The pronouncement of judgment has begun against Edom, and now God is giving the details. The prideful, insatiable people of Edom have believed themselves to be beyond the reach of anyone, but their deception did not prevent their impending doom. It is a fearful thing to be in the aim of a Creator God, and today we find more of the details for the judgment of Edom in verse eight of Obadiah. He wrote:
Shall I not in that day, says the LORD, even destroy the wise [men] out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
“Shall I not in that day” are the words that begin this ominous verse. The Heavenly Father, “says the LORD”, continues His proclamation against Edom with a question that is rather more of a statement. There will be not prevention of God's intervention. God is making His stand, and the false securities of Edom will not prevail. Edom believed in their pride, their fortitude, their wealth and their treasures. They believe in their confederacies and allies, and they thought themselves impenetrable. Yet, nothing could impede the pending hand of God's revenge.
Obadiah next gives us details of some of the judgment - “Even destroy the wise men out of Edom”. These were the educated, the smart people, the ones who supposedly know all the answers. These “wise men” are the ones to whom the people turn for solutions, and yet all their calculations will fail them and they shall die as everyone else. When the mighty hand of God is against a nation there is no amount of education and wisdom that shall prevail.
Finally Obadiah speaks of God's elimination of “understanding out of the mount of Esau”. The place of reason will be eliminated, and though the people of Edom try to make sense of this, there will be no rational found. The key word upon their lips will be “why?”, and they will have no answers. The smartest among them will be destroyed, and Esau will receive the punishment for their pernicious ways.
As daunting as this is, if we look closely we will discover the loving hand of God. Our Heavenly Father desires to remove all our dependence upon things other than He. If we rely upon our own education and wisdom as the source of solution for every situation that arises, we are sure to encounter some circumstance that goes beyond our capacity to know why. The underlying and resounding thought behind these daunting judgments is that God is available, and our trust should ultimately be in Him and not in the things of the Earth. Pride, fortitude, wealth, treasures and even education cannot save in the most critical hour. This does not declare that these things are necessarily evil, but rather that regardless of whether we possess them or not our dependence must be in the Heavenly Father rather than these. Our fleshly nature gravitates toward these characteristics and satan is a promoter of such because he does not want us to trust in God. However, if we are to have fellowship and relationship with God, we must put our ultimate trust in Him as Edom failed to do. Oh might we learn from the failings of others in the scriptures that these traits will be eliminated from our lives.
Next time we will see the actions of God against Edom's mighty men and their land, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow...there is more...
Look for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ; www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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