August 11, 2023
God Knows The Heart
“This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: ‘Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, ‘He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.’ These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.” John 12:38-41 (NASB)
One of the saddest things in life are chronic drug and alcohol addictions. Some were people I knew well. Many spiraled downward each time I met them. With addiction, a time comes when the person can no longer think of anything else. They are blinded by their desires. Normal things you and I think are out there, are things which really do not matter. This is because the addiction is so strong. Their hearts are hardened to the world. Nothing else matters. They steal from their own families, lie, and cheat. The good news is when they overcome. But it takes fighting through their addiction. Addicts’ memories, battles, and temptations are still there each day, but they have fought their way out. The Jews were too like an addict, because of their hardened hearts and blinded eyes. This created an obstacle to belief. They could not see what was in front of them, and God knew this beforehand. So God blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts because of their condition. And almost eight hundred years before, God commissioned Isaiah to write about their disobedience, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
“This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet…” Foster says, “This rejection was foretold in Isaiah 6:10; 53:1. This does not mean that God did not want Jesus’ hearers to repent, nor that He forced them to hardness of heart against their will. It means that their resistance to God’s revelation was foreknown, and that rejection of God’s truth leads to a hardening of the heart and a block in the understanding. One should not think the action was performed in order to match the prophecy, but rather the prophecy was given because God was predicting what He knew would certainly happen. The foreknowledge of God is accurate and true. The prophecy did not force the fulfillment, but rather the prophecy was given to explain that God knew in advance the unbelieving hearts and the blinded eyes and the failure to turn to Him. Isaiah said these things in his time because he saw the coming glory of Jesus and the unbelief of men. This is a matter of life or death; this is a matter of salvation or destruction.”[1] This same situation appears today. God knows who and who will not receive His forgiveness. He does not choose who will and who will not accept Him; He simply knows who will and who will not. This is the foreknowledge of God. God knew certain Jews would be unbelievers eight hundred years before.
Imagine today, God knowing your destiny. He knows everything you will ever do, what you will say, when it will happen, and the exact words you will choose. He knows it all. This is God’s Omniscience, or All-Knowing Power. When I think of Christians who have fought their way out of addiction, I know God hears when their heart is tempted again. He also listens to those who have trusted in Him in their time of distress. He cares enough to present a plan to rescue us. For the Jews, the One who was standing in their presence was the Answer. If you do not know Jesus today, do not harden your heart to Him today. Seek Him.
[1] Foster, L. (1987). John: Unlocking the Scriptures for You (p. 143). Standard.