Thick Headed and Hard Hearted

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Have you ever felt thick headed and hard hearted? 

I am mentally raising my hand. And I usually don't recognize it's the case until after the fact; when it is too late for me to do anything about it.

Confession time: I'm extremely thick headed in my marriage. I'll have a plan that I've worked out, but have not communicated adequately, and then when the said plan gets nixed I have a hard time being flexible. (The reason why my plans get nixed is usually because there is a better, more efficient plan that actually makes sense!)

If you feel like I do, you are not alone. The Israelites were some of the most thick headed and hard hearted people around. Just read the book of Joshua sometime.

You know the Exodus 32 story: Moses had been gone some time on the mountain and the people become impatient and demanded Aaron make a golden calf they could worship as the one who delivered them from Egypt. How stupid was that?

It comes as no surprise that God, in Exodus 33, refers to the Hebrew people several times as "a stiff-necked people." (I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want God to think of me in those terms, and at the very least not to make it public for millions of people over the centuries to read.)

"[Go up] to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise, I might destroy you on the way."

Of course, Moses intercedes for the people, and God in his graciousness forgives them.

How does this apply to me? I've heard it said that as a person grows older they either age like a fine wine or they stink like old cheese (that's my paraphrase). God help us to grow in grace and to not become thick headed and hard hearted and stiff necked in our relationship with our Lord and Savior and brothers and sisters in Christ. Instead, teach us to be flexible, bearing each other's burdens, and forgiving wrongs out of love.

May our necks be loose!