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There are many things that we can suffer in this world, but none is worse than what we can suffer from our fellow human beings. Animals may fight for food, territory, and mates, but the imagination of human beings can come up with endless ways to inflict cruelty on one another. The injustice of humans toward one another is truly astonishing.
Once people get their eyes on something, they can commit almost any cruelty in order to achieve it. They can harm anyone without mercy. I spoke to a person not too long ago who started a business after years of hard work. Then, their spouse left them for another person and stole everything they had. The business collapsed. They went to court, but there was no way to get it back because both their names were on the account. The world is filled with things like this.
These things justly make us angry. Anger is a legitimate response to injustice and prepares us for action. However, in many, many cases, there is nothing we can do about it. Then, it just sits in our hearts. When it does this, it eats away at us and can embitter everything in our lives. We know about some of this anger, but we also have a lot of anger hidden in the depths of our spirit.
The question is, what do we do with it? How do we keep the wrong-doer from harming us twice? From the wrong that they commit against us and from turning us into bitter, angry people? The prophet Obadiah provides for us a vision of God that can enable us to move past the injustices of the past, not by ignoring the wrong but by committing it to the God who rights all wrongs. We will see this here in the wrong of Edom, its reckoning with God, and the restoration of Israel. So, we will see the wrong, the reckoning, and the restoration.
The Wrong of Edom
The kingdom of Edom was to the south of Israel. There lived the descendants of Esau, the twin brother of Jacob. If you read the book of Genesis, you will find that Jacob and Esau wrestled with one another. Even in the womb, they were so active that Rebekah, their mother, considered them to be wrestling in the womb. This continued throughout their lives, and this wrestling manifested itself in their descendants and their nations. Just look up the word Edom in a concordance or on Biblegateway.com, and you will find that their relationship was not a good one.