The Pulpit Obadiah 1:3-5 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you that dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that said in his heart… The prophet, having predicted in the former verses that God would accomplish the destruction of Edom by hostile nations, now intimates that their natural situation of strength shall afford them no protection. God is never at a loss for troops whereby to subdue those whose dwelling is in the high rocks. I. PRIDE OF HEART IS DECEPTIVE. The inhabitants of Edom imagined that they were perfectly secure in their elevated habitation of rocks. In this they were deceived. 1. Pride of heart deceives men in the commercial sphere of life. There are godless merchants in the world who are deceived by the pride of their heart. 2. Pride of heart deceives men in reference to their intellectual thinkings. 3. In reference to their moral safety. Their rocky places are no refuge against the retributive providence of God. II. PRIDE OF HEART IS PRESUMPTUOUS. 1. It presumes unduly upon the natural, temporal, and secondary advantages it may possess. 2. It presumes ignorantly, without taking into view the access which God has to men, notwithstanding their temporal fortifications. 3. It presumes unwarrantably upon the inability of men to achieve its ruin. III. PRIDE OF HEART IS DESTRUCTIVE. "I will bring thee down," saith the Lord. Man may make lawful things the subject of unlawful boasting. 1. Such men are often brought to humiliation by commercial failure. 2. By social slander. 3. By death. Their destruction is certain, lamentable, humiliating, unexpected, irreparable. (The Pulpit.) Parallel Verses KJV: The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? |
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