"For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry" (I Samuel 15:23).

For our admonition the Lord placed two examples and two warnings concerning rebellion and stubbornness in the Old Testament. The first concerns the nation of Israel as a whole. When God delivered the nation from Egypt it was not long before they had made a golden calf, entering into idolatrous worship. Were it not for Moses' intercession, they would have been destroyed. He prayed, "Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people" (Deuteronomy 9:27). Many years later the Psalmist, Asaph, prays that the nation "might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation" (Psalm 78:8).

The second concerns a king. King Saul stubbornly refused to destroy all the Amalekites. He kept alive King Agag and the best of the animals. Samuel described this disobedience as rebellion and stubbornness, comparing it to the sins of witchcraft and idolatry (text).

The third is a warning to Jewish sons. "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son. . . . Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city. . . . And they shall say . . . This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice. . . . And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones" (Deuteronomy 21:18-21). Fortunately there is no indication in Scripture that this ever happened. The threat of capital punishment was a deterrent.

The fourth is a warning concerning a fallen woman. She is described as being "loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house" (Proverbs 7:11).

Rather than being rebellious and stubborn, wouldn't it be better to obey God and do His will from the heart? NPS