“On the day you stood aloof, on the day strangers captured his wealth, while foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them (like the foreigners who were doing harm to Your brother)"
-On the the people of Esau and their disaster for how they stood by and watched their brother fall.
"Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to rule over the hill country of Esau, but the kingdom will be the Lord’s.”
-On Jacob's restoration being about God not Jacob.
Obadiah 1:11, 21
You know, the day begins and soon enough one thing after another is like a threat to my peace and awareness of God with me.
As Isaiah 41:10 says,
'Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.'
If I don't have the Word to remind me of the truth then whatever happens to threaten me will succeed in threatening me because my body and emotions are wired to react based on my thoughts. If my mind thinks "that's not good" then my whole body and emotions will take up that same cue and react to whatever just happened as "that's not good."
If my mind thinks "that's not good," then that is the moment I take up my question before God who has the right to correct me and my thoughts with His ways and thoughts that are higher than mine.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways." This is the LORD's declaration." -Isaiah 55:8
However, this is usually the last thing I do unless I am hyper aware of my purpose for the day. Each day I have a mission to complete. Not for the week, not for the month, not for a year, and not even for my life, but each single day. One mission at a time needs to be done.
"So don't worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will bring its own worries.
Today's trouble is enough for today."
-Matthew 6:34
That mission is to do the will of God. The will of God is to bring everything to Him for all things to be perfectly working. All created things are in existence by the Creator for the Creator, and when all things point to the beauty of God that is when they are perfect. The mission each day is to be used by God in redeeming the broken things to wholeness. I am His servant and agent in getting His will done. This means that I pull from the resources of God, His money, His time, His food, His cars, His homes, His other people, His buildings, His clothes, all of what I once foolishly thought of as mine are in truth all His belongings that I am given for the day's mission. Never a single thing too short or too much, but I have what I have today: physically, materially, financially, spiritually, food-wise, time-wise, schedule-wise, and emotionally all in perfect supply from God to get the day's mission done.
“Give us today our daily bread.”
Matthew 6:11
The prayer is just to remember that down to the last bite, it was given and not mindlessly taken.
Given for God's will to be done.
So when the day continues and threats to my submission to this mission occur, I might feel unsuited for the task because of anger or bitterness, boredom or confusion, frustration or hurt, but those thoughts in my mind are my own. The moment the mission is aborted is the moment I bring my thoughts to God and ask, what are Your thoughts?
God usually corrects my false fantasy of thinking that I need to start planning out the week, the month, the future, and reminds me that I have a mission to complete today. That is all. When today is done, then my goal of using all that God gave me is also perfectly wrapped up and settled. What God wanted is done for the day, and I rest because if God says it's done then what more could I do for God? Nothing. So I rest. And the next I take on whatever God has in His infinite and unstoppable plan for restoration.
I'm pretty much in the business of saving the world.
This morning as I turned the (electronic) pages of my bible app, I found myself reading Obadiah.
“On the day you stood aloof, on the day strangers captured his wealth, while foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them (like the foreigners who were doing harm to Your brother)"
-On the the people of Esau and their disaster for how they stood by and watched their brother fall.
"Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to rule over the hill country of Esau, but the kingdom will be the Lord’s.”
-On Jacob's restoration being about God not Jacob.
Obadiah 1:11, 21
The prophet Obadiah was declaring Esau's coming doom for having stood "aloof" as invaders plundered and killed the people of Jacob, the children of his twin brother. You know who wouldn't have just stood there while God's blessed son was being attacked?
Another son. If my brother was being attacked by bees, I wouldn't just stand there and watch as he got stung or started to bleed. I would grab whatever I could and start swatting them away from him and trying to help and protect him from getting hurt, why? Because I'm his sister and no one hurts my family without also hurting me!
In the same way, when the children of Esau stood by as their own family was being attacked, God is saying that they were basically acting just as the attackers themselves! By not doing anything they became the enemy. This is what we usually refer to as the sin of omission. They saw their brother, but didn't act like a brother would. They did not have love in their hearts as God has ordered for brothers and sisters to have for one another, and without love they no longer acted in the right design of a brother. They became the opposite of a brother, and joined the ranks of the foreigners who opposed Jacob.
They became the enemy.
Even though they only "stood aloof" and really did nothing, their act of passivity was an offense to the order of God who designed for family to love one another.
When their goal was not to do the will of God, meaning to bring all disorder into perfect order, they automatically did whatever they willed for what they thought was right. Humans have an opinion for what they think is right, but God alone has the absolute truth for what is right...since He made it.
If God is the captain, the King, and the Creator then we take orders from Him and experience being caught up in His wisdom on display.
Then, so as not to get anyone confused with that of God's highest supremacy, the prophet Obadiah says that even after some people (the so-called "righteous saviors" or right minded saving-my-brother-because-I-love-him people) do fight to help their brother, they are merely doing what is first and foremost the edict of God. The King declares brotherly love, and that is why they do what they do when their brother is in trouble. They do not love because they think loving is right or because they are kind people, but they only love because their mission is to do what God says. And they do what God says because they fight on the side of the Kingdom of God. In God's kingdom it is God who has the last say in what we are to do.
So whether one is an Esau person or a Jacob person really makes no difference. It is whether one is a God person.
This truth hit me because the morning had not even been that eventful, yet already I found myself having to take a knee before the King and consult Him about a matter for today.
Today we are sent by God with enough resources given by God to do what He has planned for us to do. And at the end of the day we can close our eyes and settle down into our beds knowing that all is done for today, for the King's will cannot be deterred (not by the enemy, not even by us!) not even for a second. We save the world because He saves the world, we live each day as He sees fit for the Kingdom that belongs to Him.
Take a knee with me today,
Our Father in heaven,
Your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Matthew 6:9-13
Royally sent,
Your sister and fellow heir of the Kingdom of God our Father.
Jmegrey
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