Page 60 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

The answers are provided by YHWH. He knows, of course, of the events on the plain while he instructs
Moses on the mountaintop. “They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them (v. 8).”
He knows also the reason. “They are a stiff-necked people (v. 9).” He knows the antidote. But first YHWH
states the deserved punishment. “Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them (v. 10).”
The God of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph is not taken by surprise by any of this. Just as he has been
leading the spiritual education of individuals throughout Genesis, he continues to lead the spiritual
education of an entire people through their exodus from Egypt.

In an extensive discussion with Moses, YHWH reveals himself in a deeper manner. In the middle of the
discussion Moses comes down from the mountain, breaks the stone copy of the Ten Commandments
given to him by God, and destroys the calf idol. He confronts Aaron and the people for becoming a
“laughingstock to their enemies (v. 26).” He calls for allies, and, when the Levites respond, sends them
into the midst of Israel to kill those leading the revolt whether brother, friend, or neighbor (v. 27). Three
thousand people die. These actions are important, but the number of verses taken to describe these
events (32:19-30) in contrast to the number of verses taken to describe Moses and God demonstrate
the greater importance of God’s discussions with Moses.

We must note the description of the spiritual state of Israel.
“They are a stiff-necked people (v. 9).” The description is
not accidental by any means. The nation is becoming like
what they are worshipping. The picture is of a cow that
does not want to go in the direction its master desires, but
responds with a stiff neck and wanders from the desired
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way. The people are acting like out-of-control and
headstrong calves. They choose the calf partially in
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imitation of Egyptian idolatry but primarily because that is
what they wanted for themselves, to be out of the control
of anyone else and headstrong. The phrase becomes
Fig. 34: Stiff-necked oxen
connected with this generation of Israelites throughout the
Bible (Deut. 9:6, 13; 10:16; 31:27). They exchanged their
glorious God for another (Ps. 106:20).

In later passages other phrases are added to the image of a stiff neck to describe idolaters. They “have
eyes to see but do not see, ears to hear but do not hear” (Psalm 115:4-8; Isaiah 6:9-10). The idols
cannot see or hear. Those who worship them cannot see or hear either. They are deaf to spiritual truth
as long as they follow other gods. “On the conscious level idolaters do not want to resemble what they
revere, but in reality that is just what happens to people as punishment for the obstinate refusal to stop
worshiping lifeless images.”
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The problem is deep. How can the holy God accompany such a sinful people? God’s presence has been
with them to this point, true enough. Yet God’s presence has been at a distance. No tabernacle has been

62 While teaching at AIU one summer, a farmer came through campus with a cart pulled by one ox. It
was loaded with wood. In front of the chapel, the ox decided to head for the gardens instead of up the
road. The farmer could not control the willful beast, a good example of stiff-necked people.
63 G. K. Beale, We Become What We Worship (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2008), 82.
64 Edward P. Meadors, Idolatry and the Hardening of the Heart (New York: T&T Clark, 2006) 33.
65 Beal, 142.

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