I don't know if someone else responded to your questions, but I had responded to your earlier feedback on our Romans 9 article. In case no one else in our group has responded to your recent questions, here are a few thoughts for your consideration. I think these verses can be answered by considering three questions:
1. Does God harden peoples' hearts and blind them? Yes. The verses you referenced are sufficient to prove that point.
2. How does God harden people's hearts and blind them? The example of Pharaoh's hardening offers great insight into the mechanics of how God hardens the heart of people. Many passage mention that God hardened someone's heart in passing. Such brief references are not suitable for gleaning an understanding of the underlying principles. Only supposition and presumption would seize such passages as proof texts. But, the example of Pharaoh does offer details, so I would encourage you to consider it first.
In short, Pharaoh's heart was hardened not by direct, divine operation upon his heart, but by the same general means used to draw all men to repentance (
Romans 2:3-5): repeated instruction, discipline, and leniency. Every time God commanded Pharaoh, the arrogant soul would stiffen his back, determined not to obey. God would soften his heart through discipline (i.e., the plagues). After almost every plague, Pharaoh would penitently seek relief. Occasionally, Pharaoh was very descriptive in admitting his sin and confessing the Lord's righteousness and authority (
Exodus 9:22-35). (Please read this passage, because it is very telling.) Each time, God would eventually relent from chastening through the plague, and Pharaoh sensing escape, would again harden his heart and refuse to release the Israelites from his bondage (
Exodus 9:29-35).
Please examine these comments on Pharaoh's hardening, as mentioned in
Romans 9:17-18, for more details:
http://www.insearchoftruth.org/articles ... ans9_17-18
3. Why does God harden peoples' hearts and blind them? The answer to this question appears in the above answer. Hardening of heart only occurs to those who are resistant to God's command (
Romans 2:3-5). In other words, the hardened person first supplies an arrogant, rebellious, and impenitent heart to God's working. God transforms that person into a hardened soul, deaf to pleas of equal or lesser desperation than the previous pleas.
First, please notice God's righteousness: He responds to the arrogant soul, not hardening an innocent soul, independent of his will. Second, please notice God's providence: The impenitent soul already stands condemned and worthy of judgment prior to his hardening; however, God's working on the person preserves him for future usefulness, even if it is as an object of God's wrath! God's hardening merely refits a person for His plan, even if the rebellious soul does not want to obey God's command.
>From this, we can see that God has indeed chosen (elected) a group of people to be saved and a group to be lost. He intervenes to ensure that each group arrives at its appropriate destination - heaven or hell. In this much, Calvin was correct. However, was the Bible definition of theses groups based on God's choosing independent of our character or dependent upon it?
... be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." (I Peter 5:5b)
In Pharaoh's case, as well as other cases, we generally see that the subjects of God's hardening first demonstrate themselves to be arrogant, proud, and impenitent. These souls, God has chosen to resist. However, He draws the humble to Him. Marvelously, the same means is used upon both souls: preaching the gospel, providential chastening, and leniency. It is the soul that makes the difference. Relating this concept to the parable of the sower, the seed (the Word of God) is the same in all cases. It is the ground (our hearts) that makes the difference (
Matthew 13:18-23). This eliminates any possibility of someone accusing God of applying unequal standards. God's favor is demonstrated in the design of the message. It appeals to the humble, not the proud (
I Corinthians 1:26-31).
With this foundation in mind, let us examine the passages you mentioned:
"But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day." (Deuteronomy 2:30)
Why and how did God harden Sihon's heart? I would be careful in presuming that God did so against Sihon's will or independent of it. Rather, I would assume that God did so in a way that was consistent with other examples, like Pharaoh. I would presume that Sihon received some warning or instruction, and I would presume that Sihon had already demonstrated some stubbornness, resistance, or wickedness worthy of God's judicial hardening. We should not demand such proof every time we read of God hardening someone's heart. One example without contrary evidence is sufficient to fill in the blanks; however, I think we have evidence in this case too:
First, Sihon did receive a warning or instruction from God via Moses, which served to harden his heart, just like Pharaoh (compare
Deuteronomy 2:26-30 with
Exodus 5:1-9). Second, Sihon and the Amorites, as well as
all the inhabitants of Canaan were extremely wicked, and had already been condemned by the Lord. Part of the Israelites' function for battling was the judicial execution of these exceedingly corrupt nations. Sihon's and the Amorites' hardening facilitated the confrontation and their ultimate destruction, but their fate was long overdue (
Exodus 23:23-24; Deuteronomy 7:1-4; 20:16-18; I Kings 21:25-26):
"When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you." (Deuteronomy 18:9-14)
This explains your second passage also:
"For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly destroy them, and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might destroy them, as the LORD had commanded Moses." (Joshua 11:20)
Yes, the Lord hardened the heart of these people, but it was a sovereign act of judgment not control. The doom of these people was long overdue.
The other passages you mentioned (
John 12:40 and
Romans 11:7) speak to the same effect. God has indeed hardened a specific group of people and denied them salvation, because He has chosen a different group unto salvation. However, was that choice made independent of their character and apart from their will? No! God draws the humble and resists the proud (
I Peter 5:5b). One's character and choice determines whether they will be saved. God's election is demonstrated in the design of the message to draw a certain kind of person, not a specific group of arbitrary individuals. The gospel message hardens the proud and seals their destruction through their rejection of the very thing that could have saved them!
For different people, different things may serve as a turn off. For many of the Jews, it was God's rejection of their nation and their law as the means of salvation (
Romans 9:31-32). For other Jews, it may have been Jesus' less than impressive appearance (
Isaiah 53:1-3). For many of the Gentiles, it may have been the lack of military power or academic sophistry that discouraged their interest (
I Corinthians 1:18-31). Regardless of the exact mechanism, the gospel is designed to draw one kind of people and reject the rest. Like Pharaoh and Sihon, God has again redeemed the elect and hardened the reprobate through the design of His message, providential chastening, and leniency.
As a side point, it is a mistake to run from one extreme to another. Just because God works in concert with our free moral agency, we should not presume that He does not work in the affairs of men. Just because God does not override the will, we should not presume that He does not precipitate its choice.
I pray this helps answer your questions. If it does not, or if you have additional concerns, I would love to hear them.
May God help us to have a sincere love of the truth,
m273p15c