Today we read the book of Obadiah. There is not much know about the man Obadiah, but his name means “servant (or worshiper) of the Lord”. The book is written to show that God judges those who harm His people. In this case, it is the Edomites who have been harassing the Jews. This shows us that while God will judge those who harm us in His timing, He will judge. We must be patient and wait on God’s timing because His timing and plan are perfect.

After generations of poor leadership (with a few exceptions), God finally lets the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah fall to the Babylonians in these last few chapters of 2 Kings. God gave them plenty of opportunities to do the right thing, but in the end they chose to trust in things other than God. Our reading in Psalm 91:1 fits nicely with this theme where it says, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. If the Israelites had followed these words they would not have experienced being conquered and exiled from their land. We would do well to listen to this Psalm as well. If we dwell in the protection of our God, we can rest in knowing He will always protect us.

While David was far from perfect, he spent his entire life trying to be someone who was worthy of being called a man after God’s own heart. Some people would think it is enough to be of good character and to have integrity to keep them from harm. The problem is neither of those things provide protection from the evil on this earth. The only thing it provides protection against is from having a bad relationship with God. This is the most important thing we could work towards anyway. Just be mindful that God cares more about our well being than we can imagine; He is there for us even in death.