No Mountain High Enough

by: Mark Fackler

I was once saved from big-time embarrassment, and a thorough verbal chewing-out, by a street-smart sales manager who showed me the ropes of the food broker business. Gene knew how to handle sales and keep the client happy. He was smart. I was dumb.

In a perverse way (not like my friend Gene at all) the nation of Edom was also smart. Its national posture was arrogance, pride, and total independence from God. Edom was neighbor to Israel. Edom, the Esau wing of Isaac’s troubled family, should have been more brotherly to Jacob’s heirs (v. 10).

But Edom was proud and often unwilling to help when Israel needed an ally (v. 11). Edom was proud, perched in terrain blessed with natural defenses

(vv. 3-4). Who could touch her? Why should she be bothered by the trouble of others?

Obadiah’s message comes to the prideful. We are not created to be defiant, self-sufficient, and isolationists. We are meant to care, help, and support each other.

Whether to prideful nations or prideful persons, Obadiah sounds a clear warning: “`I will bring you down,’ declares the Lord” (v. 4). Arrogance and self-inflation are roads to ruin. - Mark Fackler