Hebrew Word Study – Hardens The Neck – Maqesheh ‘Oreph – מַקְשֶׁה־ עֹ֑רֶף  Mem Qop Shin Hei      Ayin Resh Pei 

Proverbs 29:1: He that being often rebuked hardens his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.

The words hardens his neck are the same words used in Exodus where God refers to the people of Israel as stiff necked people.   I find this verse chilling only in the fact that it seems God keeps bringing me back to this phrase, stiff necked.  I feel like He is telling me that I have not explored this stiff necked business enough, at least in my own life. As this is my personal journal I suspect God is telling me that I am being stiff necked. When the nation of Israel allowed themselves to become stiff necked, God was unable to fulfill His promise to them.    

So I am taking a closer look at this phrase stiff necked. You see I have an unfilled promised that I would really like to see God fulfill before I leave this planet.   Anyways in a literal sense a stiff necked person is one who can not look to the left or right.  He can only see in one direction.  The word stiff necked is preceded by the phrase He that being often rebuked in the Hebrew it is two words literally rendered as a man from correction. The word man is ish and not adam.  Adam is used to represent a human being of the earth, or the natural human being. It could reference both a male and/or female.   The word ish is used to describe a man who is both spiritual and natural.  It could also reference a female but generally that is expressed as ishah.  This man is receiving correction or yakach which is spelled Yod, Kap and Cheth.  Correction or yakach is a message from heaven that is intended to fill your heart with His presence.   However, in the delivery of this message I am apparently becoming stiff necked in other words I can not see the direction that God is leading because I am too focused on my present earthly pride.

Putting the words for harden and for stiff neck under a microscope I found that the word for hardened or stiff is spelled Qop, Shin and Hei.   The sages teach one representation for the Qop is its shadow which  is a refusal to make peace with change. Ouch!  I am going through major changes in my life and I am not making peace with it.  The shadow of the Shin can represent the clinging to a situation beyond a healthy end point. Ok, I am clinging to what little of the past I have left and refusing to let go. Finally the Hei can represent being stuck in a situation that leaves you broken.  That speaks for itself. God cannot fulfill His promise to me if I don’t move forward.

Perhaps the reason I have this unfulfilled promise from God is that I am stiffnecked.  At least that is what I am getting in my spirit.  I am refusing to make peace with the changes coming into my life, I am clinging to old situations that I refuse to let go and I am just stuck in the miry clay of my own brokenness. 

But my spirit is crying out that there is yet more to this. I need to dig further.  Well, my first step is the way I was taught in Bible College and Seminary and that is to check out the way the word is translated by our modern translators.  I found it rendered as stiff  necked or hardened necks. Not much help there, tell me what I don’t know. However,  this does give me the picture of one looking in just one direction and not seeing another direction. Is that what I am doing?   I then checked my Lexicon and found the word is used to describe stubbornness, and refusal to listen to instruction. Hmm, I had a friend scold me (in a nice way) today indicating that I was a bit off base in one of my conclusions.  Since I was in the midst of the study I did not consider it a coincidence so I paid close attention and accepted that correction and instruction. My spirit suddenly settled down in me and I began feeling some peace.

Knowing there was more I moved beyond Bible College and Seminary and started to really drill down to the heart and soul of  stiff neck or qashah ‘oraph.  The word qashah means to harden, to stiffen, to be stubborn etc.  The word ‘oraph aside from referring to the neck is also the word used for apostasy or abandoning one’s primary directive.  Apostasy is a total abandonment of one’s religion or faith.  I have seen people who were once very strong in their faith and then leave it. Once they left they become so obstinate that there is no returning to their faith. 

I  have not left my faith, but my friend did indicate that I was abandoning my primary objective to share the heart of God.  This evening I continued my study on stiff neck tracing the word to its Semitic origins where I found that it comes from a Phoenician word for a slow steady drip.  The ceiling in my bathroom was leaking, not a steady flow but just a drip now and then. Initially it did no damage and I did not want to report it to my landlord.  But after a week I began to realize that it was doing some real damage to ceiling, so I called my landlord who sent someone to fix it.   I realized I was being stiff necked in dealing with a certain issue that had nothing to do with the message God called me to give.  However, I kept pounding away at it until a trusted friend pointed it out to me and suddenly I realized I almost left behind the message that God called me to bring, the message that focused on my search for God’s heart. 

I was stiff necked or qashah ‘oraph.  I was abandoning God’s call on my life. Will getting back on track  to the message that God called me to deliver bring about His fulfillment of the promise He gave me?  Maybe, I will just have to wait and see.  However, I do realize that accountability is very important because the ‘oraph or steady drip  away from the center of God’s will could eventually do a lot of damage.

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