Are We Okay With This?

In Isaiah 6 we read the story of the prophet's encounter with God. So overwhelmed was he that was undone. "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, YHWH of hosts" (Isa 6:5). God neither berated Him nor blew it off. Instead, a seraphim flew down with a coal and touched his mouth. The very next thing is God saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" and Isaiah answering, "Here am I; send me!" (Isa 6:8). And God said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.' Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed" (Isa 6:9-10). Wait ... what? Is that right? Does God actually wish to block some people from returning and being healed ... from salvation?

It's not only found here in Isaiah. When His disciples asked Him why He spoke in parables, Jesus said,

To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. (Matt 13:11-13)

He then quotes Isaiah 6:9-10 to them. Clearly Jesus thought it was the case. And in John's gospel, he wrote about how strange it was that, despite the miracles, people were still not believing (John 12:37). Why? "This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah," he said (John 12:38) and then quotes Isaiah 6:9, but with a slightly different emphasis. "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them" (John 12:40). No ambiguity there. It wasn't a commentary on how people fail to see. It was a commentary on God's actions and intentions. "He has blinded their eyes ..." Beyond all this, there is more precedent. Saul, if you recall, disobeyed God. So, the text says, "Now the Spirit of YHWH departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from YHWH terrorized him" (1 Sam 16:14). Huh? An evil spirit from God? Elsewhere, when God intended to kill Ahab in battle, the Scriptures say, "YHWH has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets" (1 Kings 22:23). Jumping ahead to future times, in the end when the "man of lawlessness" comes, we read, "For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness" (2 Thess 2:11-12). There it is again. For what reason? "Because they refused to love the truth and so be saved" (2 Thess 2:10).

Just like Pharaoh, people with hardened hearts can expect to have their hearts hardened ... by God. In the story of the ten plagues, Pharaoh repeatedly hardened (Exo 7:22; 8:15; 8:32; 9:34) his already hard heart (Exo 7:13) until finally YHWH hardened his heart (Exo 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27). Explaining this, Paul wrote that God "will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion" (Rom 9:15). "It depends," he goes on to say, "not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy" (Rom 9:16). God says He raised Pharaoh up to demonstrate His power (Rom 9:17) and Paul declares, "He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills" (Rom 9:18). These seem like pretty harsh words from a God we like to think of as merciful and gracious, but they are His words. They aren't ambiguous or obscure. And there is no injustice with God. I think there are good explanations for this, but what are we to think? If this is God's revelation of Himself, are we okay with it? Or are we going to chide Him for it? Is it His right for His good and that's sufficient for us, or is He required to submit to our evaluation and approval?