Why Does God Harden Hearts?

My bible study teacher and former pastor posed a question one night as he taught from the Gospel of Mark. "Why do you suppose God would harden hearts so they could not hear the words of Jesus and be saved?" He was teaching in reference to these verses:

When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!' ”

Mark 4:10-12 NASB

I think he had some ideas but wanted to hear ours. I was stumped too. Sometimes you think you know everything till you try to tell someone else. I just sat and listened to other people answer, but I wanted God to speak to me. It took a few days but as usual He whispered to me in my sleep.

Jesus spoke these verses to those who followed him AND those he chose as apostles. To them he chose to reveal the mysteries of God. This was seed sown in good soil. Their open hearts would melt and dissolve the outer shell on the seed and allow the roots to begin to grow.

Not so with the bystanders and critics who came to hear him speak. To them, their hard hearts were like the hard stone road that could never cause the seed to open and take root. They would hear and mock, or record his words to be used against him. Or they would shrug and dismiss him as another crazy prophet from Galilee. Or they would consider his words and turn away because of other concerns and cares.

Isaiah 6:9 which he quoted, seems to say that God hardened their heart so they would not receive the word and repent. Knowing the mysteries of the kingdom cannot save a man's soul.

Paul said in I Corinthians 13 "though I know all mysteries and all knowledge...but do not have love, I am nothing." Understanding Jesus' parables would only make sinners into "righteous-looking sinners". The words used in Mark seem to say "lest they turn and escape judgment." This escape would be short-lived because though the mind may be changed the heart would not be.

It reminds me of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life in the garden of Eden. Man grasped for knowledge in hope of being like God, but it did not make him like God because in doing so he was in rebellion against God. Instead the knowledge made him puffed up, like in Romans 1 "they became futile in their speculation and their foolish heart was darkened." As their foolish heart was darkened, they could no longer see God or find his blessings of life.

So the proper way to approach God is to first leave our own lives behind and follow Jesus. Then he will give us a new heart, made of flesh and not of stone. The same sunlight that hardens clay can melt ice; it is our composition that determines our disposition. It's not that God does not want all men to be saved, but that he requires us first to make a decision to follow Jesus and receive a new heart, before the life-giving word can be sown and grown there.

I have seen Jesus pass by my place many times in life. Many times I welcomed him and listened to his teaching, even worshiping him with tears. Lately those tears have been nourishing the seed of his word in my own heart. I want to follow him now, not as a passive observer, but as a sold-out disciple. My sincere prayer is to have the faith to leave everything behind and follow Jesus unconditionally, every morning of every day. I know that he is patient, but some mornings it seems like he has gone up the mountain to pray, and I'm still down here struggling with life.

Lord Jesus, let your word bear fruit in my life, and in those whose lives I touch!