story over our own experience and it suddenly comes alive. Why does the enemy hate us so bitterly? For the same reason Esau hated Jacob — because God, by His own grace, chose us. He decided to make us in His image, and then to lift us up and give us dominion over the works of His hands.

Consider how that must have enraged the enemy. Scripture describes him as an anointed guardian cherub, perfect in beauty, blameless from the day he was created until iniquity was found in him. His heart was lifted up because of his beauty; his pride corrupted his wisdom, and he was cast down. He would not accept the place God gave him, and he would not stand to see God pour out grace on people. It made him furious — just as Esau was furious — and so he set himself against God's people, deceiving us in the garden and working ever since to loot and destroy us, exactly as Edom did to Israel in Obadiah's day.

The Enemy Is Already Defeated

So if Edom pictures the enemy, then Jacob and Israel picture us — and Obadiah's prophecy becomes our story. The first thing it declares is that God judged Edom and stripped away its power to harm Israel. History bears this out: after Obadiah spoke, the Edomites were driven from their mountain strongholds, scattered, absorbed, and eventually vanished from the earth exactly as the prophecy said. Layer that onto the New Testament and the message is glorious.

And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Colossians 2:15

Here is the first point: the devil is a defeated foe. He is not some towering, invincible power. He is like routed Edom — beaten. The days of his looting are over. The days of his gloating over you while you lie sick are over. And the second point follows: God has given you authority to complete the routing. Obadiah says the house of Jacob would be a fire and the house of Esau stubble — it was God's own people who would finish the work. Jesus said it plainly: I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Possessing Your Possession

The third point is why God gives us this victory: so that His promises can finally be fulfilled. Notice how much of Obadiah speaks of possessing land — land God had already given Israel by covenant, yet which was still occupied by enemy forces. It is entirely possible for God to make you a promise that you are not yet enjoying, because your inheritance is occupied. And now we come to the answer to our opening dilemma.

So there is a real place for standing against the enemy. When your inheritance is held by hostile forces, God does not tell you to shrug and walk away; He tells you He has already given you the authority to reclaim it. The blessing is yours by covenant, and the days of the enemy looting it and gloating over it are finished. But — and this is where Obadiah gets pointed — not every obstacle in your life is the enemy. Sometimes the thing occupying your promise is not a demon at all. Sometimes it is you.

But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

Obadiah 1:17

Mount Zion is Christ — it is in Him that we meet God. And Obadiah says three things happen on that mountain, in this order: there is deliverance, there is holiness, and then Jacob possesses his possession. Deliverance means separation from the things you have come to desire more than God — the pride of life, the lust of the eyes, the cravings of the flesh. Holiness means pursuing the heart of God, making Him number one, living for Him alone. Until you experience these, you cannot walk in the victory Christ has already won for you.

So here, at last, is the answer to the question we started with. When are you no longer fighting the devil but yourself? Whenever you are not chasing God. Whenever it is about you — what you want, what you will get, me, me, me. Whenever you refuse to step aside so that God can take the spotlight. In those moments it is not the enemy you need to bind; it is your own flesh that needs the cross. Get out of your own way. Stop making life about you, and the enemy will pack up and leave. Say with David, 'Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.'

And what exactly is the possession God wants you to receive? It is not lands, though we will have lands aplenty. It is not cars or houses or health or fame. Your true possession is God Himself. When you have Him, you lack nothing. So run to Zion. Let Him deliver you from what has captured your heart, give yourself to the pursuit of holiness, and step out of your own way — and you will finally possess the greatest of all possessions, which was always Him.