Jesus had miraculously multiplied bread in Mark 6:35-44. He fed over five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish. His disciples had witnessed this miracle and many other previous miracles.
Later that night, as the disciples battled strong winds, Jesus came to them walking on water. They went from being terrified to being completely amazed at this. I suppose I would have acted in a similar manner if I had been there. By the grace of God, I have witnessed blind eyes opening, the lame walking and the deaf hearing. Yet I reckon if I should see someone walking on water, I probably will be amazed. This is simply what happened to the disciples. The amplified Bible reads that upon recognising Jesus, and witnessing the sudden calming down of the winds, they were astonished exceedingly. The reason being :
For they failed to consider or understand [the teaching and meaning of the miracle of] the loaves; [in fact] their hearts had grown callous [had become dull and had lost the power of understanding]. Mark 6:52
The King James Version puts it this way - For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.
When we are unable to understand the ways and things of God, we are hard hearted. We are not accustomed to the ways and acts of God because of our hard heartedness. Indifference and callousness to the things of God produces a hardened heart. This causes us to find far fetched, things that God does and says. In short we tend to speak a different language from God's, and perceive differently from Him.
Similarly in Mark 8:1-9, Jesus once again performed a miracle where he fed four thousand men with seven loaves of bread and a few fishes. His disciples had witnessed this sort of miracle more than once . One would have thought they were never going to give a thought about being without bread . But shortly after this , they happened to be talking about having no bread.
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: ‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?’
‘Twelve,’ they replied.
‘And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?’
They answered, ‘Seven.’
He said to them, ‘Do you still not understand?’ Mark 8:17-21
From the above words of Jesus, we can define hard heartedness as when we cannot see , perceive or understand the things and ways of God. When we are unable to hear God. When we forget what He has done in the past, and do not remember His greatness and goodness. By Jesus's definition, I am personally guilty of being hard hearted as I have stood in awe at things I somewhat know God can do, simply because I was not expecting Him to do them, or because I had forgotten He could do them. I have sometimes been caught up with my natural circumstances, that the supernatural had surprised me. I am very much guilty of sometimes allowing fear to take over instead of faith. I have at times fretted , not regarding the goodness and power of God. God considers such attitudes and behaviours as being hard hearted.
God wants us to fully believe in Him and depend on Him. We ought to trust Him as well. We must expect great things from Him - greater than we can conceive and fathom. We must also walk in the consciousness of God ,and dwell on Godly things. The more conscious we are of God, the more we will perceive and understand His ways. God reveals Himself to anyone who draws close to Him . Sin and pride can also cause us to be hard hearted. Pride made Pharaoh hard hearted against God. Suffering and persecution can also cause us to be hard hearted. As Christians who have known the goodness of God, we can tend to question God when going through great trials and tribulation, and thereby forget His goodness. Not remembering what God has done for us in the past constitutes hard heartedness. The disciples in both Mark 6:52 and Mark 8:17-21 were described as hard hearted because they seemed to have forgotten so soon about the miracles and provision of God.
May we find mercy against the state of being hard hearted, so that we can please God in all our ways, for without faith, it is impossible to please God.
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