IS GOD UNJUST? DOESN’T HE HARDEN AND DECEIVE?

There are several verses claiming that God does harden hearts, even to coerce people to commit sin. Paul had written several verses that seem to indicate that God is unjust – hardening and deceiving certain people. Let’s look at them. Afterwards, we will try to answer each:

1.    2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (see Ezekiel 14:9; Revelation 17:17)

2.    Romans 9:17-18 (ESV) For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” [quoting from Exodus 9:16] So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

3.    Romans 11:7-10 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.” [quoting from Isaiah 29:10; 6:9-10]  And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.” [quoting from Psalm 69:22-23]

Let’s start with the first example. This one is relatively easy to explain. In this case, it is clear that God hadn’t deceived the innocent but rather those who were already practicing self-deception. They had refused to “believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” They had committed their lives to the darkness rather than to the light of truth (John 3:19-20).

However, as Paul explained elsewhere, this is the result of a gradual process of our rejecting and suppressing the truth. Only after continually rejecting the light, God gives them over to the desires of their heart to believe those things they want to believe and do:

·       Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. (Romans 1:24-28)

There is no indication here that they were born with “dishonorable passions” or a “debased mind.” Instead, this corruption was the result of exchanging “the truth of God for a lie,” as Paul had claimed in 2 Thessalonians 2:10: “because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” They had the truth but rejected it.

Also, Paul was explicit that when we suppress the truth about God (Romans 1:18), we are “without excuse”:

·       For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

Instead, had we been born without the ability to choose God, we would have a perfect excuse for our rejection of God – “We just couldn’t have done otherwise, right!” Consequently, it would be like blaming a cat for meowing or a fish for swimming.

When we fail to combat such excuses, we mitigate sin and place the responsibility for our sin on the wrong party – God. Besides, we are essentially telling people that they are not responsible, and when they belief this, it will undermine their resolve to resist their sinful impulses.

Admittedly, there are a number of verses that claim that we cannot come to God on our own. However, were we born with this inability, or did it result from our own choices? Consequently, we become like a drug addict who hardens himself against any purpose apart from getting the next fix. Similarly, humanity must take responsibility for their rejection of God. Jesus had lamented:

·       “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37)

Admittedly, there are a number of verses that claim that we cannot come to God on our own (John 6:65). However, were we born this way or did we harden our heart against the Lord (John 3:19-20; Romans 1:18-32) so that we became His enemies (Romans 5:8-10; 8:5-9)? Scripture consistently insists that the problem resides with us (James 1:13-15) and not with God.

This brings us to the second example – God hardening Pharaoh’s heart to accomplish His purposes through him. Was God was unjust? Rather, it seems that He gave Pharaoh the very thing that he had wanted. Pharaoh wasn’t a mindless puppet in God’s hands. He too had been a willful moral agent who had hardened his own heart:

·       But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. (Exodus 8:15)

·       Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. (Exodus 7:13-14)

While some verses indicate that God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart, others indicate that he had hardened his own heart. Our natural inclination is to conclude that it was either Pharaoh or God who had hardened his heart. Why not both? Perhaps our God is great enough to accomplish His plans through our freewill choices! There are many verses that indicate that both parties are involved.

If we are going to understand the justice and righteousness of God, I think that we have to accept the oft-mentioned Biblical fact that God is able to direct us, even through our freewill choices. Therefore, it is correctly commented: “Hell is God giving us what we want.”

Somehow, our freewill works in concert with God’s plan. While Paul claimed that he had worked harder than the others, he also claimed that whatever good had come out of his life was primarily the result of the Spirit working through him:

·       But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Joseph had invoked this principle of dual responsiblity to explain why he had forgiven his brothers who had sold him to merchants going to Egypt:

·       “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” (Genesis 50:20-21)

Admittedly, this interaction is a great mystery, but it is also the glory of God and the message of His Word. Dual causation is found in many forms. While Scripture is entirely “God-breathed” out (2 Timothy 3:16), unsurprisingly, it also reflects the humanity of its writers – their vocabulary, associations, feelings, and experiences.

Let’s now go to the final example. David prays:

·        “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.” (Romans 11:10; Paul quoted from Psalm 69:22-23)

Why had David uttered such a damning curse on Israel? Because Israel had previously hardened their hearts and had given themselves over to rebellion! Immediately before these verses from Psalm 69, David had written:

·       You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you. Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. (Psalm 69:19-21)

These were not innocent people. Rather, David had been cursing the very people who God already given over to the hardness of their own hearts because of their rebellion, as we had read in Romans 1. In light of this, David was merely asking God to give them the darkness that they had already chosen for themselves.

Let’s look at one last problematic verse that had often been quoted in the New Testament (John 12:40; Acts 28:26-27):

·       And he [God] said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10)

Were these Israelites born this way or did their rebellion make them this way? Hadn’t God merely affirmed the rebellion that Israel had already chosen! In each context where the Bible teaches about Israel’s inability to come, there is never a hint that this inability was the result of the Fall or God giving birth to a depraved Israel. In Matthew 13:14-15, Jesus cited Isaiah 6 as the appropriate consequence of Israel first rebelling against God:

·       “This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” (Matthew 13:13)

It was because Israel had already refused to see and hear that God would then give them the blindness that they had chosen. The fault is ours and not God’s:

·       “…My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He [God] dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.  And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?” (Isaiah 5:1-4)

The failure belonged entirely to Israel as many of her prophets had charged. Israel had accused God of many things. However, never once did they accuse God of not giving them the freedom or inclination to come to Him. Instead, Scripture is consistent in insisting that we must take total responsibility for our rebellion. Consequently, we are “without excuse.”

In heaven, His saints sing the song God had given to Moses to teach to Israel:

·       And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Revelation 15:3-4)

We might continue to wonder how God’s acts are all righteous. However, there will come a time when all the nations will come and acknowledge His righteousness.