The hardest sin to confess is the sin of self-deception. A few moment’s reflection should show why. The very nature of the sin means that you don’t know what is going on. So how can you repent of a sin you don’t understand? But the fact that it is a sin, needing to be repented, means that at some level you do understand what you are doing.
The same phenomenon occurs at national levels as well. Peoples and their representatives are often clueless about how to repent — and when some Tishbite comes prophesying out of the desert, his words are incomprehensible to them? And why? Because of self-deception. But again, because it is the sin of self-deception, at some level they know the words they are hearing are right and true.
Where does self-deception come from? The Bible says that self-deception come from hearing the Word and not doing it. The Bible says that not doing what you are called to do leads to the muddled belief that you are doing what is required.
Self-deception, including national self-deceptions, end when the God of salvation lifts the veil from over our eyes, enabling us to see, for the first time in many years, the way out.