"Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First Moses says, 'I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding'. And Isaiah boldly says, 'I was found by those who did not seek me; I reveal myself to those who did not ask for me'. But concerning Israel he says, 'All day long I have held out my hand to a disobedient and obstinate people.'”
Romans 10:19-21 (Part 1)

THE Apostle Paul is closing this chapter in which he has shown and asserted that the Gospel is available to all, and near us if only we will listen and receive the truth of God. He is ending by showing why the Jewish nation has been rejected, and in this Paul is giving a warning that is relevant for all whether Jew or Gentile.

In verse 18 Paul has already shown how the knowledge of God is available to all who will listen, for it is seen in creation, and also gone out in all the earth through the Scriptures which are now available anywhere in the world. It was God who sent his witnesses out to the utmost parts of the earth to proclaim the good news of salvation and reconciliation with God.

In these last verses Paul specially presses home this message to the Jews in particular, though there is an application here for everyone, and specially Christian churches, wherever they may be found.

GOD HAS SURELY SPOKEN.

In the first place the way Paul introduces the first quotation presupposes the truth that Israel had heard the word of truth and did in fact understand it. The problem was not that they did not hear, nor that they did not understand, but rather they refused the receive and obey that word.

Paul proves this by taking quotations from the Old Testament scriptures which the Jews said they believed were the word of God. Paul's way of forcing the truth on his hearers is masterly. In verses 19 he quotes from the writings of Moses. In the two following quotations he quotes from the prophet Isaiah. In fact he brought both the law and the prophets to set forth the message. The Jews revered the Law and the Prophets as the word of God, and so they could not, with any integrity, deny the truth Paul was presenting to them. These three quotations which end this chapter are all from Deuteronomy and Isaiah. The first from Deuteronomy 32:21; the other two are from Isaiah 65.

GOD'S WORD THROUGH MOSES.

Deuteronomy 32:21, which is where the first of these three quotations comes from, is in the context of the Song of Moses, which Moses recited before the whole assembly of Israel. How this was achieved we are not told, but the last verse of Deuteronomy 31 makes it clear that whatever means were used, the whole of the people of Israel heard his words. This song was recited at the very end of the life of Moses, and so was his final message to the people he had led and governed for so long. When reading the whole chapter we see that this Mosaic message was to warn Israel to keep faithful to the Lord, and to warn them what would be the result if they forsook the Lord their God.

This verse from Deuteronomy describes what God said he would do if Israel forsook the Lord. In the event of Israel departing from faith and obedience to the Lord, God would take his favour away from them and give his favour to others.

The Jews fervently believed that God's favour was theirs by right, and that God's favour would never be removed. They believed that they had won this right by paying lip service to their Scriptures, the law and the prophets, which make up the Old Testament. The Jew generally speaking was meticulous in keeping the Law as it was interpreted by their religious leaders. This keeping was all outward, and because of this Paul, in Philippians 3:4b-6 could describe his life as a Jew as perfect. It was only when Christ met him on the road to Damascus that he understood what true righteousness was, and then he evaluated his supposed righteousness as refuse and worthless. It was because of this outward righteousness that the Jews of Jesus' time felt themselves to be keeping God's law and so deserving of God's favour.

In the light of this religious culture the Jews felt that everyone else but Jews were outside the favour of God, and any idea that God would show his favour to any other than a Jew was offensive to them. The idea that a Gentile could be favoured by God was felt to be an insult to them, and would produce anger, and if they saw it happening, as it did in the apostles' time, it produced envy and jealousy in their minds and hearts.

This is precisely what Moses warned that God would do if Israel turned away from their God and did not serve him. Now in the church this warning had become a reality.

So often today where such judgement and rejection is spoken of it, is felt to be unworthy of God, and so such ideas are rejected or re-interpreted to fit in with modern thinking about God. The judgement of God is seen by modern thought through the mirror of human emotions and attitudes, and so the true view of God is tarnished. The fact is that God's character of holiness and love are inviolable, and permanent. God's anger against sin and disobedience is a permanent attitude of God. It is not a passionate outburst, but a just and necessary reaction to sin and his broken law. His holiness can't overlook the violation of his law. Sin must be punished.

The fact is that God is loving, and merciful at the same time. This is seen in two ways. Firstly Israel was given and shown the means whereby sin may be atoned for. It was embodied in the sacrifices God had ordained for the atonement for sin, and their foreshadowing of the great sacrifice God had prepared before time for the forgiveness of sin in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Secondly God's loving was shown in much patience and mercy all down Jewish history. God had constantly reasoned with them, forgiven them, blessed them again. The response to all this mercy was that any return to the Lord was temporary, and by the time Jesus came, the Jews were still departing from their God, and spurning the Messiah when he came, which God had promised all through Jewish history.

Paul is telling the Jews that the warning given by God through Moses had now begun to be executed. God had shown and poured out his favour on people who were not a nation. This means that he was showing his favour to people who were not of the nation of the Jews. The Gentiles are described in this warning as having no understanding. This means that they had not received or been blessed with the revelations from God that had been given to the Jews, and were ignorant of the revelation God had given to the Jews in the Old Testament Scriptures.

The fulfillment of the prophecy is shown in the way the Jews reacted to the salvation poured out on the Gentiles through the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles. They were indeed envious and angry, and they showed this by their persecution of the Gentiles, the people who were now favoured by God.

The fact also is that the negative side of this prophecy is also true. God's favour had been withdrawn from the Jews. The favoured position shown them by God had now been withdrawn , and transferred to the new Israel, the new people of God, those who received the good news and became by faith disciples of Jesus.

This was not to say the Jews themselves were entirely rejected, but simply their favoured position before God as his chosen people had been withdrawn. Jews could still become members of the new Israel by embracing the Gospel and putting their trust in the Messiah. All the favour of God is centred in the Messiah, and it was because the Jewish Nation rejected their Messiah, that they ceased to enjoy the privileges of such a relationship with God, and God found himself a new Israel, a new chosen people, in the church, the company of true believers.

LEARNING FROM THE SURE VOICE OF GOD.

There is a lesson here for all time, and so for the visible church of God in every age. It is true that the true believers, forming what is sometimes called the invisible church, because the company of true believers can not be fully determined, can never lose the favour of God, for by faith in Christ they stand justified before God, and God's favour eternally rests upon them. However the visible church, seen in the various denominations of Christianity, and visibly represented in the various congregations scattered throughout the world, need to take heed from this warning given by Moses.

The fact is that the churches we see all around us today have in so many ways departed from the Gospel. Like the Jews of Jesus time, the visible church has reinterpreted the revelation in the Bible to suit the wisdom of today. The church has also taken on the wisdom of the world, and allowed the wisdom of the world to effect what is believed, and the truth of the Bible is made to fit in with worldly opinion. This involves denying some Bible truth. It involves interpreting the truth of God's word in a way that the wisdom of the world can stomach.

Then the visible church today has become unbalanced. Certain aspects of God's truth have been emphasized in the expense of other truths, and certain crucial truth is ignored altogether. This of itself is an indicator that the church has lost the life which is in Christ, and is depending on its own strength.

Just as the Jewish church found themselves rejected, so there is a danger that God will reject, in the future, or indeed the near future, many representations of Christianity today. The visible church will decline because the glory of the Lord has departed from it.

CONCLUSION.