Most of us at one point or another, have experienced that moment when someone who has hurt us or wronged us deeply ends up having good things happen to them. Maybe it's an old friend from college that said some really hateful things about you and to you and you get on facebook one day to see that she just got engaged while you're still single. Maybe it's a coworker who hasn't been there nearly as long as you have hasn't put in the amount of work you have put in, and yet they got a promotion before you do no matter what it is. it's always hard to watch someone step into the spotlight to get the things we wanted all while knowing what they said to you and how they hurt you. Your ache isn't one that's new to God. In fact, there's a very short prophetic book in the Old Testament called Obadiah that was specifically written to warn the pagan brotherly enemies of Israel, the Edomites of their coming destruction.
You see the people in Edom sat back and watched as their brothers in Israel were taken captive by the Babylonians more than that they celebrated Judah's downfall. Imagine what that must have felt like for the Israelites, God's people when they were taken away while their enemies thrived. There's a lot we can learn about the story of Israel's downfall and later rescue by God from the Babylonians. We can find ourselves in the story if we are able to be honest about the way that we sometimes hold out, hope that god will serve justice to the people that have hurt us, especially when we see good things happening to them. The challenge here is to turn our attention from how unfair the situation may seem and instead of putting out all of the reasons why someone doesn't deserve good things because of all the terrible things we've seen them do, focusing on our own actions. How can we grow? What bad habits are we still clinging to? How have we wronged people around us? Do you think Israel was wondering why they, the people of God, were being imprisoned instead of their unfaithful brothers in edom, or do you think they were too busy? Being grateful that God came to their rescue in the end. We are loved by a God who does not leave us behind.
He does not leave us in the darkness, he doesn't leave us at all, even when we think he is sitting back and watching us in our pain in our betrayal, in our loss doing nothing. He is always working always keeping his promises and always moving behind closed doors all with the intention of bringing us back to himself. He uses all of our circumstances, even the hard ones, to restore everything back to himself.
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