LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
In Defense of Brotherly Love
When God gave two sons to Isaac and Rebecca -Esaul and Jacob- he was offering the world the possibility of observing how two brothers would relate to each other, how they could love each other... or hate each other.
The story of these two brothers is very particular, full of differences, deceptions, misgivings and reconciliations. And that of their descendants... as well. When these descendants came to occupy a seat of nationhood, God gave them each a territory, located very close to each other. In fact, they were adjacent. And then they had a new occasion to relate to each other and to heal the old wounds.
However, again this story is filled with disagreements and hatred. Edom (Esau) settled before Israel (Jacob) in their territory. And when Israel came on pilgrimage to occupy his own, he asked his brother for permission to pass through his land, but Edom refused. First disagreement.
Later, in that long and eventful history, Edom shows special viciousness against Israel, shedding innocent blood (Joel 3:19). The prophet Amos, in the days of King Uzziah, accuses him gravely when he says: "He hath persecuted his brother with the sword, and hath violated all natural affection; and in his wrath he hath robbed him continually, and hath perpetually borne a grudge" (1:11).
Later the prophet Jeremiah accuses Edom of arrogance and pride. The fact of dwelling in high places had made him exalt his heart like the eagles (Jer. 49:16). When Israel falls into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, Edom rejoices. Jeremiah himself warns of this in his book of Lamentations (4:21); and not only that, for he took advantage of the opportunity to take revenge for ancient grievances (Ezek. 25:12).
The most heartfelt claim, however, is made by the prophet Obadiah. But it is not only the prophet who speaks: it is God himself. Edom has failed again and again in its brotherly affection, and now God is passing the bill. Scorn, boasting, robbery, and cruelty wickedly exhibited Edom against his brother Israel.
Let us note God's complaint, and the plaintive reiteration of the phrase we have emphasized. "Thou shouldest not have stood looking on in the day of thy brother, in the day of his woe; thou shouldest not have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day when they were lost, neither shouldest thou have boasted in the day of trouble. You should not have entered the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; no, you should not have looked upon their evil in the day of their calamity, nor should you have laid hold of their goods in the day of their calamity. Neither should you have stood at the crossroads to slay those who escaped from them; nor should you have delivered up those who remained in the day of trouble" (vv. 12-14).
The sentence is lapidary, as serious as the fault: "As thou hast done, so shall it be done unto thee; thy reward shall be upon thy head" (v. 15). The punishment of Edom is God's sentence on the lack of brotherly love, in all times, also -and above all- in our time, beyond the cross. Not only robbery and cruelty, but even anger against a brother (Matt. 5:22) is reason enough for God to put us in the same sad place as Edom.