I know how stubborn these people are.

You are going to a rich and fertile land. But I will not go with you myself, because you are a stubborn people, and I might destroy you on the way."

For the LORD had commanded Moses to tell them, "You are a stubborn people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I would completely destroy you. Now take off your jewelry, and I will decide what to do with you."

He said, "Lord, if you really are pleased with me, I ask you to go with us. These people are stubborn, but forgive our evil and our sin, and accept us as your own people."

You can be sure that the LORD is not giving you this fertile land because you deserve it. No, you are a stubborn people.

"The LORD also said to me, 'I know how stubborn these people are.

I know how stubborn and rebellious they are. They have rebelled against the LORD during my lifetime, and they will rebel even more after I am dead.

Do not be stubborn as they were, but obey the LORD. Come to the Temple in Jerusalem, which the LORD your God has made holy forever, and worship him so that he will no longer be angry with you.

But our ancestors grew proud and stubborn and refused to obey your commands.

I tell them to stop their boasting."

They will not be like their ancestors, a rebellious and disobedient people, whose trust in God was never firm and who did not remain faithful to him.

I knew that you would prove to be stubborn, as rigid as iron and unyielding as bronze.

Their ancestors did not listen to me or pay any attention. Instead, they became stubborn; they would not obey me or learn from me.

They are stubborn and do not respect me, so I am sending you to tell them what I, the Sovereign LORD, am saying to them.

"But my people stubbornly refused to listen. They closed their minds

and made their hearts as hard as rock. Because they would not listen to the teaching which I sent through the prophets who lived long ago, I became very angry.

and caused me to turn against them and send them into exile in the land of their enemies. At last, when your descendants are humbled and they have paid the penalty for their sin and rebellion,

So then, from now on be obedient to the LORD and stop being stubborn.

The LORD your God will give you and your descendants obedient hearts, so that you will love him with all your heart, and you will continue to live in that land.

Keep your covenant with me, your LORD, and dedicate yourselves to me, you people of Judah and Jerusalem. If you don't, my anger will burn like fire because of the evil things you have done. It will burn, and there will be no one to put it out."

I answered, "Who would listen to me if I spoke to them and warned them? They are stubborn and refuse to listen to your message; they laugh at what you tell me to say.

The LORD says, "The time is coming when I will punish the people of Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and the desert people, who have their hair cut short. All these people are circumcised, but have not kept the covenant it symbolizes. None of these people and none of the people of Israel have kept my covenant."

(SEE 9:25)

They have profaned my Temple by letting uncircumcised foreigners, people who do not obey me, enter the Temple when the fat and the blood of the sacrifices are being offered to me. So my people have broken my covenant by all the disgusting things they have done.

"I, the Sovereign LORD, declare that no uncircumcised foreigner, no one who disobeys me, will enter my Temple, not even a foreigner who lives among the people of Israel."

If you obey the Law, your circumcision is of value; but if you disobey the Law, you might as well never have been circumcised.

After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing.

Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings.

It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies.

In union with Christ you were circumcised, not with the circumcision that is made by human beings, but with the circumcision made by Christ, which consists of being freed from the power of this sinful self.

But the Spirit gave Stephen such wisdom that when he spoke, they could not refute him.

Year after year you patiently warned them. You inspired your prophets to speak, but your people were deaf, so you let them be conquered by other nations.

but they rebelled against him and made his holy spirit sad. So the LORD became their enemy and fought against them.

And do not make God's Holy Spirit sad; for the Spirit is God's mark of ownership on you, a guarantee that the Day will come when God will set you free.

"Jacob's sons became jealous of their brother Joseph and sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him

But the one who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside. 'Who made you ruler and judge over us?' he asked.

"Moses is the one who was rejected by the people of Israel. 'Who made you ruler and judge over us?' they asked. He is the one whom God sent to rule the people and set them free with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush.

"But our ancestors refused to obey him; they pushed him aside and wished that they could go back to Egypt.

So you actually admit that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets!

You snakes and children of snakes! How do you expect to escape from being condemned to hell?