Being hardheaded

 

But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, or they are not willing to listen to Me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.  Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.  Like emery harder than flint I have made your forehead.  Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.  --Ezekiel 3:7-9

 Author and business leadership guru Peter Drucker once wrote, "Over the years I have made a career out of studying the most challenging management roles out there.  After all of that I am now convinced the two most difficult jobs in the world are these—one, to be President of the United States, and two, to be the leader of a church."

It's easy to compare the two. The US President makes half the nation mad at him with every decision he makes, gets many of his quotes taken out of context, and just about everyone thinks they could do a better job.  A Pastor or church leader is criticized and misquoted and belittled in much the same way.  The President is elected by the people, overseen by Congress, limited by the Courts and bound by the Constitution.  A Pastor is called by God, managed by a Board of Elders or Deacons, hemmed in by a limited budget, and bound by the Bible.

When God called Ezekiel to take His message to the nation of Israel in Ezekiel 3, he warned that the people were going to be hard-headed.  God told Ezekiel to stand his ground, to be even harder-headed in defense of the Word of God.  "Behold," He says to Ezekiel in verse 8, "I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads."  The point is emphasized again in verse 9.  "Like emery harder than flint I have made your forehead."

The word translated "emery" in the English Standard Version is difficult to convey in English.  You all know that an emery board is a kind of nail file.  Emery is made with a mixture of corundum and magnetite, used for polishing, smoothing, or grinding.  This translation conveys the purpose, but not the true meaning.  The New King James Version translates this word with an archaic term, "adamant stone."  This term refers to a legendary rock or mineral to which many, often contradictory, properties were attributed, formerly associated with diamond or lodestone.  We now know that diamond is the hardest naturally occurring mineral on earth.  In essence, God is telling Ezekiel that the people have hard heads, but I'm making yours harder, so that you can withstand their falsehoods and wear them down with God's truth.

This is what a Pastor is called to do: preach the Gospel, and stand for Truth.  It may not be popular in this day and age to take a Biblical stand against abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, and a host of other sins, but a true minister of the Gospel will hold up Biblical standards.  To do so will undoubtedly hold him up to ridicule, which is why Spurgeon said a Pastor must have thick skin.

Many Pastors try to grow the congregation by pandering to people or watering down the Gospel message. They measure success by the size of their congregation rather than the adherence to the word of God.  Megachurch pastors who preach about "living your best life now" are described in Ezekiel 13:10-14

Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, "Peace" when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall!  There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out.  And when the wall falls, will it not be said to you, "Where is the coating with which you smeared it?"  Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will make a stormy wind break out in my wrath, and there shall be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end.  And I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare.  When it falls, you shall perish in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

If you try to sugarcoat the Bible, it is like putting whitewash on a condemned building.  It may look good on the outside, but inside it is rotten; when it tumbles, what good will the whitewash be?  A good coat of paint will not hold up a collapsing building.  If God calls your Pastor to tell you the building is collapsing, wouldn't you rather have a leader who will tear down the rotten substructure and help you rebuild it from the ground up?  Yet the world loves to hear a message that tickles the ears.  They prefer to be fed pabulum rather than the hard truth. 

Lest we forget the heart of God, we must remember that God is gracious.  His purpose is to rid us of sin, not to obliterate us completely.  There is always a remnant, a small group of faithful men and women who are chosen by God to take His message to the next generation.  Ezekiel 11:17-20 speaks to this.  He gave this message to Ezekiel, the one He called to Pastor His people:

Therefore say, "Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the  peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel."  And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.  And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them.  I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them.  And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

We are heard headed and hardhearted, obstinate and impudent.  God may have to call a harder man to wear us down, to break the chains that weigh on us, but His purpose is redemptive.  He wants to replace a heart of stone with a heart of flesh.  He wants to take away our hardhearted nature and replace it with a tenderheartedness so He can have fellowship with us.

Support your local Pastor.  If he is doing what God has called him to do, he will get enough push-back from outside the church; he doesn't need to get grief from within the church too.

Doing the work of the Holy Spirit

 

Can two walk together without agreeing where to go?  --Amos 3:3 (Berean Standard Bible)

Last month my sister was watching her two grandsons, while visiting with the boys' other grandmother.  The conversation drifted to preparations for the upcoming Thanksgiving celebrations.  "What are you having for Thanksgiving?" the woman asked innocently.  

"Well," my sister sighed.  "This past year my brother and his wife moved to Wisconsin.  My niece and nephew moved to Colorado.  Both of my children got divorced.  I'm not sure that Thanksgiving dinner will be anything like I wanted it to be."

The other woman smiled meekly.  "I meant what will you be serving?"

The past year may have been a trial for you, as well.  Maybe you lost a loved one, or lost a job, or had problems with health or finances or had any number of other issues.  in John 16:33, Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world."

This morning I attended a men's prayer breakfast, and the young pastor read 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.  For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ out comfort overflows. (Berean Standard Bible).  

 There are two themes in these three verses: suffering, and comfort.  We all know about suffering.  The Greek words used for "troubles" and "sufferings" can mean tribulation, affliction, trouble, anguish, persecution, and burdens.  In short, sin's curse leaves us in a world of hurt.

Praise be to God, those of us who know Him also know His comfort.  The Greek word translated "comfort" comes from the root word parakaleō, "to comfort", or the noun form paraklēsis, meaning consolation, exhortation, or comfort.  It brings with it the idea of coming alongside.  

In fact, the same root word is used for the Holy Spirit.  Jesus called Him "the Comforter" or paraklētos. The idea of a "paraclete" is one that comes alongside to be a helper.  It also carries with it the idea of an advocate, pleading our case before a judge or higher authority.

Read our text again.  "Blessed be God...the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort."  When we have trouble, when we need comfort, our souls reach out to God, who is our source of consolation.  Jesus said to His disciples, "My yoke is easy."  Animals in a double yoke are forced to walk the same directions, so they can pull the load together.  If we are yoked together with Christ, He will help us bear the burden, provided we do not try to go our own way.

If we submit our wills to Him and walk with Him daily, He will bear our burdens.  Similarly, we are called to walk alongside others, to encourage them and give them hope and comfort.  This does not mean we should be led astray by them--rather, we should show them the Way.  We can do the work of the Holy Spirit best when we help bear one another's burdens, submitting to the will of God and agreeing to walk in His ways.

We can also do the work of the Holy Spirit if we pray for one another.  Romans 8:26 says, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."  As we intercede for other people, we are helping them in their weakness by advocating to the Father on their behalf.

Paul's advice to a young pastor in 1 Timothy 2:1 includes praying for others.  "First of all, then," he says, "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people."  Isn't that what the Holy Spirit does for us?  We can be a comfort to other people in their suffering by praying for them.  There is no better way to exhort one another than to truthfully tell someone that you are praying for them.

James 5:16 says, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail."  That power comes from the Holy Spirit as we do His work with Him.  We cannot prevail over sin, suffering or strife without His help, and the help of other people.  Lift up one another, therefore, so that in so doing we can walk in the way of God the Father, in the grace of Jesus the Son, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.