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Stubborn (spiritual) Israel?

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hillsbororiver:

As it so often happens in researching one subject to veer off into something else, often multiple things. I found the following Scripture to be incredibly descriptive in regard to His called since the establishment of the early (1st century) church, although the first eight verses are from the OT and speak directly to physical Israel we can see that in "Acts" (Luke?) used the same terminology with the church(es) of his time and I am sure to the future church(es) as well.

Do these verses speak anything to you?

Exo 32:9  And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

Exo 33:3  Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

Exo 33:5  For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked 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 unto thee.

Exo 34:9  And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked  people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

Deu 9:6  Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.

Deu 9:13  Furthermore the LORD spoke unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

Deu 10:16  Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

2Ch 30:8  Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified forever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.

Act 7:51  Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

*stiffnecked

Hebrew

H7185
קשׁה
qâshâh
kaw-shaw'
A primitive root; properly to be dense, that is, tough or severe (in various applications): - be cruel, be fiercer, make grievous, be ([ask a], be in, have, seem, would) hard (-en, [labour], -ly, thing), be sore, (be, make) stiff (-en, [-necked]).


Greek

G4644
σκληροτράχηλος
sklērotrachēlos
sklay-rot-rakh'-ah-los
From G4642 and G5137; hard naped, that is, (figuratively) obstinate: - stiffnecked.

His Peace and Wisdom to you,

Joe

Robin:
Guilty!

Those scriptures are perfect. The circumcision of the heart removes the rebellion. I have always been a strong willed, rebellious, stubborn person. God has been knocking me down to size for many years now and I still have rebellion within me. My carnal mind does not die without a fight.

God always wins. I can count on that.

ciy:
That is a great group of verses Joe. 

I love doing word studies and just reading through the different verses that contain those words.  Word studies have given me some of my major revelations in the Word. 

We are a stiffnecked people proud and full of ourselves.  It is that pride that is so hard to purge out and it keeps us separated from God.  I love where it says be circumcised in the heart and be stiffnecked no more.  It is a matter of the heart from the inside out.  Which is so hard to do.

It reminds me of a golf swing.  If one just concentrates on making a good swing through the ball and trust the club to do what it is designed to do, then you can hit a good shot.  It is just that we are not wired that way.  We will, in the twinkling of an eye, jerk or twist or do something to try to guide the ball or make it get up quicker, etc.  We just cannot bring ourselves to trust the club.  Same with God we just cannot bring ourselves to trust from the inside out we have to try to help it from the outside in and we fall right back into being a stiffnecked pharisee instead of just letting go and trusting God.

Great God.  Great plan.
CIY

ciy:
This is my last post on the Message bible today, but I cannot get over how this reads and how it applies and shows the condition that the stiffnecked people end up.  The amazing thing is that it is where we are today.  It is so clear.

Hosea 4
No One Is Faithful

   1 -3 Attention all Israelites! God's Message!
    God indicts the whole population: "No one is faithful. No one loves.
   No one knows the first thing about God. All this cussing and lying and killing, theft and loose sex,
   sheer anarchy, one murder after another! And because of all this, the very land itself weeps
   and everything in it is grief-stricken— animals in the fields and birds on the wing,
   even the fish in the sea are listless, lifeless.

   4 -10 "But don't look for someone to blame.
   No finger pointing! You, priest, are the one in the dock.
   You stumble around in broad daylight, And then the prophets take over and stumble all night.
   Your mother is as bad as you. My people are ruined
   because they don't know what's right or true. Because you've turned your back on knowledge,
   I've turned my back on you priests. Because you refuse to recognize the revelation of God,
   I'm no longer recognizing your children. The more priests, the more sin.
   They traded in their glory for shame. They pig out on my people's sins.
   They can't wait for the latest in evil. The result: You can't tell the people from the priests,
   the priests from the people. I'm on my way to make them both pay
   and take the consequences of the bad lives they've lived. They'll eat and be as hungry as ever,
   have sex and get no satisfaction. They walked out on me, their God,
   for a life of rutting with whores.

They Make a Picnic Out of Religion   

   11 -14 "Wine and whiskey
   leave my people in a stupor. They ask questions of a dead tree,
   expect answers from a sturdy walking stick. Drunk on sex, they can't find their way home.
   They've replaced their God with their genitals. They worship on the tops of mountains,
   make a picnic out of religion. Under the oaks and elms on the hills
   they stretch out and take it easy. Before you know it, your daughters are whores
   and the wives of your sons are sleeping around. But I'm not going after your whoring daughters
   or the adulterous wives of your sons. It's the men who pick up the whores that I'm after,
   the men who worship at the holy whorehouses—
   a stupid people, ruined by whores!

   15 -19 "You've ruined your own life, Israel—
   but don't drag Judah down with you! Don't go to the sex shrine at Gilgal,
   don't go to that sin city Bethel, Don't go around saying 'God bless you' and not mean it,
   taking God's name in vain. Israel is stubborn as a mule.
   How can God lead him like a lamb to open pasture? Ephraim is addicted to idols.
   Let him go. When the beer runs out,
   it's sex, sex, and more sex. Bold and sordid debauchery—
   how they love it! The whirlwind has them in its clutches.
   Their sex-worship leaves them finally impotent."

These verses are so powerful in any translation, but they are just so good in this translation.  Thank God that He has given us eyes and ears to see and hear.  Now let's encourage each other to be faithful till the end.
CIY

mrsnacks:
It is true that we must be given eyes to see and ears to hear. So why is that we are frustrated and get upset if others don't see and hear ? Even if we are the ones who are blind. If we are stiffnecked then isn't that meant to be ? Isn't God the first cause ? We are just the clay and God is the Potter. The clay does nothing but be. We are in His hands. He is forming us. Someone stated that the circumcision of the heart is a hard thing to do. But is it for us to do ? I am confused a little on the comments here. It is my understanding that one cannot perfect himself. We can not do anything . IT is Christ living in us and we must die to the flesh. But llok at Paul's conversion. It was instantaneous. But there still was a process for him to go through.
Do we need encouragement for us to endure to the end ? I mean if we are elect than we will. If not then we won't ? Only God knows and God is in control. 
Yes we have a hard time trusting God. But are we able to ? Only if He gives us whatever to trust Him more.
Jesus didn't do anything on His own. It was the Father in Him. So if we are struggling with anything in our lives than it is meant to be there and it is meant for us to struggle and in His own time we shall overcome.
But it is in His time. Just some thought.

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