¹³ “You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. ¹⁴ You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. ¹⁵ In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them.  ¹⁶ “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. ¹⁷ They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery.  But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, ¹⁸ even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies. (Nehemiah 9:13 – 18, New International Version)

Theme:  Discipleship

Context:

Thank you for your comments yesterday that highlighted the incompatibility of idolatry with being a disciple of Jesus.  In the discipleship journey of the Children of Israel, there is another trait that they exhibited that is incompatible with discipleship.  In several places in the Bible, God expresses his displeasure with the Children of Israel being “stiff-necked.”    

The activity that some scholars associate with the word “stiff-necked” is the plowing of a field.  Visualize, if you will, two oxen pulling a plow.  A plowman follows the oxen and uses an iron spike at the end of a pole to prick the oxen in the neck to keep them on course.  Now visualize an ox that continues to go off course even after being pricked by the iron spike.  That rebellious ox would be considered stiff-necked.  How compliant are we to the guidance provided by Jesus?  Where do we get our direction, and how do we rely on God to correct our rebellious nature?  The Bible tells us when we are going off the course God has prescribed, and prayer is our means of communicating with a God who cares, corrects, and strengthens us.

Bible Passage:

In our Scripture passage, Nehemiah provides a summary of a subset of the discipleship journey of the Children of Israel.  Please prayerfully read the passage and consider the question below.          

Question:

Admitting that we sometimes rebel against God is not always easy.  If you had to pick a primary motivating force for being a stiff-necked disciple at times, what would you chose?  (Note: Be sure to talk to God about existing or potential areas of rebellion. He is forgiving and He is the source of our strength)

Sharing your thoughts could be a big help to someone else.  Please leave a comment on the blog.