“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them” (John 12:40, ESV).

Did God not want the Pharisees to be saved? Was He actively preventing them from getting saved? Was He making salvation impossible for them? God is good. He’s not calling out to people, “Get out, or you’ll die!” and then blocking all the exits. We know God’s unchanging character, His unchanging will, His heart’s desires. God is good. God is love. God desires all men to be saved. God desires all men to come to repentance. (That’s 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9.) That’s God’s heart.

So, what’s happening in our verse today, where God is hardening hearts and blinding eyes? Psalm 81:11-12 explains it, “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels” (ESV).

They chose to not listen to God. They refused to submit to God’s direction, so God gave them over to their desires. We’ve talked about that before. You may get what you want. Be careful what you are desiring after. We need to delight ourselves in the Lord! We want Him to give us Himself, the desire of our heart.

I have a much longer teaching on this topic of God’s goodness and God’s sovereignty, called God Loved Pharoah, because there are verses about Pharoah’s heart being hardened as well (see Lesson 180).