Hardened Hearts

Love is one of the main attributes of God displayed in the Bible. It is impossible to read the Bible without seeing countless upon countless examples of the love of God. Theologians have often coined the Bible as a love story between God and his people. Indeed, one of the most popular verses in the Bible is about the love of God and says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God’s love for His people caused Him to sacrifice His most precious possession for them. Those whom the LORD love are well taken care of and they flourish under His watch. Indeed, where God is, there is life, joy, happiness, blessings, growth, peace, overall goodness. Similarly, where God is not, we find the opposite: chaos, death, difficulty, strife, malice and any evil one can think of. This is a state no one should desire to be in. Unfortunately, some find themselves in such a state because of the hardness of their hearts. As I have been reading in the book of Jeremiah, the hardness of our hearts separates us from the love of God. This week, I would like to remind us that God sees the true condition of our hearts; while we may fool men, we cannot fool God. 

If there is one thing that is clear in the book of Jeremiah, it is that God spoke. Almost every chapter of the book is simply what the LORD said. Despite the many words of God, His people often chose not to listen and continued in their sin. This is what led to the deportation of the people of Judah. Zedekiah, the king of Judah at the time of deportation was forewarned by God through the prophet Jeremiah to surrender to the king of Babylon so that it would go well with him (Jeremiah 38:17). This Zedekiah was an enemy of God, he did not walk in accordance with the law of God but condoned idolatry in the land yet, this is the man God decided to warn. The irony is that Zedekiah often came to Jeremiah to find out whether there was a word from God and when Jeremiah would respond and tell him the word from God, Zedekiah would not obey.

The word of God is meant to be obeyed, it is not profitable if one hears it and does not put it into practice. In fact, hearing it and not obeying it brings condemnation. Despite this lack of obedience, God in His goodness had a plan to restore Judah so he left a remnant in the land following the deportation. This remnant was constituted of the poor of the land, Jeremiah whose life was spared, the captains of the forces of king Zedekiah and their men who had fled during the captivity into the open country and returned when they heard the king of Babylon had entrusted Judah over to Gedaliah a fellow countryman, and all Judeans who were in Moab and other lands (Jeremiah 40:6-7, 11). However, it did not take long for trouble to arise among the remnant. 

Johanan and all the leaders of the forces of ex-king Zedekiah warned Gedaliah that one of their men, Ishmael had been ordered by the king of the Ammonites to kill him (Jeremiah 40:14) but Gedaliah did not take heed to this warning and eventually was killed by Ishmael (Jeremiah 41:2). This murder by Ishmael was just the beginning as he also killed all the Judean who were with Gedaliah in addition to Chaldeans who happened to be there (Jeremiah 41:3). Moreover, he killed innocent pilgrims who came to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices and offerings to the LORD and took some hostage (Jeremiah 41:4-8). Furthermore, Ishmael took the rest of the remnant with him. 

On hearing this horror, Johanan and the leaders of the forces went after Ishmael and set free their fellow countrymen that were taken captive by Ishmael (Jeremiah 41:14) but Ishmael fled to the Ammonites. Now, this murder committed by Ishmael was against the king of Babylon ultimately as he also killed some of his men (Jeremiah 41:3) which is why Johanan, and the rest of the people decided to flee to Egypt for they were afraid of what the king of Babylon would do in terms of reprisal. However, before proceeding further, Johanan went to Jeremiah and pleaded with him to inquire of the LORD on their behalf to know which way to go (Jeremiah 42:1-3). As they told their request to Jeremiah, they also declared that they would obey whatever instruction that came from the mouth of God concerning this move (Jeremiah 42:5). Such declarations are common even to us today. We love to sing about how we will do XYZ for the LORD, then when the LORD takes us at our words, we act like people who never uttered those words. 

Ten days later, Jeremiah came to the people with a word from the LORD and the word was to not go to Egypt for going there would be to their detriment and would lead to their extinguishment (Jeremiah 42:7-22). Instead, the LORD told them to remain in Judah and submit to the king of Babylon for in that submission, as they remained in Judah they would flourish and He would establish them. When Jeremiah finished speaking these words, we are told that “Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah ‘You are telling a lie. The LORD our God did not send you to say, Do not go to Egypt to live there.’” (Jeremiah 43:2). These are the same people who ten days earlier wanted to hear from the LORD and were ready to do whatever the LORD would instruct them to do yet as soon as the word of the LORD did not align with what they wanted to do, they simply rejected it. At that moment, they no longer saw Jeremiah as a prophet from the LORD but simply a liar. What changed? Nothing changed, except that their hearts were revealed. You see, these leaders never wanted to surrender to the king of Babylon that is why they fled into the open country during the war. When they heard the king had entrusted their homeland to one of their brothers, they returned but they never intended to submit to the king of Babylon and now Jeremiah tells them to surrender to the enemy? That could certainly not come from God, could it? Did you also see that a new adjective was used to describe these men? They were called “insolent”. Again, who they were at their core came out to the surface. 

Meanwhile, God in His message had not changed. He had already told the people through Jeremiah that submission to the king of Babylon was necessary for growth and prosperity, yet no one wanted to hear it. Moreover, God is very transparent and told them what awaited them if they went to Egypt, yet they did not pay attention and decided to still go to Egypt. They disobeyed God (Jeremiah 43:7). Once in Egypt, God sent another message to Jeremiah for His people reminding them that their doom was surely coming as He would send Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon to come against Egypt (Jeremiah 43:11). Sadly, this warning too fell to the ground. What is worse is that while in Egypt, the people of Judah continued to engage in idolatry and growing in their arrogance. They worshipped and offered incense to other deities, specifically, it was the women who did that with the consent of their husbands which means both were complicit in the sin, hence the LORD sent another word to His people warning them of the final judgement (Jeremiah 44:2-14). Shockingly, the response to the LORD was as arrogant in Egypt as it had been in Judah. The men responded with “as for the word of the LORD, we will not listen” and added defiantly that they would continue to offer incense to the queen of heaven (Jeremiah 44:15-17). While the women said their actions were not done without their husband’s approval (Jeremiah 44:19). The fact that both men and women were aligned to sin against the LORD defiantly is outrageous! They paraded their sins as though it was something to be proud of and rendered themselves enemies of God. This is the reason the LORD was against them and swore to bring disaster upon them.

The hardness of our heart does not bring us closer to God but far away. We must be people that seek to be humble and live to obey the LORD we claim is our everything. If you are a Christian, meaning you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross for you, then you ought to live in obedience to his word. You cannot afford to not obey. Irrespective of the cost, obey your God. The more we disobey, the more our hearts get hardened. The more our hearts get hardened, the more we grow in pride and become insolent. I pray the LORD teaches us humility, may He change our view of Him and of ourselves so that we will live accordingly. Amen!