Stiff-Necked People
Are you a part of the problem instead of the means to the solution for our broken world? This is a question I have been asking myself a lot. I don’t want to think that I am part of the problem, but if I am honest there are so many ways that I have denied the life Jesus wants me to live just because I am stuck in my own.
A few months ago we talked about how God’s plan for us is a life yoked with Jesus Christ. The decision to do so is easy, but actually following through is difficult. That life is often derailed because we do not truly commit our entire lives to the pursuit of following Christ. We hold back, we don’t train, and we don't let the life of Christ influence how we live our own.
In this Sunday’s scripture, we will read about how the Israelites were given a path to the holy land, yet the path would be derailed because of their lack of trust and an inability to truly commit. In Exodus 32, things blew up among the Israelites; and Aaron is complicit in the heresy, while Moses is hanging out on the mountain with God. God sees what happens and gets so angry that God asks for space from Moses so that the stiff-necked people can be blown away and God will start over with Moses. Moses is able to change God’s mind and give the Israelites another chance to be faithful. The phrase stiff-necked people is an interesting choice here because it means a stubborn people, a people unwilling to change their ways. Yet in this scripture the one who is not stubborn or stiff-necked is God!
God has every reason to be stiff-necked and stubborn but ultimately chooses grace and forgiveness. God offers us the same. Even though I fail to maintain the course God has planned for me, either because of my lack of faith or stubbornness, God forgives and remains gracious to me. I should be asking forgiveness for being a part of the problem instead of the means to the solution for our broken world. Yet I am often halfhearted at best when I do so. So, let this be a reminder of the opportunity to reengage, to recommit to the journey of discipleship.
Join us this Sunday for worship at 8:30 or 10:45 AM as we continue this conversation.
In God’s grip,
Pastor Chuck Church
