Pride and False Wisdom

Introduction:

We have learned that Edom rejected God’s word, sent through Jeremiah, to submit to Babylonian rule.

We also learned that pride, especially in its noun form, is a sense of self-importance that defies and rebels against God.

Edom thought they were immune from God’s word.

They thought their geography would give security from God’s assured destruction of them.

Today, we will get to see something that reminds us of the importance of the Word of God.

We get to see in this section something to remind us of the importance of the Word of God.

What alternative for knowledge and action do we have other than the Word of God?

If we rule out God’s word as an authoritative source that compels us to listen to it, to obey it, what remains?

God knows what moral dangers lurk for us.

He warns us ahead of time to listen to him lest we face the tragedy of our own decisions.

In conflict (tension) in these passages, is man’s wisdom versus God’s wisdom.

Edom Faces Thorough Destruction:

Obadiah 5 uses the examples of thieves and grape gatherers to emphasize how thoroughly Edom will be destroyed.

Notice the each example is set off as conditional clauses.

Thieves and plunderers (separated perhaps only by their degree of violence) would not take everything.

They are limited by time, the need for speed, and rarely perform a wholesale “cleaning out.”

They focus upon what they consider adequate for their immediate needs.

Similarly, if grape gatherers came, they would leave gleanings.

The Law demanded the leaving of the corners of the field for those who were destitute.

The point is that they do not take everything in the field.

Not so for Edom according to Obadiah 6.

Edom Did Not Do a Thorough Accounting

What the Edomites did not consider, in their rejection of God’s word, is the amount of planning already attended to them.

Obadiah seems to play upon the meaning of the word “pillage.”

PILLAGE: LN 57.232–57.248 (nif) be ransacked, formally, examined, i.e., be plundered as an extension of searching out for objects by uncovering and rooting out (Ob 6+)1

Because this word means “to search out” at first, it refers to the thorough examination or searching that foreign enemies will do of Edom. They will not leave any place unexamined to discover any remaining wealth or valuables to take from the Edomites.

Their humility will be thorough. The spoiling of them complete.

But, as God continues to explain what is about to happen, it becomes clear that what is also meant is a plan has been afoot to overrun Edom.

What is about to happen to Edom is the result of careful study and investigation on the part of those nations who will destroy it.

They know what they are up against.

They have formulated a plan for isolating Edom and waiting beneath them to root them out and destroy them.

This heightens the futility of Edom’s wise men who, apparently, have advised against submission.

They have devised a course of action based on the assumption they were at peace with the other nations.

They have also thought their location presented too difficult a challenge for Babylon to undertake.

They would not have to listen to the Word of God because geography meant safety and security.

Conclusion:

Inherent pride, especially a variety that defies the Word of God, is the assumption that God’s word does not apply to a scenario we have thought out in our minds.

We get to see in this section something to remind us of the importance of the Word of God. What alternative for knowledge and action do we have other than the Word of God? If we rule out God’s word as an authoritative source that compels us to listen to it, to obey it, what remains? God knows what moral dangers lurk for us. He warns us ahead of time to listen to him lest we face the tragedy of our own decisions.

In our modern age, the danger has long been the inability to see the relevance of the Word of God because we fail to see its utility. After all, what specific guidance does it offer for what major I should choose, what job I should pursue, the name of my future spouse, what street I should live on, what car I should buy. Unfortunately, this shows the emptiness of modern life. We are nothing more than consumers looking to maintain a standard of living the status of which means something to us but, like the search for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow results in a nothing more than an exercise in futility. Is that all life is about, pursuing pieces of paper and a standard of living? Is there nothing more? But the Word of God calls us back to something else, confronts us with something more important, namely, that true wisdom comes from God. It humbles us to obedience in him. It finds total satisfaction in him and creates an insatiable appetite for knowing him.