Isaiah 9:8-21 - When Hearts Harden

Isaiah  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  39:27
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8 The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will fall on Israel; and all the people will know, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart: 10 “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.” 11 But the Lord raises the adversaries of Rezin against him, and stirs up his enemies. 12 The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. 13 The people did not turn to him who struck them, nor inquire of the Lord of hosts. 14 So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day— 15 the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail; 16 for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up. 17 Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. 18 For wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. 19 Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another. 20 They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own arm, 21 Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh; together they are against Judah. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

Target Date: Sunday, 10 March 2024

Thoughts on the Passage:

8 - the word of God is never something independent of the One who has spoken it. It does not somehow become a separate entity which will work its purpose regardless of its originator. Jonah knew this. He knew that his speaking a word of judgment upon Nineveh did not seal Nineveh’s doom. For only God is sovereign, and should the circumstances warrant it, he could turn a word of disaster into a word of hope. So, too, this word is not final from God’s point of view. It only becomes final when the stroke has fallen and Israel has not yet turned.
Prophetic announcements of judgment usually allowed for the possibility of repentance. If the people under God’s promised judgment repented, the judgment would not fall (cf. Jer. 18:7–10; Jon. 3:4–10).
10 - “They say, in the pride and stoutness of their heart, Let God himself do his worst; we will hold our own, and make our part good with him. If he ruin our houses, we will repair them, and make them stronger and finer than they were before. our landlord shall not turn us out of doors, though we pay him no rent, but we will keep in possession. If the houses that were built of bricks be demolished in the war, we will rebuild them with hewn stones, that shall not so easily be thrown down. If the enemy cut down the sycamores, we will plant cedars in the room of them. we will make a hand of God’s judgments, gain by them, and so outbrave them.”
13 - That which God designs, in smiting us, is to turn us to himself and to set us a seeking him; and, if this point be not gained by less judgments, greater may be expected. God smites that he may not kill.
14 – The leaders and prophets were leading in the wrong direction, so God removed them.
In many cases, rather than bringing up good and righteous leaders, the people will be left to grapple for themselves, as in this case. They stumble, they fall, they war, each in his own direction without leaders to restrain the madness.
18 – The judgment of God often begins with the withdrawal of His hand in mitigating sin.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity - Romans 1:24
21 – The term for this civil conflagration that Matthew Henry uses is the very descriptive “intestine broil”, which I take as the painful precursor to explosive dysentery.
Hardened (New Testament):
Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed - 2 Corinthians 3:12-16
And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. - Mark 6:51-52
And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?Mark 8:16-18
When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, 40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” 41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. – John 12:36-43
What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” - Romans 11:7-8
Hardness (Causes):
Considering that God is no greater than other gods of men.
Considering that man, particularly in his unity, can match God.
Loving sin, which will inevitably lead to idolatry of heart.
Anger with God because of His judgments.
God may harden hearts He has, after suffering them long, determined to judge to His glory.
Hardness of heart may manifest in “shaking a fist at God” or in ignoring Him altogether and playing with sin; each is deadly.
When it seems that following God is easy, or that you are right over a long period of time with regard to His word, you may, in fact, be hardened. There is a humble dignity in maturity; a brash pugnaciousness for those who may be immature.

Sermon Text:

This morning, we move to the next passage in the prophecy of Isaiah.
We will skip all the way to the 8th verse through the end of chapter 9 because we looked at the first seven verses of this chapter quite thoroughly back in December.
And this, as we have seen other places in the first 8 chapters, this is an oracle of God’s judgment, this time on the nation of Israel, that is, the Northern Kingdom.
But rather than go into detail about the specific judgments pronounced here, I would like us to look at one specific aspect of the people of Israel – the hardness of their hearts.
In verse 9, the people of Israel are described as having “pride and arrogance of heart”.
In verse 13, we see that The people did not turn to him who struck them, nor inquire of the Lord of hosts.
And in perhaps the most damning attitude, we see in verse 10 the attitude of the people after God’s judgment has fallen:
“The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.”
What they are saying is that no matter how much God brings on them, they – THEY – will build it back better than before.
Where their houses were made of mud bricks, after they are knocked down in God’s judgment, they will rebuild with hewn stones.
Not just mud-brick buildings, but new palaces.
And when the sycamores have been cut down, they will replant with cedars, an incredibly valuable tree.
The entire point is that they didn’t fear the Lord.
They didn’t fear His judgment.
They had no respect for His holiness.
And in the prophecy of Isaiah, we must NEVER forget his unique experience with the holiness of God in chapter 6.
There is little I have read in this entire book of Isaiah that doesn’t have for its backdrop the holiness of God and the holiness He demands from His people.
But the people God Himself had called, set apart, for Himself, the descendants of Abraham and Jacob, no longer feared what God might do to them;
They assured themselves that they could weather the storm of God’s wrath.
They were modern.
They were together.
And together, if they all pulled together, God could do nothing they couldn’t undo.
Their hearts were hardened.
But what do we mean when the Bible talks about “hardened hearts?”
It certainly sounds like something bad, like “hardened arteries”.
It is worse.
When a heart is hardened, it is insensitive to the things of God:
Insensitive to His holiness.
Insensitive to His grace.
Insensitive to His love.
A hardened heart casts about looking for ways to be your own solution.
Like Abram having Ishmael with Hagar – he was getting old, and God was moving slowly.
Or like the disciples who, when crossing the Sea of Galilee a terrible storm blew up, threatening to sink their boat, when Jesus came, walking on the turbulent waves.
And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 … their hearts were hardened. - Mark 6:51-52
The hardened heart will seek to be the hero, the one recognized for the good thing, while the heart softened by God will be seeking His glory alone.
And, perhaps most dangerously, the hardened heart is empty of faith in God.
And [the disciples] began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?Mark 8:16-18
Perhaps when we think of hardened hearts, our minds go immediately to the Egyptian Pharaoh of the Exodus account.
His heart was continually hardened, and he is used as an example of God’s sovereign choice in Romans 9.
And with this example, we might have the idea that only unbelievers may have hardened hearts.
But that is simply not true. Most of the hardened hearts, and the warnings against them, come to God’s people.
And because of that, we must be constantly on our guard against allowing our hearts to grow hard.
As our Lord told the church in Sardis:
“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. – Revelation 3:1-2
The writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 95, which we read earlier:
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 put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” - Hebrews 3:7-11
So how is a believer’s heart hardened? All of these are found in chapters 3 and 4 of the book of Hebrews.
1. By faithlessness.
2. By sin, and its deceitfulness.
3. By ceasing to seek grace.
1. We can be hardened by faithlessness.
In his immediate commentary on Psalm 95, the writer says this:
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. – Hebrews 3:12
The falling away he is talking about here may or may not be final, meaning that he is not talking about losing your salvation, at least not a salvation, a justification, that was already yours in Christ.
This lack of faith, even in a believer, can harden him so he finds even simple trust in or gratitude toward God a difficult thing to bring up in his heart.
But how can a believer have an “unbelieving heart”, a “faithless heart”?
In the simplest example, the believer relies on herself rather than on the Lord.
Seeks her own strength or cleverness or resourcefulness for the things she needs, rather than living in reliance on God for all things.
There is a reason Jesus taught us to pray “Give us today our daily bread”:
It is an exercise of faith, building our faith each day as we seek God even for the things we might think we can provide for ourselves.
Do you take the most trivial and daily petitions to God? If not, is it because you don’t really believe it is Him who is providing it?
Do you secretly believe it is you who is earning the living or making the home?
This is not to say that if you miss a day asking God for the necessities of life, you are developing an unbelieving heart;
But if you are running your life trusting in yourself or your ability to provide those necessities, and you never go to God and ask for them, can you really say you have a “trusting heart”?
Do you see the difference between trusting that God CAN do something, and trusting Him to DO it?
It is literally the difference between Ishmael and Isaac.
One was the child of human effort; the other was the child of God’s promise.
There is an underlying belief in the unbelieving heart that God has set the universe on auto-pilot, and you don’t need to ask Him for what you need.
While faith, particularly faith like a child, seeks God in even the smallest things because He is the one who provides it.
2. We can be hardened by sin and its deceitfulness.
exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. – Hebrews 3:13
Sin is not just bad judicially.
It is cancerous to you now.
Each sin makes you less sensitive to the holiness and grace of God.
There are people who call themselves Christians (I cannot judge their state) who would argue that since through Jesus Christ all their sin is forgiven, there is nothing forbidden to them.
In responding to this “All things are lawful to me” motto, Paul tells the Corinthian church:
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. - 1 Corinthians 6:12
Sin will deceive us, and sin will encourage us to deceive ourselves.
We justify our sin, coddle our sin, love our sin.
We practice it, and the more we do, the less we see it as sinful.
We become hardened to the truth of the tragedy of sin in us.
The tempter tells us lies:
“The sin will make you feel good.”
“The sin is not that bad.”
“God said He would forgive you.”
“You can always confess your sin later.”
And perhaps the biggest lie: “You will always be in control of your sin; you can stop any time you like.”
Every sin-time, every sin-step, our hearts harden, less sensitive to God than they were before.
But that brings us to a really important question: what do we do if our heart is hardened?
How can I soften my heart?
We know from Scripture that a hardened heart is not always a permanent thing.
Our confession even says, in speaking on the Perseverance of the Saints:
And though they may, through the temptation of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins, and for a time continue therein, whereby they incur God's displeasure and grieve his Holy Spirit, come to have their graces and comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves, yet shall they renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end. (LBCF 17:3)
I have to tell you, I looked everywhere I knew of for a verse that described softening our own hearts. I couldn’t find one.
Every verse I saw spoke only of GOD softening hearts, making them hearts of flesh and not of stone.
The best we can do is to not do things to harden our hearts.
Don’t do things to make our situation worse.
God will soften you through the sanctifying work of His Holy Spirit, but if you will see any result, you have to stop working against Him.
I knew a man who worked for one of those computer-repair places, and he had a customer who, every week, would bring his laptop in because it had stopped working.
The reason was easy to diagnose: he had been visiting several pornographic websites, and they were dropping computer viruses onto his laptop until it was just a hive of viruses.
Each week they would clean the viruses off, sometimes even deleting everything off his hard drive.
And then the next week, he would be back.
Too many Christians’ lives are like that.
But if you want a softer heart toward God and toward others, don’t do the things that harden your heart.
Which brings us to the final way we will look at this way for our hearts to be hardened:
3. We can be hardened by ceasing to seek grace.
There are many certainties in our life in Christ, but one of the greatest is this: you will ALWAYS require grace.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. – Hebrews 4:16
This instruction to draw near the throne of grace is not merely an assurance that God hears our prayers (He does);
It is a call to be continually SEEKING the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
When we stop SEEKING God’s grace, it can have the following hardening effects:
1. We can take God’s forgiveness for granted.
Just like when we looked a few minutes ago at living without faith, when we live without often, daily, seeking God’s grace, we become less sensitive to our need of God’s grace.
2. We can believe that we need less grace than we used to.
Do you think living in holiness is getting easier for you?
That is, I would say, a warning sign of a hardening heart.
Who, as they draw closer to the holiness of God, sees fewer sins in themselves?
The entire point of having a sensitive heart toward Him is that our sensitivity to those things which are sinful would also be sharpened, and we will find things in our lives we did not even consider sinful before.
3. We can trust our own righteousness because of our obedience, particularly to the Law.
I may have said something like this before, but it bears saying again:
God did not send Jesus Christ into the world to make you righteous; He sent Him into the world to clothe you in His righteousness.
There is a huge difference there.
From the point of your conversion through the rest of eternity, your righteousness is found ONLY in your union with Jesus Christ.
There will never be a point in all eternity when you will be righteous apart from Jesus Christ.
That doesn’t mean that holiness and obedience to God’s Law is unimportant.
What it means is that obedience is not the CAUSE of our righteousness, but it is the FRUIT of our righteousness.
Obedience comes BECAUSE we are in Christ.
When we believe that WE are doing well in obedience ON OUR OWN, there is no use to seek more grace.
And in doing that, I think Paul would ask us like he asked the Galatians:
Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?Galatians 3:3
So we must be watchful, not allowing our faith to lag,
Not allowing sin to remain alive in us,
And not neglecting to know our need for grace and seek it from God who gives abundantly.
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