See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.
Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever. On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble. You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster. You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble.

–Parallel verses:
‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭6‬:‭6‬-‭8‬‬‬
But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers! The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.

We see here that the Edomites are prophesied against by Obadiah, God’s prophet. Why? Because they held a grudge against the Israelites. This grudge was handed down through the generations, like the Hatfields and the McCoys.

Jacob stole Easu’s birthright, and ever since then, there was enmity between the clans. Have family sins or offenses caused you to go down a path of grudges? God calls this out and judges the Edomites (descendants of Esau) because of their grave sin. Their sin expanded in their hearts to such a wicked place that they stood by, gloated, and gloried in the destruction and persecution of their brothers and sisters in Israel.

The Edomites had become wealthy and arrogant and had thought they were more important and above all. In essence, they must have justified their behavior by taking a “Judge and Jury”-type mindset and condemning their brothers and sister to death by inaction. And God’s judgment against them is annihilation. Paul, in Corinthians, challenges the church in similar fashion. Why do you let an evil world merit out justice among you? So what if you were cheated or hurt by a brother. Is it not best left to God to judge, and a better witness to the world to forgive?

So, who do I currently hold in judgment? Why do I enjoy doing this? Why can I not let go of the grudge and forgive? These are the hard questions I must ask!

Lord, thank you for your hard truth which permeates into my heart and convicts me of wrong. May I keep short accounts, forgive quickly, and never let my bitterness build up to the point of wishing ill on a brother or sister.