Oba 1:10 For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.

The book of Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament. The main content of the book deals with the judgment on Edom. The Edomites were the descendants of Esau, a wild and warlike people who inhabited the mountainous region to the south of the Dead Sea. Their ancestor Esau was the elder twin brother of Jacob, making the Edomites and Israelites brothers.

The sins of Edom were two: Pride and Unbrotherly.

PRIDE

God said to Edom: “The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?” (vs 3). Edom was proud and arrogant. She compared herself to an eagle, which chooses the loftiest peaks for its dwelling place. But God declared He would bring her down (vs 4).

Christ says: “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). The way to arrive at the highest degree of dignity in the sight of God is by being willing to become the servant of all (Matthew 20:27). Nothing is more hateful in God’s sight than pride. The first thing on the list of sins that He hates is pride (Proverbs 6:17).

The Edomites asked: “Who shall bring me down to the ground?" Well, God just did! The powerful and the rich are tempted to place confidence both in their own wisdom and ability and in their own good fortune. But "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12).

UNBROTHERLY

God condemned Edom for the way they treated their brother. What did the Edomites do?

1. Siding with foreigners against Jerusalem in the day when the city was assaulted and taken (vs 11).

2. Rejoicing over Judah’s misfortunes, and mocking at her calamities (vs 12).

3. Sharing in the spoils of the city when the capture took place (vs 13).

4. Cutting off the escape route of their brethren when they were retreating (vs 14).

Hatred against a brother can lead a person to terrible acts. In the case of the Edomites, they were all out to kill his brother Judah. There was not a speck of mercy shown towards their brethren. It is no wonder that the Scriptures say that “whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). We have many examples in the Bible of a brother killing his brother because of hatred. Cain killed Abel (Genesis 4:8). Absalom killed Amnon (2 Samuel 13:23-33). Solomon killed Adonijah (1 Kings 2:24-25).

God hates unbrotherliness between brethren. His words say a Christian who professes to love God but hates his brother is a liar (1 John 4:20). He says such a one has no eternal life waiting for him (1 John 3:15). He wants us to put on love and not hate (Colossians 3:14).

Pride and brotherliness are two things which God hates. He gives us a commandment to love one another (John 13:34, 35). One characteristics of love is humility: “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant” (1 Corinthians 13:4, ESV). His words teach us to put off all bitterness and hatred for one another and put on tender love and a forgiving heart (Ephesians 4:31, 32).

Repent and ask God for forgiveness if you are harbouring hate towards a brother at this moment. Hate will make you miserable. Do not be a prisoner of hate. Put on love; it will make you a better person. Love like Christ; He could even forgive those who nailed Him to a cross: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

Jon 1:5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

 The story of Jonah is perhaps the most interesting book among all the prophetical books. The book centres on the prophet itself. It provides an interesting story of how the reluctant prophet Jonah, when called by God to go and preach to a Gentile nation, did not want to do it, and instead, ran away in the opposite direction.

In chapter 1, God directed Jonah to go to Nineveh. However, Jonah disobeyed, boarded a ship and headed for Tarshish. But God sent a great tempest which rocked the ship. The sailors of the ship became concerned because of the great storm and called on their gods but they were not of great help. They woke up the sleeping Jonah. Jonah told them this happened because he ran away from God. He asked them to throw him into the sea and the tempest would go away. The sailors were reluctant at first and tried to steer the ship to land. But they couldn’t. Finally, to save the ship and their lives, they threw Jonah into the sea. Immediately, the sea ceased from her raging.

Jonah was sleeping. How could he? How could anyone sleep in such situation?

But Jonah isn’t the only one who could sleep while the rest are busy trying to save lives. Our Lord Jesus was sleeping in a boat when the twelve were fighting for their lives in a tempest in the Sea of Galilee. But Christ is different. He is the Son of God and He was teaching His disciples about faith and trusting in Him (Matthew 8:23-27).

How about you? Have you been sleeping when the rest of the brethren are busy? The tribes of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh chose to settle on the eastern side of Jordan River. Moses asked them: “Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?” (Numbers 32:6).

It is said that ten percent of the church members are doing ninety percent of the work of the church. The ninety percent are at ease while their ten percent brethren are busying themselves to ensure the every worship services and bible classes are running smoothly. The ten percent are trying to keep the church from dying and they provide the energy to ensure that there are programmes in place all the time. Where are the ninety percent? They are sleeping in the ship.

Wake up if you are asleep in the church. The Scriptures has this to say to you: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14).

We have no difficulty in calling on sleepers elsewhere to awake when in danger; how can we have any difficulty when speaking to the sinner or a sleeping brother in the church? The church is called to arise and shine, and the apostle is reminding us of our lofty vocation.

Paul says the sleeping brother is to “rise from the dead”. The state of the sinner is often compared to death (Ephesians 2:1). They must rouse from this condition or they will perish. A Christian who is sleeping is dead spiritually too. He has no sense of danger coming his way; he is insensible to the beauties and glories of the heavenly world; he is forgetful of his true character and condition. He must rouse from this condition or he cannot be saved.

Jonah needed to be roused from his sleep. Many among us needed someone to kick them out of bed too. What about you? Are you busy in the Lord or are you sleeping while your brethren are working? “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

Can Hatred Be Holy?

 A group of college students had been touring some squalid inner city slums of a large, metropolitan city. One of the young women saw a pitiful, filthy little girl playing in the dirt. She asked a guide, "Why doesn’t her mother clean her up?" The guide replied, "Miss, that little girl’s mother probably loves her, but she has lived here so long she no longer hates dirt. You hate dirt, but you don’t love that little girl enough to get down there and clean her up. Until hate for dirt and love for that child are in the same person, that little girl is likely to remain as she is." One point that can be drawn from that thought-provoking little story is that love for good is a pretty empty and ineffective thing unless accompanied by an equally strong hatred for what is evil.

Can hatred really be a good thing? Can it ever be a holy thing? To conjoin the words holy and hatred as a Christian virtue seems almost shocking to our modern sensitivities. We are relentlessly (and correctly) told that "God is love" (1 John 4:8b). But it is false to insist love is God. Many recoil at the idea God could ever hate anything or that He would call Christians to hate some things. "Hate the sin, love the sinner" was a phrase often used in the past to emphasize the need to oppose wrong and immoral behavior and to lovingly encourage people to make a change. But that was before it became politically and even religiously and theologically incorrect in many circles to call sin sin anymore. As a result sin has been sanctified and baptized in a linguistic baptistry filled with words like "openness," "tolerance," "inclusiveness," "civil-liberties," and "personal choice." John Steinbeck, in his book Of Mice and Men, pointed to the decline in moral values when he had one of his characters comment, "There’s nothing wrong anymore." Now sin has all but disappeared from our cultural vocabulary and world-view.

Back to the question – can hatred ever be a good thing? Can hatred ever be holy? Consider the apostle Paul’s directive to Christians living in the very pro-sin and anti-holiness culture of ancient Rome in Romans 12:9-10 – "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good." Those words are are a part of an extended section in the book of ROMANS (beginning in chapter 12) that explain how Christian living works itself out in everyday life. And they are a part of Paul’s inspired writing. I am amazed by that single but simple sentence of holy Scripture. It calls Christians at one and the same time to love (the next verse commends "brotherly love") but also to "abhor what is evil" even as we "cling to what is good." To abhor is to regard with disgust and hatred, to loathe and detest, to recoil from and shudder at. God hates sin. He doesn’t just have a dislike or distaste for it – He detests it. The cross of Christ declares that at one and the same time God loved us but hated our sin. It is said Jesus "loved righteousness and hated lawlessness" (Hebrews 1:9 quoting Psalm 45:6-7). In Revelation 2:6 Jesus commends Christians at Ephesus "that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." So, too, Christians are told to, "Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:21:22). Remember this point – hatred is holy when we hate what God hates. Let us ask God for insight and strength and courage to discern and abhor what is evil even as we cling to what is good. Think about it.

      By: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN