Stiffnecked
Have you ever tried to force a goat’s head to the ground? As a young boy, my family and I visited my aunt’s home in Georgia. Nearby, she had friends who had goats. My dad presented me with a challenge and a large reward if I could successfully do it. The challenge was to grab a goat by the horns and force his head to the ground without pulling the goat’s feet off the ground. Later, I learned why forcing a mature goat's head to the ground is extremely difficult. A goat has heavily muscled necks built to absorb the impact of high-speed headbutts and to push against rivals. If they have horns, this gives them immediate leverage to twist or shove and throw you off balance. I also learned that this was a potentially unsafe exercise. This could have resulted in injury. I can personally attest that a goat is stiffnecked. Incidentally, I did not receive that much desired reward.
But being stiffnecked isn’t restricted to goats or other animals. It is something that can affect a human as well. However, it is not a person’s neck muscles that are being referred to when this term is applied. In Exo 32:9 while Moses was on the mountain with God, receiving the tables of the Ten Commandments, Israel had turned aside out of the way which God had Commanded. They made a molten calf, worshipped it and sacrificed to it and claimed it to be the gods that brought them out of Egypt. To this, God said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:”
Later, because God had promised Canaan to the descendants of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob, He sent an angel before them to drive out the “Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite”. In Exo 33:3, God called this a “land flowing with milk and honey” but said He wouldn’t go up in the midst of them because “thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.” Again we see in 2Chron 30:8, Hezekiah sent posts throughout all Israel and Judah and warned them, “Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD.” They were also told to “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.” Sadly, all Israel and most of Judah continued in their stubbornness and failure to serve God as He had directed in His Holy Word of the Old Testament.
This hard hearted attitude was widespread among Israel even in the days of king David. In Psa 75:4-5, the sweet psalmist of Israel was given a warning to write to God’s people. It is “I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: 5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.” In the verses that follow they were told that promotion came not from earth nor from man, “But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” (verse 7). Much later, God sent the prophet Jeremiah in the final years of the kingdom of Judah before Babylonian captivity. God had much to say to Israel through this prophet. One that is often recalled is found in Jer 6:16 - Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Then, in Jer 17:23, we see that they did as they wanted, not what God wanted. But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
Sadly, this also continued into and beyond the time of Christ. The Jews did not believe Jesus was the promised Messiah. But their obstinance did not prevent the church from coming into existence as Christ had proclaimed it would when He died to purchase it. But once the kingdom (the church) was established, many of the Jews remained convinced that they were the “chosen of God” and still rejected Christ and His doctrine. (The so-called Jews of today make the same false claim). This was the situation in Acts 7:51 as Stephen, having been accused of blasphemy, was given the opportunity to defend himself. The Spirit gave Stephen the Words needed to give a comprehensive history of Israel. This culminated with verse 51 - Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. These stiffnecked Jews took this valiant New Testament servant of God and stoned him to death, proving they had no intention of changing or repenting. After this, the Word stiffnecked is not found in the New Testament.
However, this doesn’t mean that this affliction ended with the generation of the Jews that lived when the church was established. In Acts 19, when the apostle Paul was in Ephesus, he had properly taught some that only knew John’s baptism (a baptism of repentance) and baptized them into Christ. Then he taught the “things concerning the kingdom of God” in the synagogue in Ephesus for three months. Then, in verse 9 we are told “divers (various folks) were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude.” This is when Paul left and taught daily in Tyrannus’ school.
Later, as the Spirit had Paul write the epistle to the church in Rome, in Rom 2:5-8 he warned them against being hard hearted and failing to follow God’s Word. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: 8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,”.
I encourage all faithful brethren today, to do as the Spirit had the writer of the epistle to the Jews that had obeyed the gospel do in Heb 3:13 - But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Don’t allow yourself to be or remain stiff necked. Study God’s Word to learn what to do to be saved. Don’t follow pre-conceived notions based on what your parent’s believed, or what you’ve always been taught. If you have obeyed the gospel, but have become hard hearted for any reason, repent and seek forgiveness in prayer before it’s too late. Being stiff necked and hard hearted will cost you your soul for eternity.
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
