Stiff Necked. Stubborn. Stone-hearted.

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Friday evening vespers was opened with a prayer by a young man who said all the usual phrases.

I confess to typically tuning out public prayers, thinking my own thoughts instead. I remember my elementary school teacher doing something similar during church services. I can still see her in my mind’s eye, gazing out the louvred windows at the traffic going by. Our island's traffic was particularly interesting because of the presence of bicycles, trishaws, motorcycles, food peddlers and pedestrians. My teacher seemed to be a world away from what was happening in church.

Back to the young man praying at vespers. One phrase in his prayer startled me into attention: “Let us not be stiff-necked or stubborn or stone-hearted.”

Try that one aloud: Stiff-necked. Stubborn. Stone-hearted. Where did he come up with that? 

“Stiff-necked.” When Jews heard this phrase, they visualized a team of oxen. The farmer would follow them, prodding from behind with a stick so they'd go faster. Or he would prod them in the neck to turn them in a certain direction, or to prevent them from straying from his intended way. An ox that resisted the farmer’s direction was considered “stiff-necked.”

Ouch. I am like that, some days.

“Stubborn.” It means “unreasonably or perversely unyielding, mulish.” Obstinate. Intractable. Adamant. Bull-headed. Dogged. Hard-nosed. Headstrong. Willful. Not adjectives I'd want applied to me, even when feeling the pride of being contrary. The Bible calls Moses’s pharaoh, “stubborn.” "Stubborn” describes the children of Israel in just about every era and generation. And Paul uses “stubborn” to describe those who critically judge the ungodly, but who display the very same attitudes as those whom they judge, ignoring their Creator's tolerance and kindness and being unrepentant (Rom. 1:18-2:5).

Ouch again. I am like that, some days.

“Stone-hearted.” That’s how Ezekiel refers to people who have absorbed beliefs, values and practices of the culture around them, who have become hardened toward God. (See Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26) Your heart chills as you lose your relationship with God. You don’t care much for Him anymore. You've gone cold and adamant. It's your way or the highway, so to speak, because He's not relevant or believable anymore. You’re stony-hearted.

Ouch once more. I am like that, some days. 

"Let us not be stiff-necked or stubborn or stone-hearted."  It’s a deadly trio. And while the young man asked God to keep us from these, it’s also our decision. We must be willing to take that crazy leap, to surrender our own wishes and logic, to choose obedience to this invisible, incomprehensible God. We must be willing to have our interests in un-godly things overwritten. We must pull our gaze back from what’s passing by "outside the windows," to bring our thoughts back to that quiet place where we can hear the invitation to repentance, to re-creation and relationship with Him.

And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.  Ezekiel 11:19-20