{Word Study} Harden “Akesheh”

WORD STUDY – HARDEN
Exodus 14:17: “And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians.”
Harden – Hebrew: ‘akesheh – to be stubborn, to harden
So we have a benevolent God who shoots only when there is no other recourse.  Then how do we explain the fact that just when the hearts of the Pharaoh and Egyptians starts to soften, God turns around and hardens their hearts so he can inflict more suffering on them.  That does not seem fair.  Not only that but it appears contradictory for I Samuel 6:6 tells us: “Wherefore, then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts?”  Which is it, God hardening the heart or the Egyptians hardening their own hearts?
Up until a few years ago we really could not explain this away.  Either we took Calvin’s position: “God can do what He wants and who are we to question,” or consider the attempts made to explain that this was just a Hebrew idiom.  When God said: “I will harden the heart of Pharaoh; He was using an idiomatic expression for I will permit his heart to be hardened.”  Sounds good but Hebrew scholars have yet to unearth evidence of any such idiom.
Thanks to technology and modern archeological research, however, Hebrew scholars have earthed things about the Classical Hebrew that Calvin or the rabbis of the middle ages did not know and we are still learning new things about the Classical Hebrew.
One thing we have recently learned is the nature of the active voice in Hebrew.  The word “harden” in the Hebrew is “’akesheh” which means to be hardened, stubborn, etc.  This is found in a Hiphil imperfect form, 1st person singular.  Can’t get much more direct than that.  Clearly it is God saying “I will cause Pharaoh’s heart to be hardened.”   However, this is in an active voice and we recently learned that when a verb is in a Hiphil active form it becomes permissive.  Thus, there is grammatical evidence that this should be rendered; “I will permit Pharaoh’s heart to be hardened (or continue to be stubborn).”    Calvin would have loved that.   Only by the efficacious grace of God would His heart not be hardened.  In other words our hearts are hardened or stubbornly refuse to turn to God to begin with; it is only through His special grace or what we call the conviction of the Holy Spirit that our hearts soften to God.  Yet, we learn in Genesis 6:3 that God’s Spirit will not always strive with man.  There will come a time when, like with Pharaoh and the Egyptians, that God will remove the convicting power of His Spirit and we return to our hardened hearts or stubborn ways.
It is by grace that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8) and that is a gift of God.  It would appear Calvin was right after all; even our hearts longing for God is a gift from God.  It is God who makes the overtures to us and we respond to Him.  Unlike Calvin I believe this is offered to all people and is not efficacious, our wills can resist it.  God will strive with man a long time, but one day, if we continue in our sins, God may just allow or give us over to our hardened hearts.  Those little sins that I continually commit I think: “Oh well, He is a loving God, He will forgive.”  That is true, but there may come a time when I would not care to seek his forgiveness, He will “permit” me to go back to a hardened heart.
But the real point is that any desire you have for God comes from Him.  It is a gift from Him.  You don’t have to beg, plead bargain or even give green stamps (boy that ages me) to get Him. He’s the one who gave you the desire to begin with.  Without that gift you would be like old Pharaoh, and have a hard heart. As one of my clients said when she tried to give me a gift: “Never look a gift horse in the mouth, just take it and enjoy.” Its Christmas time and God’s got a gift for you, a hunger and desire for Him.  If you hunger for God, then grab it, run with it, enjoy it, take full advantage of it and say: “Merry Christmas. Thank you God.”