The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself 'Who can bring me down to the ground?' – Obadiah 1:3

Today's Scripture Reading (January 12, 2023): Obadiah 1

What makes you proud? Of course, we know that pride is a sin, so we often try to mask our pride. I am proud of a few things in my life. I am proud of my kids and the things that they have accomplished. I often try to tell them how proud I am of them, and that I am proud that I can say that I am their father; I can say that I am connected with them. And I don't think that is a problem. It is not the kind of pride against which the Bible speaks. The kind of pride that is problematic in our lives is the kind of pride that makes us believe that we no longer need God. If we are proud of our material possessions in a world where people are homeless and hungry, that is a problem. But what is even worse is that if we declare that we have so much, we no longer need God. That situation is intolerable to a God who loves us and all of this world in which we live.

Obadiah's short prophecy differs from the rest of the prophecies in the Bible because it doesn't concern Israel or Judah. The target of the prophecy is Edom, the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. Jacob and Esau had an adversarial relationship throughout most of their lives, and apparently, that same relationship existed between the descendants of the sons of Isaac.

But the reality was that the Edomites had very little about which to be proud. Edom was small and poor. It was an insignificant country that rarely was considered in the ancient world. What they were proud of was that they had figured out a way to live in the clefts of the rocks. The rocks featured natural fortifications that the Edomites believed could never be attacked and defeated. Its capital city, Petra, had a mile-long narrow canyon that had to be traversed just to get to the city. And when you arrived at Petra, the city was carved into the stone itself. The Edomites believed they were like eagles, inhabiting the heights of the mountains, and they could never be brought down to earth.

Obadiah needs the Edomites to understand that they are not undefeatable and that their pride was misplaced. The Edomites had been deceived by their pride, and they had come to believe something false. They ask who is it that can bring them down to the ground, and Obadiah knows the answer. It is the Jewish God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 18