You’ve seen it haven’t you? Perhaps it was on TV you watched those pictures of antlered male animals vying for supremacy. Time after time their horns/antlers/heads pound against each other with reverberating sounds. Such battles seemingly go on for hours. Are you aware that there is a spiritual application of this?
It is found in the writings of Ezekiel. By the time he arrived on the scene, the history of Israel could be summed up in one word—rebellion. There were those few times when a godly king brought God’s chosen people to Him, but those times were isolated incidents. They had no desire to listen to God’s messengers. In two powerful sentences Zechariah summed it up: “But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets” (Zech. 7:11-12). With hearts like flint they had rejoiced in persecuting and even killing God’s messengers. How fitting are the words of Jesus’ recorded in Luke 13:33 (as translated by Barclay), as He described their attitude toward God’s messengers: “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Killer of the prophets! Stoner of those who were sent to you!”
When God called Ezekiel, He knew that the nation was hard-hearted and hard-headed. In His call the Lord told His messenger, “The house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted” (Eze. 3:7). The very next verse graphically described how God expects His people to respond in this situation. “Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads.” The imagery is not of antlered animals confronting each other, but of hard-headed saints butting heads with hard-headed sinners. God’s message must be delivered even when we know ahead of time that it will not be received.
Our “politically correct” world seeks to avoid conflict over overt rebellion against God in the practice of abortion, homosexuality and other sinful practices. To oppose such is to be labeled as uncaring, bigoted and phobic. The hard-headed world seeks to silence us for it has no desire to hear from us.
So what do we do in such situations? Just remember that God makes our heads harder than theirs!