1:10,11
Edom has committed violence against Israel (Jacob). She would suffer because of this. We should always act out of righteousness, not what seems pragmatic. If we take the later date for Obadiah, then Babylon was the all-conquering nation. It would seem that there was nothing to lose by siding with her against Israel, and much to gain. But such reasoning would be shown to be foolishness. Parts of the church are siding with the LGBT agenda, but all ideologies fade away, and only the word of the Lord lasts forever. So the truly wise choice is to stick with God’s word. Edom has just stood by, standing aloof, as Babylon carried away the wealth of Jerusalem. Now we need to remember that Israel suffered the Babylonian conquest because of her sin, it was God’s judgement against her, but that did not mean that other nations could freely join in the plunder, or stand idly by. We should always act with righteousness and mercy.
1:12-14
Edom gloated over his brother’s demise. Now remember where the two nations had come from, they came out of Esau (Edom) and Jacob (Israel). There was a dispute between them, Esau sold his birthright, Jacob diddled his way through life. Neither of them were exactly honourable! Yet God still expects them to have some responsibility towards each other, and in Genesis we read of a sort of reconciliation. This can teach us things about family relationships. It is quite common for there to be disputes between family members, and there will usually be some sort of justification for this, and sometimes this will be reasonable, at least up to a point. Even so, even if one party has acted quite unreasonably, we still have a degree of commitment. Instead, Edom saw Jacob’s demise as an opportunity to take advantage of her. This is not the way we should act.
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