A Hardened Heart

Background Scripture: Exodus 5-10
Lesson Scripture: Exodus 7:1-13

Introduction

What is a hardened heart, and what causes it? Is it a result of our choices, or is it something that just happens because of circumstance or place?

We do not understand the mind of God. Life itself generates many unanswered questions regarding many things we do not understand and never will. Some things are better left in God’s hands because his ways are past finding out.

Believing in that which lies beyond our comprehension and reason requires a certain amount of faith. What is our faith anchored in? Is it in the immutable Word of God or in abstract, humanistic ideas that man has generated?

We can follow what is revealed to us, and God will reward that as our hearts are pliable and soft. This will enable us to place our faith in a God who transcends all that we can know or think.

Key Verse

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh (Ezek. 36:26).

Lesson Scripture

Studying the Lesson

Our lesson text explicitly states that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Had God turned his back on the Egyptians? It is also recorded that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exod. 8:15). What was God’s purpose with Pharaoh?

No person is capable of resisting God’s divine will, not even the king of Egypt. God strengthened Pharaoh’s resolve through the will of Pharaoh. As God displayed his divine power, it caused the king to become more entrenched in his own way.

Pharaoh defiantly asked, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?” (Exod. 5:2). Being willingly ignorant of God and his ways produces hardness of heart. Though God gives all people voluntary choice, in a final measure He is able to subdue a man who chooses to disregard his will.

The Egyptians had a pagan belief system with many gods and idols. God miraculously showed Himself to them by decimating their natural resources, many of which they considered sacred to their religion. Through the obstinate will of man, God is able to demonstrate his overriding power. God’s spirit does not always put up with man; when people position themselves long enough against Him, He does not remove their free choice. He simply gives them what they want and lets them suffer the consequences.

When the Israelites left Egypt, it was with a mixed multitude. There must have been neighbors who believed and cast their lot in with God’s people. God’s judgments and mercy can clearly be seen by those who look for it.

The universal proclamation “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13) assures the sincere seeker there is a way to God. It involves calling for help and reaching out beyond ourselves.

Practical Truths for Today

To have a soft heart is foreign and unnatural to our depraved flesh. Our hearts are hard and self-willed by nature. At what point does a heart lose its sense of wonderment and awe of God and his grace?

Young children are full of questions and have an almost insatiable quest to learn and understand everything they can. As we become older, the quest for learning dissipates, and we become familiar with the way things go, trusting our experience and intellect. Could this be the beginning of an imperceptible hardening of the heart? Without the guidance of God, it is a natural process to become hardened by the eventualities and difficulties of life. Sadly, some choose to become bitter and offended.

God promises to remove the stony heart and give us a heart of flesh, as stated by the key verse. This refers to a new heart and a new spirit. Even a dedicated Christian can develop a certain amount of lethargy, living by conventional routine and not by the warmth of the Spirit. Jesus set a little child in the midst and said that unless we become as a little child we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. The heart of a child is soft, pliable, and teachable. This conversion of the heart and spirit is absolutely essential and must be maintained as a watch against a hard heart.

The Bible tells us that a new king came into power in Egypt who had likely only heard of Joseph. The Egyptians were great historians, but that personal connection was gone. The firsthand experience of God’s greatness had faded into the background, and the new king became fearful of the great multitude of Hebrews. He surely felt that he had a lot to lose if he did not do something about the perceived threat. Without the intimate knowledge of God’s providence and power, we too can become fearful. Fear will induce us to become closed and hardhearted.

None of us are very far removed from this. In many ways we may feel that we also have a lot to lose and a lot to protect, so we become stubborn and unwilling to submit our will to the plan of God. We may have a false perception of our value to God and to others and reach to protect this. In this state we become unwilling to humble ourselves and admit our great need of God. In doing so we feel that our self-worth will be diminished. Who are we trying to fool? God is not fooled, and very few of our fellowmen are either; the only person who is really being fooled is ourself—the proud, sinful man. Obadiah 3 states that the “pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.”

Humility is a wonderful virtue, and by its heavenly attributes, it could be called the chiefest of virtues. It is not listed as part of the fruits of the Spirit, because the fruits of the Spirit simply do not manifest until we have become humbled and emptied of ourselves. This is man’s part; God does not dwell with the proud but with the humble and lowly. Jesus is our supreme example, and He is the embodiment of humility.

The depravity of man is like gravity; it has a continual downward pull. Satan seeks to lead us into deception by replacing our first love to God with good feelings. Love is at times accompanied by feelings, but first it is sacrificial. The devil capitalizes on the basis of what we can get and offers us prizes by employing selfishness and walking in our own light. At first it seems like a miracle; we can serve God and still have what we want, but the wonder is short lived. If the enemy is given enough space, he will not only harden the heart but drown out the still, small voice that pleads for consideration. We can quite adapt to a subtle change in our fervency and sincerity and become acclimated to a substandard of Christian living. When confronted with a question about casualness, we may be defensive, unaware that the soft spirit of a child is missing or sadly lacking. Exercising our daily devotion to God keeps apathy and indifference from settling in. Life is not all roses, but the knowledge that God will always be there will bring us back again and again.

Illustration

Some people have a condition called hardening of the arteries that is caused by a gradual buildup of fat, cholesterol, and other substances. These substances are called plaques, and over time these plaques can build up and narrow or block some arteries and cause problems throughout the body. This process goes on silently and unseen on the inside, and many are not aware of what is happening.

With our natural body, this could be a troubling thought, but is there a likelihood of this going on in our spiritual life? There certainly is a spiritual application to this condition. What are the harmful substances that are building up in our spiritual body? Being unforgiving, having a sense of superiority, fear, mistrust, or even inferiority may be building up beneath the surface. Maybe at times we have a slight indication that something is wrong but continue living in a state of denial. Finally, we get a wake-up call—maybe through our brother or maybe through a chance visit with a person who is not a Christian. The Lord is gracious to us, and by his gentle chiding, we are able to see ourselves as we really are. We can then go to the great Physician and seek our brother’s counsel. When we get the prescription, do we follow it, or do we harden our heart and continue with life? Do we live in a state of unconcern, perhaps dismissing all the questions, living as though nothing is happening? Poor spiritual health brings the reality of spiritual death ever nearer.

Humility esteems another higher than oneself. We might allow a brother to be our equal, but how about being willing to let our brother be more important than us? We may not realize how easily we sit on the throne of our heart and how easily we displace God from that very station. When God is not the center of our lives, that which is spiritually unhealthy begins to stop the flow of God’s love into our hearts. Christian life becomes mechanical, spiritless, and without joy.

May we continually return to the fountain of living water and draw deeply of its life-giving stream, letting the healing tonic of those waters continually purge our inner man of the sin and darkness that can harden our heart.

Questions

1. How aware are we when our own heart begins to harden?
2. Considering that God loves us and that nothing can separate us from the love of God, how concerned should we be about the hidden dangers of that which hardens our heart?
3. Can we have a spiritually degenerative disease and not know it?
4. Does God ever harden someone’s heart so his glory and power can be displayed?
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Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).