Thematic Bible: Self-will and stubbornness


Thematic Bible



Thus says the LORD, "Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, 'Where is the good way?' and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." But they said, "We will not walk in it."

They did not keep God's covenant, and refused to walk by his Law.

and refused to obey, neither were they mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and did not forsake them.

Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.


O LORD, do your eyes not look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.


You shall tell them, 'This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of the LORD their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.


The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

Know therefore, that the LORD your God doesn't give you this good land to possess it for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.

Furthermore the LORD spoke to me, saying, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people:


But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.

But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, "No; but we will have a king over us,

"As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you.


Do not harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

Do not lift up your horn on high. Do not speak with a stiff neck."

Now do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; but yield yourselves to the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.



All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.


He said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us; although this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."

Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look to the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin,


But they did not listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

They say continually to those who despise me, "The LORD has said, 'You shall have peace'"; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, "No evil shall come on you."


and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?


and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they dealt proudly, and did not listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, (which if a man does, he shall live in them), turned their backs, stiffened their neck, and would not hear.

"But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their neck, did not listen to your commandments,



She is loud and defiant. Her feet do not stay in her house.


I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, 'You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are the LORD my God.

Do not be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.


If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and, though they chasten him, will not listen to them; then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;


He also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.


He also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.


Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.


Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD, but took the spoils, and did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD?" Saul said to Samuel, "But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and cattle, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal." read more.
Samuel said, "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king."


Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, "Today if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me and challenged me, and saw my works for forty years. read more.
Therefore I was displeased with this generation, and said, 'They always err in their heart, but they did not know my ways;' as I swore in my wrath, 'They will not enter into my rest.'" Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;




Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention;


"But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their neck, did not listen to your commandments,


But they did not listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.


But they did not listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.


Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck, like the neck of their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.


Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.


My soul, do not come into their council. My glory, do not be united to their assembly; for in their anger they killed men. In their self-will they hamstrung cattle.


But it happened, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they did not cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way.