Why Stumble?

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Let whoever is wise understand these things, and whoever is insightful recognize them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.

Hosea 14:9

I joked with someone this morning that the older I get, the clumsier I become. This brief conversation followed the fact that I scraped my arm on the garage door this morning as I was preparing to leave for the gym. Upon arriving at the gym, I felt the need to explain the big red gash across my upper arm. Drawing from my extensive clumsy life experience, I can tell you that I prefer to walk rather than to stumble. I prefer to walk rather than to fall. Life is a journey filled with many steps. The book of Hosea provides a commentary on two ways to travel. One is right and one is wrong. After a reading through graphic descriptions of Israel’s unfaithfulness, the last verse of Hosea reads like a sharp summary statement. There is the path that God has designed. The wise understand that the ways of the Lord are right and those who are insightful and righteous walk in them. On the other hand, there are those who stumble. Why do they stumble? Are they clumsy? No. The diagnosis of those who stumble is fairly straightforward. The problem is rebellion. It’s so easy to dress up rebelliousness and justify our choices. But, rebelliousness doesn’t exist without a rebel. Hosea 14 begins with both the diagnosis and the cure: “Israel, return to Yahweh your God, for you have stumbled in your sin (verse 1).