Book of Obadiah - Vs. 10 | Parenthetical on Pride Conclusion (10/02/2022)

Pride, Humility, and Giving Glory to the Lord

Alrighty guys, good morning. Dave was giving me a hard time last week because I spent a solid five minutes or so doing review and then for the first nine verses and then I never got to verse 10. So I'm not going to do any review today because obviously we need every bit of time we could get.

I do have my watch on today so that should help as well, as Dave is often. But last week, I mean, we did a little bit of review. Obviously, we're still in Obadiah. We did the first nine verses. We reviewed all nine verses last week, but then we kind of broke off into this little parenthetical, if you will, just honing in on the concept of pride because obviously that is a big part of the first section of that book.

And it's kind of funny because I already told you guys one of the reasons why we picked Obadiah in the first place was simply because at a quick glance, you can see a lot of parallels, a lot of similarities between what the Edomites were doing at that time and the, as we say, the heathen around us today, right?

Just the people that are kind of going nuts everywhere, doing all kinds of crazy things, good is evil, evil is good kind of thing. And it can kind of bring us down a little bit and especially if we're immersed in it to a certain point.

And when you're in those kinds of times, at least for me, sometimes it's interesting to see, read these passages where it's talking about those kinds of people, the results of the attitudes they have in this case, it's pride specifically and how God handles it.

So that's how it started. But what I wasn't expecting until we started getting into it was to do a little bit of a closer look into literally pride by definition. And obviously last week we started this kind of little side thing where the question is, are there any cases in the Bible period where by definition pride is used in a positive context?

And we looked at one interesting passage last week. But so far what we've kind of concluded is at least in the context of humanity, people, pride is not necessarily something that we need to engage in, I guess, for lack of a better term.

In other words, while obviously we're all aware that there has always been kind of a negative sense of pride because there are so many passages that talk about the arrogant, the haughtiness, pridefulness, all those kinds of things, there's also that positive spin that has been put on it.

I don't even know how far back it goes. I haven't looked into that yet. But at some point in the English language, it kind of became, it kind of started carrying a positive connotation and we covered that as well to the point where all of us, myself included big time, and I'll get to more of that in just a second, carry that over into our own vocabulary to describe that kind of feeling of joy, of satisfaction, of pleasure with either something we've done ourselves or with maybe one of our kids is obviously a great example, but it could be anyone in the family, friends, anyone within our circle.

It could be our sports team that we're proud of from Crying Out Loud or something. I think it got really loud up here, guys. I don't know if I hear just a little bit of feedback. No, that's perfect. But anyway, so it's like, all right, so how did that happen?

So that's why we started kind of digging into this a little bit. And me and Ash last week, we were pulling into the house after church, having a good laugh, because, you know, I'm seeing this stuff. I'm really enjoying the conversation and stuff.

Last week was a blast. And Ash, we looked at each other, we barked, and we're like, I wonder if everyone thinks we're like legalists now or something, because we're telling everyone they shouldn't be proud of their kids or something.

And I could definitely see how it could possibly come across that way if I wasn't as specific as possible. But that's not the case, obviously. In fact, I will many times in the future, say I'm proud of my kids with a good conscience, because it'll slip.

And I'll know the intention was correct, even though it was the wrong word to use. And the thing is, the reason why it is struck out so much for me is because as I'm reading through it, and that question popped my mind, and the question I ultimately wanted to ask you guys, I was like, it is unreal.

You know, how much in my short lifespan so far, the things that I do, the things I want to pursue, and even the way I want to deliver news has an enormous amount of it has been motivated in that sense of pride.

You know, having that, what's the, what's that modern definition we're talking about, and just that satisfaction with one's own accomplishments, that sense of it, that's the modern definition. It's still very self-focused.

It sounds nicer than the biblical definition, but it's still very self-focused. And I started kind of going through, and I mean, our family, our family laughs at us, me and Ash, because we have this tendency to kind of spring big news on everybody.

We like to wait until, until the perfect moment, you know, whether it was announcing that we were pregnant with Gemma, our first kid, you know, we had a big story behind it, the whole story behind it.

We eloped, and no one knew we were married until we told them we were, and so that was a big one. And then even, I mean, even all the way up to like work, you know, this, I blame, I blame my, my family for, for me being this way, because it, you know, working with your big sister, especially when I first started joining, but it has lasted for the past nine years.

I'm almost 27 years old, and still, I mean, I am 27, I'm almost 28, and I still do this, but I love being able to, you know, accomplish something I think Katie will be proud of, and then be like, hey Katie, guess what, I did this, but what is that, what's the motivation there?

Now, it might be totally fine, it might be totally innocent. Again, I'm not saying I'm this terrible person that's 100 motivated by pride by itself. I'm just saying it's just this interesting thing that when you start putting into perspective, and you think, okay, so like, what is, are those things, are those things that I did, was the motivation, was the motivating factor to eventually get to the point where I'm throwing the glory back to the Lord, because that's kind of what we concluded last week, is the, it's a fine line, and the, the way you know which side you're, whether or not you're on the right side, is simply by whether or not you're giving the glory to the right, bring the glory back to the right source, and so it's really just a matter of, it's a small difference, but it's a huge difference at the same time, like it's a small difference in the side of what's tipping the scales, but, and so there's that, and oh gosh, I had another thought a second ago, it slipped my mind, but it'll probably come back in a second, but anyway, and so again, it just comes back to, and then Dave brought up that passage last week that made it, it kind of made the point even clearer to me where, okay, we have these scenarios where, where we would normally attribute the word for pride, it's, it's, it's not necessarily the right word, it's, it's, again, like we agree in the thing, it's something we could have joy in, it's something that, I mean, again, like right now I'm wanting to use the word to be proud of, because it's just the word that has totally permeated our vocabulary, and so it's just a matter of possibly refining the speech a not our intent, take our intent totally out of it, what we mean totally out of it, if you look at it just by definition, the question remains, is it like, are there any places where it's appropriate to use that word in a positive context, by definition, and so anyway, that's what we've been on, and that kind of is what led to this little, little side thing that we're doing, and we'll finish it up here in just a second, we did most of it last week, but last week we looked at the joke passage where Leviathan, his pride was in his scales, and of course it's describing this great creature, and what we kind of concluded there is, yes, Leviathan was, was proud of its stature, of everything that made it who it was, but, and we also kind of looked at the fact that the reason God was describing, it was God that was describing Leviathan as he is, and the fact that Leviathan, his pride is in his scales, and his tail, and all these different things, and we kind of concluded twofold, number one, God was super descriptive with this creature, and the fact that it was pride to bring the glory back to him, because he was the one that made this incredible thing, this incredible creature, but two, God can create creatures, and he can create humanity, and put them in certain places where, where they could be prideful, legitimate, by definition pride, the question is, or it's not even a question, the reality is, humanity is held to a higher standard than the animal kingdom, so the fact that Leviathan, that the pride of Leviathan was in his scales, and all of those different things, yeah, I mean, he was an amazing, he was an awesome creature that God created, and this animal obviously had a sense of pride because of how awesome he was, then contrast that, and maybe brought this up, and I wouldn't even think about this, but contrast that with the way the Edomites were acting in the, going back to the book of Obadiah, they were in a very similar situation, but as humans, rather than this animal, this animal had like the full package within the animal kingdom, he's the, he's the king of the children of pride, remember, and that word pride there is literally talking about majestic wild beasts, the Edomites from, from humanity side of things, where they had, we've, we've rehashed this so many times at this point, but the strategic advantage, the geographic advantage they had, military, militarily they had all these wise men, all these things, so they were put in position by the Lord to be really awesome as well, the problem was humanity is held to a higher standard than the animal kingdom, and therefore they weren't allowed to, for their pride to be within the situation they found themselves in, they had a mandate to throw it back to the Lord, which they didn't do, and that brought us to where we are here, and so it's, it's all pretty interesting stuff, so we looked at that last week, Joe, there was one more passage that I found looking to see if there were any other passages in the Bible where pride by definition was used in a positive context, before I go there, did anyone else happen to find any other that, you know, Dave had a good one last week that we talked about, were there any others you want to.

Throw out, are they all, I don't know, may have stumbled across, well, I'll go ahead and throw.

Mine out there and see what y 'all think, so this is Psalm 31, if y 'all want to go there, and this is funny, I've been looking forward to this for a long time back, I've had this specific passage I've wanted to look at with you guys since July, and, and then there were some other things I put in front of it, so I'm glad that we're finally here, this is Psalm chapter 31, starting at verse 23, it says, O love the Lord, all ye saints, for the Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully, plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.

Now the context of this is pretty interesting, because the context of this Psalm is David talking about the saints, but then it ends with this phrase in the same verse that he is talking about, the fact that the Lord is preserving, preserving the faithful, so again, let's see here, well, okay, so that's not actually the last verse, let me read it with the last verse, O love the Lord, all ye saints, for the Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.

Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all that hope in the Lord. So what do y 'all think?

It shows that in terms of faithful, the Lord is considered.

It's verse 31, oh I'm sorry, chapter, it's chapter 31, Psalm 31, verse 23, my apologies,.

I probably said that, right, it's the context of this verse that I thought was particularly.

Interesting, because as we'll see in a second, because we have some verses to compare this with, that phrase that Dave is talking about right now has been used at today's point several times, where it's used in the sense of like, you know, you owe me something because of your attitude.

It's the, and Well, it doesn't look like it, go ahead. Right, right. Well, I would agree, and when I was, when I, again, I am looking through every, of course, Blue Letter Bible helps, I was about to say, I was looking through every verse of the Bible, looking for verses on pride, I actually just did a word search, and it popped them all up, but I was looking, I was looking at every verse in the Bible where the word pride or proud was used, and in every single context, it was used in a negative sense.

The, the Job passage was different, we covered that one last week. This passage just stuck out to me for a minute, and it kind of threw me off, because, see, I wasn't quite where Dad is when I first saw it, I was just looking at the broad context, and of course, it finishes by talking about being of good courage, you shall strengthen your heart, and to me, it was almost sounding like they were all the same people, and so I was thinking, well, maybe it's a different Hebrew word for, for, well, maybe it was a weird English translation, they used the word pride, but the Hebrew word meant something different.

Well, I looked it up, and the first, the first definition of that Hebrew word, it is a different Hebrew word than what's in Obadiah, for example, is pride, so I was like, okay, well, that makes it a little bit tough, but the next one is just excellence, and the one after that is majesty, and so I was like, well, that makes it interesting, because it's, it obviously, this Hebrew word does carry a different connotation than the one in Obadiah, because the one used in Obadiah that was translated to pride, the Hebrew word Zadah that was translated pride, that is all bad, like it's arrogance, it's insolence, it's presumptuousness, this one is different.

Well, let me read you all a little, just a little bit of commentary, because I'll just say right off the bat, I agree with that at this point, having looked into it for a couple weeks, that it's, it's a contrast thing.

Spurgeon also agrees, so I guess we, case closed, right? I'm just kidding. Spurgeon agrees that, that it's for contrast. I wanted to read something from Matthew Henry, though, because what Matthew Henry, in his commentary here, did was, he actually pointed out that a lot of people do look at this is, do look at this in a positive, in a positive sense.

In other words, that it is, he's talking about all the same people. Matthew Henry didn't believe that, but he said this in his commentary on Psalm 31. This isn't Matthew Henry talking about himself, he's talking about other people.

He says, quote, some take it in a good sense. He plentifully rewards the magnificent or excellent. In other words, they're focusing on those definitions, that Hebrew word, rather than the, the first definition, which is still pride.

The magnificent or excellent doer that is daringly good, whose heart, like Jehoshaphat's, is lifted up in the ways of the Lord. He rewards him that does well, but plentifully rewards him that does excellently well.

So Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry is saying that's what some people believe, not him.

Go ahead, dad. I know. I was getting at that. Well, no, go ahead. Right.

That's the key, is if you go up, see, the last, I think, five verses, he's only talking about the blessed, the faithful. Well, at least you think at first glance, but then he, but then David, one more time, slips in the proud doer at the very end.

So unless you go up far enough, you don't see the contrast that dad's talking about. And let me finish with Matthew Henry here, because you'll see Matthew Henry also agrees. He says, now he's talking from the point of view that this is for contrast, that the proud doer is, is a bad person.

He says, we must love him, not only for his goodness, because he preserves the faithful, that's the first part of the verse, but for his justice, because he plentifully rewards the proud doer. And listen to this, who would ruin those whom he preserves, if it weren't for his justice.

So that's a cool way to do it, isn't it? Cool way to put it. Let me read that one more time, because I left one little part off in the end. He says, he preserves the faithful, but for his justice, because he plentifully rewards the proud doer who would ruin those whom he preserves according to their pride.

So it brings it back to the pride there. So Matthew Henry also agrees that it is for context there. And so beyond that, let's just kind of, you know, bring this thing home for a second and compare that verse with some other comparable verses.

Psalm 94 .2. Listen, Dave, you're the one that brought this up. So you listen, you listen good. Here's that same phrase. It says, Psalm 94 .2, lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth, render a reward to the proud.

So it's not the first time that that phrase is used, because remember when I first saw it, I'm talking, I'm kind of talking to you guys from the vantage point of me reading through this for the first time.

I was like, man, reward is the proud doer? That's kind of weird. Well, it's actually a pretty common phrase in that context as well, talking about the pride of rendering a reward in the negative sense.

In other words, to Dave's point, they will pay, they're going to pay for the attitudes that they've had. The Lord will destroy the house of, oh, I'm sorry, that's the next verse. This is still Psalm 94 .2, lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth, render a reward to the proud.

And the context there is David imploring the Lord to avenge his people. So that's David's phraseology for asking the Lord to avenge his people, render a reward to the proud. So it's David. It makes sense that he uses similar phraseology talking about those people in Psalm 31 there.

And then just for more comparisons, we don't have to go there. These are just single verses if y 'all want to listen. But Proverbs 15 .25, this is also kind of giving us a picture of what the Lord thinks about pride in the proud.

The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, but he will establish the border of the widow. Proverbs 16 .5 says everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. This doesn't leave a whole lot of room.

And this is by definition. And think about this for a second. So obviously the biblical definition is pretty nasty. I mean, these are character traits no one would want to carry, the presumptuousness, the insolence, all that kind of stuff, the arrogance, the haughtiness.

But even the modern definition, having pleasure in the accomplishments of one's own self, bringing it all back to self. I feel like that would pretty nicely fit under that same umbrella in terms of everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord.

Now, the Lord knows everyone's hearts. Obviously, like any one of us could go out today and say, man, I'm sure I'm proud of my kids. Even with this conversation, I'll probably say it at some point. But thankfully, the Lord knows our hearts.

He knows what we mean. So does that mean we're an abomination to the Lord in that moment? No, it just means we're using the wrong word because we're not being precise enough, perhaps. I don't know. I'm still not hardline on that or anything.

This is just me.

Thinking out loud from up here. You guys got to keep it. Oh, go ahead. Right. Yeah.

That is in Webster's, the way that's worded.

Right. In English, right. Well, here's the thing. The thing is, perhaps,.

The thing is, I was looking for the English word. So in other words, to your point, there may be a place somewhere in the Old Testament where one of the Hebrew words, where the King James translators then brought out the word pride in these negative contexts, that same Hebrew word is somewhere else in a positive sense.

But they just translated it to a different English word, such as joy or something. Perhaps. Right. And that kind of goes back to last week. I mean, obviously, that's awesome. Like we should have joy. And I'm glad you read Webster's because the modern definition I had been coming off of was Oxford.

And Oxford doesn't have that in there. Webster's does. And so, I mean, my question, my question now is, so obviously, obviously, the English word, going back to English for a second, Hebrew aside, the English word carried at least predominantly a negative, if not exclusively, a negative sense when the King James translators were using that word.

Fast forward a little bit, and at some point in our English language, it evolved to the point where the word pride and proud then carried a positive and a negative, which is what Webster's pointing out.

Yeah. Sure. Right. Right. And that's happening to a lot of words. And so, and so then it begs the question, like, is it given just our English dictionary for the sake of our English dictionary, is it appropriate for us to use the word?

And I would say it's probably fine because based on the Webster definition that Dan just read, we know that we can at least bring it back, our intent back to what we mean is we have joy in what our kids are doing.

And in the same breath, obviously, you and the kid can throw all the glory back to the which is, again, the difference maker. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Right. Right.

I would agree. Yeah. Just do the opposite. Don't try to stop. Right. Sure.

Sure. You mean? Right. Exactly.

And if the listener is a jealous person, then they.

That's an interesting thought, too. We'll see in right there, what Mimi just said is exactly, is exactly why maybe it is meaningful to spend some time nitpicking your language a little bit, because in this is exactly why this is exactly why Otis was so like he was always eliminating words from his vocabulary.

If he if he got to a point in Bible study, he would he'd use it for 80 years with a clear conscience and then through Bible study realized, well, maybe it's just the wrong word. It's not like the past 80 years he was an abomination.

Exactly. That's exactly what.

I was getting at. Well, let me give you guys really quick before we actually move back to because we still got to get to first. Go ahead, pop up. Uh huh. Right. Right. It's interesting to take what we are saying.

We have to be proud of these efforts and that we are the source of good. That was your mom for us. It's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's.

Right. Sure. One of the things it kind of goes to that is like, from the shop, you know, we see the parent and the teacher of the child in that stage of being in the schoolmaster zone where they're trying to learn how to do it.

You know, even though it's a quality and knowledge and you're a child, you sometimes will make decisions because you want to make that person proud. Right. Sure.

And it's obviously all used for a purpose, too. I mean, again, even if the motivation wasn't 100 perfect in my teen years, still, to your point, like, if you have a healthy fear of the Lord and a healthy fear of your parents, you will want to do things to bring honor to them and to make them proud of you.

And is there anything wrong with that? No. Certainly not in the grand scheme of things, but what I would say is it's also because you are maybe not fully mature yet. Because later, as you can imagine yourself as a younger Christian in your teen years, it's like in the Romans 14 chapter that Dad just finished up.

Everyone's at these different levels all the time, and it's okay. Like, it's okay for a person to be bothered by you eating meat that was offered to an idol, even though from Paul's perspective, that's child's play.

It's perfectly fine for them to have that concern, to his point. And so, for any person to want to make your parents proud of you or the people around you proud of you is perfectly fine. And then one day later down the road, you may realize, well, I probably could have given more glory to the Lord in that moment than I did, but I'll do that from this point forward.

So, again, it's really, I mean, you could go all day long, and it's just about where you're at kind of thing, I guess. I mean, I don't know. Well, let me read you guys one quick verse from the New Testament, and then we'll move back to Obadiah.

1 Peter 5 .5, it says, Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, be clothed with humility. That's kind of a key phrase there, be clothed with humility.

For God resisted the proud and giveth grace to the humble. So, now we have a Greek word versus a Hebrew word. Man, I don't think I could even come close to pronouncing this. It's like seven syllables, that Greek word.

But the Greek word for pride there, or proud, it means showing oneself above others. Kind of goes back to the Webster's definition that David was just reading. Overtopping, conspicuous above others, feeling preeminent.

Isn't that weird? Isn't that crazy? I mean, talk about being on a high horse. This is where the Edomites were, by the way. These were the feelings that they were exhibiting big time. They were feeling as if they were preeminent above others, with an overwhelming estimate of one's means or merits.

And then it finishes, and this is all one definition. These are commas. These aren't semicolons. This is all one definition of the word. Despising others or even treating them with contempt, haughtiness.

So, that's the Greek word behind that word, proud, in the New Testament. God resisted those attitudes, that kind of pride. So, anyway, I just wanted to throw all that in there in conjunction with those two others.

Go ahead, Deb. Go ahead. Yeah. Oh, it was a huge battle. And that's Peter talking to them. Right. They were dogs. Right. Really interesting stuff. Yeah. Here's the thing. This is funny. Because when I was looking for all the verses where pride and power were used, I was also looking at verses where the word haughty was used, and arrogant, and same Hebrew words in many of those contexts.

The difference is, of course, we're never going to use those words in a positive context, so I didn't even include those. But, yes, haughty or arrogant is another great one. When you're using those words, without a doubt, everyone around you is going to know you're talking about a bad character trait within someone else or yourself.

And so, yeah, those are great English words. And those are used pretty often in the KJV, too, but they threw pride in there with those words. It's interesting. Let me do one more thing. Yes. I think that was an evolution of the English language.

Who knows how many years later, hundreds of years later, before it got into Webster's. Right. Well, I mean, and I mean, and think about just us as Americans. We're proud to be an American. It's literally in our songs.

I mean, it has become a virtue, the positive side of it. The thing is, it's also, like, it's very crafty, the specific words that have, quote, unquote, evolved within the English language to now carry a positive connotation.

It's all really interesting. Go to Genesis really quick. Brother Paul sent me this passage last week, and I wanted to throw it in, Brother Paul, because it actually sums it up pretty well, something I wanted to kind of use to conclude that.

Go to Genesis 41, Chapter 14. And, Brother Paul texted me this after last week's lesson, and he was saying, here's a good example of, like, the opposite of that. In other words, in other words, doing what we should do, considering the circumstance we find ourselves in, that is, throwing the glory back to God.

It says, Verse 41, 14, this is in Genesis. Brother Paul sent me this last week. It says, Then Pharaoh sent out and called Joseph, and this is starting in Verse 14, going to 16. They brought him in hastily out of the dungeon, and he shaved himself, changed his raiment, came in unto Pharaoh.

And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it. And I have heard, yeah, I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And then Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not of me, or it is not in me.

God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. So here's an example where Pharaoh, the most powerful person on the planet, is showing awe to Joseph of this special thing he has, in quotes. And Joseph quickly turns around and says, It's not me at all.

It's my God using me as a tool, essentially. Now this comes back. Think about this. So Joseph is doing what we're all agreeing we shouldn't do, right? If something great happens in our lives, we should throw it back to God.

But think about, let me finish this thought real quick. Well, actually, you go ahead, because I don't want you to lose it. This is his first thought. He went there immediately. And what you just said, think about the context in which that is true.

This ties it right back to that topic we were discussing on peace and tribulation. Because in this moment, it's the first thing out of Joseph's mouth. And then from the human viewpoint, which I know is kind of silly, but from the human viewpoint, do you think that would have been the first thing he said when he was back at home with his dad before any of the tribulations happened in his life?

He probably struggled with a little bit of arrogance. He was his dad's favorite, and Jacob wasn't even trying to hide it. He had the special coat. He was having dreams already. He was annoying the heck out of his brothers.

But think about it. What got him to the point where the first thing he did was throw it back to the Lord? He was thrown in a dungeon. He was sold into slavery by his brothers. He was purchased as a slave.

He worked as a slave. Then he was accused wrongly of infidelity and thrown in a dungeon for years. And then he comes out of the dungeon for the first time, and I don't remember how long. And in that moment, he's humbled beyond belief.

And the most powerful man on the planet is giving him credit for this gift that he has. And all he can do is immediately say, it's not me, I promise. I promise you it's not me. It's the God that's in me.

And so going back to that topic, just to kind of tie it into this a little bit. When we ask the question, why do we go through tribulations? Why do bad things happen to good people? The question that Job asked, well, it's because it's going to serve a purpose.

We might not know what that purpose is just yet, but one of them will always be to humble us and get us to a point where we're not so quick to take credit for things. We're a lot quicker to throw the glory back to the Lord.

So thank you for sharing that last week, Brother Paul. That was a cool way to kind of conclude that little section, because it's great contrast for obviously what the Edomites had a big problem with. So now we're going to begin, and we might get one verse in, and then I'll stop it because we got about 10 minutes.

But at least we can say we were in Obadiah this week. So this begins section two of the Book of Obadiah, which is sins against God and his people. And this is split into a couple of different sections in and of itself.

But it's basically verses 10 through 14 of Obadiah cover these sins. And, of course, I don't want us to lose focus, especially since we've taken a couple of weeks kind of on the side talking about pride.

I don't want to lose focus while we're in the book in the first place. And, of course, it always begs the question when you're reading these Minor Prophets, how does this prophecy against a nation that hasn't even existed in well over 2 ,000 years apply to us today?

Why would we read some of these books? Like, how does it apply to our lives practically? And as we read through the following five verses, we're going to be covering 10 through 14, you know, starting today, and then I don't know when.

But what we'll see is we're going to catch some very familiar violations, if you want to put it that way, that we often see around us today happening around us at this moment. Maybe not right this moment, but like outside this building, in this town, in this county, the state, all around the world.

That is one of the ways that this book can apply to us practically today, but we're going to see a lot of those. So verses 10 and 14, again, overall, it's talking about sins against God and his people, but you can break it into two distinct kind of like sub parts, if you will.

And the first being starting with having sinful attitudes toward God's people, so an attitude specifically, and then that leading to performing sinful actions against God's people. It's really interesting.

So we're going to start with kind of that first bit, the sinful attitude toward God's people, and let's start in verse 10 there. And this might be the only verse we read, but that's okay. Obadiah 10, for thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut off forever.

So at this point in Obadiah, going back to the Edomites now, you have intentional violence, you have intentional cruelty being done by the Edomites, and just to bring the reality of this relationship really close to home for readers like us 2 ,000 years after the fact or more, from when this book was written, Obadiah at this point in this verse, when he says violence against thy brother, he's reminding us that this isn't simply just a feud between nations with different worldviews or whatever it may be.

Different worldviews, border disputes, or all that kind of stuff. This is a dispute or a feud between brothers, blood relatives. The type of violence being exhibited here between these blood relatives takes kind of the drama up a notch, if you will, in terms of the dynamics that are at play, but it also reminds us of the implacable spirit within these people, because it's the spirit within them that's causing this.

We battle not against flesh and blood, and it reminds us just how bad that spirit is, because it can turn even brothers against each other in the most gruesome ways, as we see here. Esau is resorting to violence against his own twin brother, Jacob, and hatred toward him.