ISRAEL DESPISED HER HERITAGE

ROMANS 10:16–21

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”

(Romans 10:18).

When Paul asks, “Did they not hear?” he is asking about Israel. The context of his question is verse 16, which says that “not all the Israelites accepted the Good News.” Paul is making the point that simply hearing the Gospel is not enough to be saved. There are people who hear the message, but who fail to receive it.

The Privileges of Israel

Back in Romans 1 we discussed two kinds of revelation: general revelation, which God gives in nature, and special revelation, which God gives in Holy Scripture. Romans 1 clearly teaches that everyone is a beneficiary of general revelation, so that on the day of judgment no one can say that he did not know of the existence of God. But now Paul is discussing Israel in the Old Testament. Not only did the Jews have the benefit of general revelation, but also of special revelation. The Word of God reached “the ends of the world,” that is, of the Jewish world. It penetrated everywhere.

Because so many people heard the Word of God in Israel, but refused to obey it, God threatened to take the Gospel from them to the Gentiles. In Romans 10:19, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:21: “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.” God would make the Jews jealous by taking their heritage and giving it to others.

Paul then quotes Isaiah 65:1 to the same effect: “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me.” The foreigners were not seeking God, but God would reveal Himself to them anyway. Because Israel despised her heritage, she would lose it.

CORAM DEO

Jesus tells the same thing to the churches of Asia Minor in Revelation 2 and 3. If they do not repent, Jesus will come as a thief in the night and they will lose their lampstand and be spat out (Revelation 2:5; 3:3, 16). Today the once-flourishing church of North Africa is gone, replaced by Islam. What will happen to the church in your nation, if there is no repentance? Pray for the Christian church in your country today.

For further study: Isaiah 30:8–18; Hebrews 4:1–16

friday

september