The most horrific
thought in military doctrine, is to find yourself besieged
and subsequently overran by the enemy. When ally turns
traitor, the scene becomes even more bleak. When brother
forsakes brother, it is inexplicable and nigh to the
unforgivable. Isaac only fathered two sons, and here in
Obadiah, Edom is indicted of GOD for watching with glee his twin's devastation. The Edomites
folded their hands as the Alamo of the Middle East, and the
destruction of Jacob, unfolded
before their eyes. In Israel's most urgent hour, Edom, who
could have reinforced and turned the enemies to flight, didn't,
and was held complicit by GOD for what transpired.
"If thou forbear to
deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready
to be slain; If thou sayest, behold, we knew it not; doth not HE
that pondereth the heart consider it? And HE that keepeth thy
soul, doth not HE know it? And shall not HE render to every man
according to his works?"
That age old question:
'Am I my brother's keeper?' ... seems germane here, and the
consistent and
irrefutable answer of Scripture is: yes!
"Is not this the fast that
I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the
heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye
break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the
hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy
house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that
thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?"
Paul warns that in these last days leading
to CHRIST'S return, men will increasingly be:
"lovers of their own selves ... without
natural affection". Self-centered hermitic
should not be mistaken for a gift of the SPIRIT. In answer to the
question: "Who is my neighbor",
JESUS tells the familiar story of the 'Good Samaritan', who
bested two in piety which
"passed by on the other side"
ahead of this
"certain Samaritan ... who had compassion".
John the beloved
asks this probing question:
"But whoso hath this
world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up
his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of GOD
in him?"
In view of a world
besieged by sin, GOD asks:
"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"
The one who holds a true brother's heart
that he might help to make up the reinforcement of revival; the
one who truly possesses the eye of CHRIST answers:
"... here am I; send me."