The spiritual advisors to the Philistine counseled the kings to not harden their hearts in the face of God’s judgment on the five city states.
Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had made sport of them, did not they let the people go, and they departed?” (1 Samuel 6:6).
However, the record shows that they had indeed hardened their hearts.
(1) When they put the Ark of God in the temple of Dagon, the image of their deity fell on his face two times.
(2) The hand of the Lord was against the people, when He sent a plague (possibly the bubonic plague) on them. Instead of immediately returning the Ark of the Lord to the Israelites, they kept it in their custody for seven months.
(3) At this point in the story, they are ready to return the Ark but are still not convinced that Yahweh was behind the troubles they had experienced. They needed a test to see if God was actually behind their problems.
“And take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart, and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off, and let it go its way.
And watch; if it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-she’mesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm; but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us, it happened to us by chance” (1 Samuel 6:8-9).
The Nature of a Hard Heart
The Philistines’ behavior reveals the nature of a heart that has hardened against God and His purposes for humans.
Paul wrote this about a heart that is hard toward God.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles (Romans 1:21-23).
The Philistines knew enough about God to realize that the hand of God allowed Israel to escape slavery in Egypt. Yet, they refused to give God the honor He is due.
Their confused thinking was evident by their attempt to keep the Ark of God for seven months, while at the same time experiencing a plague.
The Philistines had spiritual advisors. They practiced “dark arts,” because their hearts were dark and foolish. Their idol that represented Dagon was cast in the form of a man.
Like the Gods You Serve
Paul highlights the results of a hardened heart. We become like the gods we serve. When we follow Jesus, we progressively acquire His character. When we turn from God with a hardened heart, the results are far different.
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.
They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:28-32).
Take a moment to meditate on Paul’s list. When we harden our hearts and indulge in idolatry or the worship of self, we become like the gods we serve. Nevertheless, we can’t point our finger at someone else.
Paul aimed his critique of human behavior in Romans 1 at the Gentiles. In chapter 2, he addressed Jewish behavior. Chapter 3 summarized the human condition.
There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22b-23).
Who are we? We are sinners, who are in need of a Savior.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage in greater detail than I wrote in my article. It can be found on YouTube today.
Real Voices 