Reflections founded on the book of Obadiah as a whole.
Pride…“A feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements.”
Obadiah faced the challenges of making Gods voice heard by the people of Edom, tasked by God to deliver a message to a people who were deceived by their prideful hearts. The people of Edom were literally living “on high” in the mountains believing that they were untouchable by their enemies. Proud of their accomplishments and victories over some of their own people they were blinded to the message of devastation that Obadiah presented. Obadiah’s specific calling was to prepare the people of Edom for what they deserved, their pride and selfishness had forced the hand of God to do to them what they had done to His people. (As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head” v.15b).
Obadiah name means “servant of the Lord”, it was the service of sharing the vision the Lord gave Obadiah that became his mission, proclaiming the “Day of the Lord” (v.15). As with some of the other Minor Prophets already discussed, this mission of declaring judgment to the people comes as a heavy task. Today as Christians we often like to focus of the positive and exciting changes that come with planting a seed of hope in someone’s life, most often we shy away from talking about what will happen on flip side of the coin. Much has changed since the days of prophecy through Obadiah and the other prophets but one thing still remains, God’s love and promise of eternal life with Him. Outside of a covenant relationship with God through His Son, with a prideful and selfish heart we are living so dangerously close to the same fate of the men and women who fell in the destruction of Edom.
steveworkingthroughtheword.com 