Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.” Hebrews 3:7-10 HCSB
In Isaiah God told Isaiah that though he would prophesy to the Israelites, they would not listen. They would harden their hearts. God told Isaiah to tell them, “Keep listening, but do not understand; keep looking, but do not perceive.”
Back in Exodus, God told Moses that Pharaoh would harden his heart. He would not listen or believe what Moses had to say and therefore not release the Israelites. But if you read through the plagues in the book of Exodus from chapters 7-14 you see this back and forth with Pharaoh. At times, Pharaoh would harden his heart against God and at times God would harden Pharaoh’s heart.
Pharoah’s life came to an abrupt end in chapter 14 when Pharaoh and his entire army are drowned when God closes the Red Sea.
In Isaiah chapter 6, God tells Isaiah, “Dull the minds of these people; deafen their ears; blind their eyes; otherwise, they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their minds, turn back and be healed.” Isaiah’s message would be God’s instrument to hide the truth from unreceptive people.
If we reject God, there will come a point of rebellion where we will face His judgment. This is a point where we may be given over to our evil desires and our wicked ways (Romans 1:21-24).
Please understand that just a little sin can become a lot of sin and we can reach a point of no return. We can reach a point of judgment in our lives. We may be judged here on earth as the Israelites often were or we may face the final judgment.
If we are judged here on earth, there is still a chance to repent and get right with God. Once we face the final judgment we will have to live with our punishment for eternity.
You may wonder how you know if you have hardened your heart. I wandered around aimlessly for years not even realizing I had hardened my heart. I can tell you from personal experience the things I did when my heart was hard.
The worst thing I did was not put God first in my life. I wanted to live my life the way I wanted to live it and I put God on a shelf and went to Him as needed. Sadly, I didn’t realize that I needed him every second of every day.
Living the way I wanted to live, I forsook His commandments. I didn’t see my sin as a big deal. Some people were doing far worse. I mean I was going to church and tithing, so at least I had that going for me, right?
Living as I was, I may as well have stayed home and hoarded my money. I was picking and choosing the commandments I wanted to obey.
If any of that describes your life today, you may be hardening your heart. There is grave danger in this because eventually, God may decide to just give us over to our hard hearts. He may choose to harden them even more.
Turn your heart, soul, and mind over to Jesus Christ. Ask Him to show you any way that is displeasing to Him. Avoid grieving the Holy Spirit by holding on to anger and bitterness (Ephesians 4:30-31). Let go and let God soften your heart towards Him.
Learn to put Him first, others second and yourself last. Trust in Him and obey His commands. Don’t run the risk of having a hard heart.
Have a great day!