Pulelulu Me 17, 2023
קשה ערף stiff-Necked
KIA KEKEVA
DEUTERONOMY 9:6
"KNOW, THEREFORE, THAT THE LORD YOUR GOD IS NOT GIVING YOU THIS GOOD LAND TO POSSESS BECAUSE OF YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. FOR YOU ARE A STUBBORN PEOPLE."
TEUTALONOME 9:6
Pea u vakai, pea tā kuo mou fai angahala kia Sihova ko homou ‘Otua; kuo mou ngaohi hamou kafi ukamea: kuo mou afe vave mei he hala na‘e tu‘utu‘uni atu ‘e Sihova.
"Sly as a fox. Busy as a bee. Drunk as a skunk." We encounter human-to-animal comparisons like these all over the Bible as well. In the beginning, Adam named the animals; so, in turn, the animals began to describe Adam's children and often it's a put-down. For example, Israel is frequently depicted as q'sheh-oref-a people "stiff-of-neck." It all started after the golden calf debacle (Exod. 32:9). Why? Because the people were behaving like the stiff-necked beast they worshiped. "Dumb as an ox," we might say.
The Bible teaches this truth over and over: we take on the characteristics of what we worship. As one scholar put it, "What you revere you resemble, either for ruin or for restoration" (G. K. Beale). The psalmist says. "Those who make [idols] become like them; so do all who trust in them" (Ps. 115:8). "They went after false idols and became false" (2 Kings 17:15).
Since Christ is the image of God, to worship him is to become like him, and like the Father, in the power of the Spirit. To revere Christ is to mirror him, so that, as the sheep of his flock, we will follow the Lamb, who is our shepherd (Rev. 7:17).
O Lamb of God, who takes away
the sin of the world, restore us to your image.
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