I have seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and they are a stiff-necked people. The stiff-necked epithet becomes Israel's most persistent covenant characterization throughout Deuteronomy. The stiff neck is the neck that refuses the yoke: the animal that will not accept direction from its master. Acts 7:51 records Stephen applying the same accusation to those who resist the Holy Spirit — resistance to God's guidance is the universal human problem that the golden calf crystallizes. The God who sees everything has seen the apostasy in its fullness and names it with covenant accuracy.

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