Tuesday, April 2, 2019
“For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?” (Deuteronomy 31:27 KJV).
A Christian lady was expressing her frustration over her unsaved family members being “stubborn” as concerning believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Or, in Bible terms, they are “stiffnecked.”
Israel could never (!) brag about how JEHOVAH God brought her into the Promised Land because of her “goodness.” Rather, it was because of the evil of the Gentiles living in the Promised Land that God was bringing in Israel. Israel was wholly unworthy. Listen to the Holy Spirit as He speaks to them through Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 9:
“[4] Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. [5] Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. [6] Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people…. [13] Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:….”
Lest Israel forget the countless grievous sins she had committed against the LORD God, Moses spends verses 7-29 reviewing her 40-year history (all the way back to her deliverance from Egypt). This new generation of Jews present in Deuteronomy must learn the lessons their ancestors did not. Yet, they too will be negligent, as 2 Chronicles 30:8 remarks centuries later, “Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.”
Now, we reveal the cause of that stiff neck….
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