The Most Tremendous Judgment: A Reflection on Spiritual Hardening and Modern Society

The great Puritan John Owen wrote, "The most tremendous judgment of God in this world is the hardening of the hearts of men." This quote always resonated with me. When we think of God's judgment, we often think of earthquakes, famines, and swarms of locusts. These are all demonstrations of the Almighty's fury, no doubt, but I sometimes think that the worst curse that can befall a people is our ability to think straight. The Scripture speaks of this occurrence on more than one occasion.

This past week I observed such an example. I was considering the words of God as He spoke through Moses before the nation entered the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy 28, God tells the Hebrews of a series of blessings and curses associated with obedience to His Law or the lack thereof. The benefits listed are magnanimous to say the least. God promises them prosperity, health, and the bounty of a fertile land.

Oh, how God wishes goodness upon His children! On the other hand, if the Jews wouldn't keep their covenant with Yahweh, they could expect curses upon themselves and their children. The calamity they could expect included famine, pestilence, oppression, and defeat before their enemies. Enough to ruin any man's day!

However, what stood out to me was the trouble described in verse 20. God said through Moses that the Israelites would receive confusion. The Hebrew word (מְהוּמָה) has the idea of vexation, mental disturbance, and turmoil. In other words, this judgment of God would cause people to think strangely, irrationally, and in a bizarre fashion. As the prophet Isaiah said, the mark of an unregenerate society is "those that call evil good, and good evil" (5: 20). As a Christian in 21st-century America, this gives me pause.

In the New Testament, we see this same mental instability related to God's judgment. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, described a similar consequence for rejecting the Creator God. He told that God, in His wrath, will turn the disobedient over to a reprobate mind, full of futile speculations about the person of God and the proper worship He deserves. According to the Bible, the deluded mind will produce perverted sexual behavior, wickedness, greed, murder, strife, and all manner of evil. This sin will be practiced and highly encouraged among the unbelieving (Romans 1: 18-32).

As aforementioned in a previous blog, we would do well to consider the past. As we wonder how we got to this point in our beloved country, we must consider the realities of antiquity and the depravity that produced them.