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God shows mercy in restraining himself from being among Israel


"'Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.' When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, 'Say to the people of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.' Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward." (Exodus 33:3-6)

First, God knows the people heart; therefore, He knows if he goes with Israel, he will destroy them with in a single moment.  The problem was in their hearts.  The word that God used to describe these people is "stiff-neck." We all known what happens if the person has a stiff neck, he can't turn his head right to left, the neck is stiff.  That's how God described these people towards Him.  The are stiff towards turning to him.  We can see similar thins in our lives too.  Knowing that truth, we continue to do the opposite.  God says to these people, "take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you."  In others words God is looking at their obedience to Him.  If they can listen to him now, then it is possibility that they will listen to him later.

The question most asked, can I wear earrings, right?  Some people want to hear YES, and some people want to hear NO.  But the real point is missing when the answer is yes or no.  It's not about wearing ornaments, it's about how this heart responds to God and his word.  When there is an obedient heart, there would be no problem of wearing it or not.  If the person is asked to take off the earring, then she will without a dispute do it.  But if the context permits her to wear an earring, then there is no problem in this.  The subject addresses an obedient heart.

Recently I spoke to a woman who wears earrings.  However, theres a side to her family that don't support that kind of behavior.  When she goes to that environment of the people that don't support earrings, she continues to wear them knowing that these people don't like it.  Now she is convinced that she has done no wrong in wearing her earring; however, she is missing the point.  The problem is not the she is right in wearing them or not, but how she responds to her other side of the family.  In's not the earrings that she is wearing that leads her to sin, but she wears them in front of these people that view them differently.  Look at Apostle Paul, he says, to the Jews I am a Jew, to the Gentiles and I am a Gentile.  In other words, he fits their culture.

Therefore, the problem relies not what we do or not do, but how we react to what God says.  Are we the stiff-neck people like Israel? Or we obedient to what He says?

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