Key points
- 1
1All scripture, even an obscure 21-verse book like Obadiah, is God-breathed and useful for equipping believers for every good work.
- 2
2God defends His covenant people — when you mess with God's kids, you mess with God, as He promised Abraham in Genesis 12.
- 3
3Edom's pride, indifference, and exploitation of Israel while Jerusalem was being destroyed illustrates the dark capacity of human nature at its most primal.
Related passage - 4
4The principle of Obadiah 1:15 — 'as you have done, it will be done to you' — echoes Jesus' Golden Rule and applies to all nations, not just Edom.
Related passage - 5
5Pride is natural and creeps in when we forget God's role in our story; the antidote is intentionally reminding ourselves that Jesus is the hero, not us.
“pride is natural, humility and compassion are intentional”
“Jesus is the hero of my story, not me”
- 6
6Compassion is intentional and means seeing in others the humanity that is in ourselves — just as Jesus had compassion on crowds who were harassed and helpless.
“Compassion is seeing in you the humanity that's in me”
“Let's be careful lest you and I ever find ourselves on this one page in this obscure book called Obadiah. Where you and I would exploit someone else in their suffering”
“I just I picked him out of reflex because I was always the last one picked”
A story from life
Scott Richards recalls picking the bullied kid first when choosing basketball teams at a rec center as a child — an image of everyday compassion
- 7
7The Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12 — doing to others what you would have them do to you — is the practical summary of everything Obadiah warns against and Jesus calls us toward.
“That might better reflect who Jesus is than rambling off some bible verses out of nowhere”
Application
Pastor Scott's closing challenge is straightforward: don't be Edom. When pride creeps in — in your marriage, your business, your everyday sense of self-sufficiency — stop and remind yourself out loud that Jesus is the hero of your story, not you. And when someone around you is down, vulnerable, or being overlooked, choose compassion deliberately. That means walking up to the struggling coworker, befriending the kid who always gets picked last, or simply saying, 'I notice something's bothering you — can I help?' That kind of everyday, intentional compassion, rooted in our shared humanity, is what makes faith attractive and points people toward Jesus more powerfully than any rehearsed answer ever could. If you have been exploited in your own suffering, reach out — your church community wants to walk with you, because God sees your pain and He is for you.
