40 Bible Verses about Self Will

So I spoke to you, but you didn’t listen. You rebelled against the Lord’s command and defiantly went up into the hill country.

He had said to them:
“This is the place of rest,
let the weary rest;
this is the place of repose.”
But they would not listen.

For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said:
“You will be delivered by returning and resting;
your strength will lie in quiet confidence.
But you are not willing.”

“But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this man to rule over us!’

especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority.

Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones;

After singing psalms, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will run away, because it is written:

I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered. But after I have been resurrected, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” read more.
Peter told Him, “Even if everyone runs away, I will certainly not!” “I assure you,” Jesus said to him, “today, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times!” But he kept insisting, “If I have to die with You, I will never deny You!” And they all said the same thing.

Do not lift up your horn against heaven
or speak arrogantly.’”

But our ancestors acted arrogantly;
they became stiff-necked and did not listen to Your commands.

Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention but followed their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.

Because I know that you are stubborn,
and your neck is iron
and your forehead bronze,

Since I called out and you refused,
extended my hand and no one paid attention,

The people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We must have a king over us.

“As for the word you spoke to us in the name of Yahweh, we are not going to listen to you!

But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear.

They refused to listen
and did not remember Your wonders
You performed among them.
They became stiff-necked and appointed a leader
to return to their slavery in Egypt.
But You are a forgiving God,
gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in faithful love,
and You did not abandon them.

Who gave Jacob to the robber,
and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord?
Have we not sinned against Him?
They were not willing to walk in His ways,
and they would not listen to His instruction.

They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to live by His law.

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother and doesn’t listen to them even after they discipline him,

Lord, don’t Your eyes look for faithfulness?
You have struck them, but they felt no pain.
You finished them off,
but they refused to accept discipline.
They made their faces harder than rock,
and they refused to return.

You must therefore declare to them: This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the Lord their God and would not accept discipline. Truth has perished—it has disappeared from their mouths.

For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are rebelling against the Lord now, while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after I am dead!

Then they would not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not loyal
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

“You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; as your ancestors did, so do you.

They keep on saying to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord has said: You will have peace.’ They have said to everyone who follows the stubbornness of his heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’”

For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He has rejected you as king.

For an overseer, as God’s administrator, must be blameless, not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not addicted to wine, not a bully, not greedy for money,

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

Today, if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
and saw My works read more.
for 40 years.
Therefore I was provoked with that generation
and said, “They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known My ways.”
So I swore in My anger,
“They will not enter My rest.” Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God.

Then he said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Even though this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wrongdoing and sin, and accept us as Your own possession.”

Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Disregard this people’s stubbornness, and their wickedness and sin.

She is loud and defiant;
her feet do not stay at home.

Whenever the judge died, the Israelites would act even more corruptly than their fathers, going after other gods to worship and bow down to them. They did not turn from their evil practices or their obstinate ways.

Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

One who becomes stiff-necked,
after many reprimands
will be shattered instantly—
beyond recovery.

Do not be like a horse or mule,
without understanding,
that must be controlled with bit and bridle
or else it will not come near you.

I have heard Ephraim moaning,
“You disciplined me, and I have been disciplined
like an untrained calf.
Restore me, and I will return,
for you, Lord, are my God.

May I never enter their council;
may I never join their assembly.
For in their anger they kill men,
and on a whim they hamstring oxen.

The Lord also said to Moses: “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

So why didn’t you obey the Lord? Why did you rush on the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord’s sight?” “But I did obey the Lord!” Saul answered. “I went on the mission the Lord gave me: I brought back Agag, king of Amalek, and I completely destroyed the Amalekites. The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder—the best of what was set apart for destruction—to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” read more.
Then Samuel said:

Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?

Look: to obey is better than sacrifice,
to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He has rejected you as king.

Yet the king’s order prevailed over Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army left the king’s presence to register the troops of Israel.