Amos 4:13 “For behold, He who forms mountains, And creates the wind, Who declares to man what His thoughts, and makes the morning darkness, Who treads the high places of the earth— The LORD God of hosts is His name.”
The older I get the more I realize the traits that come with aging. From body aches to loss of vision and hearing, it’s not for the faint of heart. One attribute that is often common is stubbornness. I suppose with age comes an understanding that change isn’t as necessary as it once was when we were young.
Stubbornness can be portrayed as a personality trait in which a person refuses to change their opinion about something or refuses to change their mind about a decision they’ve made. Stubborn people have a resolute adherence to their own ideas and opinions. … A stubborn person has the “No I won’t, and you can’t make me” attitude.
What is it that makes someone so insistent about their position?
Psychologists will teach that most people’s behaviors are either reward-seeking or pain-avoiding. As children, stubbornness is a means to get what you want. If they get what they want by being stubborn, they will continue the response for each situation as conflicts of interest occur.
When a child grows older, stubbornness may be a defense mechanism if they think their freedoms are being taken away. The foolishness of a child leads them into trouble, and even though parents may see trouble coming and institute measures to protect the child, the child only sees the action as restrictive and demanding.
A child-like response is typical for adults who haven’t learned how to deal with restrictions as kids.
When we have a false understanding of God, we falsely draw conclusions from the Bible. If we think of God as only authoritative and demanding, or unloving and harsh, we attribute poor human traits toward God who doesn’t act with selfish ambition or vain conceit. The Lord does not punish unjustly and in everything He does, He acts in love.
To those who think God is just another bad father or parental image, the response toward God may be like a child that attempts to protect themself from further harm.
The prophet Amos was addressing stubborn people when he related the word of God. With each subsequent judgement the people continued to harden their hearts and set their minds against God’s rebuke.
Amos 4:11 “Some of you I overthrew as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you did not return to Me,”
Stubbornness of Identity
Stubborn people are rigidly attached to their beliefs, opinions, ideas, and tastes. They can’t stand anyone disagreeing with them since disagreeing with them is interpreted as disagreeing with who they are. If God declares them to be rebellious or apart from His will, these insights are not well received. They become stubborn to the point they don’t even consider the opinion of others because they feel threatened by people who disagree with them, even when it is God who is disagreeing.
Amos 4:6 “I brought hunger to every city and famine to every town. But still you would not return to me,” says the LORD.”
That kind of stubbornness can hamper the growth of a person and badly affect their relationship with God and others. Some go a step further by totally avoiding people who don’t agree with them, closing themselves off to Truth just so they can live in the world of their own ideas and opinions.
Amos 4:7-8 “I also withheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
so two or three cities would wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
No matter how difficult the Lord made it, they still refused to turn and repent. Some people will go to their ruin just because they don’t want to admit they were wrong.
Feelings of Hostility
Others act stubbornly just to be annoying. Someone may have caused them pain in the past and now they’re getting back in a passive-aggressive way. In many cases people will perceive that God is to blame for their troubles so they feel justified for maintaining such an adamant position. Stubbornness allows them to release their hidden feelings of hatred and hostility towards others or toward God.
Moses also had to work with a stubborn people.
Numbers 14:11 “And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?”
God would entreat Moses with a question that He already had the answer for, questions that were rhetorical in nature. God was often revealing His heart to Moses, a heart that was concerned for a people that couldn’t see the love of God, nor could they know what goodness He was offering them so they would just trust Him.
Closed-Mindedness
Inflexibility is a defense mechanism for someone who feels vulnerable. Peoples identity will often exist in their need to be correct, since being proven incorrect can lead them to a sense of disgrace.
People have needs that they feel are not being met.
- A need to be understood?
- A need to be recognized as valuable?
- A need to be cherished and loved?
All of these topics God addresses.
2 Chronicles 36:15 “Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place.”
The patience of the Lord is a tribute to His mercy and grace. He recognizes not only our weaknesses, but He also sees value in restoring our walk with Him. In the early days of Israel, it was God’s temple that brought value among the people. The presence of the Lord descended into the Temple when the priests would offer up sacrifices for the people. The value of God’s people as a testimony to the world is why He brings them into His presence and makes them holy.
A Stubborn Reminder
Jeremiah 9:14 “Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”
A critical element of a stubborn people that psychology often overlooks is the way it affects their relationship with God.
The desire for God can be overshadowed by a stiff-necked people who don’t like the attributes of God. They attempt to formulate a god in their own minds who allows them to remove anything that brings judgement upon their heads. The myriad of false religions takes God’s holiness and reduces it down to man’s interests. The more man tries to prove myself worthy, the more he attempts to fruitlessly take responsibility for his own salvation and leave God’s standard to Himself. If someone doesn’t like being held to God’s laws as a measure of sin, they simply subscribe to an alternative religion that leaves out or relabels them into a form that is acceptable to them.
There comes a point when God has to remind people where their place is.
Job 38:4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.”
It is a mindset of self-adulation that idolizes a person’s own agenda and reveals their idolatry before a just and holy God—humanism is the path of those people.
Isaiah 40:12 “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills with a balance?
Can mankind even come close to the splendor of God’s reach?
God knows the thoughts of man while He treads upon the mountains, and as He measures the Universe with the span of His hand He must find it amusing as man tries to see further into space with such limitations.
Jeremiah 10:13 “When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.”
The Lord God is His name.
We must guard our hearts, stop being so close minded in our positions and accept God for who He is and how He has made us—by doing so He will lift us up upon the mountains where He treads.
Psalm 147:2-6 “The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds.
He counts the number of the stars;
He calls them all by name.
Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;
His understanding is infinite.
The Lord lifts up the humble;
He casts the wicked down to the ground.”
Humility is what God is looking for—for those who accept Him for who He is and not for what they want Him to be. To continue in sin is to remain stubborn to God’s holiness, eventually all rebellion will be cast down into the ground, never to return. The hard-hearted will descend into Hell that will serve as an ever present reminder that mankind’s position is dependent upon his Creator.
The outcome of life hangs in a balance, the path of righteousness or unrighteousness remains, as long as people still have breath in their lungs they have a choice.
Jesus Christ is the only One worth following, He loves the lowly and takes pleasure in lifting them up with Him. They too will tread on God’s holy mountain because they trusted in the Savior who redeems them.
U.T. 