On Being Stiff-necked

Thinking about Ex 33.3 this morning where God tells his own people that they are a stiff-necked people. Ouch! That must have hurt. Events prove that God read his people exactly correctly. Despite having seen the ten plagues decimate Egypt; despite witnessing the great deliverance at the Red Sea; despite seeing the daily miracle of manna; and God bring water from a rock, the people fail as a generation. They do not go up and take the land that God commands them to do. They are stiff-necked.

It is easy to see events from 3000 years and throw stones at the generation of the Exodus, but despite having all of the promises of the Scriptures, and seeing God's work completed in Christ's resurrection, and having the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as an ever present reality, we are often stiff-necked as well, when the Holy Spirit commands us to do what we do not want to do. Rather than condemn the generation of the Exodus, we should probably evaluate our own lives in light of this verse. Am I stiff-necked?