Because of stubbornness

HARDENING THE HEART
pdf
Dr. Paul Manuel—2000

Does God harden peoples' hearts and, thereby, doom them from the start? Paul seems to suggest as much.¹

Rom 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

A more careful look at Pharaoh's example, reveals a less arbitrary action—that God hardens those who, by frequent and consistent refusal to obey His commands, make it evident they will not repent.² Because Pharaoh did not obey God...

• His "heart became hard"

• Before the first plague (blood; Exod 7:13)
• Before the second plague (frogs; Exod 7:22b)

• He "hardened his heart"

• Before the third plague (gnats; Exod 8:15 [Heb v. 11])

• His "heart became hard"

• Before the fourth plague (flies; Exod 8:19 [Heb v. 15])

• He "hardened his heart"

• Before the fifth plague (blight; Exod 8:32 [Heb v. 28])

• His "heart was unyielding"

• Before the sixth plague (boils; Exod 9:7b)

Only after demonstrating a consistent pattern during most of the plagues does Moses write that...

• God "hardened Pharaoh's heart"

• Before the seventh plague (hail; Exod 9:12)
• Before the eighth plague (locusts; Exod 9:34-10:2)
• Before the ninth plague (darkness; Exod 10:20)
• Before the tenth plague (firstborn; Exod 10:27)
• Before the final destruction (drowning; Exod 14:4, 8)

Likewise, Hebrew prophets met Israel's disobedience with repeated warnings, until those proved fruitless, at which time God brought destruction (Noth 1981:89).

• They warned the people against it.

Ps 95:8a Do not harden your hearts...

• They observed that the people had done it.

Zech 7:12a-b They made their hearts [hard like] flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent...through the former prophets....

• They lamented that God should confirm the people in it.

Isa 63:17a Why, O LORD, do You...harden our heart from fearing You?

Paul himself makes this order of events clear in Rom 1, where he discusses the wicked.³ Because they did not obey God...

• Their thinking became futile (Rom 1:21).
• Their hearts became darkened (Rom 1:21).
• They became fools (Rom 1:22).
• They spurned God's glory (Rom 1:23)

After this persistent rejection, then God gave them over...

• To sexual impurity (Rom 1:24)
• To shameful lusts (Rom 1:26)
• To depraved thinking (Rom 1:28)

In other words, God makes those who have persistently rebelled against Him even more committed to following their own way.⁴

It is God's prerogative as creator to do as He pleases with His creation. So Paul states...

Rom 9:21 ...does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

Nevertheless, God's preparation for destruction of those not elect is merely the completion of a pattern of disobedience they have already established and one which will render them without excuse before the bar of justice.

Rom 2:4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

In this way, God demonstrates that "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of [His] throne" (Ps 89:14a).

For the Bibliography and Endnotes see the pdf here.