What does the Bible say about being stiff-necked?

Was Israel really a righteous nation? No, Moses tells them, they were a stiff-necked people, that is, stubborn and rebellious. Then he goes on to recount to them the many proofs in their history of their sinful character. "Remember!" he tells them, "Do not forget" (v.7). They had provoked the Lord to anger from the beginning of their wilderness journey. Also in Horeb their guilt was enormous, so that God was on the verge of destroying them. Moses had gone up to the mountain to receive the tables of stone on which the ten commandments were written, being there 40 days and 40 nights without food or water (v.9). He brought the tables down when the Lord told him Israel had corrupted themselves in making a golden image (v.12).

Hence, therefore, we would do well to ponder the words of faithful admonition addressed by Moses to the hearts and consciences of the people; they furnish a very wholesome antidote for the self-righteousness so natural to us as well as to Israel. "Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land; but for the wickedness of those nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware to thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand therefore, that the Lord gives thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people. Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came to this place, ye have been rebellious against the Lord." (Vers. 5-7.)

In the face of all this we can get solid comfort in reading Deuteronomy 9. God gave the children of Israel to understand that He did not give them the possession of the promised land, and victory over their foes, because of their righteousness, but rather because of the wickedness of those up till then possessing the land. He tells them in language which could not be clearer, “Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God gives thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness: for thou art a stiff-necked people” (Deut. 9:6).

In Deuteronomy 9 Moses reminds the people of the great strength of the people then in the land from a military point of view. Many of the men were giants, and their cities strongly fortified. God being for them, they would have power to destroy them completely; yet that power would be exerted, not because they were so righteous, but because the peoples of the land were so wicked. He virtually says to the people - Don't imagine God will give you the victory because you have deserved it. Then he proceeded as the rest of this chapter shows to remind the people of their great unbelief and sin in the making of the golden calf, and their refusal to go up to the land when the spies came back. All this proved that they had no righteousness in which to stand before their God.

This chapter and the first eleven verses of the tenth are aimed against the spirit of self righteousness. First there is the warning. This is followed by their shameful history of the past, which showed that a boast of being righteous, or having any righteousness had to be positively excluded in their case. They had been rebels and they owed their existence wholly to the mercy of God and that was secured by the intercession of Moses. They were, therefore, to understand that the good land was not given to them for their righteousness; they were a stiffnecked people. How humbling the recital of their failures, their rebellion and murmuring against Jehovah, must have been! And Moses added to it, which must have cut them to the very heart. "Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you" (verse 24). Mercy alone had saved them and had effected their restoration. How easy it is for our poor hearts, not different from theirs, to forget all we were and that we owe all we are to the grace of God. Self righteousness is an abomination in God's sight. True faith and obedience means a true humility.

Therefore he tells them to circumcise the foreskin of their heart, that is, cut off the selfish, fleshly desires of their heart; and "be stiff-necked no longer" (v.16). Being stiff-necked refers to the stubbornness of wanting our own way. But would Israel be corrected by being told this? Sadly, no! Only the New Testament shows the way of proper correction.

In the book of Deuteronomy circumcision is twice related to the heart. Israel turned out to be a rebellious and stiffnecked people. Following the awful sin of worshipping the molten calf at Horeb we read: “Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Circumcise therefore … your heart, and be no more stiffnecked” (Deut. 10:15-16).

"And Moses said to the Lord, See, thou sayest to me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me: yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight." Moses entreats the accompanying presence of Jehovah as a proof of their having found grace in His sight. Were it a question of mere justice, He could only consume them by coming in their midst, because they were "a stiff-necked people." But directly He speaks of grace, in connection with the mediator, the very stiff-neckedness of the people is made a plea for demanding His presence. "If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance." This is touchingly beautiful. A "stiff-necked people demanded the boundless grace and exhaustless patience of God. None but He could bear with them.

Jehovah refuses to accompany Israel to the land of promise. "I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiff-necked people; lest I consume thee in the way." At the opening of this book, when the people were in the furnace of Egypt, the Lord could say, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows." But now He has to say, "I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people." An afflicted people is an object of grace; but a stiff-necked people must be humbled. The cry of oppressed Israel had been answered by the exhibition of grace; but the song of idolatrous Israel must be answered by the voice of stern rebuke.

"Ye are a stiff-necked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee that I may know what to do to thee," It is only when we are really stripped of all nature's ornaments that God can deal with us. A naked sinner can be clothed; but a sinner decked in ornaments must be stripped. This is always true. We must be stripped of all that pertains to self, ere we can be clothed with that which pertains to God.

Israel had indeed exposed themselves to the righteous judgment of God. They had voluntarily promised obedience to God's law as the condition of blessing; and the covenant had been sealed by the sprinkling of blood — emblem of death — as the penalty of its breach. This penalty they had now incurred. God no longer therefore treats them as His people. They had rejected Him, and had spoken of Moses as the man who had brought them up out of Egypt; and the Lord takes them on their own ground. Hence He says to Moses, "Thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves," etc. (v. 7.) Then, after describing their sin, He announced His solemn judgment: "I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people: now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation." (vv. 9, 10.) Thus Israel, if dealt with according to the righteous requirements of the law which they had accepted, and to which they had promised obedience as the condition of blessing, were lost beyond recovery, and would perish through their own wilful sin and apostasy.