Wisdom Wednesday: The Mind of Wisdom – Part 11
The Hardened Heart and Blinded Mind
Submitted by Debbie’s Dad
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’
“Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim,
Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.” ( Isa 6:8–10.NASB 95)
Hardness of the heart and blindness of the mind is associated with several conditions that humans reach, relative to their response to God and His messengers:
- Unresponsive – unable to see, hear, understand and comprehend God’s message
- Rejection – willful unbelief and denunciation of the message of God or God’s Word
- Hostility – outright opposition to God and His messengers (the priests and prophets in the Old Testament, God’s Son Jesus, and the apostles in the New Testament, and witnessing believers today).
People with hardened Hearts – We find numerous references to individuals or entire groups of people whose hearts were hardened toward God:
- Pharaoh – God hardened the heart of Pharaoh so he would not allow the Israelites to depart from Egypt. (Exodus 4:21)
- Sihon king of Heshbon – This king would not allow the Israelites to pass through his land because the Lord “hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to deliver him into your hand”. (Deut. 2:30).
- The heathen kings in Canaan – It was in God’s will that the hearts of the kings that fought Israel were hardened so Joshua’s army would defeat them. (Joshua 11:16-20)
- The Philistines hardened their hearts against the Israelites (I Sam 6:6)
- The young King Zedekiah of Judah resisted Jeremiah, rebelled against Babylon, and “… stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel” (2 Chron. 36: 13)
- The Hebrew people- And the key passage today, Isa 6:8–10, is God’s assessment of His own people whose heart was insensitive to the word from Isaiah. Isaiah describes this condition repeatedly through his ministry (Isa 1:2–15; 5:12; 29:9–24; 42:18–20; 44:6–28).
During Jesus’ ministry, many rejected and opposed Him because of the harness of their heart. John summarized this condition of hardness, citing Isaiah 6:10 and 53:1:
But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” (John 12:37-41)
We also find that the hardened heart is related to the blinded mind of individuals. Paul, for example, spoke to the Corinthians about the veiled and blinded minds of the Israelites at the time of Moses:
Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 2 Cor 3:12–16.
The Cure – What is the cure for the hardened heart? How does heart become softened and receptive to God’s message. King Josiah, the 15th king of Judah, began a reform to return to the Lord in his 18th year of reign (at about age 26) and the Lord spoke to King Josiah recognizing his heart was soft and he humbled himself:
“Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,” declares the LORD.” (2 Chr 34:27).
This is the kind of mind and heart that God desires – a mind open to hear His word, and a tender heart to respond to God’s will. The 90th Psalm records a prayer of Moses that distinguishes the eternal nature of God and the transitory nature of humans – and our need to humbly consider our frailty to gain a heart of wisdom: “So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12 NASB 95).
