Obadiah

Verses 3-4 stand out to me. “You have been deceived by your own pride because you live in a rock fortress and make your home high in the mountains. ‘Who can ever reach us way up here?’ you ask boastfully. But even if you soar as high as eagles and build your nest among the stars, I will bring you crashing down,” says the Lord.

Deep breath….wow!

I’m not a Bible scholar so I’m just wondering what kind of beef Edom had with Israel that might cause them to take such a stance. Some motives may be discussed elsewhere in Scripture and I imagine there are some we just don't get to know about.

So to bring this forward in dealing with present issues, I’m thinking of how we respond to things when we’ve been offended or even if our perception is that we’ve been offended. Often our filter plays into things. What carries the weight is not the thing that actually happened; rather, how we felt and what we believe about it. But that’s another topic. :)

When offenses come, it’s tempting…at least it is to me…to want to get even…sort of a “Fine. If that’s the way you wanna be…I’ll show you. I’ll just……whatever.” (fill in the blank).

But….that is not how God wants us to respond. He wants us to walk in humility and forgiveness. How do we do that??!!!

We have a tool we use to help. We call it the forgiveness model. On this chart, we list the offender, the offense, the possible sin motivation, the consequences to them and to us, the punishment due, and then we move to forgiveness.

This is an important process. It’s important to take stock of what’s been done to us and to process through it. One of the most important categories on this chart (to me) is the punishment due column. That’s where we get to think of the punishment due that fits the crime done to us. It needs to be harsh. We are dealing with our hearts here. We are not actually going to carry out the punishment due. It’s just a way for us to own the pain of what happened and it’s a way to count the cost of forgiving. That feels scary sometimes, but the thing is…the mind and subconscious are already coming up with a punishment due. We just spend a lot of time trying to ignore it because it doesn’t fit our definition of what a good Christian does, or maybe we think God will be mad at us for thinking it.

The idea here is to embrace it. Remember…that’s what we do…we acknowledge and embrace our reality and we make a godly response.

After we’ve thought of a proper punishment…or what we think is fitting for the crime…then we move on to forgiveness. We are essentially saying…God, I hurt. This is why I hurt, and this is what I think is fair payment. However…I trust that Your ways are higher than my ways and You know what is best for this person whether that be harshness or kindness. So I release the punishment due to You. I forgive this person and I trust You with me and with them.

It requires us to walk in a measure of humility. Pride says…forget this..I’m gonna take care of this myself and I’m gonna treat you this way and that. Humility says…even though this happened and it was awful and I’m really mad and hurt about it..I forgive you and I give it to the Lord.

Let’s not be deceived by our own pride. There is freedom in forgiveness, friends. Try it and see. Who knows what the Lord will do?! Let’s walk in freedom together!