The heart...

It is in Genesis that we begin learning about our hearts.  It is there that we are confronted with the fact that our hearts are evil.  It is in our hearts that our intentions are found - our conceptions, our imaginations, and our determinations.  And these intentions guide our thoughts - our plans and our purposes.  It is in our hearts that we decide to love or to hate.  It is  in our hearts that fear is found. It is there in our hearts that we determine to sin or believe.

In Exodus we are confronted with a "hardened heart".  A hardened heart is stubborn.  It has no concern for others.  It refuses to listen.  It chooses to sin.  Pharaoh hardened his own heart... and we do this too.  We are stubborn, we refuse to listen or care.  We choose to sin. ( 4:21, 7:3,13,14,22,23;)

 But, we are also told that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart too.  In Ex. 9:14 Moses is told to tell Pharaoh that the plagues were being sent "to his heart" SO THAT he would know that there is no one on earth like the Lord.  ( a personal revelation)
And in 10:1 the Lord tells Moses that the reason He is hardening Pharaoh's heart is 3 fold -
So that the Lord may perform the signs;
so that the Israelites would testify about how God had made a "mockery of the Egyptians";  
and so that they, the Israelites, "may know that I am the Lord." ( A national revelation)

Later in Exodus 25 and 35 we learn that hearts can be "moved" "made willing", and "stirred".
God's people, who do not harden their hearts, and come to know that He is the Lord.. begin to have changed hearts!  They have a desire to give, to teach, and to work.  God gave Bezalel a heart of wisdom and skill to perform the work on the tabernacle. The people's hearts were moved to give and to work.  Quite a contrast from the stubborn heart of Pharaoh.

There are only 2 references to the heart in Leviticus.  19:17 where the Law is given "You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart;"  and Lev. 26:16 where the penalty of disobedience to God's law includes the "soul to pine away" - deep sorrow in the heart.

There are also 2 references in Numbers.  Chapter 15:39 tells of the purpose of tassels added to the garments of the Israelites - " to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes after which you played the harlot." 
When we forget that He is the Lord and forget His Word, and follow our own "hearts" we end up where we started - hearts, desperately wicked, hardened, barren, and filled with hate. And when that happens we will know the deep sorrow, our heart will "pine away".

Father in heaven, we pray for soft hearts and willing minds.  We pray that You will be Master of our hearts, letting Your will be done.  Stir our hearts once again, filling us with Your Spirit, that we might walk in Your ways and not our own.  Thank You for loving us and forgiving us all our sins as we confess them before You.  May Your Truth fill our hearts today, we ask in Jesus' Name, Amen.