PAIN-IN-THE-NECK?

Image result for CLIP ART SHOWING A STIFF NECKMoses has been in the mountain with God receiving the laws for the Israelites by which they are to govern and conduct themselves.  He has been gone for some 40 days.  Full of wonder about Moses and his whereabouts, some of the people go to Aaron, the brother of Moses, who is assigned to help keep order while Moses is not present, and they request of Aaron, "Come, make us gods who will go before us.  As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."  Aaron gives heed to their request and creates a golden calf for them to worship.  What a leader he is, so compliant! In worship the next day, the crowd is "eating, drinking, and indulging in revelry".  (Relvelry, to make sport, to mock, to laugh at) Of course, you can imagine of WHOM they are mocking. 

I guess that the Israelites have forgotten that God is Sovereign Omniscience, Sovereign Omnipotent, and Sovereign in presence.  He speaks to Moses, "Go down...I have seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and they are a stiff-necked people."  In fact, they are such a pain- in-the-neck that God is so angered with them that He desires to destroy them.  God repents...not of sin, but being sorry, regretting, relenting with a breathing heavily.  God is expressed  in "human terms" so that we can understand His pain at our sin.  A. J. Heschel, (The Prophets, p 194) speaks, "No word is God's final word.  Judgment, far from being absolute, is conditional.  A change in man's conduct brings about a change in God's judgment."  Moses immediately intercedes for this pain-in the-neck motley crew of disobedients with God. As Moses comes down the mountain, there will be consequences for their sin. 

As I consider the condition of being a PNN, I think there are some attitudes and behavior that characterize:  know-it-all, unwilling to listen, being assured of SUCH personal intelligence, arrogance, impatient, disobedience, and maybe willful distrust/disbelief of God. Just know, the root of being a pain-in-the-neck is PRIDE.  As we so easily recognize and call another a PNN, we must look in the mirror and begin the repenting process for ourselves.  How merciful God has been to this PNN and I am sure He has breathed quite heavily and may have relented that I am His, yet because of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus and Calvary, He cannot and will not cast me out!  Thank You, Indwelling Holy Spirit, for convicting me of being a PNN. Thank You for interceding for me. Thank You for forgiveness.  Forever learning.  In process.  #IHAVETHREESONS.       

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