Today’s Bible Text is found in the little Book of Obadiah. His whole prophecy (the entire Book) consists of only 21 verses!
It is a jeremiad (a scathing denunciation) of the people of Edom. Verse 1 … “The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom …”
The Edomites were descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham. Just as the Israelites were descendants of Abraham through Isaac.
So … they are related. Blood brothers, well … half brothers. (Hagar birthed Ishmael and Sarah gave us Isaac. Abraham fathered both.)
BUT … the Edomites did not love (or even treat kindly) their brethren the Jews. As the Lord God would have expected, demanded them to do. In fact, they hated the sons of Promise, Isaac’s kin.
And on a day of infamy … the day Israel (Judah) fell to the Babylonians … the Edomites did not help their brethren. They cheered the vicious, heathen Babylonians as they destroyed Jerusalem and dismantled the Temple!
Obadiah verse 10, God’s indictment against the people of Edom … “For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. “
There are no Edomites today! God has cut them off!
More specifically, the sin of Edom … “In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers (the Babylonian army) carried away captive his (Judah’s) forces, and foreigners (gentiles, heathen, Babylonians) entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, EVEN THOU WAST AS ONE OF THEM.” Verse 11, God must have been carefully watching!
They should have loved, defended Judah, Jerusalem.
Instead the Edomites stood by and watch and “rejoiced” over Judah’s demise, verse 12 tells more … “But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have REJOICED over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity.”
The “point” of today’s Lesson?
“Even thou wast as one of them.” (Excerpted from Verse 11, King James Version.)
Edom wast as if “one of them,” one of Israel’s enemies!
Brethren robbing brethren!
Brethren encouraging the enemy!
“Even thou wast as one of them.”
In other words, you chose the wrong side!
Now … in America today it’s time to start asking, “On whose side are you?”
Are you with your brethren or against them?
Are you with the enemy or against them?
Joshua 24:15 … “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”
“For” or “against?”
Exodus 32:26 … “Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me.”
Jesus … Matthew 6:24 … “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Wow!
The battle lines are being drawn more clearly than ever!
I never want it said of me … “Thou wast as one of them.”
Yes, really I guess that today’s Meditation is poignantly about “brotherly kindness.”
Think about it …
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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