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Question

Why does God harden hearts?

why does God harden hearts
Answer


The “heart” in Scripture is the spiritual part of us where our emotions and desires dwell. It is the hub of human personality. God tests the heart; He can fill the heart with wisdom, creativity, and love; He can also harden the heart. A hardened heart does not respond to spiritual truth the way it should. The hard heart has difficulty seeing, understanding, hearing, or remembering. It resists God’s work.

The action of God hardening hearts is notably found in Exodus 7:3–4. Speaking to Moses, God says, “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.” Paul confirms that God can and does harden hearts (Romans 9:17–18; 11:7). But why does God harden hearts? For God to harden a person’s heart seems contradictory to His love and His creation of free will.

It is indeed true that man is given freedom to make choices (see Deuteronomy 30:19–20); however, God is still sovereign. God can harden hearts as He chooses and remain perfectly holy, perfectly loving. God gives us choices, but He reserves the right to restrict our freedom by hardening our hearts. He may do so for diverse reasons.

In Scripture, we see that God sometimes hardens hearts as a form of judgment. There is no biblical example of God arbitrarily hardening the hearts of His faithful servants; however, He does at times harden the heart of someone already in rebellion against Him. In Romans 1, God responds to those who “suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Romans 1:18) by giving them over to their sinful desires (verse 24). Sin leads to more sin, which leads to a hardening of the heart, unless God intervenes. As Pharaoh withstood Moses, he chose to harden his own heart (Exodus 8:15, 32). God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was a part of the judgment against the king and against Egypt.

God also sometimes hardens hearts to fulfill His purpose. God is not the author of sin, nor does He compel anyone to sin. Nonetheless, everyone is His possession, even those who reject His authority. God sovereignly works things according to His plan, and this sometimes includes hardening people’s hearts. God raised up Pharaoh to display divine power for the world to see (Romans 9:17–18). Other examples of God’s sovereign use of the wicked include the devil, whose rebellious actions ultimately serve to advance God’s good plans (see Job 1:6–12). And those complicit in Jesus’ crucifixion: “This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross” (Acts 2:23). In the hands of God, a heart already hardened by sin and wickedness can be further hardened to achieve God’s purpose.

For God to harden hearts is a severe punishment, and we plead for God’s mercy on those who are thus hardened. But we are not called to question God when He chooses to harden a heart. As Paul articulated, “One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?’ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’  Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” ‭‭(Romans 9:19–21). We don’t see the entire picture. We don’t possess God’s wisdom And we cannot stand in judgment over the Ultimate Judge.

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Why does God harden hearts?
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This page last updated: January 22, 2025