“But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”” -Romans 10:19–21
Paul now addresses the next logical question of his rhetorical interlocutor: If it is not from ignorance that Israel has not been saved, then from what?
To answer, Paul, being the good theologian that he is, appeals to Scripture for his answer. He quotes the prophets, Moses and Isaiah, to demonstrate the longevity of Israel’s character flaw, the one that plagues them even at the time of his letter. Israel’s sin has been a faithless disposition toward her covenant husband, YWHW, that eventually resulted in his divorcing her (i.e., her Babylonian captivity).
“The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”” -Jeremiah 3:6–10
Though Paul does not quote Jeremiah in this passage, and the Babylonian captivity, per se, is not in view, the rebellious and unfaithful disposition that led to Israel being put away is. As he notes in verse 21, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
To make such a disobedient and contrary people angry and jealous, God promised to reveal himself to a people who did not seek him (i.e., the Gentiles) and allow this foolish people to find him. By the use of the word foolish here, Paul apparently has in mind the Psalmist’s declaration that a fool is one who says in his heart there is no God (Cf. Psalm 14:1, 53:1). Since those appointed to be believers have rebelled and made themselves unbelievers, God is going to appoint among those rebel unbelievers a host of believers.
Subsequently, unbelieving Israel will be temporarily displaced by the Gentiles who believe the word of Christ preached to them:
“The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” -Acts 13:44–48
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