It Just Doesn’t Pay To Be Stubborn

You may have heard the story about the ship’s captain of the ship who saw faint lights in the distance one dark night. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south." Promptly a return message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north." The captain was angered; his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am the captain!" Soon another message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a seaman third class Jones." Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am a battleship." Then the reply came: "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a lighthouse." Stubbornness can be costly.

If ever there were a people who learned the high price of stubbornness it was the generation of Israelites whom God delivered out of Egyptian slavery. God sent His servant Moses to lead them out of Egypt. He sent plagues upon Egypt until Pharaoh finally permitted the Israelites to leave. God parted the Red Sea in order for the former slaves to escape the approaching Egyptian army. He miraculously provided food and water for the whole nation while it traveled to the promised land. But when Israel came to the edge of Canaan, they stubbornly would not believe that the same God who had done such wonders could secure His promised land for them. God later said of that generation, "Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, 'It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.' So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest’" (Psalms 95:8-11 NKJV). Their stubbornness kept a generation from entering God’s promised land.

This same attitude will keep those of our generation from entering heaven. When individuals stubbornly refuse to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, should they expect any different treatment than those of Israel. Paul told the Thessalonians that one day Jesus would come again and take vengeance on them that do not know God and refuse to obey His gospel (2 Thessalonians 1:7,8). As the captain had to alter his course to save his ship, we must alter our life to save our souls. He needed to turn from the light of the lighthouse, we need to turn toward the light of the world – Jesus Christ. The wise man said, "Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD, They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies" (Proverbs 1:24-31 NKJV).