Obadiah 1:3-4 - Homiletics

The deceptiveness of human pride.

The prophecies of Obadiah were mainly addressed to the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, a wild and warlike people who inhabited the mountainous region to the south of the Dead Sea. Their hostility and treachery towards their kinsmen, the descendants of Israel, were the occasion of the threatenings with which this book abounds. Fancying themselves secure and impregnable in their singular mountain fastnesses, they deemed their neighbours altogether incapable of chastising their perfy and enmity. But man is only man, and not God; and this lesson Obadiah brings before the inhabitants of Idumea in the glowing and poetical language of the text.

I. SELF - EXALTATION . This was the state of mind in which the Edomites defied the people of Jehovah. Their homes were literally in the clefts of the rocks, where caves sheltered them at an elevation above those passing through the defile below, which seemed to secure their exemption from the assaults of their foes. They compared themselves with the eagle, which chooses the loftiest peaks for his dwelling place. Nay, they seemed to disdain the earth, and to dwell among the stars. All this is indicative of human pride. Men too often flatter themselves that physical strength, mental powers, social position, political alliances, raising them above the common herd, raise them also above the common lot.

II. SELF - CONFIDENCE . "Who," say the Edomites, "who shall bring us down to the ground?" Men measure their strength with their fellow men, and draw from the comparison most delusive conclusions. Because they are superior to one, they fancy themselves superior to all; and because they believe themselves above the reach of human enemies, they believe themselves above the reach of God himself. It is a sin to which strong natures are especially exposed. The powerful and the prosperous are tempted to place confidence both in their own wisdom and ability and in their own good fortune. But "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

III. HUMILIATION . We are assured upon the highest authority that "a haughty spirit cometh before a fall." In the plenitude of their power and pride, the Edomites heard a voice from heaven saying, "I will bring thee down." A retributive providence is a reality. Even the heathen believed in Nemesis, and regarded boastfulness as tempting adversity. The instrument employed in humbling the proud may be human, as in the case of the Edomites, but the power that chastises is Divine. It is ever true under the government of God that he abases the proud and gives grace unto the lowly.