Arcana Coelestia # 10628
10628. 'For they are a stiff-necked people' means even though the Israelite nation does not accept what is Divine from an interior level. This is clear from the meaning of 'a stiff-necked people' as those who do not receive the inflow of what is Divine, dealt with in 10429, thus do not accept what is Divine from an interior level; for what is Divine flows into a person from an interior level. The implications of this are clear from what has been shown before regarding the Israelite nation, namely that their interest lay in the external things of worship, the Church, and the Word, and not at all in what was internal, so that they stood outside and not within what was external. What is implied by standing outside and not within what is external, see 10551, 10608.
2 Samuel 24:13
13
So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thy foes while they pursue thee? or shall there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise thee, and consider what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
