⁷ What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; ⁸ just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, Eyes to see not and ears to hear not, Down to this very day.” ⁹ And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, And a stumbling block and a retribution to them. ¹⁰ “Let their eyes be darkened to see not, And bend their backs forever.”

Most difficult of all biblical teachings is the subject of God hardening individuals. There are those who believe in a so-called “double-predestination” where God chose from eternity past not only who will be saved but also who will not be saved—or to use the jargon of today’s passage, who will be hardened. The difficulty of thinking about these things is that we finite human beings are incapable of fully understanding the inner workings of God’s mind. When Scripture crosses that divide, one thing is clear: we must tread carefully with absolute statements and beliefs. And in no other area is there more danger of false doctrine than in the discussion of the sovereignty of God and the responsible, free choice of His image-bearing creation. Few other doctrines generate as much heated disagreement. To emphasize one against the other is to deny one or the other. We must live with the truth of both.

However, this section focuses on one aspect of God’s sovereignty toward humans, namely His prerogative to “harden” individuals. What does that mean, and under what circumstances does He do this? Does hardening remove free will? These are the crucial questions.

First the application is to Jewish people, God’s chosen ones. He chose them not because of any merit of theirs but because of the promise He made to Abraham. Even among the physical descendants of Abraham, only the remnant was “chosen” and the rest “hardened.” The phrase “those who were chosen” (NASB) is literally “the election,” translated in most English versions as “the elect.” Paul’s teaching here is completely consonant with Old Testament history, as his quotations from Isaiah 29:10, 13 and Psalm 69:22-23 show. There are some people who simply cannot believe because they have become hardened by none other than God Himself!

But why would God do such a thing? Is He simply capricious, arbitrarily consigning otherwise innocent people to condemnation, having decided this in eternity past before the fall and before they had any opportunity to do anything worthy of judgment? At the core, we must appeal to God’s character, just as Abraham did: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen 18:25).

Lord, when I am confused, I do believe You are good and right in all You do.