The tragedy of the hardened heart

The Lord said to Moses… “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart…” Exodus 7:1-3

But… Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go. Exodus 8:32

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts… Hebrews 3:7-8

I remember a man I met at a church where I preached from time to time. He was as regular in his attendance as many of the active church members. He seemed entirely at home in this community of quite lively Christians; indeed, he was involved to the extent of happily helping out with various practical tasks.

But… he was quite open about not being a Christian. “So why do you come?” I asked him. “Oh, I love it,” he cheerfully replied. “They’re such lovely people here - I look forward to every Sunday morning”. When I pointed out that one of the reasons the people at the church were so kind and welcoming was because of what they actually believed as Christians - and wasn’t it about time he too made that step of faith! - he just smiled and said “No, I’m not interested, I don’t want it!”

Christians of past generations used to describe such people as “gospel-hardened”. We can imagine them sadly shaking their heads and saying, “Oh yes, he never misses coming to church, but he’s heard the gospel so often that it just rolls off him like water off a duck’s back”.

Well, it would be wrong to begrudge that man the blessing he found in a gathering of Christian people. But I couldn’t help feeling that as well as being distinctly odd, his attitude was also extremely sad. Only God can judge the true state of someone’s heart, of course, but it was hard not to wonder if this man was “gospel-hardened”.

The Bible has quite a lot to say about hard hearts.

One of the best known passages is Exodus 4-11; it’s the grim lead-up to the great event known as the exodus, when God set his people free from their captivity in Egypt. Several times Pharaoh, the Egyptian king, had opportunities to yield to God’s offer of mercy rather than face judgment, but equally on several occasions Pharaoh said No, until the point was reached where it was too late, and judgment fell. (The fact that sometimes we are told that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and other times that Pharaoh hardened his own heart is perhaps as near as the Bible gets to explaining the mystery of the two seemingly contradictory realities: human freedom on the one hand, and divine sovereignty on the other.)

Often, when God scolds his people Israel for their failure to be faithful to him, he accuses them of being hard-hearted: for example, “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah…” (Psalm 95:8) - a passage later on taken up in the New Testament, as in Hebrews 3:7-8,15 and 4:7.

The quoting of these passages in the New Testament should alert us to an important truth: that we as Christians can also be guilty of developing hard hearts. The writer to the Hebrews is clearly concerned that his readers are in danger of sliding back into their pre-Christian past (eg, 3:12-14). So while their situation is a long way from that of stubborn Pharaoh, they are in serious spiritual danger, and there is no room for complacency.

And this, surely, is a danger into which we too can fall.

Here’s a question which I find it challenging to put to myself, and which you might find helpful too: Have I ever felt that God was speaking to me, by whatever means, but said to myself “Not today”, or perhaps “No, that’s one thing I can’t do” or just allowed the message to fade away? If I have, then what is that but hardening my heart against the word of God?

Looked at from a human perspective, it’s as if God reaches a point of no return. The Bible says that “he is not willing that anyone should perish” (2 Peter 3:9) – yet we know that there are those who do perish. I hesitate to say simply that “his patience runs out”, for that makes him sound just like an irritable man or woman, but to us it may seem that way.

We’ve come a long way from the idea of being “gospel-hardened”, from Pharaoh, and from my cheery atheistic friend. But there is a New Testament passage where Paul, without actually using the word “harden”, expresses very much the same idea.

In Romans 1 he speaks at some length about “the wrath of God” against human sin as represented by the gentiles, and in three separate places he says that it is a destiny which God “gives them over” to (verses 24, 26, 28). That could sound as if God washes his hands of them once and for all; but it can’t mean that, for otherwise why would Paul have gone to such extreme lengths to preach the gospel to these very people?

But the point we need to grasp is that God’s word is a serious matter, not something to be brushed aside or treated casually. It is something to be responded to, not merely listened to.

Are any of us in danger of hardening our hearts against his love and grace, or against any aspect of his truth? Is it time to give in?

Father, I confess that there are aspects of your word which make me uncomfortable, and which I am tempted to dismiss. Please forgive me, and help me even today to respond to anything you might be saying to me. Amen.