T HERE’S A LOT OF BACK STORY to the animosity between the nations of Israel and Edom.
● The stories behind the story: Genesis 25:19–34, 27, Numbers 20:14–21, 2 Chronicles 20:1–30
● The problems with the Edomites: Ezekiel 25:12–14, 35:1–36:5, Lamentations 4:12–22
For now, let’s just say the feud goes back hundreds of years. Way back into Genesis. Back to Abraham and Sarah. In their old age, they have a son, Isaac. Isaac marries Rebekah and they have twin sons. She is told by a messenger, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided.” These twins are Jacob and Esau. Their relationship is one of deceit, trickery, anger, and threats of violence. Along the way: there is selling birthright, stealing blessings, peace treaty and separation. Jacob’s descendants become the nation of Israel. Esau’s descendants — the nation of Edom.
These clans cross path over the years. Moses and the freed slaves are denied passage through Edom’s territory to get to the Promised Land. Then there’s the event in Obadiah. We don’t know the date of this writing or the event. It could have been an invasion in the ninth century or the sixth century BCE. There are some similarities with a portion of Jeremiah which is dated to the sixth century. I’ll go with that date and interpretation.
† † †
JERUSALEM IS INVADED by Babylon. Food is scarce. Death is all around. People flee seeking refuge and safety among other people. In search of sanctuary, some head south toward their distant relatives. But the Edomite cousins aren’t welcoming. Once again they block entry. They deny access. They turn them away. The immigrants beg for safety and asylum; the Edomites ignore their pleas — indifferent to the plight of their neighbor.
Into this situation, Obadiah preaches these words: “The pride of your heart has deceived you.” (verse 3) This shortest book in the Old Testament is about the deceitfulness of pride and its horrible consequences. Behind it lies a powerful message for nations and people. The words are addressed to Israel’s neighbor nation Edom, but they could just as easily be targeted at any of us or the United States of America.
Edom’s response was pride. There was pride in their position. Edom was located in the highlands of modern-day Jordan. The cliffs and surrounding barren lands made agriculture difficult. They were dependent on trade along the King’s Highway and gained wealth through commerce. Wealth and location gave them a sense of security. Obadiah warns the nation of Edom this is not going to secure them because of what they’ve done to the refugees and safe-haven seekers. They will be destroyed.
† † †
NOTED AUTHOR C.S. LEWIS WROTE, ‘‘the essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride — pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.’’ As Teresa spoke to the children: “Pride comes before the fall.”
Overconfidence is a dangerous thing! It deceives and blinds.
† † †
HOW DO WE AVOID being like the Edomites?
One important way to avoid being an Edomite is to develop humility instead of pride. What does that look like?
Edom’s response to the vulnerable was personal gain. Barter, sell, trade the refugees. That’s what the folks of Edom do. That’s how they make a living. The land is too arid to grow crops. They’re business people. They’re wheeler-dealers. People wind up on your doorstep. You can make money off them. Either charge them exorbitant rates for safety or round them up, herd them to the Babylonians and see if there’s money to be made.
† † †
THE WAY TO KEEP FROM BEING an Edomite is to respond to the vulnerable with generosity. Kindness. Sacrifice. How does a nation respond in kindness to the vulnerable? How you do and I respond? We open our lives, our hearts, our wallets for others.
We share a common humanity. We share a common creator. We share a common bond of being created in the image of God. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the magnitude of human need. There’s sex trafficking. There’s hunger. There’s people displaced because of war. There’s local homelessness. There are people without health care. There are folks without transportation. Vulnerable, needy, elderly. Baldwin County’s poverty rate is 14 percent. That’s close to 30,000 people just in our county. How do we respond to vulnerable with generosity when there are so many vulnerable around? One at a time. Oskar Schindler couldn’t save every Jewish person from the Holocaust but he saved those he could — at great sacrifice.
† † †
EDOM’S RESPONSE TO NEED was indifference. In Elie Wiesel’s autobiographical novel, The Town Beyond the Wall, he tells the story of Michael, a young Jew who survived the Holocaust. Michael traveled behind the Iron Curtain to his hometown in search of what he didn’t understand: “how a human being can remain indifferent.”
What he did not understand was the spectators — those who lived across from the synagogue. Those who looked out their windows day after day as thousands of Jews were herded into the death trains. Faces “gazing out, reflecting no pity, no pleasure, no shock, not even anger or interest. Impassive, cold, impersonal. Faces indifferent to the spectacle.” Wiesel concludes, “Evil is human, weakness is human; indifference is not.”
† † †
LAST WEEK, A FAMILY ON VACATION to Panama City got stuck in a rip current. Nine beachgoers, including two children and an elderly woman, were trapped in the current. I’m sure there were spectators. People who saw bodies flailing, parents panicked. Lifeguards helpless and indifferent. Not my family. Not my problem.
Perhaps there were some who saw but felt helpless. They can’t swim well enough. Or some who thought best to leave it to the professionals as they waited for a boat to arrive. Some even told the mother not to attempt a rescue.
Then there were others. Bystanders on the shore saw them yelling and waving their arms. They jumped into action and started forming a human chain. The chain grew. 70 to 80 strangers, all holding hands and stretching to reach the trapped group. All of the swimmers made it out.
† † †
I WAS IN TEXT-MESSAGE CONVERSATION with someone about a need in the area. I got this text: “if we just ignore things, that’s just the easy way. When you start digging in to stuff like this it bothers you people are [in need]. That’s why it’s so common to just ignore it.”
My response: “Pretty much sums up this Sunday’s sermon.”
