Text: Proverbs 29:1 (ESV)

1 He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck,

will suddenly be broken beyond healing.

BROKEN BEYOND HEALING

A thing that becomes useless when it is broken is disposable, is it not? These things generally are cheap and won’t last long. Such is the person who is unteachable. Their continual hardening may cause them to become stiff. When crisis comes and they break apart beyond repair. Sad.

This is one of the most ominous verses in the Bible. Solomon warns, “When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established forever.” (Prov 10:25 ). Those who stubbornly refuse to be corrected, despite many warnings, put themselves at risk of sudden, catastrophic disaster (Prov 6:15 ; 8:32 –36). The legal or social consequences can’t be ignored. It might mean physical injury or death.

Who is "stiff neck" or a "hardened neck" people? They are people who refuse to bow in submission, or even to nod in agreement. They are pictured as livestock, an animal refusing to respond to commands. The bible is littered with examples. In Noah's day, the culture was thoroughly wicked and hardened. They refused to accept God's goodness. As a result, everyone except Noah and his family perished in the flood God unleashed on the earth (Gen 6:5–8). The Israelites who wandered the desert for forty years were said to be stiff-necked people (Ex 33; Neh 9:16 –18). King Hezekiah, in calling the people who had escaped the Assyrians to celebrate Passover, warned them to return to the Lord and not "be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lᴏʀᴅ and come to his sanctuary … and serve the Lᴏʀᴅ your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you" (2 Chronicles 30:8). Hezekiah reminded the people that "God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him" (2 Chron 30:9).

John the Baptist warned the stiff-necked, self-righteous Pharisees and Sadducees, "Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Mat 3:10 ). Stephen accused his murderers of being "stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you" (Acts 7:51 ). One of those was Paul.

Stiffening one's neck against the truth of God is a deplorable state. Yet, God is unchanging and remains merciful to all who turn to Him in faith (Eph 2:1–10; 1 Cor 6:9–11). Even so, the apostle Peter warns, "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed" (2 Pet 3:9–10). Foremost example of change is Paul. Paul the persecutor was changed by the grace of God.

When it comes to God, some obstinately ignore His many warnings and invitations to be saved (Rom 1:18 –20; Micah 7:18 –19). While God is merciful and gracious, He does not offer infinite patience, does He? And God takes His hands off an obstinate unbeliever and simply "lets them go" wherever their sin will take them (Rom 1:26 –28; 1 Sam 2:25 ). That means a life without God and an eternity of hopeless doom (Rev 20:15 ; John 3:36 ). Eventually, the opportunity to repent would be gone. There comes a time when Jesus will come to judge this world.

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