Hardened Hearts (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen. Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?” No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?””
Romans 9:18-20 NLT

Paul puts himself in the shoes of his readers. He asks the question – if God has hardened people’s hearts, can they be blamed for not responding to Him? A follow on question might be, if God wants everyone to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4) why would he apparently prevent most people from responding to His grace and mercy? 

The place to start is probably a scene in a Garden with three actors – Adam, Eve and a serpent. The introduction of sin into a sinless world automatically included a hardening of hearts, as selfish and godless thoughts grew a layer of callouses around hearts that were previously soft and attentive to God. And the same condition has afflicted all of mankind, up to the present day. Has hard-heartedness been a condition caused by God or by sin? I’m reminded of an oyster, a shellfish that deals with an irritating grain of sand by depositing layers of calcium carbonate around it to mitigate the irritation. A human being will allow callouses to build up around a sinful heart so that the voice of the conscience within becomes increasingly quieter. The thing is, God allows it to happen because He has granted to mankind free choice. Human beings can choose to sin or not to sin. But perhaps God has hardened hearts in judgement for the sin that came through Adam. 

Happily, hardened hearts are not a terminal condition. Through God’s grace and mercy, hearts can be softened – that’s why Jesus came to this world. Heart surgery was, and is, His speciality. The layers of hardness are peeled back to expose the softness of a repentant sinner’s heart, open and pliable in God’s hands.  

But there is hope for a hard-hearted people. We read in Ezekiel 11:19-20, “And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart, so they will obey my decrees and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God”. In the context of Ezekiel’s day, this was when the exiles were returning from captivity, through choice. Many of course stayed behind. And the same will apply to those exiled in their sins, and who make the choice to turn or return to God. Through God’s grace and mercy, He will do what is necessary to turn a hard stone into a “tender, responsive heart”. 

So today we pilgrims once again follow the advice of a psalmist, who wrote in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life”. That’s where we start when we have perhaps found ourselves exiled away from our home with God, into the darkness of the societies around us. It’s a dangerous prayer to pray. We might find stuff within us we rather not have known about. Painful to consider and deal with but God has our future at heart. There is no room for hard hearts calloused by sin in Heaven. God is in the business of softening hearts, – if we let Him.

Dear God. Thank You for Your grace. You are so concerned about each one of us that You never stop loving us and forgiving us when we confess our sins. Thank You. Amen.

Hardened Hearts (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.”
Romans 9:17-18 NLT

In Romans 9:17, Paul quoted a verse from Exodus 9. The context was a conversation between Moses and Pharaoh, taking place in the middle of the plagues that God had sent to the Egyptian nation, plagues that attempted to change Pharaoh’s mind about allowing the Israelites to leave Egypt. And in the middle of this conversation we read what Moses said to him. “But I have spared you for a purpose—to show you my power and to spread my fame throughout the earth” (Exodus 9:16). Pharaoh wasn’t at all keen in allowing the Israelite slaves to leave Egypt. They were the power house driving his economy, building his public buildings, probably the pyramids as well. But God wanted to demonstrate for all posterity His power and to make sure that all the peoples of that age and in the vicinity of Egypt would know what He was capable of. Perhaps God was setting the scene for what was going to happen a few years later when the Israelites started to take over their promised land. Before Moses even returned to Egypt, following the burning bush experience, he was warned about God’s plan. We read in Exodus 4:21, “And the Lord told Moses, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go”. God exercised a divine choice, as Paul wrote in today’s verses from Romans 9.

It is a trait of human beings, that we can “harden our hearts” when faced with a situation that perhaps demands a more compassionate response. In the Uk we are bombarded, particularly on daytime TV, with heart-wringing adverts promoting one good cause after another. It is humanly impossible to respond to all of them, though there are reports of some that try, but most people “harden their hearts” in response by looking away, or selecting another channel. Sadly, people “harden their hearts’ when it comes to the things of God. We read what Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:17-19, “With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity”. In the walks around my neighbourhood I sometimes find an opportunity to talk about God and His message of hope. But mostly I receive a negative response, from people who have “hardened their hearts” against anything to do with God. 

Another group of hard-hearted people are the scientists and medics who believe in evolutionary theories that try and explain the world around us, because they have “hardened their hearts” against any alternative. They develop all sorts of implausible responses to the anomalies in their beliefs, so that they can avoid the consequences of having to admit that God exists.

But the important consideration for us pilgrims is about whether or not we have “hardened our hearts” against anything God wants us to do. And we will only find an answer to that in His presence. In Isaiah 6, the prophet had a vision of God in the temple. It was so real and profound that he volunteered to do God’s work becoming a voice to his people, the Israelites. But he had an uphill struggle. We read in Isaiah 6:9-10, “And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’ Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing””. It was time for God’s chosen people to be disciplined for their stubborn rebellion and sin. But Isaiah was faithful to his call. There are men and women declaring God’s message to this generation, in our communities and nations. We may be amongst them. But I think we can all agree that there are many “hardened hearts” around us.

We pilgrims need to ensure that our hearts are soft, so that God’s message is received and acted upon in our lives. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life”. It’s a prayer that all pilgrims must regularly pray.

Dear Father God. We pray for hearts, softened by Your love and grace, Your kindness and mercy. We worship You today. Amen.

Refusing to Understand

Posted on by korgrocker

“They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.”
Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭31‬ ‭NLT

Paul’s rant about those who “thought it foolish to acknowledge God” continues with a damning indictment of their deeds. He lists four qualities that define a mindset befitting wicked and sinful people. 

He firstly says they “refuse to understand”. But what is there that they are closing their minds to? How often have we had a response to some comment or other like “but you just don’t understand”? Perhaps the person, who is apparently being misunderstood, is in the process of some action that is not normal behaviour or is responding strangely to some question or action undertaken by another. A problem easily cleared up most of the time, but what Paul is referring to is the action of wicked people in closing their minds to any explanation or idea that does not fit in with their sinful mindset. For example, walk down any High Street and ask a random person what they think about God. A person prepared to stop and discuss would be a rare response. Mostly, the person would just walk away or even come up with an angry retort. “They refuse to understand” fits their position very well.

In Isaiah 6:9-10, God said to the prophet, “And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’ Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing.” Why was Isaiah given an apparently impossible task? To try and evangelise a people whose hearts had been hardened to the extent that they did not understand anything concerning God anymore. Where is the merciful God in all that?

The answer comes in Romans 1:28, “Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking …”. If God abandons them they will lose the ability to hear Him and His words of love and grace. And for most no amount of pleading or evangelising will be able to break into a heart that “refuse[s] to understand”. That was the situation in Isaiah’s day, and such behaviour is still with us today, as it was in Paul’s times.

So what is the remedy for our serial refusers? Will they never be able to turn to God and embrace His words of eternal life? Will they never be able to experience His love? To say so would be to adopt the same position as them, refusing to understand the grace of God. God’s grace can melt the hardest heart. It can penetrate into the very inner core of our beings, as we read in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires”. Even for those He has abandoned there is hope.

So what do we pilgrims do, when faced with an apparent brick wall of unbelief and a refusal to respond from those we love in our families and communities? We persevere. We pray. And we believe in faith that God will find a chink in the armour that protects the hardest of hearts. It happened with me, and I’m sure that it has happened to many of my readers today. Through God’s grace, He revealed Himself to me one Saturday night, penetrating a heart hardened by wrong thinking, by a “refusal to understand”. 

Is there someone reading this today who has a heart that fails to understand God’s love and grace? Who thinks it might apply to someone else but not to them? Through Jesus and His sacrifice at Calvary, we have access to a loving God, but only if we open our hearts before Him and repent of our wickedness and sin. And His love, grace and mercy will flood in, opening a door into a new world of hope.

Dear Father God. Please help us to persevere in our prayers for our loved ones. We name them before You today, in faith that the word they need is, right now, on the way to them. Thank You. Amen.