Pride Comes Before the Fall

I have often wondered what causes some to become wheat while others become tares. Obadiah verse three answers this question when it says: “The pride of your heart has deceived you, You who dwell in the clefts of the rock, Whose habitation is high; You who say in your heart, Who will bring me down to the ground? Verse four continues, “Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down,” says the LORD.”

The language reminds me of Ezekiel’s words regarding the fall of Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:1-19 especially 11-19). So it was, that as Obadiah penned these words, that ambassadors from a nation allied with Edom was visiting other nations to convince their leader to join forces and attach Edom. It was the Lord who had ordained this change in policy, and what appeared to be just another diplomatic visit was actually the working out of the Lord’s judgments against Edom. This was the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy. “All your allies will force you to the border.”

It was John Wesley that said, “I read the newspaper to see how God is governing His world.” This is certainly a Biblical approach for God rules over kingdoms and nations (see II Chronicles 20:6; Daniel 5:21). History is His (God’s) story, yet this doesn’t mean that God is to blame for the foolish or wicked decisions and deeds of government officials, but it does mean that He is on the throne and working out his perfect will.

Perhaps you, as I, have seen that those who are the most boastful seem to have many friends, but when the going gets tough, their friends have a way of not being around. They align themselves with others often becoming of enemy of their former friend.

The tares and the wheat sit side by side, each given the same opportunity to surrender their lives in humility to the creator of the world. In the end the pride of the tares like the Edomites will bring upon themselves their ultimate destruction.

In the final destruction of this world, the devil himself will see “that those he has carefully aligned himself with will leave him as it were standing naked before the world, despised by the very ones that pledged allegiance to him. Before his ultimate destruction, the devil will have 1000 years to think about these things, but even then his heart will not be softened.

What a glorious day when death will be no more and tears will be wiped away and we will live ever more with our God and our Creator.