One Sided Relationship - Pride

Pride will cause us to look at things in a “rose colored” glasses type of way. Sometimes, once things are going well we have this notion that things will always be that way. Pride has kept people in relationships, pride has kept people in positions, on jobs, and in toxic situations longer than they should have been because:

We believe we are too powerful to touch

We do not believe things can get worse

Or sometimes we do not think things can get better

This message or warning from Obadiah takes a very confrontational approach. He pulls no punches, and remains brutally honest with Edom and his people throughout this entire lesson. This prophetic message of vision discloses the judgement to be recieved, the unavoidable day of doom, and the power of God to bring forth judgement and salvation. Our life has two facets of it that are unavoidable. All humankind will face judgement, it is unavoidable. Although God did send Jesus to save, condemnation is a possibility if we are so prideful about our life that we refuse to change.

God is a God of commandments. He has expectations, verse 4, “from there I will bring you down, says the LORD”. This is the side of God, many times we avoid talking about. There are certain things that God is not going to tolerate, and one of them is pride. God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble as prescribed in the book of James. Obadiah, as a messenger of the Lord is quite descriptive in verses 5-8. He gives the outcome or consequences of the pride that has ensued. Obadiah essentially presents it in a inevitable manner, explaining that this is unavoidable. It’s a horrendous thing when you know God is going to deal with you in a severe. The problem that pride presents is we cannot see or hear God because our pride is too loud and has blinded our eyes.

Verse 5:

King James Version Obadiah

If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!)

Would they not have stolen till they had enough?

If the grapegatherers came to thee,

Would they not leave some grapes?

Basically God through the voice of Obadiah, has to have one of those “come to Jesus” meetings as my momma used to call them. While, you are sitting there with all that pride, you need to watch yourself. Basically saying if someone really wanted to destroy you they could. If we take a good look at the text, we see the essence or the personality of a thief. Granted they come to take but typically thieves know they are working within a time frame so they take what’s most valuable and still leave some behind. God is explaining through his messenger Obadiah when He (Yahweh) is done with you, you won’t have to worry about scraps because there will be nothing left. God has the ability to remove everything that you thought you gained on your own.

If someone wanted to rob you, they would pick you clean.

Do not think you are so invincible no one can touch you.

The only reason some of us are still standing is because God has not dealt with us the he truly wants to.

Grace and mercy is the only thing saving some of from our prideful and arrogant ways.

And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Jesus speaking at this moment is a principal that works in a propitious manner. The future passive voice of Jesus signifies the fact that if we are exalting ourselves we will be abased, so because you have thought of yourself to be more significant that you really are, God will now make you insignificant in effort to teach you a valuable lesson. On the other in, if you are cognizant of what and who God truly is and his blessings, he has the ability to bring about a significance to your life that no man can question or bring down.

So now Obadiah is explaining to Edom and the people therein, that the exaltation you thought you attained will be removed. The mercy that a thief might show, God is not going to show that type of mercy considering you did not do the same for his people.

This is the dynamic this message is conveying. There were only a remnant of people left due to persecution and oppression. Nonetheless the people left are typically the most resilient, these are the people God can use, folks that been through some things.

The contrast is the fact that when God gets through with our enemies they’ll have nothing left because of his power and using what he had left, although seen as slight, God’s power is made manifest through our weakness.

In the midst of Babylonian oppression with the help of Edom, things probably seemed bleak, dark, and filled with despair but God is able to lift up a remnant of people to overcome some of the worst situations and circumstances. Do not become discouraged by the pride of the wicked know that God is working on your behalf. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

Verse 6 – How they search Esau, seek out his hiding places

· Do not worry they will be found, not only will they be found but God will use some of his best soldiers and strategy to seek them out. You do not have to go looking for folks, you just need to sit back and let God do the searching and let him handle our enemies accordingly.

· We waste time looking for people when we have a God that has unlimited time. When you think of a thief, a thief can’t take everything because they are working against a clock. God has no clock, matter of fact he controls the clock.

o Similar to If grape-gatherers came to you, Would they not leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves by night, Would they not destroy until they have enough?

o See (Edom) thought he was smart, attacking places that were hidden, what he did realize is they were hidden by God. It’s tough, when Satan tries to jump on your back when you are just praising the Lord and minding your own business. Nonetheless God says I’ll drive them out of hidden places to bring you to a unapologetic, up front peace.

Verse 7: Pride will have you believing people are on your side that actually aren’t.

Ø To the border they drive you-all of your allies;

o You have to be careful, because the same people that use you for their schemes will use those schemes to push you to the due of destruction.

o Obadiah lets it be known, those who you think are your allies will push you to the edge too, they will deceive you, they will overpower you.

§ Again we see Obadiah continue to write in this future passive voice which affirms the fact that this is going to happen. Watch what Obadiah says he is going to do, the people you deem as allies will push you to the border. It’s interesting how tables turn when your betrayer is betrayed and pushed into the hands of other enemies.

§ We really need to be careful that we do not allow Satan to make us a tool of oppression in a place that should refuge for us.

§ Everyone goes through a period of betrayal, we’ve all be betrayed by someone. Pride can seep in and blind us from seeing folks for who they really are. Edom is living well so he can’t see the issues and the problems he’s about to have because pride is in the way.

§ “Those who eat your bread lay snares beneath you;” The same folks who you break bread with, have different motives therefore they are waiting to catch you slipping. Esau was motivated by family ties, and dissension in his family, but Babylon only cared about resources, and would do anything to get those resources.

· Satan does not care about you, and he will use you to get to what he really wants. Some of us aren’t really wicked, we are just being used by Satan, some of us have gotten ahead by using people meanwhile Satan is using us.

· This is where God steps in, not only will he bring us face to face with our mistakes, he will reveal to us where we messed up and show us that none of this was by our merit.

· This is why playing the victim is so dangerous, life is about choices. When we start justifying our issues by victimizing our situation so much so that we refuse to remain accountable, this is the outcome. No one told Esau to sell his birthright. Things happen in life, but going through storms is never a justification to make a bad decision.

· “They that eat thy bread lay a snare under thee;”

o At the end of the day, Edom (Esau) did not live in this land, therefore he was a guest. He actually put himself as a guest in a place he was not wanted. The Bible simply expresses the fact that instead of cushions laid under guest, the people he thought were his friends were actually preparing to lay snares to wound.

§ It’s almost like the story of the Eskimo that was having a problem with a wolf, and so he laid a trap, it was a piece of raw meat, but under the raw meat was a knife but because the wolf loved the taste of blood he didn’t realize that he was cutting himself with every lick of the raw meat. Pride works the same way we will be so enticed by the taste we miss the trap underneath.

There is no understanding in him:

The worst thing that can happen if we do not put our pride in check in an alienation from God due to our pride. Watch how Edom(Esau) is referred to in this verse. The Bible says there will be no understanding in him. Instead of “in thee” it says of him not to him. See our pride can get in the way and we can alienate ourself from God that he speaks of us but not to us. We can be alienated by God when we idolize ourselves rather than understand that it’s his grace and mercy that got us to this place. Sometimes it’s not that God is not listening it’s the fact that our pride has become so loud we cannot hear him.

and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of heaven and for the

When God deals with us because we have allowed pride and other sins to alienate ourselves from his instructions he deals with us accordingly. When God deals with us it’s not fun, I know there is a lesson of relief in this text, that no matter the oppression God still fights for us, but I believe there is always a lesson in the consequences of the enemy. God deals harshly with enemies but he also can deal harshly with us when we do not do what he commands us to do.

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