“The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, “Who can bring me down to the ground?” Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord. Obadiah 1:3-4
The Lord spoke these words to the nation of Edom whose people are the descendants of Esau. To give you a bit of Esau is the brother of Jacob (the father of Israel), and they are the sons of Isaac, who is the son of Abraham. In Genesis, we can see that the brothers were kind of opposite and didn’t really get along. Jacob deceives his brother twice, first for buying his birthright (Genesis 25:27-34) and stealing his father’s blessing (Genesis 27). After Jacob gets his father’s blessing, he runs away. Years later, Jacob and Esau meet to reconcile, but Jacob never feels they truly reconciled and runs away from Esau again (Genesis 32-33).
As such, there is bad blood between their descendants. When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, Edom refused to let them into the country (Numbers 20:14-21). Israelites and Edomites fought each other in battles and Edomites were even enslaved by the Israelites for a period of time (2 Samuel 8:11-14)
By the time we get to this passage in Obadiah, Israel had just been destroyed by Babylon. What was the nation of Edom doing while this was happening? They were rejoicing! (Psalm 137:7) Not only did they rejoice, they added to the Israelites misery after the Babylonians left. They went into Jerusalem and celebrated, took what was left, and waited on the roads in the surrounding areas to kill any survivors, (Obadiah 1:13-14)
What Edom did was despicable to God. Though the brothers did not get along, God still expected their descendants to respect one another (Deuteronomy 23:7-8 and Obadiah 1:12). Instead, this event made the Edomites fill with pride and the pride let to Edom adding misery upon misery to Israel. So God destroys them as their punishment (Obadiah 1:18)
As Christians, we should never lose sight of who we are and the position we are in. Everything we have is a blessing from God. (Ephesians 3:16-21) Our salvation is from God’s grace and not our own works. So we should not boast about it (Ephesians 2:8-9) When things are going well and you are very successful, praise the Lord for it is his blessings and know it’s not from your own doing. (2 Corinthians 3:4-5). When things are not going well, also praise the Lord! (Job 1:20-22).
If pride fills you, it will deceive you into thinking that you are bigger than you are. It may even get you to think that you are bigger than God. God has no problem of putting you back ih your place. (Proverbs 3:34)
You have head that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain n the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you only greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48
