“I Will Take the Heart of Stone . . .

“I Will Take the Heart of Stone . . .

out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezek. 36:26. This is one of the most significant things that is written! This is how profoundly sin has corrupted and petrified the heart of man! People usually neither see nor understand this, but when the opportunity is there, it is clearly visible to an alarming degree. However, isn’t it wonderful that this prophecy can be entirely fulfilled through the work of Christ!

Because of His indescribably great love for us, God is more than willing to perform such a glorious heart operation. It is up to us to desire it of Him. It is our choice!

We will keep our heart of stone if we are content with it. It is clearly evident from various scriptures and from experience that people may have or receive a heart of stone, even if they believe in the work of Christ. There can be a fair amount of hardness in daily life in the hearts of dear brothers and sisters in the Lord. Criticism, reproach, accusation, judging, and a harsh tone of voice always proceed from a hard heart. The fact that a person does not ask for forgiveness when he has sinned against someone in word is the consequence of a hard heart; also if someone asks for forgiveness and the other person dryly and coldly answers, “Yes, I forgive you,” but does not forgive sincerely from the heart. This is also a result of a hard heart. And something as ungodly as slandering—and then not asking for forgiveness—is obviously the consequence of a heart of stone.

Not only can the heart be more or less hard in spite of God’s goodness, but it can also be more or less hardened.

Read in the Bible concordance under hard, hardness, hard-hearted, and stiff-necked; also under harden and hardening.

Proverbs 28:13 and 14 are very significant: “He who covers his sins will not prosper . . . but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.” Therefore: acknowledge, confess your sins, and sincerely and humbly ask for forgiveness! Keep your heart tender and soft if you want to be with Jesus when He comes.

The heart becomes harder every time a person sins without grieving over it and asking for forgiveness. The result is a gradually increasing hardness. As time goes by, it becomes more difficult to get it to melt. However, the opportunity is there: “Who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters.” Ps. 114:8. “Do not harden your hearts . . . .” Ps. 95:8.

“So when He had looked around at them . . . being grieved by the hardness of their hearts . . . .” Mark 3:5. This hardening is not very difficult to understand. They were so busy judging Jesus that they could not rejoice that a man was healed on a holy day. They did not show much compassion.

It is considerably more difficult to understand that the disciples’ hearts proved to be hardened when they were amazed beyond measure that Jesus performed a new miracle, even though they had just witnessed a tremendous miracle previously. Mark 6:49-52.

The profound truth concerning this is: If God’s work has not made a deep and lasting impression on us, this proves that our heart is hardened; also when we read or hear the Word of life in truth without it making a deep impression on us so that it is noticeable in our life. Then the heart is sure to be more or less hard!

“Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened?” Mark 8:15-21. It is obvious that Jesus meant that this was the state they were in even though He stated it in the form of a question.

This teaches us a serious lesson: If we do not understand the spiritual meaning of what we realistically ought to understand, the reason is that the heart is either hard or hardened. This in turn means that, unfortunately, there are many hardened brothers and sisters who do not understand many things they ought to have understood a long time ago. This agrees completely with Hebrews 5:12.

Reading Hebrews 3:13 and 15, we see clearly that even if we are in the midst of the church of the living God, there is a danger that we can be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, that a hardening can take place even while hearing God’s voice: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts . . . .” V. 15. Every time you hear God’s voice, you do one of two things: you either accept what you hear so that it accomplishes something in you, or you harden yourself so that it has no effect.

This is clearly stated in Hebrews 4:2: “But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.” How significant! If the heart is tender, the Word is mixed with faith in those who hear it. Then the person is re-created, transformed into that which the Word says. If not, it bounces off and is of no benefit whatsoever. The ironic thing is that knowledge can increase considerably; and knowledge by itself—unless it is obeyed—performs this woeful task of puffing up. 1 Cor. 8:1. Then it has quite simply caused harm instead of being beneficial.

It is therefore of the utmost importance to melt completely so that the heart becomes tender and soft and pliable, acknowledging and receptive—to walk circumspectly in all areas so that you can always keep this tender, receptive heart, being zealously on guard against the least indication of hardening in any area of life or toward any of all the words of life.

Example: “Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.” Col. 3:19. He can only be tempted to become bitter toward her when she does not conduct herself as she ought. The Word says that the husband shall love her then as well. Either the husband’s heart is so tender and compassionate that it melts together with this exhortation, loving her with all of his heart when she is so-called impossible, or it is so hard that he becomes bitter. Then the Word does not benefit him. This is as simple as 2 + 2 = 4.

Example: “Wives, submit to your own husbands . . . .” V. 18. Either the wife’s heart is so tender and soft that it melts together with this Word, with the result that she does his will with joy, without protesting or objecting, or she hardens herself, contradicting him because she permits herself to think something else. Then the heart is fairly hard because at this point she callously rejects God’s word. She cannot comprehend this word. Then Jesus’ word is especially apt in this situation: “Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened?” Mark 8:17.

Example: “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Tim. 6:6. When the heart is tender and soft, this word melts together with the heart. The two become one, which means that contentment with all earthly things is immediately evident, to God’s glory and for the benefit of one’s fellow men. If not, then the heart is hardened so that the person is unreceptive to contentment, continuing as before, just as indifferent and unimpressed! Alas, alas! What a presumptuous hardening.

Example: What would happen if sisters took this word of God to heart about adorning themselves with a meek and quiet spirit? Then this spirit would melt together with faith in their hearts so that we would always see and hear them as graceful in their conduct in daily life. In the opposite case, the word has bounced off their hardened hearts. Either / or.

The deceitfulness of sin gives rise to a hardening. What does that mean? It means that I, because of my sinful inclinations, am misled to defend myself and to explain away the truth, with the result that it is impossible for me to understand that I am doing something that is terribly wrong, despite the fact that I am absolutely not obedient to the Word.

An especially apt and extremely serious example is this word spoken by Jesus: “Judge not!” What have most believers done with this word? Has it mixed with faith in their hearts? Not at all! Most believers have not received it; on the contrary, they have hardened their hearts with the result that it has become a habit to criticize and judge almost everything and everyone.

As far as I am concerned, I am totally convinced that it is precisely this great, fateful evil that is the main reason for it not going well with so many people, and that it is going very badly with some in spite of all the words of God they have heard and read.

If the heart is warm and tender and good, such a word will inevitably mix with faith in our hearts to the extent that we will always be finished with the lust to judge. For this sickness is fatal; all of humanity suffers from it. It begins with constantly judging. Imagine if all your judgments were recorded on a tape recorder and replayed publicly! It can easily continue with condemning someone—and thus you are condemned yourself. Be quick to let your heart melt! Be quick to ask for forgiveness! Be quick to take your harsh words back!

Every harsh word deposits something hard in your own heart and possibly in other hearts as well—just as much as every act of mercilessness, every contradiction, every wasted opportunity to ask for forgiveness, or to forgive others, as well as every critical comment and every spiteful word and every suspicious word. All these things proceed from a hard heart and make the heart even harder.

In this way it becomes an ingrained, nasty habit. The longer it lasts, the more difficult it is to get rid of it.

If there is any hardness in your heart—whether it is little or much—may it melt today!