Vain confidences.
"Thy terribleness hath deceived thee," etc. Taking the different expressions in this verse, we can see how such confidences are begotten in men's minds.
I. THEIR FELLOW MEN HELP TO DECEIVE THEM. "Thy terribleness," etc. All around them held them in terror, were afraid of them, deemed them too mighty to be overcome. And the consciousness of this kept in them a confidence which now was to be shown to be but vain.
II. MEN'S OWN PRIDE. "The pride of thine heart." What myriads has not pride slain! what woe hath it not brought upon mankind! "Pride goeth before destruction," etc. (Cf. homily on Pride, Jeremiah 48:29.) See Sennacherib's army (Isaiah 37:1-38.), Pharaoh's overthrow (Exodus 14:1-31.); and "all the ages all along" pride has done the like and does so still.
III. MEN'S CIRCUMSTANCES. No dwellings could seem more secure than were theirs; their fortress seemed impregnable. Hence they said in their hearts, We shall never be moved." (Cf. on these dwellings, introduction to homily on Desirable habitations, supra, Jeremiah 49:8.) Cf. the rich fool (Luke 12:20). Prosperity and security do tend to beget these vain confidences.
IV. PAST SUCCESS. Not only did these Edomites dwell in the clefts of the rock, but they had held them fast hitherto against all invaders. A career of success, opponents vanquished, difficulties surmounted, wealth and honour won; who can persuade such a man to call himself a poor, lost sinner, dependent utterly on the mercy of God? It is much easier to say, "Have mercy on us miserable sinners," than to foal and believe we are so.
CONCLUSION. There are two ways in which this spirit of false confidence may be got rid of or kept under.
1. By surrender of the soul to Christ. He makes us like himself, forms his Spirit in us, so that the truer the surrender the more we become "meek and lowly in heart" as he was. This the best way, the easy yoke, the light burden.
2. By the crushing force of God's judgments. Edom was to be humbled thus. And there are many who will only be humbled so. They will have their own way, and they have it for their woe, and then, after a weary while, they come to themselves. They "made their bed in hell," and as they made it so they had to lie upon it, until even there God's band shall find them, and they shall humble themselves beneath the mighty hand they had heretofore dared to defy.
3. And in some way this humility must be wrought in us. For God will have all men to be saved; but without this lowly mind, this rejection of all vain confidences, we cannot be. Which way, then, shall it be—through Christ or through the fire of hell?—C.