What are the causes of hardness of heart? There are two causes given in this chapter. One is acquisitiveness. These people were making money. They were covetous; they were preoccupied with material gain, and their earthly well-being. Pastors should never dictate what people should do, what brand of washing machine they should buy, etc.. But they do proclaim the standard. If you're looking at the most expensive thing you could have, and you are running through your mind all the advantages of having the very best thing – won’t it look good? what will it do for me? – you can be sure you're looking at something that's going to take your heart and take away your feeling for souls and for the work of God. There's a price tag attached: your emotional energy, your feeling.
The other cause is worldly associations. In Nehemiah 6:17 we read: ‘Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them.’ Tobiah was a Samaritan, one of the enemies. We will read much more about him. ‘For there were many in Judah’ – and this refers to nobles and heads of families – ‘sworn unto him.’ They were his friends and supporters. They were in league with the enemy. The text explains that, because he was married into one of their priestly families, he had connections. And Nehemiah 6:19: ‘Also they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him.’ They tried to convince Nehemiah: O, Tobiah is a good fellow. Another of the reasons for a lack of feeling and loyalty on the part of these nobles and heads of families, is that they were associating with the enemy. They were behaving like wartime quislings or appeasers. In the 1930s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain formed the policy that we ought to let Hitler expand his territory. The idea was that if Hitler was allowed to expand and be aggressive and do what he wanted to do, he would soon have enough. The principles of the families knew better than the Lord, and they thought appeasement would be a good policy, and they were in league with Tobiah.
Maybe there are dear souls in the church who are hooked on the soaps, on the TV programmes, or youngsters hooked on social media and learning all their news and information from highly biased coloured sources. They begin to think like the Sanballats and the Tobiahs of this world, and they have the values of worldlings without realising it. The devil has found a route into their hearts. ‘Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.’
Remember what we read in Proverbs 4:23: ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.’ Should Satan cast into your mind envy of somebody else, what they possess, what they do, what they have, pray for help, divert your thoughts, expel the envy, mortify it. Envy steals your feeling, your capacity to feel for the work of God, to feel for souls. Is something possessing you, envy strife? ‘I've been wronged; that person shouldn’t have said that to me, shouldn’t have done that to me. I think about it all day.’ Well then, it's taking away your capacity to love souls, love your husband, your wife, love your children, love the cause of the gospel. Always be moved. That's what worship is about. Come into the worship, throw your heart and soul and mind into it. Feel your singing of the praises of God; feel the sentiments. We must always strive to love and to feel our indebtedness, and to feel sympathy for souls. It is a daily task. This is how we prevent our hearts being hardened.