After reading about Casper the Sheepdog (last week’s post), it sparked a memory about our youngest family member. He was about three months old when my husband brought him home, and we named him after the city Mike found him in – Bouse.

He’s now a year-and-a-half-old and as stubborn as the day I met him. His first display of obstinance was cute though – he insisted on being in my lap. It’s not so great now that he’s full grown. 😏

His next stubborn trait showed up during feeding time.
“What’s he doing?” Mike asked one day as we listened and watched him walk around anxiously – it was during Bouse’s first week with us.
“It sounds like he’s braying like a donkey. Do you think it’s from his time running in the desert?” I half-jokingly suggested.
“No, he’s just being a butthead! Make him sit.”
So, we taught him to sit, especially while waiting for his food – but he still brays. As time has gone on, Bouse and I have turned his crying into a tune of sorts. I try to copy the noises he makes, and he answers me back and then we start “singing” together – it’s Beatboxing with Bouse. We go on like that until I put his bowl down.
When I listen to him grunt and groan, sometimes it reminds me of my own gripes and complaints – and I remember the exodus and learning about the many acts of defiance as that event unfolded. Who is your pick for the most stubborn award in that story?
It’s so hard to choose! Here are a few, outside the blatant pigheadedness of the Hebrews.

Pharaoh. He got it in his head that the Hebrew people were too fertile and would someday choose to overpower and overrun the Egyptians. He decided to run God’s people into the ground by working them nearly to death so that they would be too oppressed to propagate. But it didn’t work (Exodus Chapter 1).
Moses came along and then it took ten plagues, the final of which included the death of Pharaoh’s own first-born son, to finally get him to order the release of the Hebrews (Exodus Chapters 2-12). Pharoah almost at once regretted his decision and took off to try to recapture them. His hardheaded ways only led him to death, along with his entire army (Exodus Chapter 14).
That’s pretty stinkin’ stubborn. 😣

Along with Pharoah’s part in the exodus, scripture briefly includes the tenacious midwives who were ordered by Pharoah to kill all male babies born by Hebrew women. The midwives were doggedly God-fearing and refused to do such a thing.
The Lord rewarded their obstinate obedience. (Exodus Chapter 1). 🤗

What about Moses’ parents, and his sister? They knew of Pharoah’s decree but willfully disobeyed it by hiding Moses after his birth. Then there’s Pharoah’s daughter – she took in the Hebrew baby Moses in defiance of her dad’s order. (Exodus Chapter 2). 😮

Let’s consider Moses. When the Lord first called him, he stubbornly pleaded not to be the one. Even with the miraculous signs that he was able to perform through the Lord’s power, Moses still tried to standfast in his opposition to being chosen to lead his people out of slavery. He lacked self-confidence, especially with the way he spoke, and Moses pressed the issue with God far enough that “the LORD’S anger burned against Moses (Ex. 4:14).” (Exodus Chapters 3-6). 😠

Well into the Hebrews’ desert wanderings, is one of the best stubborn asses in the Bible, Balaam’s donkey (Num. 22:21-39). Of course, it’s the Lord speaking through the donkey but it’s funny! God can get crazy because, well …

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9

But the real ass was Balaam himself Who was Balaam in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org. He had several opportunities to repent of his ways and turn to the One True God, but he still chose his own way. Even after the Lord saved Balaam’s life through using Balaam’s own donkey, he found a way to earn the earthly reward that he was after and lose his eternal reward (Jude 1:11).
Sounds like how Satan ran.

Donkeys are great in some respects. But the morale to this writing I guess then is not to be a stubborn ass.

“The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib;
but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”
Isaiah 1:3