People Whose Hearts Are Hardened
Yael Eckstein | December 30, 2021
But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go. — Exodus 8:32
Each week in synagogue, Jews read through the Torah from Genesis to Deuteronomy. The Torah portion for this week is Va’era, which means “and I appeared,” from Exodus 6:2–9:35.
A few years ago, there was a flare up with Gaza, and Israel was bombarded by hundreds of rockets in the span of a few days. Usually, these rockets only reach the Israeli towns on the southern border with Gaza and the surrounding fields. But that year, two rockets reached Tel Aviv — Israel’s most densely populated city. Miraculously, both rockets fell in empty spaces, and no one was hurt.
In fact, after that happened, there was joke going around that all the real-estate developers in Israel were chasing the rockets to find out where there was still empty space in Tel Aviv. Everyone knows there is no such thing as empty space in Tel Aviv — every bit of land has already been built on and developed!
But God managed to find the two tiny holes where there were no buildings, and that’s where the missiles fell and exploded. But not everyone saw this as a miracle.
No matter what God does, we still hear those voices that claim it’s all just a coincidence. As a person of faith, it can be frustrating. Do you also wonder why not everyone sees the miracles that you see?
People Whose Hearts Are Hardened
In this week’s Torah portion, we see the most famous example of denial of the miracles of God. Even after Moses announced each of the plagues to Pharaoh in advance, the Bible says that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not believe. Now, we know that the Bible says that “The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (Exodus 9:12), but that didn’t happen until the sixth plague. For the first five plagues it was Pharaoh’s own choice.
Do you know people whose hearts are hardened? Who don’t see the miracles that you see?
The way I see it, God performs miracles, but always leaves open the option for denial of His miracles. If He just came down and revealed Himself in a way that was undeniable, then our faith in God and love of Him wouldn’t have the same value.
God wants a relationship with us. God wants us to choose Him.
Your Turn:
Pray with me today that all the hardened hearts are opened to see the miracles of God.