Obadiah 1:1-7: a reflection

1The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord GOD says about Edom. We have heard news from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, “Arise, and let’s rise up against her in battle. 2Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised. 3The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ 4Though you mount on high as the eagle, and though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there,” says the LORD. 5“If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—oh, what disaster awaits you—wouldn’t they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn’t they leave some gleaning grapes? 6How Esau will be ransacked! How his hidden treasures are sought out! 7All the men of your alliance have brought you on your way, even to the border. The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you. Friends who eat your bread lay a snare under you. There is no understanding in him.”

The prophecy of Obadiah against Edom exposes the deceit at the heart of pride. Edom, dwelling secure in its high rocky strongholds, said in its heart, Who will bring me down to the ground? It felt untouchable, safe in its heights, certain nothing could reach it. But God says: The pride of your heart has deceived you. Though you soar like the eagle and set your nest among the stars, I will bring you down. The very confidence that felt so secure was a self-deception.

Notice how pride works: it deceives. Edom's pride told it a lie, that it was safe, untouchable, beyond being brought down. This false sense of security, this the pride of your heart has deceived you, is pride's characteristic work: it persuades us we are secure when we are not, invulnerable when we are exposed, self-sufficient when we are not. Edom trusted its heights and its own strength, and that trust was a deception that set it up for a fall.

That is a warning worth heeding, because the same pride can deceive us. When we feel secure in our own strength, our achievements, our defenses, and say in our hearts, who can bring me down? we are believing pride's lie. Such false security sets us up for a fall, for the God who humbles the proud can bring down whatever exalts itself. Do not let pride deceive you into a false sense of security. Whatever heights you feel safe in, your strength, your success, your defenses, hold them humbly, knowing they are no guarantee. Humble yourself before God rather than trusting the heights that pride tells you are secure, for the pride of the heart deceives, and the proud will be brought low.

Lord, Edom, secure in its heights, said, who will bring me down? and you answered, the pride of your heart has deceived you. Guard me from that self-deception. When I feel secure in my own strength, my achievements, my defenses, and say in my heart that nothing can bring me down, I am believing pride's lie. Such false security sets me up for a fall. Help me hold whatever heights I feel safe in humbly, knowing they are no guarantee. Keep me from trusting the heights that pride tells me are secure, and teach me to humble myself before you instead. Let me not be deceived by the pride of my heart, but depend on you alone, who alone are my security.