Hardened Hearts
A part of Inductive Study for biblical learning is recognizing repetition. While studying the book of Exodus, one major repetition is God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. This hardened heart set the stage for God to send plagues that directly deconstructed the Egyptian gods. Stepping back, I realized that this hardening of hearts isn’t new. I see in Genesis that God—while not explicitly written—hardened the hearts of Joseph’s brothers. The dreams Joseph received from God led to a jealousy that drove his brothers to sell him into slavery. Later in the Bible, God hardens Saul’s heart, leading David to the royal court to play the harp to help relieve Saul's distress—only for Saul to spend the rest of his life hunting David down. This pattern is known as providential redirection, where human opposition reveals a greater purpose.
Opposition is defined as “resistance or dissent, expressed in action or argument.”
The theme I am seeing is that God uses the stubbornness and opposition of others to position those He has chosen for a God-given calling. This history of endurance produces a unique strength and empathy that wouldn't have existed otherwise.
How is this shown?
Joseph being sold into slavery and later imprisoned put him directly in position to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, eventually leading to his appointment as a ruler of Egypt. When his brothers later return in need, Joseph looks at them with "pure eyes." He sees how they have grown and how their lives have developed. Through his tests, Joseph’s unique strength and empathy lead him to say one of my favorite and most powerful verses:
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people” (Genesis 50:20).
In the Book of Exodus, we see the unique strength and empathy of God. In Exodus 2:24, God heard their groaning and "remembered" the covenant He promised. He looked down on the people of Israel and acknowledged His obligation to help them. We see God’s profound empathy throughout this book as He comes down to the Israelites in the burning bush, through the miracles of the plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea. God shows His love and strength powerfully in Exodus 34:6-7, where He describes His own character. Notably, God reveals who He is right after the Israelites had built a Golden Calf. In these verses, God says He is "long-suffering," implying that He is slow to anger. God’s empathy is proven by His endurance. He stayed right in the middle of a messy, complaining, “stiff-necked,” and traumatized people instead of remaining distant. An extremely powerful way God shows His empathy is through the Law. We must keep in mind that, after 400 years in Egypt, the Israelites had lost their sense of identity and morals. God’s empathy is evident in these Laws because they are so specific. While the Egyptian gods were distant and told the Israelites they were nothing, God hand-delivered them from oppression, stayed with them, and educated them. In Exodus, the unique strength and empathy of God are revealed through a specific "history of endurance" with a stubborn, hard-hearted people.
Continuing through the Bible, we come to the relationship between Saul and David. David was described by Samuel as a man "after God’s own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14), but that heart was not a gift—it was made in a furnace. For years, David lived as a fugitive, running from King Saul in the wilderness. It was in those dark caves that David’s understanding of God shifted; he learned that God is not just a distant healer, but a present stronghold.
“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” — Psalm 40:2
This was put to the ultimate test in 1 Samuel 24. When Saul entered the very cave where David was hiding, David’s men demanded he kill the King, claiming God had delivered his enemy into his hands. They wanted David to use "evil means" to achieve a "good end." Yet, David refused. He chose to trust God’s timing rather than his own sword.
What, then, does a "heart after God" actually mean?
It is a heart forged specifically through the heat of adversity.
Forge is defined as “ to form (something, such as metal) by heating and hammering.”
A "heart after God" isn't one that has been spared from the fire; it is one that has been entrusted with it.
God trusted David to play the harp for a man who would soon throw spears at him, knowing David wouldn't become a "Saul" in response.
He trusted Joseph with a dream that would cost him his freedom, knowing Joseph’s character could survive a pit and a prison without losing faith.
The book of Exodus (and the laws that follow) is essentially a manual on how not to be like Pharaoh. God allowed them to experience the "hard heart" of an oppressor so they would have the moral authority to build a nation of empathy.
So, does God “trust” someone to be abused?
No.
As God told Samuel when anointing David:
“Don’t judge by his appearance or height... The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
God sees the resilience. He knows the "Pharaohs" will break under the weight of their own pride, but He knows the "Davids" and "Josephs" will take that brokenness and turn it into intercession for others. Intercession is the act of standing in the gap for someone else. It is using your position, voice, and prayers to help those who cannot help themselves.
In the cases of David and Joseph, it wasn't just praying for someone; it was becoming a bridge for them. A heart after God takes its own scars and turns them into a shield for someone else.
If we read the Bible asking, "What does this tell me about who God is?", we see Jesus—the ultimate Intercessor who bridged the gap between our sin and God's grace. If we are meant to be like Him, then a "heart after God" isn't automatic—it’s a daily choice to use your history of endurance as a bridge to others, rather than a wall to shut them out. The tragedy of the Israelites is that they often forgot this. They complained and wanted to go back to Egypt because "at least we had onions there.”
Ultimately, the stories of Joseph, David, and the Israelites teach us that no human heart is too hard for God to use, and no pit is too deep for God to reach. Providential redirection proves that while people may try to "harden" the circumstances of our lives, God is busy softening our hearts for a purpose we cannot yet see. The "onions of Egypt" represent the comfort of the familiar, even when that familiarity is abusive or stagnant. Choosing a "heart after God" means refusing to go back to the comfort of being a victim and instead stepping into the responsibility of being a deliverer. We are not defined by the "Pharaohs" who tried to hold us back, but by the Deliverer who used their opposition to position us for His purpose. Like Joseph, we can eventually look at our past and say with confidence:
What was intended for harm, God has woven into a bridge.
We serve a God who doesn’t just watch our suffering from a distance; He stays in the middle of the mess, enduring with us until our history of pain becomes a legacy of empathy.