The stony heart!

“Let My people go that they may worship and serve me!” This was God’s message to Pharaoh but his proud heart would not heed.

I have been asking myself, “why would a good, gracious God make one’s heart hard?” From a human perspective, it seems wrong for God to harden a person and then punish the person He has hardened. Pharaoh was exposed to the truth over and over again, yet refused to respond accordingly.  He was presented with overwhelming evidence.  Plague after plague, sign after sign, miracle after miracle, but still he refused to accept God’s warnings and let the Israelites go.

Let’s get it right!

First, the Pharaoh wasn’t innocent or a godly man. He was a brutal dictator overseeing terrible abuse and oppression of the Israelites. The Egyptian pharaohs had enslaved the Israelites for 400 years and even ordered that male Israelite babies be killed at birth Ex 1:16.

Proverbs 29:1 states the biblical principle, “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”

Pharaoh hardened his heart and resisted the authority of God over his life. Pharaoh blinded himself and refused to recognize God, and in so doing he incurred the wrath and judgment of God. Some are quick to point out that it says that “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart” but the truth is that we are told numerous times that “Pharaoh hardened his heart” before we are told that finally “God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”

When we harden our hearts against God and His word, He gives us up to our sinful desires and delusion.

Romans 1:19, 24-25  For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them.

²⁴. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their [own] hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves [abandoning them to the degrading power of sin],

²⁵ Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen (so be it).

Signs of a hard heart:

i.                    Stubbornness-

ii.                  Lack of concern for spiritual things or insensitivity to God’s work

iii.                Ignoring the testimony of other people or tragic events

iv.                Recognizing sin but refusing to deal with it (confess, repent). True remorse leads to repentance.

v.                  Pride

Consequences of hardening our hearts against God and His word

i.                     Blatant disobedience- “Who is God that I should obey Him?” Ex 5:1

ii.                    Insincerity -yielded to God verbally

iii.                  Conviction without commitment

iv.                  Serious consequences come when we do not listen to and obey God. The more we disobey the more serious the consequences even death

Solution

Rev 3:20 says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Further, Heb 3:15 “As has just been said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
Ps 95:7, Heb 3:7, 4:7;

i.                    True repentance. It manifests in changed life

ii.                  Humbling ourselves before God

“I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.’’

Ezekiel 36:26.