Stiff-necked - Lent #14

Have you ever woken up in the morning with a sore neck? It feels stiff and even just moving it a little bit is painful - you try to move it from side to side, but it doesn't seem to help. Can you relate to this in anyway?

Well, God refers to the Israelites as a 'stiff-necked' people in a few places in the Bible. Take Exodus 32:9 as an example - “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people." I believe that God refers to them as 'stiff-necked' because they are unwilling to turn from their sins - they are stubborn and selfish. It is almost as if the Israelites have woken up and their necks are "frozen" in one place - and they are now looking in the wrong direction. They seem unwilling to change their mindset and to look to God.

We can also be stiff-necked at times. We can also be stubborn and self-centred. We too can keep looking in the wrong direction. We too can look to our own devices and not to God.

Proverbs 16:18-20
18 Pride goes before destruction,
    a haughty spirit before a fall.

¹⁹ Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed
    than to share plunder with the proud.

²⁰ Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,
    and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.

So the next time you wake up in the morning with a stiff neck ask yourself, "Am I a stubborn person? Am I willing to trust in God's ways and to fit in with his plans?"

Living in Grace

D3LM3