Parenting is the toughest job in the world. Nobody has it harder than parents. Amen?
Now this insight didn’t come out of a book somewhere. This is not just some Freudian theory, cooked up in the psychology lab. I learned this truth, that parenting is the toughest job in the world, in another setting. Do you know how I figured out how hard it is to be a parent? Can you guess?
You think I learned about parenting by being a parent? You suppose I got my schooling on the difficulties of parenting by raising two children, right? Wrong. Wrong. I already knew all about it. I already had my graduate degree in parental problems. Why? From what source?
From having parents. From being a son. There is very little that I experienced in raising our two that I had not already pioneered as a little brat on my own. Long before our children were born I knew the key concept in this relationship: rebellion. Rebellion. Kids rebel against their parents. They just do. That’s the way it is. In fact, I’d worry a little about somebody who doesn’t rebel. Rebellion is a part of growing up.
I was talking yesterday with some young parents in our church. They said they had been trying to get their baby to say something close to "Mama" or "Daddy". I was reminded of the fact that my father used to say that my first word was neither Mama nor Daddy. My first word was "No." No, as in I won’t. No, as in I ain’t-a gonna do it. [That’s Kentuckyspeak]. No, as in no, no, no, no, no. Do I know rebellion or what?
It shouldn’t have been such a source of commentary, then, when, as a four-year-old, I knocked on my grandmother’s door and rang her doorbell repeatedly, and, when she let me in, I said, "I don’t want to come in." Rebellion. Just for the sake of rebellion. Resistance and rebellion is part of the human condition. It’s who we are. And we all know about it, don’t we?
Now if parenting is the toughest job in the world, because of rebellion, think how God feels, with millions, billions of rebellious children.
No Biblical writer is more clear or more explicit about this rebellion than the prophet Ezekiel. This priest and prophet, who lived in the waning days of the Kingdom of Judah, six hundred years before Christ, saw it all so clearly. Because of the images he uses, I like to call this passage Ezekiel’s report on the anatomy of rebellion. The anatomy of rebellion. Listen for the images of the human body as I read.
Ezekiel 2:1-3:11
The anatomy of rebellion. Ezekiel uses three parts of the body to interpret what rebellion against God means. He speaks of the forehead; the heart; and the mouth.
I
Ezekiel begins his anatomy of rebellion with the forehead. The hard forehead. We’d call it the numb skull. "The house of Israel are not willing to listen to me; because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead"
Rebellion against God begins with the issue of knowledge. Rebellion against God involves resistance to new truths. A hard forehead, a hard head, is one which won’t entertain new thoughts, won’t approach new information. A hard forehead is one which resists every new idea and rebels against every new insight. Ezekiel begins his analysis of the anatomy of rebellion by noting that God’s people are very often not open to anything new. We have hard foreheads, thick skulls. Our rebellion against God begins with resisting God’s truth.
Have you ever heard anyone say something like this: "I don’t know very much about the Bible, but .... "? I don’t know very much about the Bible, but anyway here’s what I think churches should do. I don’t know any Christian theology, but anyway I don’t agree with this or that? We seem to want to operate out of a base of ignorance rather than out of serious knowledge.
To me, there is nothing quite so inconsistent as an ignorant Christian. I believe that Christians have the obligation to learn all we can learn about God’s world and God’s truth. I no longer have any patience with folks who will say, "I don’t know much about the Bible", but who will then proceed to lecture me about what’s wrong with the way the church does business. I’ve about concluded that that’s just a smokescreen, that to be ignorant and proud of it is just a way of rebelling against God. If we will not hear God’s word, then that means we will not hear God. If we will not explore God’s truth, then that means we will not explore God Himself.
I wonder, do we have a hard forehead about God’s word? Did you know that men and women bled and died to give us this Bible? Do you know how much suffering went in just to giving us the Scriptures in our own English language? In the 13th Century they burned John Wyclif at the stake because he was determined that every plowboy in England should be able to read the Scriptures. But we, with the Bible available with high-speed presses and CD-ROM’s and all the rest … still we can’t get here for Sunday School? We can’t get out for Wednesday evening Bible study? We can’t read serious books or discuss substantial issues? I’m afraid we do have the hard forehead disease!
Our God gave us His word. He gave us minds to think with. He expects us to learn. Hard foreheads, into which no new information ever penetrates, into which no new ideas are ever permitted ... hard foreheads are the beginning stage of rebellion. This is the first stop in the anatomy of rebellion.
II
But after the hard forehead comes the stubborn heart. The stubborn heart. When we refused to learn new truths, the next stop on this anatomy tour is the stubborn heart. The resistant relationship. Ezekiel says, "They are not willing to listen ... for all the house of Israel have a stubborn heart."
There is something about us that makes us resist love when it is offered. Have you noticed that? There is something in us that gets its back up whenever love is offered, and it rebels. It resists.
This defies all logic, I know. You would think that if someone cares for us and loves us, we would respond in kind. But we don’t, not always. Not if we are afflicted with the stubborn heart.
I talked once with a woman whose husband had become critically ill. So ill that it was obvious that he needed help, quick, professional medical help. She told me that the more she implored him to go to the doctor, the more he resisted. As he got worse, the more she urged him to get to the hospital, the more nasty and ungrateful he became. And so, she said, she did what she had to do. She waited until he got so sick he couldn’t stand up, and she literally dragged him out to the car and took him to the emergency room. All the way there he grumbled and complained that he didn’t want to go, didn’t need to go. Ah, but after she got him checked in, he looked up from his bed and in an exhausted voice whispered, "Thank you for doing this."
Isn’t that odd? Isn’t that peculiar? But isn’t that us, too? We resist love. We rebel against love. We need it so much, but our hearts are stubborn. We think we can handle everything on our own. We think we can tough it out, without anybody. Our stubborn hearts resist love. But we are deep down grateful for it.
And our stubborn hearts even rebel against God’s love. That’s the meaning and the power of the cross. How can we look at the cross and not respond? How can we resist, how neglect so great a salvation? How can we possibly fail to notice that God loved us so much, so deeply and so thoroughly, that He gave His only Son so that we might not perish, but have everlasting life? How can we miss it? But despite all of this, we resist. We rebel. We turn our backs. Why? Because we think we can take care of ourselves. Because we want to be in charge of ourselves. Because we have stubborn hearts.
And yet, like the man at the emergency room, in the end we know that it was for us He suffered and bled and died, and in our hearts we want to say "thank you for doing this". In the end we know that we cannot forever rebel against so great a love.
For revival to come for God’s people, we must be cured of not only the hard forehead, but also we must find our way out of the stubborn heart.
III
Ezekiel then finishes his description the anatomy of rebellion with the mouth. The closed mouth. The silent mouth. Ezekiel understands that once we finally get knowledge through our hard foreheads, and once we finally break down our stubborn hearts to receive the love of God, then, we must speak with our mouths. Then we must bear witness to what God has done.
"I am sending you to say, ’Thus says the Lord God.’ Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them. And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words ... You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear.’"
The anatomy of rebellion comes to its climax with our mouths, for from beginning to end, the Scriptures make it clear that believers are to witness to others about their faith. The most basic task we have is to show and tell what God has done. But here is where our rebellion goes its deepest. Here is where so many of us have so much to confess.
For though we think we have passed the hard forehead stage, and we are learning God’s truth, we rebel when it comes to sharing that truth. Something kicks in and tells us it would be gauche and intrusive and unfriendly to tell others. And so we rebel. Our mouths are closed and we do not speak.
And though we believe we have passed the stubborn heart stage, and we are accepting the love of God, we rebel when it comes to sharing that love. We have bought the world’s live-and-let-live perspective. We have tuned in to the notion that everybody is more or less okay and doesn’t really need salvation. God is so nice, isn’t he; he wouldn’t really let somebody die and go to punishment, would he? But that is rebellion. That is rebellion. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life. And we’ve got to show them and tell them. Whether they hear or refuse to hear is not the issue. The issue is that we must show and tell. Otherwise we are still in rebellion. Otherwise we are still resisting.
The anatomy of rebellion: hard foreheads, stubborn hearts, closed mouths.
In the next few weeks there will be unprecedented opportunities for our mouths to be open so that we may speak and show and tell. As we move toward our revival services, we’ll help you do what Ezekiel did. We’ll help you release your fears and open your mouth and speak. We’ll give you ample opportunity. I ask you, do not rebel with a closed mouth. Do not resist God’s command, "Go to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ’Thus says the Lord God’, whether they hear or refuse to hear." I beg you, do not be disobedient. Show them and tell them what God can do.
But begin at the beginning. Begin with your own understanding and your own relationship to God. Begin with your own rebellion and resistance. Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and your savior? Have you accepted His love?
For, ultimately, it is no secret what God can do. What He’s done for others He’ll do for you. With arms wide open, He’ll pardon you. It is no secret what God can do.
Do not delay. Resist no longer. Rebel no more. Soften the hard forehead. Release the stubborn heart. Open the closed mouth. But most of all, I implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
