THE DECEPTION OF PRIDE

OBAD 1-4

The Book of Obadiah is a prophecy to the Edomites. The Edomites were the ancestors of Esau son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob who was later called Israel. Therefore the Edomites and the Israelites were distant cousins. If you read the rest of this book you will find that God is speaking doom to the Edomites because they had set themselves against Him and His plan for the children of Israel. They helped enemy forces come against Israel, raided Israelite cities and villages and help to oppress the children of Israel. Now the Edomites were not strangers concerning God.  They knew who God was and that the children of Israel were the people of God. Yet they chose to go against them and therefore against God. 

Why were they so bold as to go against God? The answer is in verse 3. They were deceived by pride. You see the Edomites were wealthy. They had iron and copper mines which allowed them to sell valuable ore to others. One major use of this ore was in making weapon.  So they had some input into the strength of the surrounding armies. Also they would raid surrounding cities and take food, riches and slaves. Finally, the Edomites lived high in the mountains of Seir. Their cities were virtually impenetrable. They could look down and see any approaching armies. So, they were wealthy, had safety and they seemed to be in total control. This led them to boasted “who can bring me down.” And God answered, “I will”. You see even when all is going well for us and it seems that we are in a position where no one can touch or hurt us, we must still face God.   God promised in Matt 23:12 that whosoever exalts himself will be abased or humbled, and whosoever humbles himself will be exalted. So the Edomites were deceived by the pride associated with their possessions and their position.

Now many of us because of the curriculums and careers we have selected may one day find ourselves able to purchase more than we ever thought we would have.  We may also find ourselves sitting in positions that we never even considered. Beware lest your position and your possessions cause you to be puffed up with pride.

Now what is pride? Pride is an overly high opinion of one‘s self often leading to self exaltation or boasting in one’s own accomplishments. Though we have been taught that we should have pride in ourselves that is not what the Bible teaches. We should be pleased with ourselves and our accomplished, but not allow them to get us puffed up with pride. In your own time, look at Matt. 3:17 and 17:5. This shows how God described His satisfaction with Jesus. He said I am well pleased, not I am proud. So though we have been told to have pride, the Bible says pride is an evil thing. 

MARK 7:21-23 - Pride is an evil thing that proceeds out of the heart of man and defiles the man or makes him unclean. With the Edomites, the pride was in their hearts deceiving them. If our goal is to be changed into the image of Jesus Christ, we cannot cling to those things that defile us. 

Let’s look at some other scriptures on pride. 

PROV. 29:23 - Pride will bring you low. One reason is because God has promised to humble the proud.

PROV. 21:4         - Pride is a sin. So here is a second reason why pride will bring you low. Sin has in the past and always will reduce man to a lower estate than God intended for him. (Example: compare sin to drugs)

PROV. 16:5 - Pride is an abomination to the Lord and though many people back you up and pat you on your back, you will not go unpunished.

 PROV. 16:18 - Pride leads on to destruction.  It deceives man into thinking of himself more highly than he ought. It deceives us into thinking that we have capabilities that we really do not possess. In actuality we do not possess anything. We have whatever we have only by the mercy and grace of God. Not only will pride bring one to destruction, but Prov. 11:2 says it will bring man to shame. 

PS. 138:6 - The proud are distanced from God. He knows them from afar. 

I PETER 5:5 - God resists or set Himself up against the proud. 

Why? Because pride causes on to exalt himself above God. It will make you think more highly of yourself than you ought. Gal. 6:3 says if a man thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself. Pride deceives one into believing that he is self sufficient, But Paul said in  I Cor. 3:5 that we must remember that we are not sufficient in and of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Pride will cause one to glory in one’s own accomplishments. 

JERM. 9:23-24 - We are to glory in knowing God and in nothing else.  We are not to glory in our jobs, possessions, positions, families or even in our churches.  Man was created to fellowship with God and if we do not know Him in perfect fellowship we have nothing to Glory in. If we do have fellowship with Him, we realize that it is because of His doing, and not as a result of anything we have done. 

Let’s look at two examples of what pride in man will do. 

EZEK. 28:11-15 - This section of scripture is talking about the spirit being who operated in the king of Tyre, The being spoken of here was in the Garden of Eden - Adam and Eve were the only two humans in the Garden. This is speaking of Lucifer.  He was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.  He was arrayed in the most beautiful jewels and elements. He was a musical creature and it is believed that he was in charge of praise and worship in heaven. He was the anointed cherub. Cherubs are the inner circle of angels, the highest order or rank of angels, and the fact that Lucifer is call the anointed cherub suggest that he was the leader of this inner circle. Therefore he had beauty and position. But Lucifer was not any of this as a result of his own doing.  God had set him in his place. God had created him perfect and beautiful, and had given him a high position. But then iniquity was found in him. What was his sin?  Pride. Verse 17 says that he was lifted up because of his beauty. What did pride cause Lucifer to do?   

IS. 14:12-15 - Pride cause him to think that he could be God. Pride caused him to lead a revolt against God. Rev. 12:4 refers to one third of the angels who were deceived into following Lucifer in his revolt against God. He intended to storm into heaven, oust. God and take control of the throne of God - Satan had a plan but he had no power.  pride had caused him to forget that all the position and beauty he possessed was because of God. He had not acquired these things on his own, nor was he capable of acquiring anything on his own. He was a created being going against his creator. Now this sounds foolish even as we read it. But there are many present today, who recognize that man also is a created being, who is incapable of creating or sustaining anything on his own. Yet many of these same people continue to openly rebel against God. Many know what God’s desire and will is for man, yet they refuse to follow him. Why? Because in their pride they believe that their will and desire is more important than Gods.  Pride led Lucifer to rebel against God, and pride continues to lead man to rebel against God. 

EZEK. 28:16 - 19 - Lucifer wanted to be God and for his rebellion he ended up getting kicked out of heaven. He exalted himself against God, and as promised God abased him. 

Satan wanted to be God and that got him in trouble. He used the same idea to get mankind in trouble. He said to Adam and Eve ‘God does not want you to eat of the tree because he knows it will make you like God. They listened to Satan’s line and fell from that perfect relationship that they shared with God. Satan is still telling mankind that we can be our own God. How many people in here feel that you are capable of being God or of being your own God? How many of you feel that you can meet all of your own needs? I would venture to say that none of us do.  Yet all of us have not committed to allowing God to be God in our lives. We have not all ceased resisting and rebelling against him. Some even think that they don’t need God. Only pride and foolishness would make a man say he does not need God, and any person who believes he does not need God is deceived. If you believe that you do not need God you have been blinded by Satan and the pride in your heart has deceived you. 

Let’s look at a second example. 

DAN. 4:24 - 30 - Neb. boasted of the greatness of Babylon, proclaiming that he had built it into a great nation.  However, look at DAN 2:36-38. Neb. had been told by Daniel in another vision that the God of heaven had given him a kingdom, power, strength and glory. Neb. had been given his position by God. God had prospered Babylon, but Neb wanted to take credit for the greatness of the nation. In chapter 4, verse 30, there was no reference to God. Neb only referred to himself. He boasted in pride, giving God no credit and no glory. He exalted himself and God humbled him. 

DAN. 4:31- 37 - He exalted himself but before the hour was up God humbled him. He became like a beast of the field, eating grass like an ox.  The hair on his back was so long it looked like bird feathers and his toe nails and finger nails looked like claws. He lost his mind. This wasn’t just for a few days or a few months. He was like that for seven years. God can bring us down just as quickly as he exalts us.  When Neb’s time was up, he returned to his senses, but he came back a different man. He came back realizing that apart from God he was nothing and could do nothing. God is still waiting on many of you to come to this realization. Neb came back praising and honoring God. He had come to realize that those who walk in pride God was able to abase.

Realizing that God will resist the proud and give grace to the humble as recorded in 1 Peter 5:5, we should do as commanded in verse six of that same chapter. 

1 Peter 5:6 - we should choose to humble ourselves rather than have God humble or abase us.  If we humble ourselves, God will exalt us in due time.  We have an example of this in Jesus our savior.  2 COR. 8:9 says that though Jesus was rich, he humbled himself and became poor for our sakes.

PHIL. 2:5 – 11 - Jesus stripped himself of all his right and privileges of being God, took on the form of man and humbled himself to die a cruel death for you and I. He humbled himself and as result God has exalted him by giving him a name that is above every name, that at his name every knee shall bow. 

Don’t allow pride to rise up in your heart and deceive you. Choose now to humble yourself before God that he might also exalt you in due season.  If you will not humble yourself before God and choose Jesus as your savior, you will one day be abased by God.  Don’t let pride deceive you and lead you to destruction.  Choose Christ.