The problem with stubbornness

Introduction

In 1922, the UK government made the announcement that the clocks would go forward 20 minutes.

For one man living in Coventry, he wanted to carry on living in the past. “How dare the government advance the clocks” he said “I will never accept this. Nobody is going to take 20 minutes out of my life”.

Now there are many hills you could die on, but this man chose to let the world run ahead of him. He kept his watch set for the old time. He was 20 minutes late for every appointment. And as a result he was fired from half a dozen jobs.

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 6067 Stubborn Man’s Twenty Minutes

The world is always twenty minutes ahead of one man in Coventry, England.

“In 1922,” he said, “the clocks were advanced twenty minutes. I never accepted this. Nobody was going to take twenty minutes out of my life.”

So he kept his watch set for the old time. He is twenty minutes late for every appointment. As a result, the determined man has been fired from half a dozen jobs.

“They won’t beat me,” he declared. “I’m going to die twenty minutes late to show them I was right.”

“They won’t beat me”, he declared. “I’m going to die 20 minutes late to show them I was right!”.

In our previous passage, we started to see that Israel were becoming what they worshipped. They were...

Stubbornness is a trait that people laugh about, or sometimes even admire. How brave of this man to stick to what he believed to be right!

And as this passage develops, we see that things are worse than they first appeared.

But stubbornness can also be a snare to people. Whether that’s not liking change, or refusing to see any other point of view.

In our passage this afternoon we will see that stubbornness was a massive issue for the people of Israel in Hosea’s day. In their stubbornness the Israelites had joined themselves to idols and so God had rejected them. They had joined themselves to idols and so God had rejected them.

We’re in the meat of Hosea now, and we saw the charges brought against Israel back in chapter 4 verses 1-3. And at this point in Hosea we are particularly focussed on the third of those charges - back in chapter 4 v 1 - ‘no knowledge of God’.

You can see that’s still the issue we’re talking about in verse 4. The people don’t know the Lord. Now that isn’t a lack of facts about God. It’s not that they’d fail a religious literacy test. Instead, it is that the people don’t live as they should if they were in relationship with God. This is the people not knowing who God is, and living with him in light of it.

And so God has, through the prophet Hosea, taken the people to court.

1) The Israelites are joined to idols (4:15-19)

Let’s see our first point - the Israelites are joined to idols.

In our previous passage, we started to see that Israel were becoming what they worshipped. They were emptying their minds as they emptied bottles of wine. They were barking up the wrong tree as they inquired of pieces of wood. They were sacrificing on the tops of mountains because ‘it felt good’.

And their people were wandering all over the place, lacking knowledge of God. So God said, they will come to ruin. They were becoming like that which they worshipped.

And, as I said, verse 15 carries that on. And as this passage develops, we see that things are worse than they first appeared. Not only are the people becoming what they worship, but they are also so stubborn that they are unable to change. It’s a bit like the smoker who says ‘I can give up anytime I want’. But they go cold turkey, they realise they’re too far gone to stop. In this case, the people are so far gone it can be said that they are joined - they are fused - to their idols.

Through Hosea, God speaks to Israel. But in verse 15 He does so by talking to Judah. You may have been in a situation with a toddler where you are playing hide and seek. “Mummy I cannot see the baby anywhere, can you see her?”. You know full well that the child can hear you - the sniggering gives that away.

In this case God is speaking to Judah about Israel, knowing that Israel is listening in. In some senses this warning is to Judah too - and as we’ll see, they do need it.

But primarily, God is speaking to Israel. We see that in what he says.

Hosea 4:15 ESV

Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”

Those places, Gilgal, Beth-aven, are places that have significance to the people. Those are places of history within Israel. They’re places which the prophet Samuel used to tour around. Gilgal, the place where Joshua first made base when entering the promised land. Beth-aven, even more special than that. It was connected to Abraham, and Jacob, the one whom Israel got its name from, encountered God there. Places of great meaning for the people, but places that had become idolatrous before God.

In fact, Beth-aven is probably a play on the name of Beth-El. Beth meaning house, and el meaning God. In this case, Beth meaning house, and aven meaning deception. A house of deception Don’t go to those places Israel and Judah, they’re not good for you. Stop it!

And whilst you’re at it, don’t swear ‘as the Lord lives’. A phrase of great significance in Israel’s history too. But now, it’s just said with no thought at all. It’s lost all it’s meaning, you can’t just say things and hope everything will be ok.

Why is that? Because the people are stubborn.

Remember our sweet hide and seek playing toddler earlier. That same child is able to muster super-human strength when they have something that they should not have. As you try to prize open their hands to remove it, they seem to be able to grip it more and more.

And like that child, Israel is stubborn. Verses 17-19 give us three pictures of that. Verse 17 says they are ‘joined to idols’. Verse 18, they ‘dearly love’ shame. Not just a like. Not just a love. But they dearly love shame. And verse 19, they are ‘wrapped up’ by their idolatry. Like a present wrapped by a grandparent at Christmas, they cannot get out.

They’re stuck in a stubborn spiral, swirling round and round, going down and down the drain. Leave them alone! says God. The people may be worshipping God in a calf image, but it’s not God who should be pictured as a calf - it is Israel. They are stubborn as cows.

It would be better for them if they were able to be led like a lamb. But because of their stubbornness, they cannot be led anywhere.

The people of Israel are so joined to their idols, so fused to the idolatry they love, that they are to be left alone. Like the man and his watch, these people refuse to change and its affecting everything. Their stubbornness has reached it’s peak.

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 6078 To Move a Cow

The thing about cows is if you push them, they push back. So if you want a cow to move left, you push right and she will push back to the left.

Application

That’s a warning there isn’t it. A warning about rejecting God.

Like these people it’s still possible to grab hold of sin and idols so tightly that we become like a super-strength toddler. As we have things in our lives that we just don’t want to let go of. And, as time goes on, those things, they can start to seem normal. They can be so entrenched that we don’t even notice.

What was once shocking behaviour can eventually become the norm. Just take the promiscuity of the 60’s. At that time it was a cultural shock. But today, the same behaviour goes on, and no-one bats an eyelid.

People’s rejection of God, and His ways can become so entrenched that it becomes commonplace. What starts as clay quickly hardens and cannot be moved. How many people do we know who have rejected Christianity without a second thought?

We need to warn people, like Hosea does here. We need to speak honestly to them about what that path leads to.

And we need to be aware of it in the church too. As the New Testament uses similar ideas to Hosea it warns of this kind of thinking within the church. There’s a reason why a church needs to have good patterns of church discipline. We are not immune. If we’re clasping onto something so tightly, we have probably let go of God.

We need to warn people, and speak honestly to them.

But as this shows, sometimes the best action, if someone is stuck in their ways, is to just leave them alone. Maybe like a sleep-walker, they’ll wake up to the madness they’re in.

2) Therefore, God will withdraw from them (5:1-7)

And that’s what God says he will do. That’s our second point therefore, God will withdraw from them.

God announces in chapter 5 verse 1 that judgement is coming. Judgment is coming to all the levels of Israel because of their actions. We get some more locations, like back in verse 15. This time each place is referred to with hunting language. The actions done in those places have captured, ensnared, spread a net over the people.

And that’s what God says he will do. That’s our second point therefore, God will withdraw from them.

And so God will discipline them. Because they are so stubborn God will teach them the hard way.

Although the people lack knowledge of God, he knows them. Although they are unknowing, they are known.

Verse 3:

Hosea 5:3 ESV

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled.

By using both names for the land, God is poetically saying he knows everything about them. None of their actions are hidden from his sight.

Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. They do not know God - remember the issue in this whole section - so they cannot return to him.

Their pride, verse 5, blocks them. They are too proud to return. This pride will cause the people to stumble, and it will be the same for Judah too.

And because of that, God will withdraw from them.

Hosea 5:6 ESV

With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.

Like a man who has cheated on his wife, trying to win her back with flowers from the garage when the marriage is in tatters.

I don’t know if that’s shocking to you, that God would actually let His people go their own way. We saw some of that in the previous passage.

And we saw that with Hosea and Gomer back in the introduction to this book. That introduction being like the spectacles we wear as we read the rest of the book.

God will be the only God in these people’s lives, and if they won’t have that, well He’ll leave them to it.

I’m told reliably from a friend on a farm that the thing about cows is if you push them, they push back. So if you want a cow to move left, you push right and she will push back to the left. You have to push the other way to get them to go the right way.

The thing about cows is if you push them, they push back. So if you want a cow to move left, you push right and she will push back to the left.

So in leaving His people to it, God is doing the same thing. But that is not unexpected. God promised back in and 32 that that is exactly what he would do.

Tan, P.L., 1996. Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times, Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.

As verse 7 says, the people have dealt faithlessly with the Lord, and so have borne alien children. Just like Gomer had done to Hosea, with children that were not Hosea’s. These children are not God’s but Baal’s. They follow the ways of Baal, not the ways of the Lord. And their children follow suit.

So God will withdraw from them. And with God go his blessings. In we’re told about the feast of New Moon. Hear what it says:

Psalm 81:1–3 CSB

Sing for joy to God our strength; shout in triumph to the God of Jacob. Lift up a song—play the tambourine, the melodious lyre, and the harp. Blow the horn on the day of our feasts during the new moon and during the full moon.

What used to be a joyous occasion, a great feast, the New Moon, will now become a curse on the people. Instead of devouring the food there, the feast will devour them and their fields. Even if the people look religious on the outside, bringing flocks and herds and keeping festivals, it all amounts to nothing.

Application

Rejection cannot be hidden from God.

It’s easy to think that we are able to hide from God isn’t it? Like that child playing hide and seek, the parents know where they really are. The stubbornness of the people is not something that can be covered by a blanket. As this passage shows, God sees all.

Many today would claim to be religious, like the Israelites here. If you were to ask the Israelites, ‘what are you doing?’ they’d probably say ‘we’re seeking God’, as they motion to their flocks and herds to prove it.

Similarly, if you asked people today they might say ‘we’re seeking God, look at our religiousness’. But God knows all that is going on. Much like the man who refused to advance his watch, unless people are willing to change their ways they’re always going to be too late.

The Minor Prophets, Volume 1: (Hosea–Jonah): An Expositional Commentary What God Knows

If the question were put to Israel—“What are you doing?”—they would say, “We are seeking Jehovah.” They probably would point to their flocks and herds dedicated for sacrifice as proof of the sincerity of their intentions. If the question were put to many people today, they would claim the same thing: “We are seeking God. Look how religious we are.” But God says that they are not seeking; and the reason he knows they are not seeking is that they are refusing to abandon the sin that always keeps a person from actually coming to him

This passage longs for a solution. For a solution to the issue of idolatry. For a solution to the lack of knowledge of God.

Persistent sin against God needs to be dealt with

This passage should make us long for a solution. For a solution to the issue of idolatry. For a solution to the lack of knowledge of God.

That’s what Hosea wants the people to do. He says clearly. The idea of stumbling that you see in verse 5, comes up again at the end of the book. Just flick there with me now.

That solution is Jesus. He is the one who is at the Father’s side. He is the one who has made Him known. He is the one that can change a persons heart.

The idea of stumbling comes up again at the end of the book. Just flick there with me now.

Stubbornness was the downfall of Israel. Stubbornness to give up their idolatry.

Hosea 14:9 ESV

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.

Hosea 14:19

Stubbornness is still an issue today. Let’s be aware of that, and give thanks for Jesus who rescues from it.

There is a solution, and that is to seek after the ways of the Lord. Not to stumble in them.

On this side of the cross we see that solution more clearly. And so, this passage should make us all the more grateful for Jesus. Even though our actions don’t allow us to turn to God, His do. Even though we run away from Him, He, like a good shepherd, came and found us.

He’s the one who has made God known. He’s the one that can change a persons heart.

Stubbornness can lead to all sorts of problems. Let’s analyse our own hearts, and weed out any stubbornness there through sound teaching, sober meditation and a willingness to change. Don’t let it make cause us to miss out on knowing God.