Exodus 33:3: “For I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiff-necked people: Lest I consume thee in the way.”

The children of Israel were two and one half months into their journey to the Promised Land (Exodus 16:1).  All the food they packed away at the beginning of their journey was now gone.  They began to worry where their food was going to come from. They had no idea how long this journey would take.   I am sure most felt it would not take more than 75 days.

Let’s stop right there.  The traveling distance between Egypt and Israel by a direct route is 250 miles. They had been traveling for 75 days.  If they covered 3-4 miles a day they would have been eating milk and honey by that time.   After all God gave a promise for a land, (that is why it is called the Promised Land – get it?  Promise, land, oh well).  Maybe God has given you a promise, maybe not for land, but for something.  As believers we all have a promise from God, it is that which keeps us going; it is that which keeps us walking through the desert.  It is that hope that one day we will reach our Promised Land.  But the journey continues, our supplies are running low and yet we keep walking and we begin to even wonder if we even have had a promise at all.  Discouragement begins to build; time keeps passing and no hope of fulfillment.  Do you blame the people of Israel?  I don’t think God did.

We know we will not reach our promised land over night, after all 250 miles through a desert is a long walk.  But we have our supplies, things are going quite well. There is that cloud by day and fire by night of God leading us.   We watched the Red Sea part, we watched our enemies drown.  They we walked three days in the desert without water and just when it seemed all hope was lost, we arrived at Marah which had water only to discover that the water was poisoned.  We complained, who wouldn’t? But the Lord didn’t rebuke us for complaining; he only went ahead and freshened the water.  Then He led us to a place which had palm trees and more water than we needed. We were refreshed, firm in the knowledge of God’s care and guidance and ready to continue our journey to the Promised Land.

Then we found ourselves back in a desert, this time for sixties day.  Again our food supplies are running out, the Promised Land seemed further away than ever.  Once again we began to murmur.  Again the Lord did not rebuke, he only did a greater miracle and sent manna from heaven and a supply of quail with these words  “…then you shall know that the Lord has brought you out from the land of Egypt.”  I can relate.  I know I have a promise from God, I have watched God deliver me with great miracles on the way to the promise.  My supplies had run out and God replenished those supplies and those miracles meant more than just my needs being supplied, they were proof that God was a part of  my journey, that indeed He was leading me.  Those miracles help keep my eyes on Him and His promise.  Like Israel, God did not rebuke me, He understood that when the journey got rough that I would begin to question.  I would not question his abilities, but I would question, like Israel, if it was really God bringing me out, if this really was a promise from God and not a work of my own imagination born out a desperate situation.

God was patient with Israel, He understood and He continually gave little love gifts  and to supply their every need to assure them that, yes, indeed He was behind this move.   This was not their imagination or a plot developed by Moses.  A journey which should have taken only a few months expanded to a much longer journey as God had to continually teach them how to have faith and trust in Him completely.

Then something happened.  Moses went up to the mountain to meet with God and he did not return when he was supposed to.  The people went into panic mode and built an idol.  In Exodus 33:3  God announced: “I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiff-necked people.”   It wasn’t the murmurings, or the idolatry that made God declare He would not continue to lead the people into their promise. It was because they became stiff-necked. That is the danger we face on our journey to our promise.  All of our murmurings, complaining, idolatry (or leaning on the arm of  the flesh) will make us stiff-necked and thus make it impossible for God to fulfill His promise.  He will keep His promise, but we must reach a place in Him to receive that promise and if we become stiff-necked, we will never be able to receive it.  God will do His part, but we must do ours.

What is it to be stiff-necked?   This is translated from two Hebrew words  kasha oreph.   I render these two words as having your head on backwards.  They stopped looking at God and his promises.  They stopped looking at the things they could not see and preferred to look at what they could see, looking back to Egypt where they were no wandering in a desert, depending upon God for their daily bread and water.  They were  looking back to a time when things seemed better.

Has God given you a promise and you have waited and waited.  In the natural that promised should have been fulfilled long ago.  Your supplies are running low, you have no idea how much further it is to your promise.   Beware, these people never received their promise, it was their children who did.   They did not enter the promise land because they were kasha oreph, they stopped looking to God and lost hope of their promise and started looking to the natural.  God could not fulfill his promise; he had to give it to their children.  God cannot fulfill His promise to me, or to you if we allow ourselves to become kasha oreph, stiffed necked, for being kasha oreph stiff-necked  means that we are looking to what we can see rather than what we cannot see.