The Bible has a lot to say about being “stiff-necked.” This term is used to describe someone who is stubborn, unyielding, prideful, and unwilling to submit to God’s authority. A stiff-necked person resists God’s will and refuses to follow His ways. Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly confronts His stiff-necked people and calls them to repentance and renewal. Let’s explore what the Bible teaches about being stiff-necked:
1. Stiff-neckedness is rooted in pride and self-will
When a person is stiff-necked, they are placing their own desires and agenda above God’s. They want to remain in control rather than yielding to God. We see this clearly in Exodus 32 when Aaron makes a golden calf for the Israelites to worship while Moses is up on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments from God. The people grew impatient waiting for Moses and took matters into their own hands, fashioning an idol and reveling in depravity. God accused them saying, “They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” (Exodus 32:8). Their stiff-necked rebellion revealed the idolatry and wickedness lurking in their hearts.
We also see proud self-will behind King Saul’s stiff-necked disobedience when God commanded him to completely destroy the Amalekites but Saul spared the king and the best livestock (1 Samuel 15:1-23). He defiantly insisted on doing things his own way rather than submitting fully to God’s instructions. This ultimately cost Saul the kingdom. A core issue in stiff-neckedness is elevating our will above God’s will.
2. God opposes the stiff-necked
Scripture contains dire warnings about the dangers of stiff-necked rebellion. God strongly opposes the proud and stiff-necked because they insist on resisting His loving lordship. In Proverbs 29:1, King Solomon warns, “He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.” And in Jeremiah 17:23, God says, “But they did not obey or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.” God wants us to submit to His wisdom, but the stubbornly proud stiffen their necks against Him. As Proverbs repeatedly warns, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).
God’s anger burned hot against stiff-necked Israel. Through the prophets He lamented, “But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 7:11-12). Godjudges stiff-necked pride harshly because it leads to destruction.
3. Stiff-neckedness often brings God’s discipline
One of the primary themes of the Old Testament is how God repeatedly disciplines His people for their stiff-necked rebellion. Despite seeing miracle after miracle and receiving law after law, the Israelites constantly turned from God to worship false idols. Every time they began to stray, God in His mercy disciplined them to turn their hearts back to Him. For example, they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness because of their unbelief and grumbling spirits after God powerfully delivered them from Egypt. Their stiff necks cost them decades of delay and hardship.
The cycle continued for centuries—idolatry, stiff-necked rebellion, discipline, repentance, renewal. After they entered the Promised Land, God allowed Israel’s enemies to conquer and oppress them when they turned to false gods. But when they cried out to Him, God would mercifully raise up judges and deliverers. The book of Judges sums it up: “But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lordraised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them” (Judges 3:9). God disciplines stiff-necked people because He desires repentance and their good.
4. Repentance opens the door to God’s mercy
Though God opposes the proud stiff-necked, He still extends mercy when they humble themselves, soften their hearts, and turn back to Him. After disciplining stiff-necked Israel in the wilderness for 40 years, He said, “For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them” (Deuteronomy 4:31). Godpatiently waited for their repentance so He could lavish mercy on them again.
When God saw their repentant weeping and mourning after years of idolatry, Scripture says “The Lord could not bear to do the calamity He had pronounced on them” (Jeremiah 42:10). He withheld the discipline He had warned them about, showing great compassion. Likewise, in the book of Judges whenever Israel cried out to God in their misery, He raised up judges and deliverers as promised. Though severe at times, God’s heart is always to restore the stiff-necked when they soften their hearts and turn back to Him.
5. Jesus provides salvation for the stiff-necked
The New Testament continues the theme of God’s opposition to stiff-necked pride. Stephen accused the Jewish leaders of being “stiff-necked” for rejecting Jesus as their Messiah and Savior (Acts 7:51-53). But God provided salvation even for those stiff-necked sinners through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. As Paul said regarding self-righteous Jews who rejected the gospel, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:16-17).
Though we all were stiff-necked toward God before knowing Christ, embracing Jesus by faith softens our stubborn hearts. Paul reassures that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15), even proud, self-willed ones. There is no sin or stubbornness the blood of Jesus cannot wash away for those who repent and believe.
6. We must learn humility and submission from Jesus
To walk in freedom from stiff-necked rebellion, we must look to Jesus’ perfect example of humility and submission displayed on the cross. The Son of God laid aside all privileges of divinity to become a servant and obediently go to the cross on our behalf (Philippians 2:6-8). Unlike us, Jesus’ every desire was to do the Father’s will. Before His crucifixion He prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Though it was excruciating, Jesus submitted fully to the Father’s plan for our salvation.
And God invites us to share in this humility by following Jesus’ model: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). As we fix our eyes on Christ and what He accomplished for us by His submission, it melts away our stubborn pride. We embrace the path of humility and obedience that leads to blessing rather than demanding our own stiff-necked way.
7. Submitting to God’s ways brings freedom and life
The more we walk in humility and submission like our Savior instead of stiff-necked rebellion, the more we experience the abundant life God desires for us. Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30). Contrary to what our pride tells us, there is great rest and freedom in submitting to Jesus’ leadership.
In contrast, stiff-necked self-will only leads to pain and turmoil. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death,” Proverbs warns (14:12). God’s commands are for our good, even when our stubborn flesh wants to resist them. As we surrender more fully to God each day, we find the peace, hope, and purpose our souls desperately need.
8. We must encourage one another against stiff-neckedness
Since we all struggle with pride at times, we need fellow believers to exhort us when they see symptoms of stiff-neckedness. The writer of Hebrews says, “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13). When others humbly confront us, it provides an opportunity to identify blind spots of stubbornness we cannot see and turn from it.
We also need encouragement from fellow Christians to persevere in doing good, warning “that no one fail to obtain the grace of God…that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled” (Hebrews 12:15). Our brothers and sisters help us avoid stiffening our necks against God again when they walk alongside us.
9. Remember God’s mercy toward you
Remembering how patient and merciful God has been with our own stiff-necked failings softens our hearts toward Him. The more we dwell on God’s compassion for us displayed in Christ, the more we desire to yield to Him instead of demanding our own way. As Paul urges, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). When we recall God’s mercy, we long to live as living sacrifices to Him.
Like the father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, God watches and waits for our stiff necks to bow in humility before joyfully welcoming us back (Luke 15). Seeing ourselves as beloved children softens stubborn hearts.
10. Ask God to give you a heart of flesh, not stone
Ultimately, only God can melt our cold, stiff necks into soft, pliable hearts that want to follow Him. King David cried out, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). David knew only the Lord could give him a heart willing to be led instead of pushing back. As God said through Ezekiel, “I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). Keep praying for God to soften any stubbornness in your heart.
Though we all wrestle with prideful self-will at times, the Bible offers great hope for overcoming stiff-neckedness through Jesus. As we humble ourselves and submit to God’s loving wisdom and the counsel of fellow believers, He will transform us and lead us into abundant life. And remembering how God gently bore with us in our stubbornness fills us with gratitude and joyful obedience.
