Romans Chapter 10

1   Brethren, indeed the delight of my heart and the prayer to God over Israel is into salvation!

αδελφοι η μεν ευδοκια της εμης καρδιας και η δεησις η προς τον θεον υπερ του ισραηλ εστιν εις σωτηριαν

Paul was not at all interested in seeing Israel abandoned to her faithlessness. If Paul had understood the prophets and Christ’s words regarding Israel, to mean that God had finished all dealings with that people, and had replaced them in His plan with the church, as some believe, Paul would not have wasted his prayers. God was very clear throughout the Old Testament, and most particularly in Jeremiah, that as long as this present world exists, the children of Jacob would remain as Israel before Him, and His promises to them would continue, as He had originally given them ‘an everlasting covenant’. To believe, then, that God would exclude Israel as a people from the promise of eternal salvation is to lack understanding of the love of God from which none are ever separated. God does not turn His love off and on like the burner on a stove, in accordance with the circumstances of the moment. [1] Rather He Himself declares His love toward Israel as an “everlasting love”, because of which He would draw them with cords of “lovingkindness”. [2]

Paul the Pharisee knew what God had declared about His people Israel, and Paul loved Israel as God loved Israel, desiring their repentance and salvation, for which Paul prayed.

2   For I testify (witness) to them that they have zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,

μαρτυρω γαρ αυτοις οτι ζηλον θεου εχουσιν αλλ ου κατ επιγνωσιν

The Greek text reads that Paul testifies “to” Israel, rather than “of” Israel. Everywhere that Paul went to proclaim Christ, he entered the local synagogues to reason with the Jews that Jesus was their Messiah, the Son of the living God.[3] Paul demonstrated to every Jew who gave him a hearing, that Jesus Christ was the Saviour they were waiting for, and that only through faith in Him – believing who He is and what He said – that they would receive remission of sins by His death on His cross, and everlasting life by His resurrection from the dead. He showed them what the Scriptures meant that they had studied through their generations, but without understanding what God had planned “for those who love Him.”[4] They had believed for generations that God would give them earthly victory over their earthly adversaries; which covenant they had broken generations before Christ. But the new covenant God had made with all people was the imputation of His own righteousness upon everyone, regardless of background, who would receive Him in faith as Saviour. To those who believed, He would purge their sins, and give them His Spirit.[5] And their Saviour would be God Himself, Who promised that He Himself would come to them and save them from their sins.[6]

In this way, Paul was fulfilling his desire that he might have been set aside to Israel; while fulfilling his given ministry to the Gentiles, Paul set himself aside, dedicated to ministry also to his own nation wherever he was given opportunity.

3   for being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, to the righteousness of God they were not subjected (hupetagesan).

αγνοουντες γαρ την του θεου δικαιοσυνην και την ιδιαν δικαιοσυνην ζητουντες στησαι τη δικαιοσυνη του θεου ουχ υπεταγησαν

Indeed, many Jews were very religious, devoted to the traditions of their fathers and desiring the blessing of the God of their fathers. They were eager to find a way to please Him, and to receive the kingdom they believed he would give them on earth; to be free of their adversaries and the perpetual struggle they had endured since they first had kings, and to once again ‘eat the good of the land’. While they believed themselves ‘special’ because of their temple and their Law, they did not understand either the temple or the Law, or why they continued to live as slaves in the land God had given to their forefathers.

Having become dedicated to following a lst of rules, and looking for ways to refine the rules to increase the ‘cleanness’ of their prescribed behaviours, the Jews had no awareness, nevermind understanding, of the righteousness of Abraham. They were ignorant of God’s pronouncements in the prophets that their righteousnesses – the actions they performed that were supposed to be ‘good’ – were comparable to ‘filthy rags’.[7] The Hebrew word used by Isaiah is עד – ‘ed oror ayd, which was used to refer to a menstrual period. A woman was considered ‘unclean’ during and shortly after menstruation; Isaiah’s use of this term to express the character of the deeds Israel considered righteous would have been recognized by the Jews as an emphatic denunciation by God of the good value of anything they did. Despite this condemnation, they continued to pursue the same processes and practices as the expression of their belief that they were accepted by God through them. God should approve them because they did this certain set of things which they perceived to be ‘good’ deeds. As long as they thought this way, their minds were insulated from God’s clear expression of the righteousness that is acceptable to Him, the righteousness that is ascribed by God to the person who believes Him.

4   For consummation (telos – goal, fulfillment) of law (is) Christ into righteousness to every believer. (pisteuonti) (Christ is the goal of law into righteousness to every believer.)

τελος γαρ νομου χριστος εις δικαιοσυνην παντι τω πιστευοντι

Where they went wrong was failing to recognize the role of the Law, which was to bring them to God in repentance and faith. If God had wanted a bunch of rule-following robots, He could have had them. But God’s desire for His creation was a willingly-loving acceptance of God as God, and the natural outworking of that being the right conduct that reflected the love and character of God.

Likewise, when God called Abraham, He called him to a relationship based on Abraham’s faith in God as God. If Abraham’s progeny had trusted God as their forefather had done, no law would have been necessary. But they did not trust God; instead they requested a “list” of instructions to follow, and God fulfilled their request, though His purpose differed greatly from theirs in asking.

As Paul states, the purpose or end goal – telos – of the Law – any law given by God – is Christ, from Whom righteousness will be imputed into everyone who believes Him. The Law to Israel, no more than the law given to Adam, was not intended to make men ‘good’; rather it was given in response to hearts not able to receive God or to be ‘good’ apart from faith toward God: accepting God as They are for Whom they are, and believing Them because They are God. Every process and practice enumerated in that code was to point their minds toward the truth, that God appoints His righteousness for those who will receive Him.

5   For Moses writes the righteousness that (is) out of the law, that the person doing them shall live in them.

μωσης γαρ γραφει την δικαιοσυνην την εκ του νομου οτι ο ποιησας αυτα ανθρωπος ζησεται εν αυτοις

The only means of righteousness under the Law was complete submission to its precepts. The promise to Israel was an earthly promise: that obedience to the Law would bring safety, prosperity, honour, and success in their worldly situation, whereas disobedience would result in God’s protective hand being lifted, leaving them susceptible to all the same struggles and dangers as the nations around them, including deprivation, hardship, and war from their enemies. If they were obedient, they would ‘live in’ the precepts, and they would live protected from harm.

The “righteousness of the Law” is the performance of the requirements. We could describe it as a practical righteousness or a righteousness of works. But as the Law was inadequate in that it could not address every aspect of human existence, experience, attitude, or idea, even perfect compliance with the Law could not bring about perfect righteousness; there would remain too many areas of life susceptible to the human tendency to ‘live according to flesh’ which Paul had already confirmed would only bring death. In fact, even perfect compliance with The Law, achieved through human effort, is only a form of ‘living according to flesh’, conditioned by a choice to do what is perceived as  best.

Israel’s problem mirrored that of all humanity: they sought approval based on a prescribed set of deeds, but they did not seek it based on faith.

Like the atheistic moralist, God cannot approve or accept an individual, however “good” they may be, if they either do not believe that God is, do not believe Who God is, or do not believe what God says. The only way anyone can be received in God’s presence is to acknowledge God as God, with all the significance that carries, and to believe and trust God because God is God.

But what the Law was never designed to do, because it could not, was to make a man fully righteous. Far more is involved in perfect righteousness than following the few hundred precepts encoded in the system given to Moses. That Law could not address conditions of heart or mind; it did not address every potential matter that could arise in the individual’s life or the experience of the nation as a whole. In other words, the Law could only affect those things covered by it, and was insufficient to make a man completely good.

6   Yet the righteousness out of faith says thus: ‘Say not in your heart, “Who shall ascend into the heaven?”’ (this is, to bring Christ down;)

7   or, ‘Who shall descend into the deep?’ (this is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

η δε εκ πιστεως δικαιοσυνη ουτως λεγει μη ειπης εν τη καρδια σου τις αναβησεται εις τον ουρανον τουτ εστιν χριστον καταγαγειν

η τις καταβησεται εις την αβυσσον τουτ εστιν χριστον εκ νεκρων αναγαγειν

But the righteousness of faith says, “Do not ask how we can get God to come to us, or ‘how can we bring our Messiah back from the grave? Our leader is gone; we have lost him to death.’” Faith believes that God has come as He promised, in the person of Christ, to purchase back His people from the bondage of sin. Faith believes that God’s Messiah would live after death because God told it before He ever came. Faith believes God; whatever He says, it is true because He says it. When He said He would come, He meant that He would come. When He declared that He Himself would save His people from their sins, that’s what He meant. When He told His first-covenant people that His Redeemer would both die and rise again from the dead, the only right response to His words was to believe Him, because He is God and He always speaks truth.

Righteousness is not based in their (or our) ability to resolve the problem of sin, nor our or their performance of heroic feats to accomplish God’s work. Rather, that righteousness is achieved through the message proclaimed by Paul and the other apostles; the message of faith that lives in their hearts and proceeds from their mouths, that Jesus Christ is the Lord and God has raised Him from the dead. That is the message preached by Paul, and the word to be believed which imparts righteousness to each man when it is believed.

8   But what says it? ‘The word (rema – saying) is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart.” This is the word (rema) of the faith which we proclaim:

9   that if you shall confess in (with?) your mouth Lord Jesus, and you should believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.

αλλα τι λεγει εγγυς σου το ρημα εστιν εν τω στοματι σου και εν τη καρδια σου τουτ εστιν το ρημα της πιστεως ο κηρυσσομεν

οτι εαν ομολογησης εν τω στοματι σου κυριον ιησουν και πιστευσης εν τη καρδια σου οτι ο θεος αυτον ηγειρεν εκ νεκρων σωθηση

“The word is near you…” The Jews had heard from God for 2 millenia; God had told them all they needed to know in order to prepare them for His salvation. There was no mystery to the one who would hear what God had to say; there was no secret, nothing that had not been given to them already, nothing they had to search for, dig for, hunt for.

The word they needed to believe was what God had told them all along, the same ‘word’ that Paul and the other apostles and disciples declared without apology to everyone who would listen: That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was Lord and Saviour, and that God had raised Him from the dead to open eternity for those who would trust Him, confessing the Lord Jesus by mouth, and believing God has raised Him from the dead. By that faith, a person – any person – “you” – shall be saved. The Tanakh taught as Paul taught: that faith in the word of God and the Christ of God would bring a person salvation from sin and death. The Law was not the saviour; the Saviour is God, incarnate in Christ, and His requirement for salvation is belief, demonstrated in a life by its expression in word and deed.

10  For in(to) heart it is believed into righteousness; yet (then?) in(to) mouth professed into salvation.

καρδια γαρ πιστευεται εις δικαιοσυνην στοματι δε ομολογειται εις σωτηριαν

Just as “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness”, so also when we believe God, He credits righteousness to us.

The passage is pivotal to understanding the nature of faith: Paul does not describe a condition of mental assent to a package of facts, nor even a demonstration of acceptance by performing approved actions – although both of those are part of faith – but he describes a man who has faith in his heart. This acceptance of facts generates a response at the core of a man’s being; he is completely confident that what God has said, God has done, and it profoundly impacts him as an human person because he has received it for himself and into himself. He has taken personal possession of the reality of God as God, which is a profound contrast to Israel’s perception of a condition of being a people of God on the basis of a fleshly corporate identity. Paul has described a corporate identity defined by membership in a body that is determined by individual faith, irrespective of national affiliation (Jew vs Gentile).

The Jew would have known that God had prophesied the resurrection of the body – we see this when Martha affirms to Jesus that Lazarus would ‘rise at the last day’. The Pharisees also believed in a resurrection, because the Hebrew Scriptures contained the prophecies concerning it. (Job 19:25-7; Is 26:19; Ez 37; Dan 12:2, 13; Hos 13:14; 1 Sam 2:6; Ps 71:20)

Consequently, while any may have chosen to disbelieve that a specific person, Jesus of Nazareth, had risen from the dead, there would have been no a priori disinclination to accept the possibility that someone would rise from the dead.

Now, each Jew had the obligation to draw from his knowledge of what God had prophesied concerning His Christ, and what he knew concerning resurrection, to decide how he would respond to this Jesus Who was seen and heard by thousands, whose miracles were witnessed throughout Judea and Samaria, Whom they saw dead upon the cross, and of Whom now his closest followers, whose lives and spirits were totally changed from what they had been before Christ’s arrest, proclaimed without exception that they had seen Jesus alive. Men and women not previously sympathetic to Christ’s message, and many who had begun hostile or abuse, such as Paul, became convinced of the truth of Christ’s resurrection and were completely changed. Paul or Joseph of Arimethea, or Nicodemus, were not ignorant men; they could not be dismissed as superstitious commoners lacking knowledge or common sense. They knew what had been written, and each man was so persuaded that Jesus fulfilled God’s word that they accepted the expulsion from positions of honour, privilege, and national leadership and embraced Christ and His salvation.

This message Paul confirms as the exclusive means by which a man achieves righteousness before God, because righteousness is a condition of the heart, that characterizes the essence of who a man is, and will evidence itself in how a man lives: “with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation…”

This is the substance of righteousness for all men, regardless of background. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, because anyone who would call upon Jesus must first believe that He is raised from the dead – after all, who would call upon someone they knew had died, if they believed that person was still dead?

11  For the Scripture says, ‘Every one believing on Him shall not be ashamed.’

λεγει γαρ η γραφη πας ο πιστευων επ αυτω ου καταισχυνθησεται

12  For no distinction is between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord of all is rich to all the ones calling (the callers on; the invokers of) on Him.

ου γαρ εστιν διαστολη ιουδαιου τε και ελληνος ο γαρ αυτος κυριος παντων πλουτων εις παντας τους επικαλουμενους αυτον

13  For everyone  who ever shall call on (invoke) the name of the Lord shall be saved.

πας γαρ ος αν επικαλεσηται το ονομα κυριου σωθησεται

14  How then shall they call to Whom they believed not? Yet how shall they believe of Whom they heard not? Yet how shall they hear without a preacher?

πως ουν επικαλεσονται εις ον ουκ επιστευσαν πως δε πιστευσουσιν ου ουκ ηκουσαν πως δε ακουσουσιν χωρις κηρυσσοντος

15  Yet how shall they proclaim, if they are not ever sent (apostalosin – commissioned)? According as it has been written, ‘How beautiful (are) the feet of those bringing good news of peace, of those bringing good news of good.’

πως δε κηρυξουσιν εαν μη αποσταλωσιν καθως γεγραπται ως ωραιοι οι ποδες των ευαγγελιζομενων ειρηνην των ευαγγελιζομενων τα αγαθα

Consider: Paul wrote to this people through between two and four decades after his conversion (depending on whose dating of these letters is correct) which means that he is addressing an audience post mortem chrisi. In other words, Paul is telling his audience that salvation is dependant upon an individual calling out to a Man who had died! Any sensible person would agree that calling on a dead man to save them is not only futile, but could be considered schizophrenic – indicative of a deranged mind.

But not so if Jesus Christ is alive! If Christ was alive, He must necessarily have risen from the dead, since there was no doubt that He had certainly died, and if Christ was raised from the dead, it was not insane to call to Him for salvation from death. If Christ is alive from the grave, He has power over death. Who better to call for salvation from death? If Christ owns such power, then the only right response is to believe Him, call to Him in faith, and receive what only He can give: forgiveness of sin through His death, and resurrection from death through His life! Indeed, everyone who calls upon Him, then, as the Living Lord, is assured to receive the salvation he has offered.

It is self-evidence that no one will appeal to someone whom they either do not trust, or do not believe exists. When we don’t trust another person, we are unwilling to rely on them for any matter for which we consider the outcome to be important. If we do not believe Christ – that He is the saviour of me from death and hell or that His death covered the penalty of our sin, or that He rose from the dead as He said He would, or that He sits alive at the right hand of the Father as judge, intercessor, and King, and that He will return in glory to execute full justice and rule over the earth, that person will not appeal to Him to save them from their sin.

But no one can believe someone they have not known exists. Jesus Christ and His atoning ministry are not intuitively discerned. While Paul affirms what David sang about the creation testifying to the nature and power of the living God, and while we could argue that the same witness could incline a thoughtful person to expect that such a good and powerful God would necessarily establish a way to overcome all the evil that has arisen in His cosmos and to restore everything to a condition of intrinsic goodness, a person would be unlikely to come to the counter-intuitive conclusion that this same God would inhabit an human body in order to take upon Himself the necessary penalty justice demands so that He could free His human creation from that penalty, permitting all creation to be restored and man restored as head of creation under the Kingship of Christ. This glorious message can only be known if it is shared from one who has heard to those who have not: “how can they believe whom they have not heard?” Someone must tell them.

The Greek word translated as “preacher” is the verb κηρυσσοντος kerussontos. While “preacher” certainly refers to someone assigned the special role of “preacher” as we normally use the term in English, anyone who proclaims or announces a message is a preacher in the general sense. Paul’s question, properly translated, reads, “… how shall they hear apart from proclaiming?” If no one tells them, they can’t hear. If they never hear of Jesus, they cannot ever believe Him.

But who will speak if they are not enlisted? Too many people believe it’s the job of a pastor to share the gospel, or a ‘missionary’ or an ‘evangelist’. But the word “pastor” means shepherd; a shepherd cares for the sheep: he is to fee the flock and protect it from predators. Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of His church, who lives among His people by the Holy Spirit in us.

A “missionary” is simply someone with a mission, and an “evangelist” is one who shares good news. We all have a mission or assignment to make Christ known to others, and everyone who tells someone about salvation in Jesus Christ is an evangelist by definition. While some people are specially called to a life particularly devoted to going out into the world to share the gospel, everyone who is in Christ is called to live Christ, which will always result in the profession of Christ to others, and telling of “the hope we have” in Him.

We who have been saved have no further need to live in this world for ourselves; God is more than able to work in us through the Holy Spirit to fully teach, enlighten, convict, and direct with such power that we cannot but learn, understand, and perform in complete holiness, which means that God could remove us from the world to be with Him and condition us quickly to be holy as He is. Yet he has left us here, just as He left His first disciples.

I believe the abundance of Scripture shows us that we remain here to reflect the image of God to the rest of the world, through the conformation of ourselves into the image of Christ through the Holy Spirit in us, in order both to show and to tell the good news that Jesus Christ saves lost men. Only we who know Him have the “good news” humanity needs. Only we who know Him have the power to make Him known. It is we who know the Saviour and the means by which He saves, and it is we who are equipped to share that message to the world: that God loves them as He loves us, and calls them by us to acknowledge Him as God, admit their faithlessness and sin, and to believe Christ, believing His death was for their sin and His resurrection brings them life! There is no better message for there is no other truly “good news”.

16  But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord! Who believed our report?’

αλλ ου παντες υπηκουσαν τω ευαγγελιω ησαιας γαρ λεγει κυριε τις επιστευσεν τη ακοη ημων

Israel’s problem throughout their history has been no different than the world around it: as a group, they failed to believe God. While some in every generation did acknowledge the true God as God, and trusted His word, they were a tiny fraction of the whole throughout their generations. Isaiah’s convicting words quoted by Paul from Isaiah 53:1 form a rebuke in the midst of his call to Israel that begins in an earlier chapter. (it appears possible that chapters 50 – 55 may form a single communication, but it is possible that unique messages begin at each of chapters 50, 51, 52, 5, and possibly 55)

God repeatedly urged the nation through His prophets, to raise themselves from the worldly stupor they had entered and return to God in faith and obedience. Verse 3 of chapter 52 both admonishes and encourages: you sold yourself at no charge, and you shall be bought back without money. They had given themselves in ownership to wicked nations that cared neither for God nor for Israel. God had established them to be a people to Himself, not slaves to strange people and strange gods. Most of Paul’s Jewish readers would have recognized from what book Paul had quoted to them: “Awake! Put on your strength, Zion! Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem! Shake yourself from the dirt; loose yourself from the bands of your neck …. Those who rule over [My people] cause them to wail and My name is continually blasphemed every day. Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore in that day that I, He speak: “Behold Me!” How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news…” (finish the quote, possibly to 53:1 to show the full connection)

From His call to the nation to return to Him, God described to them how His “anointed servant” would bear the chastening of Israel’s violations and uncleanness (v 5-6,11) and cause His life to be offered for sin, by which He would make intercession to God for men’s sins.

17  Consequently, the faith (is) from (out of) hearing, yet the hearing through declaration (rematos – saying) of God.

αρα η πιστις εξ ακοης η δε ακοη δια ρηματος θεου

Faith is man’s response when he is successfully compelled by what is presented to him. When God speaks, man chooses to believe or disbelieve; either we accept that God is completely righteous and therefore always true, or we refuse Him and disbelieve His word. Remember that the failure to believe what God has said is, in effect, a rejection of God as God. If we accept God as God, we must also believe Him; if we do not believe Him, we consider Him as less than righteous, thereby divesting Him in our own mind of the defining characteristics of what it means for God to be God, which is the essence of unfaithfulness. In other words, true faith, by definition, means that we believe all that God says.

Thus, when Paul affirms that not all Israel has obeyed Christ’s good news, he confirms with the author of Hebrews that their hearing was not coupled with faith. (Hebrews 4:2) Indeed this was Isaiah’s lament in 53:1: Who has believed our report concerning Your anointed Servant Who would suffer and die for the sins of the nation? Had they believed Isaiah and the other prophets, Christ would have been embraced by all Israel, and not rejected out-of-hand.

18  But I say, did they not hear? To be sure, into the entire land their sound came out, and into the ends of the world their sayings.

18  αλλα λεγω μη ουκ ηκουσαν μενουνγε εις πασαν την γην εξηλθεν ο φθογγος αυτων και εις τα περατα της οικουμενης τα ρηματα αυτων

Some might argue or plead that the message was hidden from God’s first-covenant people, but Paul soundly refutes that charge: “… the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart…. their sound went into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.” [MAKE REFERENCE TO THE ANCIENT RABBINICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE PLURALITY OF THE GODHEAD]*

The nation of Israel possessed The Law and the prophets in which God clearly established the principle and practice of blood covering for sin. He clearly and emphatically told their first father, Adam, that the wages of sin is death, which record Israel had possessed at least since Moses’ day, along with the evidence and reminder throughout history. The sacrifices in the Levitical Law were the substitution of the blood of a pure and perfect animal in its prime to buy back – redeem – the life of a sinful man. The Psalms and Prophets demonstrated God’s call to repentance and faith toward Him in order to be made clean by Him from past sins and be restored to His presence. God clearly told Israel that He would replace their ‘stony heart’ with a “heart of flesh”, and He told them that He would pour His Spirit into the faithful among them.

None of this message was hidden or beyond understanding to anyone who desired God [find ref in john if you seek god you will know if my words are true] it has become popular to say that God supernaturally closed Israel’s ears and understanding so they were incapable of hearing or comprehending His message, but the Scriptures testify otherwise. Like pharaoh, they hardened their own hears, and closed their minds to God, so when Isaiah clearly and repeatedly prophesied that God Himself would come to bring salvation from sin, the unfaithful rabbis and their unfaithful flocks would consider his words as figurative rather than literal, and miss this marvellous message. Thus we see Jesus, the God visiting as He had promised, “closing” their eyes by coming as an unremarkable man born to David not from a noble father as they had come to expect, but to a lower-status working family from an ill-esteemed town, born to a mother pregnant before marriage. He came speaking cryptic parables that even His nearest friends failted to comprehend, even though they were often very simple. Isaiah “closed” the eyes, ears, and hearts of Israel by telling them plainly what to expect when that people had already devised an image for themselves of what they wanted and had come to expect God to do for them. When God did exactly what He had foretold them, they missed it because they had redefined both God and His word to them, many generations before He arrived.

Some might argue that the good news was never given to the nation of Israel; in fact some people today will say that the so-called ‘church age’ is not apparent in the Old Testament, which are the Scriptures that Israel possessed. If they had not been told what to expect, they could certainly not have been expected to recognize or believe what they were told. But Paul writes that this is false. When we read general references to the Scriptures in the letters or gospels of the New Testament, we must bear in mind that the writers all refer to the Scriptures possessed by Israel, those we now call the Old Testament. From these Scriptures alone did the apostles reason wit the Jews that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” These are those Scriptures which Paul and Peter attested to have been written “by inspiration of the Holy Spirit” as He “led holy men of God” to write. Israel had several hundred years of records of God’s words to them, that He would come as Deliverer and King to free His people from their sins and restore to Himself all who trust in Him.

No, the Jew had heard for generations, as the Gentile had heard through them, evidenced by the response of Herod and the magoi, the woman of Tyre and the Roman centurion; all the world awaited the Son of David, the King of Israel. Indeed the message had gone “…to the ends of the world”, and now by the mouth of the church, Jesus as Messiah, Saviour, and Lord had been proclaimed from Europe to the orient, Asia minor through to Africa. Israel could by no means plead ignorance of the message; they could only admit to refusing to hear.

19  But I say, did not Israel know? First Moses says, ‘I will provoke you to jealousy by (those who are) not a nation; by a foolish nation I will anger you.’

αλλα λεγω μη ουκ εγνω ισραηλ πρωτος μωσης λεγει εγω παραζηλωσω υμας επ ουκ εθνει επι εθνει ασυνετω παροργιω υμας

Paul next quotes Moses in Deuteronomy 32:21: “I will make them jealous with (on) a non-people; with (on) a foolish people I will anger you.” In Deuteronomy 32, Moses wrote a song of Israel, in which he described God’s provision for the nation of Israel, by which they became wealthy and came to disregard YHWH, turning their back on Him to follow other gods that were ‘no-god’. God told Moses that because this nation in their unfaithfulness to Him had stirred up His justified anger and motivated His jealousy for them, that as they had followed things which were not real gods, He would anger and provoke jealousy in them through those who were not really a people. The Greek word Paul used is ethnos, from which we drive the English word ‘ethnic’. Whereas Israel has possessed their national identity by parentage and human descendancy, God would use people without national or cultural identity to arouse jealousy for their privileged relationship to God, among Israel.

Jealousy is commonly thought to be an angry emotional response to someone gaining the attention or affection of a person form whom we want to receive preferential consideration, but the word has both positive and negative implications. Jealousy also refers to the rightful protective passion against anyone impinging upon a relationship rightfully assigned to the person who is jealous. A husband is justified in jealously guarding his relationship with his wife; only he is entitled to her spousal attention and he is entitled to protect both her and their marriage from all who might try to come between them.

Properly understanding the word jealousy, Paul reminds his readers that God foretold His intention to stir up Israel’s passion for her relationship with God through the introduction into God’s fellowship of people who lack national identity, who had no prior claim on God’s attention or affection, who had no special appointment with Him. He would draw from every nation, tribe, and tongue; a mixed people to Himself who would ultimately be joined, not as a nation raised from an earthly father, but as a family of brothers and sisters in Christ, with God as their heavenly Father.

God called them `foolish` by whom He would entice Israel to jealousy and anger. Both David and Solomon wrote that wisdom begins with the fear of God. But the nations around Israel throughout her history were notable in their disregard for the Lord; they sought other deities that did not actually exist, and engaged in personally and nationally destructive behaviours in order to appease these non-existent gods. By YHWH’s definition, they were the epitome of foolish, having rejected Him rather than feared Him, and having followed idols that were at best imaginary, and at worst, deceiving demons! By such peoples, God would incite Israel to anger and jealousy, through His offer to them of forgiveness of sins and eternal peace and fellowship with God by faith in the Messiah the Jews were to expect but would largely reject.

20  Yet Isaiah is very bold, and says, ‘I was found of those not seeking Me; I was made apparent to those not inquiring of Me.’

ησαιας δε αποτολμα και λεγει ευρεθην τοις εμε μη ζητουσιν εμφανης εγενομην τοις εμε μη επερωτωσιν

Isaiah is bold in declaring to his own people that God would be found by peoples who did not seek Him, and would make Himself known to those who hadn’t even asked who He was. As with all of Paul’s letters, he is referring to people as a group, contrasting the non-national people with the nation of Israel, who should have been those seeking God and calling upon His name.

Some cite this verse as a proof-text for the idea that no one seeks God, the text makes no such statement nor implication, and has nothing to do with such a proposition.

Abraham was not recorded as having been a man seeking God, yet God initiated interaction with him by speaking to him, and revealed Himself to Abram, inviting him into fellowship. Abram believed God, and began a life-walk in the Lord.

The nations around Israel were those who, as people groups, pursued idols rather than the living God. While some individuals among those nations were sympathetic to the true God, as national entities, they were neither seeking God nor seeking truth. Yet God in Christ came first to Israel, but also through His apostles to ‘the ends of the earth’ to call a holy people for Himself. As He revealed Himself to Abram amidst an idolatrous people, He also revealed Himself In Christ to the whole idolatrous world.

Popular teachings among the professing church suggest that God is ‘finished with’ Israel, or that the church of Jesus Christ has replaced Israel in God’s plans. First of all, God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants were ‘forever’ as long as time continues; those promises stand, although some aspects of God’s promises have yet to be fulfilled. Every word of God is true and everlasting; if He has promised what has yet to be fulfilled, we are assured by His having promised that He will do it. Evidently, the same error arose centuries before Christ, because YHWH addressed it twice in His communication with Jeremiah, hundreds of years before Christ, and nearly 3000 years before the present apostasy. (cf Jer 4:28; ch 30 & 31; Ezek 12:28)

Neither does 10:20 say or even suggest that no one seeks God, or that no one will seek God unless God draws them or even compels them to come to Him. Paul has continued to speak about “a people”, not “a person”; he is still referring to national and ethnic groups which, as a group, did neither follow after nor search for, the true and living God. Yet God had told Israel what the Gentiles would come to the Light of His anointed Redeemer, and indeed, members of every nation around Israel and across the world, have indeed believed what was told them about God and His Christ, despite the fact that as a people group, there had been no movement toward the LORD. This is the reality by which Israel as a people group would be moved to jealousy and motivated to restore and protect their special appointment with God.

21  But to Israel he says, ‘The whole day I spread out my hands to a stubborn (apeithounta – un-persuading) and contradictory (antilegonta – speaking against) people.

προς δε τον ισραηλ λεγει ολην την ημεραν εξεπετασα τας χειρας μου προς λαον απειθουντα και αντιλεγοντα

But as Isaiah wrote seven centuries before, God had spent generations reaching toward Israel, speaking to them through His prophets, demonstrating His presence through His provision and protection, His power through signs and miracles, and His wisdom in the fulfillment of those things He had told them would come to pass. Yet for all their national talk about YHWH God, they complained, disbelieved, and disobeyed Him far more often than otherwise. A special nation by human birth, Israel was prone to stray.

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