If You Harden Your Heart Your Life Will Be Hard

“So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart(s) as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness. . . So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest’ ” Hebrews 3: 7, 8, 11.

This passage is taken from Hebrews chapter 3. To read the whole chapter and get context, click here.

The Israelites hardened their hearts in the wilderness. In other words, you could say they were hard. In 2nd Samuel 22: 26, 27 we learn that:

“To the faithful you [God] show yourself faithful,
    to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure,
    but to the devious you show yourself shrewd”.

If You Harden Your Heart He Will Show Himself Hard

In other words, if we don’t repent, we reap what we sow. If we don’t change our mind about our sin, what we give is what we get. With this in mind, I think we could also say “to the hard He shows Himself hard”. (Not reaping what we sow doesn’t mean NO consequences).

And this idea is clearly seen with the Israelites in the wilderness. Because they were hard-hearted, their way was hard. They wandered around aimlessly for 40 years.

They lived in tents like nomads. The same thing was on the menu every day. They endured the hot desert sun and wind-swept sands. And they didn’t have a place to call home. Ultimately, they perished in the wilderness.

This was indeed a hard life inflicted upon the hard-hearted. Had they walked in faith and obedience, believing God’s promise of a land flowing with milk and honey they certainly would have made it to their promise land.

If they had continued in hope and love they would have arrived at their preferred future.

Walk By Faith and See His Faithfulness

Or, you could say, had they lived by faith, they would’ve seen that God is faithful.

Now, king David also wandered in the desert for a period of time. He lived in caves and had to run for his life. And I think it’s safe to assume he wasn’t hard-hearted since God calls him a man after His own heart. And it was jealousy that motivated king Saul to be suspicious of and hate David.

It was definitely a case of enmity between the Spirit and the flesh. The Lord allows His obedient believing children to experience hard things for a season. But they have the Spirit and Word of God to comfort and strengthen them.

And in the end, they receive the promise they’ve been believing for. For them, Psalm 91:15 holds true:

“He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him”.

The difference is in the big picture- in the outcome. The Lord gives His people peace and strength in their hard times. And eventually, He will deliver them out of them. To read a similar post to If You Harden Your Heart Your Life Will Be Hard, click here: Naked and Unashamed: The Mark of Health.

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