The Downfall of Pride

​Obadiah 1:3-4 ~ “The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the LORD.”
 
High atop their ivory towers many see themselves unassailable by trouble. The look upon all that they have built, and they glory in the structures of life that provide for them an edifice of security against the seas of trouble that might affect those beneath them. With arrogant hearts they declare that they have achieved a station in life outside the reach of all—even God Almighty. Thus were the descendants of Esau. In the mountain fortress of Petra, Edom believed they were secure. And with hearts filled with arrogance, they raised their hand against the people of Israel to fight against them. It is pride that believes life is beyond the reach of God.
 
Consider the opening statement of our text today and understand that pride is very deceptive, “The pride of your heart has deceived you.” How dreadful it is to live with a vainglorious heart. And yet, the greater dilemma is seen not in just the overreaching arrogance but in the deception it embraces. For a prideful heart will be a deceiving one, leading the individual to believe something of themselves that is not true. We know from Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Edom believed that their security rested in the heights upon which they lived. They saw their fortress and the rocky spires that towered around them and believed that nothing could ever defeat their position. It is the same with any who believe in their own superiority. Pride was the enemy’s downfall. Isaiah 14:14 illuminates, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” Eyes filled with pride will never be able to see in truth the condition of their own life. Jesus warned the Pharisees in John 9:41, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”
 
As we continue in the text for today, consider the statement that is made within a prideful heart, “who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’” The self-deceived heart will never admit to a weakness or acknowledge a fault in their thinking. They fall into the condition of the fool in Proverbs 12:15, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” God is graciously patient and will send warnings and words of caution and calls to repentance. Yet the warnings and counsels that swirl around their ears go unheeded. This same arrogance fell upon the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. Though warned in a dream and urged to repent by the prophet, Daniel, the king did not heed those words and his pride led to his downfall (see Daniel 4:28-37). The self-talk of the arrogant will never confess to any transgressions or admit to any errors. They see themselves with an unbreachable station in life that they cannot be brought low. Though Scripture is filled with the examples of those whose pride delivered them to destruction, they continue to exalt themselves in their own eyes.
 
Dear ones, there is no place where God cannot reach. Which now brings us to the final portion of the text for today, “Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the LORD.” The nation of Edom held to the belief that their city, like an eagle’s aerie high in the mountains, surrounded by towering peaks, could never be invaded, let alone, overthrown. Yet the LORD Almighty said that if they could even nest amongst the stars, they were not out of His reach. Where the nation said, “who will bring me down,” God declared, “I will.” And so it is with the arrogant today. Many who live with such hubris have in their thinking that there is nothing that is able to dismantle their lives. Consider the warning of Proverbs 16:5, “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished.” God Almighty has a great love for the humble, but the prideful He will despise. James 4:6 reminds us, “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’”
 
Dear ones, humble yourselves before God Almighty. Do not walk in arrogance and pride as many do. He will welcome the humble, but the arrogant He knows from a distance (see Psalm 138:6). Pride, beloved, is the downfall of every man.
 
In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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