Adapted from “The Sudden Ruin of a Stubborn Heart,” by Greg Morse (7-20-2025) at: www.desiringgod.org .
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“He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.”
–Proverbs 29:1.
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Behold, a stubborn man (or woman, or you; but in this meditation it will be a man). He is offended by instruction, angered by correction. He sins, sure, but that is none of your business. Correction makes him worse. He is known not for a strong character, but for a stiff neck. He is an ox of a man who travels only one way: his own.
He knows better than others. Friends, if they will still own the name, try to confront his glaring faults. They want better for him. They are courageous; would you try to steer a bull by the ear? He stampedes along, trampling everything in his path. God speaks; he hangs up. Wisdom cries in the street; he turns aside. The pleas of the few loved ones who remain in touch, do not move him. Conscience cannot deter him. His neck, strong as an oak, only stiffens more.
“It’s not as bad as they say,” he thinks. “And who are they to judge me?”
He is a fool, like Nabal, of whom it was said, “Such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him” (I Samuel 25:17). A son too wise for his father. A sheep too smart for his shepherds. An old man too proud for change. He spits upon the hand delivering God’s gift to him: the grace of correction. He charges past signposts warning of the cliff. Like Pharaoh, he calls down from his self-made throne, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?” (Exodus 5:2).
But his fall is inevitable. The proverb above warns how a long refusal comes to a quick close. Ruin replaces deafness. His path ends “suddenly.” He falls, “broken beyond healing.” The day he thought would never come, will come. The ending he never considered meeting, will meet him. He will be shattered without remedy. No second chances. No do-overs. No further opportunity to consider his path and change his ways. Hard necks will finally and forever be broken.
Noah’s sermons are heard no more. God seals the ark door; the rain begins. The laughter of Lot’s sons-in-law dies away; fire falls on Sodom and Gomorrah. The prophets no longer raise their cry of repentance and woe; Jerusalem is surrounded by Babylon, and then by Rome. And a day draws near when there will be no more Bible studies, and church services as we know them, will end. Jesus will return. Hard necks will finally and forever be broken.
Stubborn oxen, unsteerable and uncorrectable, always find the cliff in the end. They twitch at the bottom and groan, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors” (Proverbs 5:12-13). Does the Teacher then weep at this man’s fall or mourn his final misery? “I will mock when terror strikes you . . . when distress and anguish come upon you” (Proverbs 1:24-27). As he heeded not the Almighty’s cries, the Almighty shall not heed his. Oh, stubborn man, you should fear a hard heart more than a hard word.
Some of you have been “often reproved” for years to no avail. You have been implored, soberly warned, spoken with by several of your closest relations, and yet your neck has only grown more stiff. What you have received as the pestering intrusion of Christians has been the patient invitation of God repeating, “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23). Will his offer of a free and full pardon and pleasures forevermore in his family go unheeded? Will the knowledge that this offer came at the cost of the suffering and death of his own dear Son not soften your stony heart? Pray for a listening ear and an open heart.
“He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.” He refuses to believe God, but you believe. Do not give up. Do not forget to pray for him. Weep for him. Plead with him. Do not turn off your feeling for him, even if it allows “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” into your heart (Romans 9:2). These are alarms to fast, to intercede, to overflow with compassion as your Savior did: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often I have longed to gather your children together… but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37).
Christians, let us be a people who gladly receive reproof. “Let a righteous man strike me; it is a kindness; let him rebuke me; it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it” (Psalm 141:5). We want to refuse it. We want to criticize the messenger’s delivery. Don’t let your head refuse this oil. Learn from this ox-man and tremble. Insecure people, proud people, self-reliant people cannot stomach reproofs. But you do know you fall short of God’s perfect will, and you can fully admit it, because you trust in the perfection of Jesus on your behalf.
You can endure, and even welcome, such chastening words. The Spirit uses imperfect tools and flawed reproofs to chisel us into the likeness of the Son– until that sudden, happy reversal, when we are healed beyond all breaking, when we see him face to face.
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Exodus 5:2 — (Pharaoh said), “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?”
I Samuel 25:17 — Such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.
Proverbs 29:1 (as paraphrased in The Message) — For people who hate discipline and only get more stubborn, there will come a day when life tumbles in and they break, but by then it will be too late to help them.
Psalm 141:5 — Let a righteous man strike me; it is a kindness. Let him rebuke me; it is oil for my head. Let my head not refuse it.”
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An old Scotch-Irish prayer to be prayed with tongue in cheek:
Lord, grant that I may always be right, for Thou knowest I am hard to turn.
And then could be added, without tongue in cheek:
When I am wrong, grant that I may be able to see my error, confess it to You, admit it to others, and be led by You to what is true and right in Your eyes. Amen.
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