lydia's heart

"One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message." - Acts

Luke is careful to point out that Lydia was one of those "listening" to Paul, though the original language conveys the idea that Lydia "kept on listening," which is a way of saying that she listened intently to what was probably Paul's lengthy discourse from the pages of the Old Testament. It was during this exposition of the gospel by Paul that "the Lord opened Lydia's heart to respond to Paul's message." It is important that we not miss the thrust of Luke's wording here.

First of all, it is the Lord himself who opens Lydia's heart so that she can believe the gospel at all. This is not the first time that Luke has spoken this way, for this certainly echoes Luke's previous comments recorded in Acts 13:48, where Luke had reported that when Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel in Psidion Antioch, "all who were ordained to eternal life believed." In that text we saw that God has not only ordained who will believe, but he has also ordained how it is that those whom he has chosen from eternity past are called to faith in Christ, and that is through the preaching of the gospel. Thus it is through the Word that God opens hearts to trust in the very Savior whom the Word reveals to us. And we see exactly the same thing here. It is through the teaching and preaching of the Word that Jesus Christ opens the hearts of fallen sinners to trust the savior.

Second, this is what Israel's prophets had said would one of the distinguishing characteristic of the great Messianic age to come. In Jeremiah 31 our Old Testament lesson this morning, we saw that the prophet had described the coming Messianic age in terms of a New Covenant, a covenant in which God himself will change the sinful hearts of covenant breakers, forgiving the sins of his people, remembering their infractions of his law no more. In Ezekiel 36:26, God likewise declares, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." And this is exactly what we see come to pass here in Acts 16. Through the proclamation of God's word, the Lord himself opens this woman's heart, and she responds to Paul's message in faith.

- Kim Riddlebarger