{"id":373,"date":"2026-05-24T21:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T21:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2026-05-24T21:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T21:37:17","slug":"delicious-grapes-and-stubborn-calves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/delicious-grapes-and-stubborn-calves\/","title":{"rendered":"Delicious Grapes and Stubborn Calves"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As Hosea\u2019s unfaithful wife broke his heart, so unfaithful Israel broke God\u2019s heart. Lukewarm Christians break His heart today. Amid rebukes and prophecies of doom, God made it crystal-clear to His people how deeply He loved them and longed for their return to Him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI found Israel like grapes in the wilderness . . . as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its season\u201d<\/em> (Hosea 9:10). Picture yourself in the hot, dry, dusty desert. You are parched, thirsty, hungry, and just plain miserable. Suddenly you see them! Clusters of ripe grapes hang from the vine, and sweet, tender figs adorn the branches of a young tree. Delicious! That\u2019s how God felt when He rescued Israel from Egyptian slavery and made a covenant with them at Mt. Sinai. What a delight Israel was to Him!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sad to say, they began disappointing Him almost immediately. Even during the wilderness wandering they frequently resorted to idolatry and fornication. By Hosea\u2019s time (about seven centuries later), Israel had become so corrupt that God was about to send them into captivity in Assyria. Hosea used another simile to describe the wayward nation. \u201cFor Israel is stubborn like a stubborn calf\u201d (<\/em>4:16). Stubborn calves plant their hooves in the ground and will not be led! (Do I hear any 4H or FFA folks who identify with this?) Or yoke a stubborn calf to a cart; he may just refuse to pull!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Israel stubbornly refused to be led by God\u2019s law. They rejected the yoke of service God placed upon them. When the Lord sent His prophets to call them to repentance, Israel refused to heed them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you know people who balk at the leading of God\u2019s word? Before we point too many fingers, let\u2019s look in the mirror. Beloved, let us not be like the stubborn calf!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Next week we\u2019ll look at some more similes Hosea used to describe Israel. They, too, will apply to us in the church<\/span><\/p>\n

–Joe Slater<\/span><\/p>\n

\r \t
\r \t\t\r \t\t\"\"<\/a>\r \t\t  <\/span>\r \t\tSend article as PDF<\/span>\r \t\t  <\/span>\r \t\t\r \t\t\r \t<\/form>\r <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As Hosea\u2019s unfaithful wife broke his heart, so unfaithful Israel broke God\u2019s heart. Lukewarm Christians break His heart today. Amid rebukes and prophecies of doom, God made it crystal-clear to His people how deeply He loved them and longed for their return to Him….<\/p>\n

Continue Reading… Delicious Grapes and Stubborn Calves<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}