What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, as it is written:
“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that could not see
and ears that could not hear,
to this very day.”
What? It says God gave them a spirit of stupor. So how could they be held accountability? Look at the context.
The verse Paul then quotes is from Isaiah 29:10-12. Let’s look at the context:
10 The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep:
He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
he has covered your heads (the seers)…
13 The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught…
15 Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
“Who sees us? Who will know?”
It goes on to say that the evildoers were ruthless, they were mockers, had an eye for evil and accused the innocent which was denying them justice (v. 20-21). They may have on the outside looked righteous by following rituals, ceremonies and rules, but their hearts and actions were corrupt.
The other verse it is referencing is Deuteronomy 29:2-4; 22-24
Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them:
Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders. But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear…
Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it... All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?”
And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.
In the case of ancient Israel in Deuteronomy, they had hardened their hearts by worshiping and serving other gods. In the case of Isaiah, they had worshiped and served Yahweh externally, but their hearts were far from him. Their worship is based on just following rules. They really had no interest in loving God.
So yes, here is a theme is throughout Scripture: The Lord opens the heart of the righteous seeker and hardens the heart of the unrepentant.
In David’s time, he, too, was surrounded by people who rejected the truth and tried to kill the man who spoke truth. We read about this as Paul quotes David from Psalms 69:
And David says:
“May their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever” (Romans 11:9-10).
David is praying out for God to judge his enemies. It is an emotive psalm of expression of his anguish at the persecution he faces.
Paul is not making the point here that the enemies of Christ should be eternally condemned. We know that based on the next section. What he is saying is that there has always been a case where the ones who have rejected the truth because they have enjoyed their sins will always persecute the righteous.
God’s judgment in a sense is that their hearts get what they want. And in so doing, their hearts are hardened.
We know this because of what we see Paul will say coming up:
Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again” (Romans 11:22-23).
As the saying goes, “the same sun that melts the wax also hardens the clay.”
We saw this with Pharaoh who did evil and God hardened his heart. We saw this with the Israelites in Deuteronomy 29:4. And we see this here with the Israelites who have rejected God because they have loved rules but did not practice the ways of the Lord.
Does that mean they were forever hardened? That Pharaoh could never repent? That the Israelites couldn’t repent? Paul will answer that next.
But for now, it’s a warning. A spouse who is married and follows the expectations of the home, but has secret lovers on the side is not a good spouse. In a similar way, the man or woman who proclaims to love God and check off all the boxes of church attendance, Bible reading, praying and more but is practicing sin on the side is not a believer that honors the Lord.
Be careful. If we persist in our sin, our hearts may be hardened. But if we repent and pursue God in righteousness and holiness, he will open our hearts even more. It doesn’t mean there isn’t grace for our mistakes. We read that in Titus 2:10-11. But it does mean we love God in purity and love and holiness of heart, just like any good and loving spouse would do.
“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).