Pride: God's Reason for Destroying Nations

Introduction

We begin new book today, one I never envisioned preaching at any time.

It is the shortest book of the Old Testament, but it challenges us to think about God in significant ways.

Probably given some time toward the last phase of Babylonian siege of Jerusalem (it came in three ways over a span of three decades).

It dates before 500 BC but probably no earlier than the fall of Jerusalem.

Its audience, most likely, was Israelites experiencing suffering assured of God’s righteous judgment of all surrounding nations and of Israel’s eventual vindication after being ill-treated by the Edomites.

The introduction to the book gives us plenty to ponder, unpleasant things to consider, especially this: why do nations fall?

Which nations are permanent?

Why should we consider ourselves immune from divine destruction?

Powerful, imperial, or small, God holds all nations accountable to him. And, the fall of nations and empires, we should see as additional evidence of the judgment of God.

Can it be possible for a people to become convinced in their own security, their own permanence that it creates a societal arrogance?

Divine Authority Introduced

Obadiah begins with an emphatic statement of the nature of this work.

Obadiah is merely the messenger, but the message itself did not originate with Him.

It came from God (Note 2 Peter 1 here).

The dependability and reliability of the message depends upon this claim.

Obadiah’s author establishes the imprint of God as the source of the message by the formulaic introduction...

“Thus says Adonai Jehovah.”

Why would God care to give a message to Edom?

It demonstrates his universal claim to rule over all the world.

It offers a warning before final judgment.

It gives assurance to Judah of forthcoming vindication. Edom will not escape.

A repetition of what God has done.

“a messenger has been assuredly sent?”

“A messenger has been surely sent?”

Through the opening of the letter, Obadiah establishes that the Lord has guaranteed that a messenger has been sent to summon other nations.

Divine Judgment Assured

Once the reality of the messenger has been established, Obadiah then gets to the content what the messenger reported to the nations.

He was purposely sent for calling the nations against Edom to battle.

God will bring about vindication in the form of a reversal of fortunes.

We can see v. 3 as a future statement or as a current assessment (the verb is in the Qal).

Perhaps it is done this way to give effect to the certainty of coming judgment.

God look upon it as completed action.

The Lord will take a small nation and make them even worthless in the eyes of the world.

Notice the certainty spoken of in Obadiah 4.

God can and will bring down these arrogant people.

Pride: The Reason for Judgment

We will need to consider what it is to be prideful.

Physical security alone does not make a nation secure.

Was it just arrogance to think they were secure, or does Obadiah mean that Edom had refused to hear the message of God to Judah and all the surrounding nations to submit to Nebuchadnezzar. Instead, they thought themselves immune from any threat because of their own security.

In its basic meaning, the word refers to “a sense of self-importance, which often is exaggerated to include defiance and even rebelliousness. TWOT lists three specific uses of “pride.” It may refer to presumption, that is an arrogance of thinking everything is in ones favor. Another usage, perhaps apropos here, is asserting “his own will to the point of rebelling against one in authority over him.”

Of special note in the latter usage is Jeremiah 27.