Scattered thoughts on Obadiah

 V1. When men arise with arms they do so upon command. What is faintly heard in faintness can cause great courage.

V2. The enemies of your enemies are used by God to judge.

V. 3,4 "He who is not a bird should not camp above abyss'." Friedrich Nietzche

V. 5,6 Esau gave up his birthright for food. Robbers may leave a little food but not Esau. He would give up his own life for food.

V. 7 Be watchful over your friends. Your deeds will find you out and those who are closest to you can hurt you the worst. They know how to expolit your weaknesses. They also know how to avoid your strenghts. Do not make friends with an angry man lest you learn his ways.

V8. The little that the unfaithful has will be taken from him.

V9 The mount, or monument or kingdom, of Esau will be humbled.

V10, 11 The brother who sees his brother in distress breaks the commandment. He has treated his brother worse than an enemy. For even the enemies burdened animal is to be helped. How much disdain one must have to treat a brother worse that he treats his enemies.

V. 12 Do not rejoice when you see your enemy receive his due. God may relent. The mount of Esau looked upon its brother in its distress and not only did it not help it mocked him.

V13 Evil upon evil the mount of Esau did not help, it mocked, and then in its degeneration it plundered its brother Jacob in his calamity.

V14 But what is the depth of evil? Beyond the plundering of its brother, the mount of Esau saw the runaway slaves and returned them to their captors. Such malignant hatred for ones own kin.

V15 Judgment will come. Retribution will come. And in that day you will be judged according to your works to receive the just recompense.

V16 the mount of Esau came to the Holy mount of Zion, God's mountain, and stole from it. Thus the mount of Esau will poor out its own blood as drink to Esau's enemies.

V 17 Jacob will receive back what was taken from him.

V18 Like the two witnesses in Revelation Jacob and Joseph will speak truth against Esau and he will be consumed by it. When one is confronted with truth by others the interlocutors are like match and fuel to your deception. They will burn it out of you. Pray that you have not been so given to deception that if deception must go that means you will also go. Perpetually hiding lie within lie as tucking an ever growing pile of snakes from den to den is the way of men who hate truth. Truth is light and light drives out darkness. The darkness of a lie seeks to find other darkness when driven from its home for it cannot abide in light. It cannot abide in the presence of truth. It finds safety by hiding in other darkness. It is like a snake exposed from its hiding place or the roach from the shadow. Another lie is told and so the snake feels relief as it has found a cozy place to call home. Ah, but men of truth speak like fire and tongues of fire are of Heaven. Spirit filled tongues are Heavenly and they tell the truth. Spirit filled tongues burn away lies. There is no safe den for a lie to snake into when fire breathing men are present. Truthful men at least keep aders in their dens. But that is not all they do. They also burn up those store houses of lies where brooding vipers live. So tell the truth for your lie will find you out. When the Lord hath spoken it, and what is it that is spoken but the Word who is the Light also, there is no escape. And when fire speaking men communicate and attest to the ultimate Word, the one whose speech is like a sword cutting and separating truth from falsehood with exact precision, they will, like the story of Saint Patrick, free their homes and their towns and their nation from deadly snakes.When men speak truth there is no place for lying snakes to hide.