ROMANS 10: 17-21
THE REJECTION OF THE WORD
We have just been advised in this passage dear friends that if you are seeking salvation you must be a hearer of the Word. We are to keep in mind that it is the Word of God that we need to hear, because the word of man cannot save you. It may delude you. It may give you false hope and security; but the hearing that saves is the hearing which comes by the Word of God. We should take care then, that we do not run hither and thither just because of the cleverness of certain speakers; but keep to the Word of God, for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
The argument turns from how to be saved to why Israel wasn't saved with these verses. Like so many people today the Jews had rejected God's plan to save the world, they had rejected Jesus as the Messiah basically because they had rejected God's Word. Paul's attention returns to the Jews as it concerns hearing and responding to the Word of God, specifically the gospel of Jesus Christ. The final verses of Romans 10 deal with more excuses for the Jews not understanding the Messiah's mission or what was going to happen if they continued to reject God's message and messenger. A series of O. T. quotations reinforces the outcome of Israel's rejection.
I. THE HEARING OF THE GOOD NEWS, 18.
II. THE OPERATION OF THE GOOD NEWS, 19-20.
III. THE REJECTION OF GOD , 21.
Now the unbelief of Israel came as no surprise to some like Isaiah (53:1) as verse 16 states. Some though might not be prepared to accept that they were guilty of unbelief because they believed they had not properly heard. Someone might argue, "Yes, Israel heard but she did not understand that God purposed to offer righteousness by faith to all mankind." So Paul raises and answers the possibility in verse 18. "But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."
God had sovereignly chosen the nation Israel in the past. He made Himself known to them, but they still rejected Him. Paul splices into Psalm 19 to make his point. The first half of Psalm 19 references how God speaks to us through His creation. The second half of Psalm 19 teaches how God reveals Himself to us through His Word. Paul's conviction is that Israel has been the recipient of a wide-ranging testimony to Jesus as the Messiah (Rom. 15:19, 23).
The preaching of God's good news went forth amongst the Israelites. Wherever they went, the gospel seemed to follow them like their shadows. They could not escape from it, but they did not believe it. Colossians 1:23 states, "...the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven..."
This same truth is emphasized so strongly in the first chapter of Romans. For "they suppress the truth in unrighteousness…that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they [unbelievers] are without excuse" (1:18–20). All men have both internal and external evidence of God. Just as the heavenly bodies reveal themselves to all and preach God's majesty through God's natural revelation, so His gospel speaks to all the earth with His special revelation. God cannot be unfair or unjust. Those who refuse to trust in Him do so because they "suppress the truth in unrighteousness."
The way of salvation has always been offered to all men everywhere. As the Lord graciously promised through Jeremiah, "You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). God's absolute and universal assurance to all men is that no person who sincerely seeks for Him will fail to find Him. The incarnate Christ "was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man " (John 1:9, emphasis added). The incarnate Christ Himself declared that "this gospel of [His] kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations" (Mt. 24:14). [MacArthur, John. Romans 9-16. Moody. Chicago. 1994. p. 88]. The benefit of the gospel is available to all the earth and the ends of the world"
When GALILEO was summoned before the Roman Catholic inquisition for teaching that the earth revolved around the sun rather than the sun around the earth, he was charged with heresy. When he offered to demonstrate the truth of his findings by having them look through his telescope, they refused. Their minds were already made up, and they refused even to consider evidence to the contrary. With that same obstinacy most of Israel has refused even to consider Jesus or the claims of the gospel. Consequently, they have failed to find God-Jesus Christ, and saving faith.
II. THE OPERATION OF THE GOOD NEWS, 19-20.
Paul points out yet again in verses 19-21 that Israel was ignorant of the predictions of their own Scriptures. The ignorance of Israel was not based on lack of truth; it was not because the people did not know the truth.
Again, for the sake of argument, perhaps they simply did not understand verse 19 suggests. "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."
In spite of the message being proclaimed Israel refused to understand or "know" (egn). It was not that they couldn't understand but they wouldn't understand. They harden themselves to God's message.
Paul answers the object from two Old Testament quotations, one from the Law of Moses (Deut. 32:21) and the second by the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 65:1). Both Old Testament leaders wrote about God's turning to the Gentiles, who were not the chosen people, as Abraham's descendants were (11:11, 14), whom the Jews thought had no understanding (asynet, "senseless"; Rom. 1:21, 31). "A foolish nation" or "a people that has no understanding," that's you and me!
Through out the O. T. God's mercy has pointed to salvation by faith (Gen. 12: 1-4; 15:6). Some fifteen-hundred years before Paul wrote this letter, Moses declared that the salvation message was to reach Gentiles as well as Jews. Moses also told Israel what would happen if they rejected the Messiah. Christ would be preached to the Gentiles, and those whom they thought to be foolish would come in and accept what they had rejected.
Did not the Jewish people have instruction? Certainly they knew, and they knew also that the gospel was not confined to them. They had a warning that it should even be taken from them and sent to other nations.
So God's blessing on the Gentiles who believe in Him should make His chosen people jealous and angry. People whom they consider spiritually ignorant understood the Message. If the irreligious understood and accepted the Word, surely the Jews could have.
Have you understood God's plan of salvation? Are you seeing others grow in the Lord but your not? Place your faith in Jesus and obey His Word and you'll receive the blessings of God also.
[Jesus depicted that truth in the parable of the "landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey" (Matt. 21:33). When the vine-growers beat, killed, or stoned two successive groups of slaves who came to reap the owner's produce and then killed the owner's son, the owner brought "those wretches to a wretched end" and rented "out the vineyard to other vine-growers, who [would] pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons" (vv. 34–41).]
Verse 20 declares that the chosen people couldn't complain that the message was obscure either. "And Isaiah boldly says, "I was found by those who did not seek Me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for Me."
The gentiles who never sought the Word or asked for salvation, found salvation! The Lord of the Universe, whose heart is open to all people, will not be limited by the failure of His own people to believe as they ought and to act as they should. On the contrary, He is committed to seeing that even though His people may be "disobedient and contrary ," they will not hinder His purposes of making salvation available to all people in all ages through the preaching of the gospel.
Isaiah proclaimed that God would save a people who had never before sought after God — that God would send the gospel to a people that were dead in sin, and had never asked to receive the light and life of God.
Paul's words, addressed primarily to the problems raised by Jewish failure to respond to the message of a suffering and exalted Christ, are also pointedly relevant to the church in all ages. Some religious people are spiritually blind, while those who have never been to church are sometimes the most responsive to the Word. We cannot look into the heart and tell who will respond to the Word, so we are to share the Word with all who will listen.
The church cannot, in the light of Christ's sacrifice and the Father's purposes, afford to miscalculate the importance of evangelism. She must not repeat the fatal error of the ancient people of God. [Briscoe, D. Stuart; The Preacher's Commentary Series, Vol 29. Romans. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1982, S. 201.]
III. THE REJECTION OF GOD , 21.
Paul shows through Old Testament references that Israel was put on notice that gentiles would be included in God's kingdom. Chapter 10 concludes with the declaration of verse 21 concerning Israel, God's chosen people, who ignored His Word and sought Him in their own way and on their own terms. "But concerning Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people."
The bare truth is that Israel is without excuse. The only thing more astonishing than the unreligious' faith is Israel's lack of faith. God use every means to induce the Israelites to love and honor Him, and to lead them to submission to His authority. Yet the more the Lord called His people, the further they went from Him (Hos. 11:2). God is calling but most of the Jews refused to answer that call if it included a system of righteousness that other than their way of looking at and earning righteousness.
Disobedient [apeitheo] is refusal to obey. Obstinate is stubbornly adhering to your own opinion. Throughout her history, Israel had, for the most part, contradicted and opposed the truth of the God who had lovingly called her and graciously and patiently (all the day long) stretched out [His] hands to her.
Israel's hardened condition is a reminder to the church of what can happen when a chosen people grows deaf to the Spirit, when it is more desirous of accommodating itself than of proclaiming the victory of Christ to the world. When it thinks more of fulfilling its own will than of honoring God's will. This disobedience and obstinacy is, in varying degrees, present in the church and people of God today.
And yet concerning Israel, God has been gracious in spite of her disobedience (a quotation of Isa. 65:2). Even when we are disobedient or even obstinate God STILL calls out to us. He still desires us to turn to Him and to seek Him out in all things.
[In another of Jesus' parables, a man gave a great banquet to which none of the originally invited guests came. When the slave reported the various excuses that were given, "the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.' And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.' And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner'" (Luke 14:21–24).Because of Israel's persistent rejection of Him, Jesus lamented, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling" (Matt. 23:37). ]
Israel's continuing rebellious and unbelieving disobedience was judged by God's turning to the Gentiles (Rom. 10:20; Acts 8:1-8, 10). At the same time God has not withheld salvation from Jews. God is seeking, reaching out to people continually pleading that they return to Him in loving obedience, only to be rebuffed. There is a great emphasis on the words "all day long." All day long He has held out His hands, imploring them to return to Him. The picture is of the unwearied love of God for His people.
Again notice the continual availability of the good news to all. "All day long, I have stretched forth My hands," says the Lord to Israel. The Lord stretched them out for you on the Cross, and is still stretching His hands of mercy, grace and recreation to you even now.
But you have the responsibility to respond personally to the glorious grace of the blessed God. Will you respond? Will you come to Jesus? Will you come into His everlasting arms?
CONCLUSION
The conclusion is that the spiritual condition of Israel does not come from a lack of opportunity to hear the Word or a lack of understanding of its content, but because of their stubborn and rebellious soul. Even though they had tremendous spiritual privileges, they had taken them for granted and forgotten to respond personally to the grace of God. What monumental and tragic failure God's covenant people were! Unbelieving Jews misunderstood and rejected God, Jesus Christ, and saving faith because of their self-righteousness, and they misunderstood the extent of salvation because of their proud prejudice [MacArthur, p. 90]. Those who should have been most ready to respond rebuffed God.
If God's old covenant people had been paying attention to God's Word they would have understood that God wanted to save the world. If they had been listening to His Word, it would have been clear that God wanted to use them to accomplish that, but they chose not to hear God.
Are you hearing God?
