A lapsed nation faces many difficulties, but chief among them is its rock-solid heart. Such a people can still have the feels, or, better yet, the feels can have them. Their problem is not an inability to emote but an inability to feel what goes on around them. The stone can roll down the hill and make loud noises along the way, but the stone does not perceive anything at all. So God is there, and He is not silent. But the hard heart does not hear. The hard heart does not care.

The good news for the hardened nation is that God’s head is harder than its own—“Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead” (Ezekiel 3:8–9). You will search in vain to find people more stubborn than God and His prophets. This bone-on-bone collision will no doubt have some of the sweeter saints saying, “But what of the softness of God? He was found not in the earthquake but in the still, small voice, yes?” Yes, God has been found in the still, small voice. But the weakness of God is stronger than men and the softness of God harder than men.