EXODUS OVERVIEW

MODULE 4: SESSION 25: Apostasy

Unlike the neck of a living, flesh-and-blood calf, the golden calf has a rigid neck. It is obstinate and immovable dead. When God addresses Israel’s mistake, he calls them “stiff-necked” because they have become stubbornly set in rejecting the ways of God. The author’s comparison seems to suggest that a person who worships a rigid, lifeless chunk of metal becomes similarly rigid, inflexible, and ultimately dead. Much later, Isaiah will use the same metaphor when he accuses Israel of becoming obstinate and stubborn, saying “your neck is an iron sinew”.