It’s really something to ponder on, and even wonder about even for today. Does God harden hearts to fulfill his purposes?
Solomon had died and his son Rehoboam was made king. He was completely wet behind the ears in a time where the nation was very divided.
There was another leader by influence named Jeroboam. Jeroboam was a hard worker and was really impressive when he worked with Solomon. We read that at one point a prophet named Ahijah came to Jeroboam and said that the Lord was about to split Israel due to Solomon’s disobedience, and he would give Jeroboam 10 tribes and the descendants of David 1 tribe in order to fulfill his promise to David. When Solomon heard this he banished Jeroboam to Egypt.
When Solomon died and Rehoboam was made king of Judah, Jeroboam returned. As a representative of the northern tribes of Israel (they had yet to split), Jeroboam, came to Rehoboam and asked him a simple question and an offer. He asked Rehoboam to lighten the burden that Solomon had put on the people, and in exchange they would serve Rehoboam as king.
Rehoboam asked the seasoned elders for wisdom and they said that this was a good offer. Then Rehoboam asked his childhood friends and as expected, they told him he should double the burden and be even tougher than his father. No surprise, he went with the advice of his childhood friends. And then the Scriptures say this:
“The king did not listen to the people because the turn of events came from God, in order that the LORD might carry out His word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat” (2 Chr 10:15).
What this is saying is that God somehow caused Rehoboam to choose the advice of his childhood friends because this was the pathway that God was going to use to divide the kingdom. And it worked. The people of Israel were angry and began to separate in their hearts, the first step of civil war.
But this action raises question.
Does this mean that God is the determinant of all our actions, and therefore we can’t be held responsible?
Not at all. We are held responsible. It’s the exception, not the norm, that God steps in to harden hearts in order to complete his purposes. And when he does so it is perhaps more indicative of the person’s character, walking in who they already are, than that God is originating that hardening. “The same sun that melts the wax also hardens the clay” and sometimes God allows the sun to shine to fulfill his purposes.
We see this with Pharaoh in Egypt that because of Pharaoh’s hardened heart (Ex 9:12). We see this with the Jews whose hardening of heart helps bring in the Gentiles (Rom 11:25). And we see that God reserves this right when he uses it to bring blessing to others.
“What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
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?
What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? (Rom 9:19-24).
So does God at times bring hardening to fulfill greater purposes? Yes.
- But he does so with people who already have hardened their hearts (9:22)
- He does so for the blessing of the many (9:23)
- He does so in order that his name might be proclaimed throughout all the earth (9:17)
He does so as an exception, not the norm. Something not common, but in moments of time to do great works.
Honestly, I almost wonder if we are in one of those times now.
