Pigheaded is defined in the dictionary and with synonyms, such as recalcitrant, self-will, stiff-necked, obstinate and froward.
The KJV Bible uses the word froward twenty-one times–once in the NT and twenty times in the Old Testament. In the books of Job, Psalms and Proverbs, it is used eighteen times–fourteen times in the book of Proverbs:
Job 5:13 – He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.
Psalm 18:26 – With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.
Psalm 101:4 – A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.
Proverbs 2:12 – To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;
Proverbs 2:15 – Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:
Proverbs 3:32 – For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous.
Proverbs 4:24 – Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
Proverbs 6:12 – A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.
Proverbs 8:8 – All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.
Proverbs 8:13 – The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
Proverbs 10:31 – The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out.
Proverbs 11:20 – They that are of a froward heart are abomination to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight.
Proverbs 16:28 – A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.
Proverbs 16:30 – He shutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass.
Proverbs 17:20 – He that hath a froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief.
Proverbs 21:8 – The way of man is froward and strange: but as for the pure, his work is right.
Proverbs 22:5 – Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.
These scriptures can really hit home when they’re applied to our selves instead of thinking of someone else when we read them. On a personal level–narrowing it down to just myself, I find it hard to believe just how arrogantly pigheaded I was back in my teens, twenties and thirties. And no, it didn’t disappear all at once and it may be that some of that is still in me at times. When it does come up to the surface, the holy Spirit of God helps me to repent.
Now that I’m beginning my seventies, the frowardness that I see–and as most people identifying themselves as a child of God should–manifesting itself everywhere we look, can tempt us to just simply let it be, relax, enjoy life and let the world continue on the road to hell. The very fact that such a thought would occur to me bothers me. God, Lord Jesus, “Help me in my time of weakness. I know that I’m to be an over-comer () and salt () and light.” () In Acts 13:47, ‘For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.”
By some people’s actions, many would identify them as being pigheaded but if the truth were known, they’re not pigheaded at all. Most of us can and probably do believe something (somewhere in our lives) so strong simply because it is what we’ve understood for a long time. Its part of who we are. Take vaccinations, for example. There are many people who believe all the pro-talking points of why vaccines are needed and believe them to be safe and effective–the whole nine yards. You see, it is very hard to unknow something once you have learned it. But, it can be done.
Most anti-vaxxers were once pro-vaxxers.
I think a froward person can be rightly recognized as such when they refuse to review properly presented information that could be persuasive in causing that person to do some research on their own in order to see if what they’ve been introduced to is true or not. In other words, it is my opinion that some people are pigheaded because they don’t know the truth, which they hate to admit to and their pride keeps them from facing up to it. The sad thing is the consequences of that denial, which will probably manifest itself sooner or later.
Let us humble ourselves while we still can. None of us knows it all but we can know the One who does.
Copyright – 2020