Treat Your Neighbor As Yourself - Obadiah

 Obadiah 1:9 (ESV)

And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman,

so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter.

The book of Obadiah was written by the prophet of the same name and was written to the country of Edom.  Edom was the tribe that rose out of the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s (his name later changed to Israel) brother.   So, the Edomites were cousins of the Israelites.    Teman (in the above verse) was a grandson of Esau.   The Edomites lived in these elevated cities surrounded by rocks and cliffs.  They thought they were secure. Their military (might men in the above verse) were invincible.  As one commentator states, “They thought being undefeated as an army meant they were undefeatable.”  The prophecy of Obadiah was later fulfilled and Edom was destroyed by God’s power.   These “might men” were so dismayed that everyone one of them was “cut off by slaughter.”  

When we trust in anything other than God, this is our fate.  God takes away all that we trust in that comes between our worship of Him vs the world’s resources.   Edom had assisted the Babylonians to capture the Israelites as they tried to escape their being taken captive in 586 B.C.   The Edomites even took up residence in the villages and homes of Israelites who were carried off to Babylon.   God saw that and brought His wrath on the Edomites.  Rather than assisting Israel, Edom assisted Babylon.    This angered God and, as a results, He destroy the might ones and the wise ones of Edom.    God does not tolerate those who ignore people in distress.  He especially punishes those who take advantage of those in distress.   When we put resources between us and our trust for God and we turn our backs on others, we encounter God’s discipline.  This is what the Law is summed up in the following verse:

Luke 10:27 (ESV)

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Edom failed to do this.  As a result Obadiah pronounced doom on them.