2010 – June 09 – Dysfunctional Gloating

Blogger’s Note: WARNING! If you have strong socio-political opinions/feelings that the USA should not be supporting Israel as stanchly as they have in the past, I do hope you read the blog God led me to study, read, and journal today. However, my warning is that you may not agree with the strong and opinionated stance I have taken in my writings, which I believe were led by God’s truth from the book of Obadiah, from which I was led to read this morning. But with this in mind, I do hope you’ll read – and maybe comment on what we can all glean from the “minor” Prophet Obadiah, writing some 700-800 years before Christ.

Study from God’s Word… Obadiah [only one Chapter to read] … Passage for Reflection: Obadiah 1: 12… NIV 12 You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.

My Journal for Today: Obadiah; … who’s he? Well, a little study this morning yields only a little light on this man. Apparently his name means “servant of God;” and this book, which has been included in Hebrew and Christian Scripture, indicates that Obadiah was a Prophet from God. And apparently there are two possible time periods to which this book might be attributed. One is during the reign of Jehoram in the southern kingdom of Judah (from 853 – 841 BC), during the times I was writing about yesterday when the northern Hebrew tribes in Israel had separated from the southern tribes in Judah; and they were being harassed and affronted by the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who lived in the hill country above Judah; and the Edomites did all they could to have Judah brought down.

But this Prophet might also, according to some scholars, have been writing a retrospective about the time of Jeremiah (sometime between 627 – 586 BC), the latter being the year Nebuchadnezzar took Judah into captivity). At any rate, reading through Obadiah today has some scary here-and-now overtones, … at least for me. In this book we read of God’s Prophet railing against a people, the Edomites, who were haughty enough to think that they could eradicate God’s chosen people from the face of the earth. And these descendants of Esau, carried out all kinds of plots [in various eras of history as mentioned above], thinking that they deserved to take back God’s birthright which had been foolishly lost by Esau to Jacob. And I’m sure you know that the descendants of Esau, the Arabs, still today aspire to eradicate the descendants of Jacob.

I’ll not go that much into this history; but when I read the one-chapter book of Obadiah today, it’s almost like I’m reading of some modern-day prophet of God publishing a blog warning Iran and their haughty President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is also a descendant of Esau. Because today we see Iran, who has a haughty hatred of Israel; and we read of Ahmadinejad declaring, openly and definantly, that Israel and all the Jews should be wiped from the face of the earth. And the modern day Iranians, who are descendants of the Edomites, to which Obadiah refers, are, like their ancestors, doing all they can to bring down the descendants of Jacob.

But I believe the prophesy of Obadiah is clear; and whether it was applied to the land of Judah in the two periods of history mentioned above or God’s prophetic words are applied to Iran today, any country who plots to destroy God’s chosen nation, Israel, and especially those who boast of doing such, will be ultimately laid low and will have called down God’s wrath on themselves.

Go ahead, … you go back and read beyond the one verse of warning in today’s highlighted passage. In fact, read the entire little book of Obadiah [it’s really short!]; and see if you don’t see a warning against any haughty people who might try to eradicate, or even plot against, Israel. My friends, this warning would apply to any people or nation, especially any who would become an ally of the modern day Edomites. And in today’s headlines, this observer sees America, the press and our government, undermining our former alliance with Israel, which plays into the hands of Iranian and Palestinian demands and their desires to war against Israel.

Our President says he is a “christian.” He has stated that he believes in the veracity of the Bible. But as he backs away from our strong historical alliance with Israel – God’s chosen, one can’t help but read the USA into the words of Obadiah and perhaps see God’s wrath being unleashed against any/all who would play into the ploys of those who still – even centuries after Jacob took the birthright and blessing from Esau – desire to obliterate the covenant God has made with His people. … Scary stuff – at least to this observer!!!

My Prayer for Today: Lord have mercy on the remnant who still believes that we must support Your chosen peoples. Help our leaders to clearly see that we cannot back away from our support of Israel. Amen