If you know the movie The Princess Bride you probably remember the character Inigo Montoya. He is the swordsmen who has devoted his life to seeking revenge on the six fingered man who killed his father. You may know his most famous line, which is what he says when he finally meets the six fingered man and attempts to kill him, “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
And
without giving away too much, near the end of the movie he says that he has
spent so much of his life seeking revenge that now that he has achieved it he
doesn’t know what to live for.
I
think we all know that harboring anger and seeking revenge can eat away at us
and consume us. I believe forgiveness
can be every bit as much for the forgiver as the forgiven. Holding anger can be life destroying.
When
we read the prophet Obadiah, especially the first 14 verses, we are hearing
about age-old anger between the Israelites and the neighboring nation of Edom.
According
to the Bible’s stories in Genesis the Israelites and the Edomites had common parents
– Isaac and Rebecca. You may remember
that Rebecca give birth to twins: Jacob (father of Israel) and Esau (father of
Edom). Esau was the first born and is
depicted as not all that bright. For
example he sells his birthright to his brother for a bowl of bean. But Jacob isn’t portrayed well either. We Americans look at our founding fathers and
want to glorify them. We talk about
George Washington and his honesty for example.
However the Israelites saw their founders, especially Jacob, in a very
poor light. Genesis records Jacob as a
liar, cheater, and scoundrel. Jacob
eventually swindles his brother Esau so badly that he runs away from home
fearing Esau’s retribution.
Years
pass. Jacob gets in trouble with more
people and decides to head back home.
But there is the problem with his brother Esau. Can he even go home safely? The confrontation happens in Genesis 33. Esau comes out to meet his brother with four
hundred men – a small army. Jacob sends
gifts ahead in hopes of appeasing his brother and we wait anxiously to know
what will happen. We know that if Esau
kills Jacob it would be no more than he deserves.
Esau
forgives Jacob completely and welcomes him with open arms. It is not what we would expect. Though Jacob is the father of the nation,
Esau is the good guy. Maybe Esau wasn’t
very smart, but throughout the story is he portrayed as an honest, decent
hardworking guy. Again, it is
fascinating that the ancient Jews often portrayed themselves as the bad guys in
the story.
What
is also fascinating is the way they recorded their hatred and desires for
revenge in what would become the Bible.
It appears as if the Israelites and the Edomites rarely got along. The conflict appears to have reached its peak
when in 587 B.C.E. when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. Historical accounts vary, but it appears as
if the Edomites joined in the destruction and cheered it on. We see that in Psalm 137 which we read today.
In
all of this it is important to remember that we are not reading about the
goings on of great nations. Judah and
Edom, as well as Moab and Ammon were all tiny nation states. At their strongest they were still weaklings
in the ancient world. Picture them like
the army of Ontario County going to war with Wayne County or Yates County. When put on the global stage their petty
grudges are almost laughable!
The
first half of Obadiah is an oracle against Edom. It is a pronouncement of divine retribution
for the evils of the Edomites. The
second half is about God restoring the Israelites and giving them control over
their neighbors.
Theologian
and composer, Susan Briehl has invested a lot of time and study in Psalm
137. The hymn that we’re going to sing
after the sermon, Once We Sang and Danced, is written by her based on
Psalm 137. She isn’t exactly sure why
the Jews included it in scripture – or even why they don’t just forget and
ignore their hatred of the Edomites.
After all, the Edomites were ultimately completely destroyed. They no longer exist. The Jews won.
So why hang on to this?
Briehl
doesn’t know. But she does say it may be
because they didn’t want to forget the pain and the sense of loss. Our Jewish faith ancestors are willing to
remember deep pain. And unlike
Americans, who like to think they are able to rise to whatever occasion or
crisis arises and then conquer it, the Jews of that day turned their past,
their present, and their future over to God.
They didn’t look to themselves for strength and salvation. They looked to God.
The
Jews were not afraid of their flawed past or their far-from-perfect
founders. They also felt there was
importance in remembering times when they felt complete despair for their faith
and the future. They felt there was
importance in remembering when they were consumed with brutal hatred and
desires for revenge; even for people who were their blood relatives.
Obadiah
and Psalm 137 record ugly dark feelings.
If Briehl I right, I think there is a great deal of health to it.
Our
own nation, like the ancient Jewish nation, has many things in its past to be
proud of. Our nation, like the ancient
Jewish nation, has many things to look forward to in the future. And our nation, like the ancient Jewish
nation, also has many things in its past it should be ashamed of: mistakes,
failures, bad policies, cruel events.
No
nation that has any history at all, and any power at all, functions without
making blunders or without things it wished never happened. Personally I don’t like the way we tend to
focus only on our nation’s triumphs and then overlook all those things we don’t
like. It would be far better to
acknowledge that we have done things that are of great benefit to the world and
great harm.
At
the risk of getting too political and straying too far from faith, I think it
is the right and responsibility of all Americans to learn about and to question
our government – government from national leadership all the way down to the
town council and school board.
These
days it is very easy to just take what you learn from a news source – a source
that probably takes a point of view that you like – and assume that it’s the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But that is simply not so. Our nation is at its strongest when we
challenge our government, praise its successes, and call out its failures. That’s what makes America the nation that it
is.
As
people of faith we can take another lesson from Obadiah. The second half of the book is an oracle
against all the nations that have been against Judah. Our Christian faith will take issue with the
way God will punish so many nations. And
since it is a prophesy for the future, this will probably be innocent
people. But notice that it is not the
Israelites who will do it. God does not
promise a future where they themselves will triumph. Nor does God promise a future where God will
guide them to triumph. The future
promise is that God will bring the triumph.
As
we are people who are sinners in need of God’s grace, and that grace is our
only hope, we do well to take this to heart.
I’ve said it before, I’m saying it now, and I’ll probably say it in the
future – this is very hard to believe – the future is God’s. It is secure in God’s hands. No matter how easy or hard life is, the
future is God’s. No matter how fair or
unfair things are now, the future is God’s.
That does not mean that we sit back and do nothing. No, we work hard to make God’s kingdom a
reality. But we do so knowing that the
future does not rely on our efforts alone.
If we fail it’s okay.
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