As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head. - Obadiah 1:15b
from TODAY IN THE WORD
Many people suffer from myopia, a condition that allows them to see things at close range but not far away. They are described as being nearsighted.
The Edomites had been shortsighted in their celebration of Judah’s defeat. They had not considered that the same God who had justly punished Judah would call them to account for their treatment of their neighbors when the Day of the Lord finally arrived. All the nations will be judged on the basis of their works (v. 15). This is the fate of all those who refuse to accept the grace of God. They receive justice instead of mercy.
Under the standard of justice, the Edomites would be treated just as they had treated others. On the day that Jerusalem fell, they were giddy to the point of drunkenness. When the Day of the Lord finally comes, they will be forced to drink from another cup.
Elsewhere in the Bible, the metaphor of a cup is used to speak of God’s wrath (cf. Isa. 51:17). In Psalm 75 it is compared to a cup of foaming wine mixed with spices (Ps. 75:8). The promise in verse 16 of Obadiah that the nations “will drink and drink and be as if they had never been” speaks of an experience of divine wrath that never ends.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
John Wesley described the Day of the Lord as a day of judgment and a day of mercy: “O make proof of His mercy, rather than His justice; of His love rather than the thunder of His power! He is not far from every one of us; and He is now come, not to condemn, but to save the world. He standeth in the midst!
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