In this chapter we will continue to focus on the vessels for dishonor being "fitted" or "prepared" for destruction (Rom. 9: 22), examining the ways that such people are being readied for destruction. As stated in the previous chapter we took the position that both God and the vessels of wrath are involved in this fitting and we will now elaborate on that point. We stated that one of the ways in which this preparation occurs is through the hardening of the heart, which in the case of Pharaoh was said to be both what God did and what Pharaoh did. So, we will begin with a focus on hardening of the heart and then proceed to other ways in which both God and the vessels of wrath do the fitting. Recall that Paul cited the oracle of God from the Book of Exodus, writing these words:
"For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens." (Rom. 9: 17-18 nkjv)
It would be easy to fault God for Pharaoh going back on his word and not letting the people of Israel go and for the Egyptians having to suffer all those plagues of destruction. But, that would be a case of jumping to conclusions.
Being hardened by God is set in opposition to being shown mercy. To be hardened, therefore, is the result of not being shown mercy or compassion. Second, God is free in his sovereignty to show mercy to whom he wills and to not show mercy to whom he wills; And, that is right for God to do. Mercy that is deserved is not mercy. Such a truth often incites people to question God's moral attributes, especially his fairness. They also are provoked to ask why God chooses to show mercy to one and not to another, they being adverse to the idea that it was not based upon any difference in the ones being shown or not shown mercy. They think that in such a case that God acts arbitrarily or randomly or by a whim and they find it difficult to believe such.
To be arbitrary is to act without reason, without purpose, or without reference to any guiding principle. But biblically and theologically, such a description cannot apply to God. However, God does not owe his creatures an explanation for all his choices and workings. God has a reason for everything he does although what that reason is may not be known to his creatures. We have already seen where James says that God has chosen those who are the poor of this world and who are rich in faith. (James 2: 5) We have already seen where God is said to choose the most inferior of men and things so that his power and grace might be more fully manifested. (I Cor. 1: 26-29)
So, what is involved in the heart being hardened? What are the effects of it? The larger question is why does God hardens hearts, and how does he harden the heart? And, the chiefest question is how can God be righteous and just if he hardens people's hearts, seeing that the effects of that hardening involve more sin?
"And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said. And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go." (Exo. 7: 13-14 kjv)
Here God hardens the heart of Pharaoh and the effect is further disobedience and rebellion against God and his commands. It also involves being stubborn and obstinate in rebellion against God and his laws. There results from this hardening a "strengthening of the resolve" in sinners to stay on their iniquitous course, and a firmer commitment to it. We also must keep in mind that the same God who hardens hearts can also soften them when it pleases him. We must also realize that anyone whose heart is hardened by God already had a hardened heart, and God's hardening is but a further hardening. In other words, God does not harden the heart of anyone whose heart is soft.
Of course, Pharaoh was not the only one whose heart God hardened. We also read of Sihon the king.
"But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day." (Deut. 2: 30 kjv)
Here we have the "spirit" hardened rather than the "heart," both being psychological parts of wicked king Sihon that were operated upon by the Lord. In the bible we read of hardened hearts, hardened spirits, hardened necks, and hardened faces. We also see how God in this hardening affected the mood, attitude, disposition, and sentiment of the wicked king. There can be no doubt that God's hardening of the heart and spirit increases the wickedness of people. This can be very difficult to accept for the Christian does not want to believe God to be in any sense a contributing cause of any sin. To soften this hard to swallow truth fact, or to deal with the cognitive dissonance that it often produces, many Christian teachers will say that this is a "judicial hardening" and therefore not unjust.
This idea says that when a sinner persists in his stubborn resistance to God and righteousness that there then comes a point when God confirms that sinner in his evil course. This hardening is a form of punishment and the effect is not rehabilitation but increased wickedness and condemnation. Just as we have those people who we call "hardened criminals," so too are there such people in regard to disobedience to God and right. If we Google "hardened criminals" we get this AI response:
"The term "hardened criminals" generally refers to individuals who have a long history of criminal activity and are resistant to rehabilitation or change. They are typically characterized by a pattern of repeated offenses, often involving violent or serious crimes. This term suggests that these individuals have become desensitized to the consequences of their actions and are unlikely to be deterred by legal punishments or interventions."
That is a good description of people who have their hearts and spirits hardened by sin and by God's punishment of it, and by his withdrawal of mercy. It seems that there comes a point in the life of some rebellious sinners where they become hardened criminals, and this point coincides with God's withdrawal or lessening of many of his restraints and hindrances on the sinner's wicked doings, and where he ceases to "strive with man" (Gen. 6: 3), a point where God has reached the limit of his forbearance and longsuffering. It is a point where the conscience has become dead, cauterized, and insensitive to the pricking of the Spirit. Paul spoke of this when he wrote about some after this manner: "speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron" (I Tim. 4: 2 nkjv) "The allusion here is doubtless to the effect of applying a hot iron to the skin. The cauterized part becomes rigid and hard, and is dead to sensibility." (Barnes) We have these same hardened sinners referred to in these words of the same apostle:
"Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." (Eph. 4: 19 kjv)
"Past feeling" is from the Greek word "apalgeō" and signifies "to cease to feel pain for" (apo, "from," algeo, "to feel pain;" cp. Eng., "neuralgia"); hence, to be callous, "past feeling," insensible to honor and shame, Eph 4:19." (Vine) Paul elsewhere speaks of the wicked activities arising from a dead conscience. (Heb. 9: 14)
A hardened heart and spirit, or hardened criminals, are stubborn in their resistance to God and right. In their sinning they become “stubborn as a mule.” Spiritually and morally they have become incorrigible, no longer being able to be corrected, improved, or reformed. They are also recalcitrant because they are obstinately defiant against authority or restraint, be it human or divine. This stubborn attitude in sinning and rebelling against God is a great sin. Wrote the prophet: "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." (1 Sam. 15: 23) God described his ancient people as having "a stubborn and rebellious heart" (Jer. 5: 23) The prophet Zechariah also addressed the hardening of the heart, writing:
"They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry." (Zech. 7: 12 niv)
Here is another case where the heart being hard is the result of what the people are doing to themselves by their continued disobedience to God. But, as we have seen, there are many other places that say that God does this hardening of the heart and spirit. A judicial hardening would be an action by God that follows on the heels of what sinners have already been long doing to themselves. God furthers this hardening. From one perspective a judicial hardening occurs in an instant of time, but from another perspective we see how every time that God and his ways are rejected, the sinner hardens his heart even more, and so the hardening of the heart takes place daily and not all at once. Oftentimes there is a cycle where the heart is hardened towards God, his law, and his authority, and a time when it is softened, until the cycle ceases and the heart remains only hard.
Of course, we are not told exactly how God does this, and theologians attempt to explain how God does this without it being viewed as a bad thing, as I also hope to do. Certainly it includes, as we have said, God's removal of restraints and mercy shown and his lack of intervention. A person in this condition is no longer being shown mercy by the Lord. Some bible teachers refer to this as "sinning away your day of grace."
Notice in the above text how one of the causes and continued effects of the heart being made hard is that the "hard hearted person" no longer "listens" to the law or to the word of God. This person is described by Solomon in these words: "He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." (Prov. 29: 1 nkjv) Such people are not easily reformed. In fact, it requires nothing short of omnipotence and the greatest mercy. They have been warned a thousand times about them being on the path that leads to destruction, but they have continually resisted, and each time they refused the exhortations and admonitions, and chose the way of sin, they hardened their hearts even more, and God was there all along saying "okay, go on destroying yourselves then." This is what Jesus said to the stubbornly wicked, saying "Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!" (Matt. 23: 32 niv) What their ancestors did was wicked and here Jesus says "go ahead" (referring to the fact that they would murder him by crucifixion). Benson's commentary on Matt. 23: 32 says:
"Ye may now be as wicked as they: a word of permission, not of command: as if he had said, I contend with you no longer: I leave you to yourselves: you have conquered: now ye may follow the devices of your own hearts. Ye serpents — Our Lord having now given up all hope of reclaiming them, speaks thus to deter others from the like sins."
How many parents have said to their incorrigible children who persisted in their mischievous ways (or like those who counsel repeat offenders in the justice system), "if you are so dead set on persisting in your evil doing, then so be it, or have it your way; I've done all I am going to do"? Or have said to the stubborn in disgust "go ahead, have it your way"? Or have said "just be stubborn then!" (or "bull headed")
Hardening of the heart is similar to "shaking off the dust of your feet" as a witness against those who reject Christ and persecute his people. The command to “shake the dust off your feet” appears only four times in the New Testament. In each case the command is spoken by Jesus to His disciples when He sent them out two by two (Matthew 10:14; Luke 9:5). In Mark 6:11 Jesus says, “And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” In the Matthew 10 account, Jesus clarifies His meaning: “Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town” (verse 15).
Shaking the dust off one’s feet conveys the same idea as our modern phrase “I wash my hands of it.” This is what God is saying to Pharaoh and to the sinner when God hardens their hearts. Shaking the dust off the feet is a symbolic indication that one has done all that can be done to help by wise counsel those in a sinful way of life and therefore announces that he will not be responsible for it. It was a statement of finality about people who had been given the truth, labored with in love, and yet who had rejected it. As Paul leaves the Corinthian synagogue, he shakes the dust off his clothing and says, “Your blood be on your own heads," which means in today's common vernacular "I am clear of my responsibility." He then says "from now on I will go to the Gentiles.” (Acts 18: 6) When God hardens the heart of an incorrigible sinner he is in essence saying these very things. This same idea is seen in Paul's words to the rebellious and obstinate Corinthians: "if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant!" (I Cor. 14: 38)
Every time that God said to Pharaoh "let my people go" Pharaoh was stimulated to further resistance and obstinacy. God's word was like a goad or a provocation. God does "provoke to anger." (Deut. 32: 21 kjv) In line with this divine activity we also see God stirring the spirit of evil men to do evil things. So we read:
"And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them. And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day." (I Chron. 5: 25-26 kjv)
So, was the kidnapping of the listed tribes of Israel an evil deed by the Assyrian kings? Yes. Did God use it for good, that is, to punish those tribes and thereby uphold the justice of his government? Yes.
So, God hardens hearts knowing that it will lead the one hardened becoming more resistant to God and his ways? Yes. Does God withdraw his grace and mercy knowing that it will lead to the one being denied committing more sin? Yes. So, does God stir the spirit of stubborn and rebellious sinners so that they do their evil for righteous God's righteous ends? Yes. That may not seem just nor the best thing to do if the rehabilitation of the sinner is paramount in the mind of God. But, that is not always the case.
Solomon also spoke of "A wicked man hardens his face, But as for the upright, he establishes his way." (Prov. 21: 29 nkjv)
Notice that the man is wicked before he hardens his face. He was hard hearted even before he acts out that hardness of heart. Every time he hardens his heart by refusing to hear correction or rebuke he becomes even more hard. This is the meaning of the word "adamant." Though it originally referred to a kind of rock, yet it came to refer to a person who refuses correction, who stubbornly resists being persuaded. Notice the words of the prophet Zechariah:
"But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts." (Zeck. 7: 11-12 kjv)
When a person gets in this condition he seals his fate. Changing him, or reforming him, becomes difficult, easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than to repent.
In the next chapter we will continue this area of our subject.
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