(Heb 3:7-8) Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, {8} Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: (Heb 3:12) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
This warning to the early Christians was given referencing a certain time in the history of Israel. The people of Israel tried God’s patience for years and it came to a head at the time they were to enter the Promised Land. Moses sent spies out to search out the land and bring back a report. There were twelve of them and they brought back the fruit of the land – some of which had to be carried by two men on a pole – but they also brought an evil report about the giants in the land. They saw the people and walled cities and they became fearful and “hardened their hearts” toward God and the miracles He showed them in the wilderness. Joshua and Caleb tried to undo the ten spies’ evil report by urging them to trust in God; but to no avail and the people became violent almost to the point of wanting to stone Moses. God came on the scene and made them go back into the wilderness for forty years so that those from twenty years old and up would die in the wilderness and not enter the Promised Land. They hardened their hearts to God, His word and His works.
A disease of the heart today is what I call “hardening of the hearteries”. Hardening of the arteries is when plac builds up on the inside of blood vessels and causes blockages and other problems including loss of memory. Hardening of the heart comes when we do not pay attention to God’s word – spoken or written.
Jesus told the parable of the sower and the seed in which He told of some seed falling on ha rd soil (the way side). He said this hard soil represented the people who would not try to understand God’s word (the phrase “understands not” literally means do not lay it alongside which is a way of saying they ignore it).
The warning is given to Christians not to harden their hearts as Israel did when they came upon difficulties in their life and refuse to move on into deeper spiritual living. The Christian life will be difficult at times. Jesus said -- “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” If we refuses to trust God in those times it is because we are hardening our hearts against Him and His witness to us.
If we struggle with doubts, fears and such like in difficult situations but we are striving to believe God, this is not hardening but the result of our next disease – a weak heart.
A weak heart is one that has tried to believe but through the sorrows of life and pains suffered, struggles to accept any good that comes its way. Jacob had this trouble – “(His sons) told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not.” For years Jacob had grieved for Joseph and had probably resolved his sorrow in the fact that Joseph truly was dead and he would see him no more. Now the sons that led him to believe that Joseph was dead, tell him Joseph is alive, his heart struggles to believe.
Some may have gone into deep sin or perhaps strayed away in false doctrine and in that time caused much trouble in his life and perhaps that of their family and when they are told that God will forgive and restore, their heart is weak and struggles to accept that truth.
Some times when Christians go through severe trials – whether of physical, emotional, financial or relational hardships – and then God visits His mercy upon them, they struggle to believe it because their hearts have been weakened through the years of suffering.
Often people cease to believe God when things happen and their heart becomes weak. Paul said, “All things work together for good to them who love God who are the called according to His purpose.” When people experience situations that they cannot accept or resolve, they doubt God’s word through a weak heart.
Our hearts are made strong through regular Bible study in a good Bible group of fellow Christians. Wrong doctrines and false ideals can bring about doubts and unbelief that can lead to either a hard heart or a weak heart. We must continue in reading the word, Bible study and other spiritual events in life that exposes us to the Holy Spirit’s influence.