Israel Bible Center offers courses on reading the Bible through the lens of the Hebrew language. While I haven’t yet taken a course, I signed up for their emails, and I find I get excited and like to share what I have learned. I suggest you check them out.
Today’s email talked about “stiff-necked” people. With generations of my ancestors in Friesland, Netherlands, I have often heard this reference applied to us: stiff-necked, stubborn, hard-headed. And then we all laugh at the truth that floats around in those statements.
Have you noticed that the Bible often talks about human characteristics in bodily terms, such as: hard-hearted, stiff necked, eyes that don’t see, ears that don’t hear … Bodily terms are used to indicate our inner selves, our deepest attitudes.
You can find Old Testament references to God’s stiff-necked people in Exodus 32:9, 2 Kings 17:14, Deuteronomy 10:16. A New Testament reference tells us that this hasn’t changed in thousands of years.
“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!” (Acts 7:51)
To quote today’s email from Israel Bible Center, “What sounds like an old-fashioned synonym for stubborn belongs to an entire biblical vocabulary in which the orientation of the body reveals the orientation of the person.
Think about a pout, a belligerent stance, a shaking fist, or a lifted finger. Think about the monkey meme: “Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil.”
17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. (Matthew 15:17-19)
The is a challenge I am facing. I’ve had some tough things happen in the last few months, and need more than my usual amount of down time. I have developed the habit of scrolling on my phone to turn off my brain as well as my body. What do I see there? Anything that brings me to God? These show up because of algorithems, but so does a lot of other kinds of “entertainment” that I really don’t need or want to indulge in. But I do.
Lord, I don’t want to be a stiff-necked person, but one who yields my heart, my soul, my eyes, and my ears—my whole self—to you. Shine your light in me to reveal all the dark places I haven’t yet dug up and thrown out. Help me to detox from the scrolling during rest and replace it with things of you. Amen.
