I know how stubborn and rebellious they are. They have rebelled against the LORD during my lifetime, and they will rebel even more after I am dead.

Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had forced him to swear in God's name that he would be loyal. He stubbornly refused to repent and return to the LORD, the God of Israel.

If you get more stubborn every time you are corrected, one day you will be crushed and never recover.

I knew that you would prove to be stubborn, as rigid as iron and unyielding as bronze.

Yet no one listened or paid any attention. Instead, you became more stubborn and rebellious than your ancestors.

Or perhaps you despise his great kindness, tolerance, and patience. Surely you know that God is kind, because he is trying to lead you to repent.

But you have a hard and stubborn heart, and so you are making your own punishment even greater on the Day when God's anger and righteous judgments will be revealed.

So then, as the Holy Spirit says, "If you hear God's voice today,

do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were when they rebelled against God, as they were that day in the desert when they put him to the test.

But in spite of what I said, you still would not trust the LORD,

because they had no faith in him and did not believe that he would save them.

In spite of all this the people kept sinning; in spite of his miracles they did not trust him.

Then they rejected the pleasant land, because they did not believe God's promise.

My friends, be careful that none of you have a heart so evil and unbelieving that you will turn away from the living God.