Learning From Songs Biting Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face
This saying may not be familiar to you, but it certainly is to me. My grandmother used to tell me this when I was little and would be pouting over not getting my way or by overreacting to some disappointment. I remember one such instance where my father had said he was going to take my older brother and I to a San Antonio Spurs basketball game. He stopped next to my stepmother on the street and told her he wanted to take us boys to the game, but she refused saying it would get out too late for a school night. After a little bit of an argument between the two of them, her point of view prevailed and we were headed home to go to bed. On the way home, my brother and I put mad looks on our faces and were complaining to ourselves when the brakes screeched and my stepmother came out of her seat and reached back to backhand my brother and I. Not only had we not gotten our way to go to the game, but we got slapped on top of it.
In Jeremiah 7:19, Jeremiah quotes God saying to Judah, “Do they spite Me? Is it not themselves they spite, to their own shame?” Like my brother and I, the people of Judah were not getting their way, so they were following other gods and complaining against God. They were pouting over not getting their way, so they decided to show God who the boss really is. They thought by worshiping other gods, they would cover their bases and also cause God to want to act on their behalf as a means of wooing them back to Himself. They had done it so often, they probably did not even think about it, but just did so almost automatically.
God reacted to the efforts of the people with the prophecy in Jeremiah. This prophecy basically said, “You have messed up so much that, no matter what you do, judgment is coming and you are going to be destroyed. You can surrender, and go into exile outside of the land I gave you, or you can die.” Guess they showed Him!
I have known a lot of people that do this same thing. They want something so bad, that they base whether or not they will worship God or serve Him on whether or not they get what they want. I have talked with many people that say they no longer attend church because they prayed about something and God did not come through, so they are done. They are out. They still call themselves Christians and they still want to be able to say they are going to Heaven, but they are getting even with God by not attending His church. They are getting even with Him by returning to sins like alcohol, drugs, sex, or other forms of dangerous living. They are cutting off their noses to spite their face.
If you are in that place today, think about what you are doing. You are attempting to change God’s plans because of what you think you want or need. If God were to change, what would He change from? Would you want something less than His perfect plan? Do you think you know better? Stop trying to manipulate Him and return to Him. You just might learn that He has been at work all along. He might not be working to give you what you want, but He just might be working to help you want what you really need. Return to Him. Return to church. Go back to prayer. If you don’t you just might find that you are basing your relationship with Him on something other than His Lordship in your life and that will leave you sadly short of Heaven.Come back! If not to the church you left, go to one that is ministering in the way God has gifted you to serve. Don’t try to spite God because you are really only spiting yourself.