melting.

(taken from a sermon at church)

I often wonder what is meant when the Bible says things like, "And God hardened Pharaoh's heart." It sort of went against what my view of God has been.

On Sunday we read in Roman's 9, "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction."

Wait a minute, God wants to show his wrath? What about this God of Love I keep hearing about and know to be true. And you can't give me the whole, "God of the Old Testament, God of the New Testament" thing...because that was smack dab in the New Testament.

The preacher in church shared a thought that was really interesting, and I liked it a lot.
First of all, our little finite brains cannot even understand the ways and plan and method of God. But since one thing i DO know for sure is that God is consistent, I liked this speculation.

God is like the Sun. Steady, warm, reliable, consistent...Shines the same light and warmth onto everything it comes in contact with.



If you shine the sun on butter, it will melt.





That same sun, when it shines on clay, however, hardens it.




So can we really say that it was the sun that caused these different reactions? Of course not. We know that it was clearly the materials that the sun was acting upon. Their properties reacted with the light, heat and whatever else to either melt or harden.

I feel like it could be this way with God. He doesn't "shine" on every person differently. The difference is in the person he's shining on. If your heart is filled with things like greed, selfishness, pride, unrighteousness etc... And the just, merciful, loving, righteous, holy presence of the Almighty God shines down upon you... Then I'd say that God indeed hardens your heart.

If, however your heart is full of joy, peace, selflessness, repentance, righteousness, forgiveness and salvation, and the just, merciful, loving, righteous, holy presence of the Almighty God shines down upon you...Well I'd assume you'd be softened like butter, able to be molded and re-formed into a "vessel of honor."

So we might see God as unfair...desiring to show his wrath upon some poor dishonorable vessel. But what part did the vessel play in all of that? Paul laid that out in Romans 1:21-25 (important parts are bold)

"For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."

See, in God's courtroom, there is no unfair representation. You won't be falsely accused. You won't escape judgment if you are guilty. And you cannot put on a facade, hoping that the Judge won't see the yucky condition of your heart. There is no real formula that we can see for why God does what he does. This is where major amounts of trust in his immutability and omniscience. And really know that he doesn't take this heart stuff lightly.

He punished Moses for hitting a rock in anger rather than speaking to it as he was instructed.

He moved the sun AND spared the life of Hezekiah, because of his faithfulness and heart after God.

He let his chosen people wander around in the wilderness for 40 years because of their distrust and unbelief.

He called David a man after His own heart because even though he sinned, he cried out to God with a contrite heart.


So the question for you and me is...




or...




I, for one, would rather be the latter.

Oh, and let's not think for a moment we were put on this earth for ourselves. We might think the condition of our heart only affects us, and maybe we just don't care enough to change. But the Bible does not leave that for an option. The earth revolves around the "Sun" for a reason. When he does make & keep promises and show mercy to hardening hearts, it is for one reason, and one reason alone.
God made that pretty clear in Ezekiel 36:

“‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean...Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh..."

(and with the giving of this kind of grace from Him, and the receiving of it from us comes the automatic response of righteousness. )

"...I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances... you will be My people, and I will be your God."

Amen.