Note: Obadiah lived around 580 BC.

One of the most eloquent statements was written by Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., on September 12th – the day after the attack on America.
Speaking to the terrorists, Pitts asks:

"What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed. Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause. Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve. Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

"Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family torn by racial, social, political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.

"You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. "As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish." (full text)

Obadiah's prophecy gives us a perspective on national pride.

I. DON'T LET NATIONAL PRIDE DECEIVE YOU

Obadiah 1:1-9 (NKJV)
¹ The vision of Obadiah.
Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom
(We have heard a report from the LORD,
And a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying,
"Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle"):

²"Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
You shall be greatly despised.
³The pride of your heart has deceived you,
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Whose habitation is high;
You who say in your heart, "Who will bring me down to the ground?'
⁴Though you ascend as high as the eagle,
And though you set your nest among the stars,
From there I will bring you down," says the LORD.

⁵"If thieves had come to you,
If robbers by night--
Oh, how you will be cut off!--
Would they not have stolen till they had enough?
If grape-gatherers had come to you,
Would they not have left some gleanings?

⁶"Oh, how Esau shall be searched out!
How his hidden treasures shall be sought after!
⁷All the men in your confederacy
Shall force you to the border;
The men at peace with you
Shall deceive you and prevail against you.
Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap for you.
No one is aware of it.

⁸"Will I not in that day," says the LORD,
"Even destroy the wise men from Edom,
And understanding from the mountains of Esau?
⁹Then your mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed,
To the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau
May be cut off by slaughter."
(AMP) | (NIV) | (NLT) | (KJV) | (NASB)

Edom's pride came from three sources:

1. Her defenses (verses 3-4)
• Petra, the major city, could only be entered by a narrow, winding canyon.
2. Her alliances (verses 6-7)
3. Her wisdom (verses 8-9)

Obadiah 1:10-14 (NKJV)
¹⁰ "For violence against your brother Jacob,
Shame shall cover you,
And you shall be cut off forever.
¹¹In the day that you stood on the other side--
In the day that strangers carried captive his forces,
When foreigners entered his gates
And cast lots for Jerusalem--
Even you were as one of them.

¹²"But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother
In the day of his captivity;
Nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Nor should you have spoken proudly
In the day of distress.
¹³You should not have entered the gate of My people
In the day of their calamity.
Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction
In the day of their calamity,
Nor laid hands on their substance
In the day of their calamity.
¹⁴You should not have stood at the crossroads
To cut off those among them who escaped;
Nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained
In the day of distress."
(AMP) | (NIV) | (NLT) | (KJV) | (NASB)

Matthew 5:43-48 (NKJV)
⁴³ "You have heard that it was said, "'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴ (Leviticus 19:18, NKJV) But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? ⁴⁸Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."
(AMP) | (NIV) | (NLT) | (KJV) | (NASB)

Obadiah 1:15-21 (NKJV)
¹⁵"For the day of the LORD upon all the nations is near;
As you have done, it shall be done to you;
Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.
¹⁶For as you drank on My holy mountain,
So shall all the nations drink continually;
Yes, they shall drink, and swallow,
And they shall be as though they had never been.

¹⁷ "But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance,
And there shall be holiness;
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
¹⁸The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
And the house of Joseph a flame;
But the house of Esau shall be stubble;
They shall kindle them and devour them,
And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,"
For the LORD has spoken.

¹⁹The South shall possess the mountains of Esau,
And the Lowland shall possess Philistia.
They shall possess the fields of Ephraim
And the fields of Samaria.
Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
²⁰And the captives of this host of the children of Israel
Shall possess the land of the Canaanites
As far as Zarephath.
The captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
Shall possess the cities of the South.
²¹Then saviors shall come to Mount Zion
To judge the mountains of Esau,
And the kingdom shall be the LORD's.
(AMP) | (NIV) | (NLT) | (KJV) | (NASB)

As Americans we are citizens of a great nation.
As Christians we are first and foremost citizens of heaven.

Whatever is happening in or to America, and whatever happens in America as we fight the war on terrorism, we must not become distracted from our primary mission as citizens of heaven.

1. Don't be deceived by your defenses, your alliances, or your wisdom.
2. Don't forget your dependence on God.
3. Don't forsake Israel.

1. Don't let your national pride distort your Biblical values.
2. Don't let your national pride distract you from your primary mission as a citizen of heaven.