(More Bible Studies Available @ www.marktabata.com)
To Receive These (And Other) Free Bible Studies And Updates Via Email, Contact Mark Tabata @ 606-216-1757 (Text Message) Or hazardhomecoc@gmail.com (Email)
Obadiah 1:11 (GW)-While you stood there doing nothing, strangers carried off Jacob’s wealth. Foreigners entered his gates and threw dice for Jerusalem. You acted like one of them.
When the Prophet Obadiah wrote these words, it was directed to the nation of Edom. They were bystanders as another nation attacked Israel. We are not entirely certain which nation was attacking Israel when Obadiah wrote these words, because there were a few Prophets named Obadiah. Gill provides a great description of the background and theories, and concludes with these words:
“However, there is no doubt to be made of the authenticity of the prophecy; as may be concluded, not only from the title of it, and the solemn manner in which it begins; but from the matter of it, and the accomplishment of what is contained in it; as well as from the testimony borne to it in the New Testament, in which not only the book of the minor prophets, in which this stands, is quoted, Acts 7:42; but a passage in it, Obad 1:8; is referred to in 1Cor 1:19; as is thought by some learned men. I have only to observe, that, according to Pseudo-Epiphanius (i), he died in Bethachamar, where he is said to be born, and was buried in the sepulchre of his ancestors; but, according to Jerom (k) and Isidore (l), his sepulchre is in Sebaste or Samaria; which remained to the times of Jerom, near those of the Prophet Elisha and John the Baptist. Monsieur Thevenot (m) says that John Baptist here lies buried between the Prophets Elisha and Abdias.” (John Gill, Gill’s Bible Commentary, 225402-225427 (Kindle Edition): Washington, DC: OSNOVA)
Regardless of the specifics, we do know that during this time of invasion the people of Edom had stood by and watched as Israel was attacked.
They had done nothing to help, even though it was in their power to do so.
And God had a message for these people:
You were just as guilty as the ones who did the killing.
In this, we find a principle: if we have the ability and the means to speak up against evil and help the innocent-and refuse to do so-God will not hold us guiltless.
Exodus 23:2-You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.
James 4:17-Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
One of my favorite authors on the history of World War 2 is Erwin Lutzer. At one point, he discusses how the majority of the church was silent in Germany while the Nazis abducted and murdered the Jewish people.
“The church simply failed to be the church. In a letter sent to Right to Life supporters, there is a story that I reproduce here in summary form. In a small church on the East Coast a pastor delivered a sermon on abortion, and after the service a German man who had lived in Nazi Germany told of his experience: I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it, because, what could anyone do to stop it? A railroad track ran behind our small church and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars! Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us. We knew the time the train was coming and when we heard the whistle blow we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more. Years have passed and no one talks about it anymore. But I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me; forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians yet did nothing to intervene. That story, which speaks so pointedly to the weakness of the church in Germany, speaks also to us: Do we hear the train here in America—the cries of the pre-born children in our abortion clinics, the abused child across the street, or the minorities who are daily discriminated against in the normal course of their existence? Or does our busy service for Christ drown out these muffled cries? Unfortunately, only a few German Christians saw the Jews as their brothers and sisters; only a few saw them as Christ; only a few stood against the devils of hell that were unleashed by a satanic leader. A delegate to the 1950 Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany declared, “In every train which carried Jews to their death-camps in the East, at least one Christian should have been a voluntary passenger.” 17 Those who preserved their lives lost their honor.” (Erwin W. Lutzer, Hitler’s Cross: The Revealing Story of How the Cross of Christ Was Used As a Symbol of the Nazi Agenda, 99-100 (Kindle Edition): Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers)
These words should motivate us to use our voices to speak against evil, to encourage good, and to do what we can battle injustice and corruption.
Luke 6:31-And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.
And there were some in Nazi Germany who tried to make a difference!
In another book, Lutzer pointed out that none other than the great Albert Einstein was moved to commend the church for trying to oppose the Nazis.
“In Nazi Germany, the elites, who professed a love of freedom, betrayed the people. Hear the words of Albert Einstein, exiled from Germany because he was a Jew: Being a lover of freedom, when the (Nazi) revolution came I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities took refuge in silence. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. I then addressed myself to the authors, to those who had passed themselves off as the intellectual guides of Germany, and among whom was frequently discussed the question of freedom and its place in modern life. They are, in turn, very dumb. Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly. 17 We are often critical of the church in the Nazi era, but Einstein knew that the church gave Hitler the only significant opposition he had. The church might not have done all it should have done or could have done, but it did something! In the final analysis, there were heroes in Germany; there were many who took the risk to withstand the moral bankruptcy of a Nazi regime.” (Erwin W. Lutzer, When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn From Nazi Germany, 993-1009 (Kindle Edition): Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers)
Sometimes, there will be consequences for standing against the evil. One of the most difficult situations that I faced in ministry took place a few years ago. A member of our former church had met a fourteen year old girl while Door Dashing who was very upset. He gave her my phone number, and she called me while I was visiting someone at the hospital. She asked us for help. You see, she had been assaulted by an eastern Kentucky law enforcement officer. I immediately got her in touch with the local rape crisis program, and she received help.
A week later, those forces retaliated, and we were forced to leave our home of twenty years.
We suffered for speaking up and doing the right thing, but that child was helped and those perpetrators were opposed. We were blessed to be able to help that young woman, and would do it again. And through it all, we have seen God’s goodness and mercies displayed in amazing and incredible ways. (A friend recently reminded me of those events and helped me to continue summoning the strength to continue speaking against evil).
The Christians in Germany who suffered for opposing the Nazis saved untold thousands-maybe millions-through their sacrifices and resilience. They stand as heroes of faith and courage for all of us to learn from.
When we are faced with evil in our midst (among our family, our neighbors, our community, our nation, our government, our world)….will we oppose it?
Or will we stand by and watch?
The choice is ours.
Lord, give us a heart like Yours. Move us to love the unlovable, give us courage to stand against the evil, and create in us a heart for the suffering. Fill us with Your Spirit and Your boldness. We pray for the suffering. We pray for our enemies. Open their eyes to see their need for You. In Your Name we pray, Amen.