Amos Obadiah Jonah so Obadiah is tucked in there a little tiny book of one chapter between Amos and Jonah So, Obadiah, I'm gonna read this morning the first nine verses, and then we'll pray together, and then we'll look at this passage together. Lord, we thank you for your word, and this morning we come to you recognizing that all scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable. And Lord, we confess that there may be passages of scripture that we don't dedicate a lot of time to, haven't really thought a lot about, and yet they are relevant, very relevant to us in every age. I pray that you'd help us this morning to see how sinful and despised that pride is in your eyes. And may we learn from the contents of this book, just how you look at pride and what your demeanor is toward it and how you will act in opposition to the proud. So Lord, we offer ourselves to you this morning and ask that you would help us to understand your word by your grace. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so Obadiah, the first nine verses. 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. Behold, I will make you small among the nations. You shall be greatly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the cleft of the rock, whose habitation is high, you who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground? Though 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. If thieves had come to you, if robbers by night, O 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? Oh, how Esau shall be searched out, how his hidden treasures shall be sought after. All 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. Will I not in that day, says the Lord, even destroy the wise men from Edom and understanding from the mountains of Esau? Then your mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau may be cut off by slaughter." Well, this is a rather dismal passage, is it not? It's a passage that speaks of judgment. It's a passage that speaks of devastation and doom. Now, let's back up a little bit and think about who this is addressed to. This is about God's coming judgment on Edom. Now, who was Edom? Who are Edom descended from? Who were the people of Edom descended for? There's a great hint in verse 8. Esau, alright? You notice in verse 8, understanding from the mountains of Esau. So the Edomites were those in the line of Esau. Now we remember, we can chase this all the way back to the womb, right? Jacob and Esau. There was conflict between the two of them. And really, this squabble, this bad relationship would continue well beyond their childhood days, well beyond the point where Jacob is able to get the birthright from Esau, well beyond the point where Jacob is able to deceive his father, And it is an ongoing thing. We will see next week, Lord willing, some of the specific types of crimes that Edom had committed against Jacob, that Edom had committed against Israel. But as God begins this oracle against Edom, He focuses on their heart attitude, their heart demeanor. What was their issue at heart from which all of these other things, all of these aggressions, and all of these other wickednesses are going to flow? Well, we're told of this in verse 3. The pride of your heart has deceived you. And you see then, as it goes on, some of the attitude that Edom or the Edomites had. You who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground. Though you ascend as high as the eagle, though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down. And so Esau, the descendants of Esau, Edom, are people who at heart are proud people. Now, when we talk about pride, there's a number of different things that we can find ourselves proud about. We can find ourselves proud about our status, how lofty that we think we are within society, or comparing ourselves to other people. We can think ourselves, or we can be proud not only of our status, but our stuff, right? Oh, look what I have that other people don't have. And we can be proud of that stuff, proud of our possessions. We can also be proud about our skills. Look at what I can do that no one else can do. We can find ourselves proud about our strengths, what abilities that we have, what we think we're able to do. We can find this pride as well in what I might call our smarts, how brilliant that we think we are. We're in Obadiah this morning. No problem. And Edom here, in its history, in its ongoing contention with Israel, has this attitude of pride that permeates everything. And there are a number of times over the course of the history between Edom and Israel that Edom treated Israel very badly. One of the challenges about dating, when is Obadiah actually written, is there's an awful lot of times when they were horrible against israel and some people put an earlier date on that would put a date that would become that would sort of be before the syrians attack some people put this the date of this book later before the babylonians would come to attack israel i'm inclined to work the later dates But I can't claim any sort of omniscience on this specific date. There were so many times when Edom has mistreated Israel, but at the heart of it all is the pride that they have about themselves. Now, what was it that Edom was proud about? One of the things that Edom was proud about, and we see it in the passage there, they were very proud about their status as a people. One of the things that God declares in verse 2, this is what He's going to do to Edom. He says, I will make you small among the nations. You shall be greatly despised. Now the people of Edom were never really a vastly numerous people. You compare them to some of the other great kingdoms of that time. They didn't have that kind of strength numerically. But they did think of themselves as this advanced culture, a people that though they may not be numerically as strong as the Assyrians or numerically as strong as the Babylonians, nonetheless had a status that was equal or greater to them. And so what does God do? The first thing that he says is, I am going to cut you down to size. We might use that expression. I will make you small among the nations, you shall be greatly despised. Another point of pride that the Edomites had was where they lived. They believed that where they lived basically made them impervious to any attacks. Now, where the Edomites lived, they lived in a mountain range. The mountains of Edom could reach up to 6,000 feet. So by comparison, Jerusalem, the temple in Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and the highest points in Jerusalem reach about 2,300 feet. And so, comparatively speaking, if you will, they towered over the area. They held the high ground, right? And we know how, in conflict, how important the high ground is. A person that has the high ground, it's much, much easier for them to defend the high ground than it is to charge up the high ground and take it. So they're very proud of where they are, and they have this idea that no one can bring us down. Look at what it says there in verse 3. You dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high. You say in your heart, Who will bring me down to the ground? So the Edomites have this pride in their status as a nation. They have this pride in where they live and this idea that no one can take us down. Esau also had some pride in what they saw as their wealth. And I think God takes a stab at that in verses five and six. If thieves have come to you, if robbers by night, how you will be cut off. Verse 6, O how Esau shall be searched out, how his hidden treasures shall be sought after. So you have this nation that is in the high mountains compared to everything else. You have a nation that thinks of itself, in terms of its status, as lofty and exalted, just like the place where they live. You have a nation that has some wealth, too, to it. There's a couple other things about Edom. One is that Edom was proud of, and even known for to some degree, proud of its wisdom, its wise men. Look at verse 8 there. Will I not in that day, says the Lord, even destroy the wise men of Edom and understanding from the mountains of Esau?" There is this reputation that they had for having wise men among them. Just for a cross-reference, very quickly, let's turn over to Jeremiah, chapter 49. In Jeremiah, you have the prophet, similarly speaking, word of judgment against Edom. Another example here of the fact that Edom was known for having wisdom and understanding, or certain people within Edom were known for wisdom and understanding. But look at when the oracle against Edom in Jeremiah goes forth, look at what God says first of all. Is wisdom no more in Teman? Teman is the name of a city or a district of Edom. There was a capital city there. Basra was the capital city of Edom. And so, is wisdom no more in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom vanished? So they're known for this wisdom as well, and it's another thing that they have pride in. We are a place of wisdom. We're a place of wise men. And they also had pride not only in their status and their position, their possessions, their wisdom, but they also have pride in their strength. They believe that though they were few in number, or fewer in number than the massive nations and confederations and so forth of the world, they were proud of their might. They had strong warriors in Edom. And you see there, in verse 9, Then your mighty men, O temen, shall be destroyed. They find their pride in their strength. There's another thing that they had pride in, that they felt secure about, maybe, in their pride. And that is, okay, even if we don't have the greatest status, even if we weren't to have the greatest status, even if we weren't to have the greatest living conditions that would keep us from attack, even if we weren't to have our wisdom, our riches, and our strength, we know the right people. We get a hint of this here. Verse 7, All 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. So here, Edom has all these things in their mind going for them, they have this idea that they are the greatest, their heart is lifted up with pride, and they also have this confederacy with all the great and mighty nations. They think that these alliances are going to keep them from harm, as well as everything else. What, though, does God say to Edom about their pride? Verse three. The pride of your heart has deceived you. If we get nothing else out of this today, I hope that we get this. Pride deceives the heart. Pride deceives the heart. When a person is proud, when a person has this exalted view, they are deceiving themselves. See, the reality is we're never quite as wise as we think we are, are we? We have a tendency, right, if we are thinking of our own greatness, to think of ourselves as smarter than everyone else. What is one of the first things we might say in traffic when the traffic flows, starts to slow down? These stupid drivers. As though perhaps in our wisdom we could have prevented all of the traffic mayhem in Toronto, right? We have this tendency to think of ourselves as a whole lot smarter than we really are. We have a tendency as well to think of ourselves as a whole lot stronger than we really are. We think of ourselves as having greater intestinal fortitude. We think of ourselves as having more strength at our disposal. We think of ourselves as being much more mighty than we really are. We deceive ourselves in that. I read recently a I think he was a coach to fighters, boxers and so forth. And they said, what is the one thing you'd like to teach the young fighters coming up? And his word of wisdom was basically he wanted them to spend as much time in recovery as they did in preparation, or as much time, almost as much time in recovery as in preparation. Because when we're young and strong, we think we can just keep on going and keep on going and keep on doing it, and we think that our strength is going to last forever. And sometimes we do things that end up messing us up later. We don't take the time to recover from those things. We're not as strong as we think we are. We're really not as strong as we think we are. There's always someone stronger physically. There's always someone stronger in so many different ways, emotionally, than we are. Pride deceives you. Pride deceives you. We know that the heart is inherently deceptive. And pride of heart is one of those strongest deceptions of the heart. The pride of your heart has deceived you. Now, I want to pause for a minute for us to reflect upon ourselves. In what areas are we tempted to think of ourselves as greater than we really are. In what ways are we tempted to think of ourselves as though we are exalted above our fellow man? We ourselves think of ourselves as wiser than our fellow man. We think of ourselves as stronger than our fellow man. We also sometimes think of ourselves, very often, very often, as more righteous than others. We really do. Self-righteousness is such a part of the fallen heart that it takes a massive work of grace and a massive amount of grit for us to dig that root out. We are so prone to think of ourselves as the righteous ones. and people around us as unrighteous. Now there are times, we're gonna see this tonight as we look at Psalm 119 verse 121 to 128, we're gonna see at times that we will be righteous in comparison to those who attack us. There's a sense in which we can be righteous or innocent relating to relationships around us, but that does not make us ultimately righteous. We are sinners, we are in need of grace, but we have this tendency to think of ourselves as more righteous than we are, more strong than we are, more wise than we are. And here's the thing about pride, and we see it here. Pride deceives us, the pride of our heart deceives us, and the pride of our heart can lead to our destruction. Pride cometh before a fall, and an haughty spirit before destruction. Some of you may remember learning that verse. Pride comes before a fall, a haughty spirit comes before destruction. When we are pride, we deceive ourselves. And we continue along a path that is not the right path. It's a path that will ultimately lead to our destruction. Sometimes God, in his grace, intervenes and checks us earlier than later. Sometimes God, in his grace, does that. I think I've told the story before of a friend of mine who was an assistant pastor at our church for a while. He preached one Sunday and when people were greeting him afterward, they were giving the obligatory compliments and so forth that the minister receives at the end of the service. He felt himself starting to be exalted with pride. He's thinking, yeah, that was a pretty good sermon, wasn't it? Yes, I am a very profitable servant. But that afternoon, he started to sort of reevaluate himself. And he's like, yeah, that probably isn't entirely accurate. I have a lot more to learn about humility. God has a way of pulling down the proud. So he goes to church that evening, and I think that evening he wasn't preaching, but he was leading the singing and doing some other things. So before the service began, a number of people were there, and he saw this teen that had been somewhat wayward and rebellious, and this teen was wearing a tie. He was wearing a tie that with a sweater, so the sweater covered up the bottom portion of the tie and left the knot exposed, and he thought, oh, I'll go compliment him on this tie. So he complimented this wayward teen on this tie. And then I think, if I remember the story correctly, he went around telling others, oh, you should go see, John is wearing a tie today. Where does the embarrassment come in that? Well, John's tie was actually not really an appropriate tie for church. And so when people came around starting to look at John's tie, John pulled out his tie and there at the bottom of John's tie was the image of Marilyn Monroe with that famous pose where the skirt is being lifted up by the wind. That was the bottom of his tie. So not only had he worn this tie, and the assistant pastor had complimented him on it, but then the assistant pastor had told other people, oh, go take a look at John's tie, not knowing what the bottom of the tie looked like. So that came back to him right before the service. So he's very embarrassed about this. And he gets up to, he had to lead the singing and he had to do something else, I think. And he gets up and about halfway through the third song, he realizes that he has not properly done up his zipper. God had a way of humbling that man on that day. But sometimes that humbling doesn't come immediately, or we don't recognize the humbling that comes quickly. And we persist in pride. Pride deceives you. Pride ultimately can destroy you. And so, as we come to a conclusion here, this is a warning against pride. And it's a reminder for us that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So while this is a warning against pride, it's also an exhortation that we would be humble people. And as I've often said before, one of the greatest ways that we can Be made humble. One of the greatest exercises that we can do to humble ourselves is to take a look at the cross. As you take a look at the cross, you see there the great weight of your sin against God. The great horror of your iniquity. And as you stand at the cross and you gaze upon it by faith, if you would, you see there Christ perishing, dying for your sin. And that is something that ought to ground us a little bit. We think of ourselves as great and self-righteous and all of these things, we look at the cross and we say, you know what? I'm not what I think that I am. The cross also is not just something that humbles us, it's something that also, at the same time, both paradoxically humbles us and lifts us up, because it shows us how horrible our sin is, but then it also reminds us of how great God's love is. So brothers and sisters, as we think about pride, let's remember that God resists it, that pride deceives our own hearts, pride deceives us, it brings about destruction, but how grateful we can be that there is help and hope in God. How grateful we can be for that cross. Because all of us, truth be told, deserve death and hell because of our pride. There's not one of us who at more than one point in our lives have been touched by pride, have thought of ourselves more highly than we ought to. We see there on that cross, the one who has taken all of our sins upon Him, including our sin of pride. May we seek to follow in His footsteps. What humility, of course, our Lord in going to the cross. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So my encouragement for you today is follow Christ and follow him in his path of humility.