Stubbornness is sin’s quicksand …

For years, I purposely left off the suffix of “Jr.” as part of my name, but I learned to make sure to add it every time my name is written.

You see, the “Jr.” means I’m named after my dad, who was James W. Scott, Sr. I’m James W. Scott, Jr. The problem was that my dad was not a decent human being. I did not want anyone mistaking me for him or thinking I was like him because I carried his name. I’m not, and that’s when I learned to make sure I always have the “Jr.” in order to distinguish myself as being very different from my father.

There are some people we would not want to be like!

As a young Christian, I used to think that way about the nation of Israel as I would read about their stubborn cycles of sin in the Old Testament. It amazed me how the people could experience God’s deliverance and wondrous care, then blatantly sin against him, eventually repent, only to return to their sin and continue this crazy cycle of obedience-disobedience-repentance-obedience. When reading about this stubborn or “stiff-necked” behavior, it seemed incredulous that anyone would be so stubborn about their sin!

Aren’t most of us?

While I still find somewhat remarkable Israel’s cycles of sin, don’t we see much the same thing in people today? Rod Crowell tells a story of a stubborn farmer who is a lot like many of us …

Like most older post-surgery patients, the kind-hearted farmer was warned that he had to do his breathing exercises and tests to avoid pneumonia. He took the nurse’s advice nicely, thanked her for it — and then proceeded to ignore it.

After all, he had been farming all his life and done it HIS way. No one told him what to do and even if they tried, he was always the final authority. That was the state of mind behind his warm, friendly exterior. He came through the surgery all right, did’t he? So why was some silly huffing and puffing needed now?

But even as his lungs began to fill up with fluid, he remained unconcerned. His family begged him to reconsider. But he refused, and as the nurse curtly said, “it led to his demise.”

Crowell concluded his story with this: “We tend to associate stubbornness with all the outward expressions which usually accompany it: an angry, defiant attitude; boastful or profane speaking; gang tattoos, etc. But the fact is, what the Bible calls rebellion, or being “stiff necked,” is a state of the heart which can wear a thousand disguises, even friendly and kind ones.”

In other words, when it comes to sin, we can be as stubborn as those ancient Israelites, or as stiff-necked as the farmer was about breathing. And that stubbornness is sin’s quicksand, sucking us into ruin. It’s something Moses observed in the people he led …

“For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Even now, while I am still alive and am here with you, you have rebelled against the Lord. How much more rebellious will you be after my death!” Deuteronomy 31:27.

The problem is, while many boast of their stubbornness, untold numbers have been destroyed because of it. We read of God’s judgment striking down multitudes of rebellious Israelites, and the farmer died just because he refused to be a compliant patient.

Stubbornness is sin’s quicksand, and the Apostle Paul used the example of those ancient Israelites to warn us to not be like them. He provides a context with this …

“I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness,” 1 Corinthians 10:1-5.

Now look closely as to what Paul says to us …

“These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, ‘The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.’ And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age,” 1 Corinthians 10:6-11.

Paul is telling us not to be like the people of ancient Israel! To be different, we can’t add a “Jr.” to our name, but we can and must repent of our stubbornness toward our sin.

After that warning, Paul encourages us with the news that God is willing to help us break our pattern of stubbornness to sin with a capacity to overcome the temptations we face in life …

“If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure,” 1 Corinthians 10:12-13.

Has your stubbornness over sin left you neck deep in a quagmire of ruin? Call out to God, repent of your sins, and surrender your whole heart to God so that old patterns of stubbornness can be broken, and fullness of life in Christ can be realized.

Scotty