ON THE VANGUARD

STIFF-NECKED
“Therefore, understand that it not for your righteousness that Adonai your God is giving you this good land to possess. For you are a stiff-necked people!”
Deuteronomy 9:6

As I read through the Torah my eyes land on certain words or phrases that catch my attention. I have shared a few of these over what has almost been a year now. In studying again today, my eyes landed once more on another nugget of gold. In fact, this nugget was so bold that it practically screamed of a challenge. Look with me at Deuteronomy 9:5-6.
In Deuteronomy 9:5, God begins to explain via Moses to the children of Israel who are about to enter the Promise Land, the reason for why they are entering the Promise Land. Now if you remember, the people were not the most righteous or right of heart. Looking back over their forty years we recall the golden calf, the rebellion of Korah, the allowance of the Midianite intermarriage, as well as a number of instances where they grumbled and complained. Yet, in all these areas, God was still allowing them as a nation, entrance. So then, God states boldly, “It is not because of your righteousness, or because your heart is so upright, that you go in to take possession of the land; but to punish the wickedness of these nations that Adonai your God is driving them out ahead of you, and also to confirm the word which Adonai swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
They were allowed entrance because of two reasons. One, the people who currently lived in the land were more wicked than what the people of Israel had been over the past forty years. And two, God had made a promise to the fathers of the people. So then, in verse 6, He continues by saying again, “Therefore, understand that it not for your righteousness that Adonai your God is giving you this good land to possess. For you are a stiff-necked people!” This is the part I want to catch. This is the part I want us to consider. Are we stiff-necked?
Honestly, I had to look up this word. Going into the Hebrew I found the word defined as QASHEH, meaning hard, cruel, obstinate, or difficult. God was making a point to inform these people that they were hard to work with. In many cases, they argued with His anointed, disobeyed His commands, and fought against His ways. Am I describing anyone out there? I know for a fact I am describing myself. If it had not been for the fact that He had made a promise, and that those already in the land were worse, then I have to assume based on these words that Adonai would have forbid Israel to enter.
I look at my own life. My life has been botched up with sin, disobedience, and flat out rebellion toward His Word. Yet, He calls me. He calls me to minister to His people. At a young age He called me with a promise, stating that I would be a minister. But I have been stiff-necked. My right deeds, or lack of them, do not equal the opportunity to receive His promise. Still, one day it will happen. The question maybe more so then is will I continue to be stiff-necked? I do not want to be. I want to be in His will, obeying all His commands, and moving in His ways.
God, I pray you show me all the ways in which I have been stiff-necked, so that I can even now begin to change. I repent for my stiff-necked behavior.