The Proclaimer

Harden Not Your Heart

When God sent Moses back to Egypt to bring the people of God out of bondage, it was necessary to convince Pharaoh to obey the commandment of God and let the people go.  This God did through a series of miracles as ten plagues were brought upon Egypt so that “the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah” (Exodus 7:5).  This miraculous display of power by God should have immediately persuaded Pharaoh to release the people, but it did not.  In fact, Pharaoh’s heart was increasingly hardened with each miracle.  God predicted that this would be the case, as He told Moses, “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt” (Ex. 7:4).  Did this make God responsible for the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart?  Certainly not 

When the eyes are willfully closed to evidence, the heart becomes hardened against the truth.  The very evidence intended to open the eyes may leave one blind, and the truth that should soften and mellow the heart may in turn harden it.  Just like in the days of Pharaoh, because the teaching of Jesus and the signs He did among them made no impression for good upon the Jerusalem Jews, they refused to be honest in their evaluation of either; they would not believe.  In this the words of Isaiah were fulfilled, “He hath blinded their eyes, and he hardened their heart; lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and should turn” (John 12:37-40).  A lack of disposition to hear and to see had led to a hardening of the heart which made it impossible morally – not arbitrarily – for them to believe even when stronger impulses were brought to bear upon them.

They were so completely blinded by their prejudices for traditions that they could not see the power exerted by Jesus in the miracles He worked in their presence.  They demonstrated a total lack of spiritual and intellectual honesty.  Such prejudice continues even today as many reject Jesus and His teachings in spite of the overwhelming evidence of His Deity.  Pharaoh refused to heed the commandment of God because he was not convinced who Jehovah was.  So it is today.  When one truly believes that Jesus Christ is God he will obey His commandments without prejudice, partiality or hesitance.  Unfortunately, many today are not convinced to obey, and like Pharaoh, their hearts continued to be hardened.  “None is so blind as he who will not see.”    

So, what can be done for those who will not see the truth of God?  Actually very little can be done to help them.  The gospel, God’s power to save, is available to all, but for those who refuse to believe it, nothing can be done.  The Hebrew writer makes this point when he says, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries” (Heb. 10:26, 27).  For those Hebrews who refused to accept Christ and His gospel as the fulfillment of Messianic promise there was no hope, for “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”

In the Parable of the Sower Jesus makes it clear that it is the honest and good heart that will receive the word of God (Luke 8:15).  For those hearts that do not measure up, the gospel will have little impact. “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them” (2 Cor. 4:4).

                                                                                              -- Clark Dugger

The Proclaimer