Is Israel's Unbelief Inconsistent with God's Plan? Part 4
Romans 9:25‑33
Let's open our Bibles tonight to Romans chapter 9...Romans chapter 9, this great great chapter, Romans chapter 9. And for tonight we were going to be examining...we are going to be examining verses 25 to 33, the closing portion of this great chapter. We're really talking about a general theme in this chapter is Israel's unbelief inconsistent with God's plan. And it presents to us the sovereignty of God, even in the unbelief of Israel.
Now to begin with, let me ask you a question. And you can kind of think about this question as we move through the passage. What is the greatest obstacle to salvation? That's the question. What is the greatest obstacle to salvation? What is the severest, to put it another way, what is the severest bondage which can capture people and hold them in a rejection of the truth? Some might say indifference. Some might say religion. Some might say immorality or wickedness or vice or sin. But I want you to think about it. What is the greatest obstacle to salvation? We're going to see in our text a little later the answer to the question.
Now let me remind you that in this section of Romans, chapters 9 through 11, the Holy Spirit is giving us insight into the place of Israel in God's plan. The nation Israel has a unique place in God's plan. The Old Testament tells us that God set apart the nation Israel as His unique people, gave them covenants and promises, poured out blessing upon them. And now in the presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Israel has rejected. They rejected their Messiah and they reject now the proclamation of the gospel by the Apostles.
Now as Paul presents the gospel, the question is posed to him, how can it be true if God's chosen people the Jews don't believe it? How can it be genuinely from God if the people of God reject it? That's the issue. If this new truth is really of God, then why don't God's people receive it? Paul must answer that and that is the reason he writes chapters 9 through 11. And it's essentially tied to his doctrine of justification by grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He wants people to believe that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. The Jews say no it doesn't. How can it be true when the Jews, God's people, reject it? That's the question.
And so, listen very carefully to what I say now, this is very important. Romans 9 to 11 becomes in a sense an apologetic of the gospel. I mean by that a defense of the gospel. If we are to believe the gospel, if any Jew or Gentile for that matter is to believe that this is really the message from God, then he's got to understand how it is that Israel could disbelieve it if they are God's people. And how it is that God could set them aside. So, you see, he can't just end with the presentation of the gospel, he has to defend its validity by dealing with Israel and showing how they fit in to the plan.
Now remember that throughout the ninth chapter he's really saying four things. Israel's unbelief does not violate God's promise, does not violate God's person, does not violate God's plan...that's probably a better word than prophets, we've used that, but probably the word plan is better, and does not violate God's prerequisite.
Now let me briefly remind you where we've been and very briefly. First of all we saw in the first part of the chapter the first couple of verses that Israel is in unbelief. There's no question about that. In the first three verses Paul says I just want you to know my heart, I want you to know how I really feel and I have continual heaviness, sorrow, I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. In other words, he affirms their lostness and wishes that he could do something to bring them to Christ. So first of all, he affirms that the lostness of Israel is indeed a fact. And secondly, he affirms that they indeed are the people of God, verses 4 and 5. They have the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, the promises, the fathers. And as whom concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed forever. So he affirms two things. Yes they are the people of God. Yes they are in unbelief.
And that is exactly what a questioner is going to ask. How can this be true when the people of God who are the people of God, who have received all of these things from God don't believe it? He says yes they are the people of God, yes they don't believe it. But their unbelief does not violate God's promise, God's person, God's plan or God's prerequisite. And that's the flow of this chapter. And I think frankly for years and years this has been hard to understand for some reason, or misunderstood. And I think that perspective helps us realize that 9 to 11 is not an incidental parenthesis dropped in the middle of a discussion of salvation, it is a defense of the believability of it by dealing with a very significant issue.
Now first of all, in verses 6 to 13 Paul pointed out that the unbelief of Israel does not violate God's promise. And the way he does that is by showing that God's promise was only partial anyway. And he uses Isaac and Jacob as illustrations. And by the way, he uses two scriptures to make his point. And that's very important because all theological truth takes us back to the Word of God, doesn't it? And he proves his point by the Scripture.
The second section, verses 14 to 24, which we completed last time, demonstrates that the unbelief of Israel does not violate God's person. In other words, it doesn't mean God doesn't keep His promises, God doesn't keep His Word, and secondly, that God doesn't violate His holy character, that God hasn't changed His love affair with Israel in midstream, that God is guilty of defection or something...or that God is unfair, or that God is unjust, or God is unequitable...inequitable. And he answers that in verses 14 to 24, showing that God is not unfair, God is not unjust, God is not wrong in being selective in choosing people for salvation because that's the way He's revealed Himself to be. He's a God of selection. And he uses two scriptures again, Exodus 33:19 about Moses and Exodus 9:16 about Pharaoh. And his point again is taken from the Scripture.
So the scriptures tell us that God in no way violates His promise because His promise was always limited. God in no way violates His person by choosing some to salvation because He's always been revealed as a God who is selective. So He has not changed. And you remember from last time, verse 22, what if...what if God chose to do that? He's God and He chose some to salvation and some were destined to judgment but in both cases He reveals His glory, doesn't He? For His glory is made manifest in salvation and His glory is made manifest in judgment. If there were none to judge, then there would be no way for God to reveal the glory of His judgment or the glory of His wrath or the glory of His holy hatred of sin. So He has the right to display both gracious mercy and holy justice. He has the right to show His grace, He has the right to show His wrath. And again, you remember, he used Scripture to prove that...two of them, Isaiah 45:9 and Jeremiah chapter 18 he alludes to with the potter and the vessel.
And Paul's point in all of this, and I want you to just kind of get this in your mind, his point is this, God always was selective even when He gave His promise to Israel, it was never intended that all Israel racially, everybody out of the loins of Abraham would automatically be saved, He was selective. And that doesn't violate His person, He's revealed as a selective God. In the case of Moses He says I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And in the case of Pharaoh He said, whom I will harden I will harden. And so God is in no way violating His promise or His person. And God cannot be accused of being unjust because justice would send us all to hell, right? It is only mercy that saves us. We have no right to ask for salvation, we have no deserving of it. It is all the grace of God.
But it's still hard for us to handle. It's a hard doctrine for us to handle the selective elective sovereignty of God. But let me see if I can give you a perspective. It becomes particularly difficult to handle when we understand its ramifications. For example, Roy McAtee was telling me tonight that he was talking with a Jewish lady who said, "If I believe in the Messiah, if I accept Jesus Christ, that means that I affirm that all of my family before me is in hell. I can't handle that. I can't handle that because if this is the truth then that is not the truth and they're lost." And I suppose we all ask that question when it comes right down to where we live, how can a loving God condemn my parents? Or how can a loving God condemn my relatives or my friends? And so we question God about the equity of that.
But perhaps an illustration will help us from the life of Samuel. Samuel loved Saul. He loved Saul. In fact when Saul sinned, 1 Samuel 15:11 says Samuel cried all night. He cried all night. Finally God came to him in chapter 16 verse 1 and said, "How long will you grieve over Saul?" He was so grieved over this man's plight, so grieved over this man's sinfulness, so grieved over the inevitability of consequence to his sin that God had to say, "How long you going to carry this on?"
Later Samuel died and entered God's presence. And at that particular point we find an interesting event in the life of Samuel. Samuel enters God's presence and then in 1 Samuel 28 you remember he was called back from the dead. You remember Saul went to the witch of Endor and I think the witch thought she'd conjure up her medium spirit only Samuel came...because the text says, "Samuel...Samuel...Samuel...Samuel...Samuel," not "Demon...demon...demon...demon." So Samuel came back.
And you know what Samuel did? When Samuel came back he confronted Saul with his sin. He pronounced judgment on Saul. You can read it, 1 Samuel 28 about verse 15 to 20, he pronounced judgment on him, he condemned him. Now what is interesting about that is this, when Samuel died and went into God's presence, he didn't lose any love...mark this...for Saul but he gained such an utterly perfect love for God that it overrode any human emotion. You understand that? And the nearer we draw to God the more intimate we become with Him, the more perfect He demonstrates His person to be, the less we are swayed away from His holiness by emotional attachments in this world. It doesn't mean we are utterly callous. It doesn't mean we don't love men. What it does mean is we so supremely love God that the affront that sin is to His holiness is a much greater concern to us than the lostness of a person. You understand that? The nearer we draw to God the more we love and adore Him, the less we will be able to tolerate those who don't do that.
So the unbelief of Israel does not violate God's promise, does not violate God's person at all. And the nearer we draw to Him the better we'll understand that. Let's go to the third point. This, too, just a marvelous insight. The unbelief of the Jews does not violate God's plan...God's plan. Some are going to say, "Well now wait a minute, I mean, God had a plan for Israel, God an everlasting plan for Israel, God promised them that they would be as the sand of the sea and they would enter into blessing and prosperity, God promised them a Kingdom, God promised them life. I mean, now all of a sudden they're in unbelief, this violates God's plan." I mean, the Jew is going to say, "You can't preach this new gospel, it just violates God's plan. I mean, it means that all the Old Testament prophets were wrong when they promised things to Israel, when they predicted a Kingdom."
Is that so? Well let's look at verses 25 to 29 and find out. And by the way, folks, in a very very systematic way Paul proves his point again and again he uses two Old Testament prophets. In each of the first two points he had two Old Testament quotations, and here he uses two Old Testament prophets quoting each of them twice. And in the next point he uses two quotes again from an Old Testament prophet. So it's as if he makes his point, uses two Old Testament supports in every one of these four points. And that's one of the things that leads me to believe the chapter breaks down in this fashion. Now the two prophets that he quotes, and again I mark out for you the very important understanding that when Paul wanted to make a point, he went directly to...what?...to Scripture. And the first one that he quotes is Hosea...Hosea. And the second one that he quotes is Isaiah.
Now notice verse 25. "As He saith also in Hosea, I will call them My people who were not My people and her beloved who was not beloved." Now I want you to turn in your Bible to Hosea chapter 2 and you will see it in verse 23. In the middle of the verse, "I will say to them who were not My people, Thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art my God." Now that's essentially what Paul refers to. It is a paraphrase. It is not a direct quote, it's a paraphrase. He alludes to this particular text. But I want you to see the meaning of it by going back to chapter 1. Hosea was a prophet, a very wonderful man, a very loving man, a very forgiving man, a very gracious man. Verse 2 says, "The Lord said to Hosea, Go take unto thee a wife of harlotry, children of harlotry for the land hath committed great harlotry departing from the Lord."
Now we don't know whether she was a harlot when he married her but she became one. And Hosea sort of lived out a parable as his wife was a harlot to him, so Israel was a harlot to her husband, God. And his life is a living parable of the relation between God and Israel. "So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, conceived, bore him a son, called his name Jezreel." You know what Jezreel means? Scattered, means scattered. She had another child, verse 6, call her name Lo‑ruhamah, means no pitied, I have no pity for that child. Had another child, verse 9, boy, Lo‑ammi, not my people, for you are not My people and I will not be your God.
So here is Hosea, he marries a woman, she becomes a prostitute. She gives him three kids, one named "scattered," the other named "not pitied," and the other named "not My people." Now what do those names have reference to? God's attitude toward adulterous Israel. The children of adulterous Israel are scattered and not pitied and not the people of God. That's what it's saying. They are not any longer My people. They're not My people. So Israel was not God's people. The relationship was severed...even in the time of Hosea. And Hosea 2:23 just simply points that out. They're not My people, not My beloved.
But listen to me. In Hosea 2 God is going to bring them back. There's a beautiful picture beginning in verse 14, "I will allure her, I will bring her into the wilderness, I will speak tenderly unto her," and so forth and so forth, and verse 19, "I will betroth thee unto me forever, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, justice, loving kindness and mercy. I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, thou shalt know the Lord," and so forth and so forth and so forth.
So listen to what it says. Hosea says this, Israel is going to become not the people of God but some day brought back to being the people of God. That's what it's saying. Now listen very carefully. Obviously was...the prophet was referring to the rejection by Israel of God. And then the judgment that came on them and the restoration. And he really lived to see that. He lived to see that northern kingdom conquered by the Assyrians, devastated by the Assyrians. The people of Israel became, in a very real sense, not the people of God. What does that mean? God took His hands off and they were scattered, weren't they? And there was no more pity for them. And they were not His people. And yet after all of the devastation of the conquering of the northern kingdom, all the devastation of the conquering of the southern kingdom, God brought them back, didn't He? God brought them back to the land. God gave them back their land, gave them back their temple, gave them back their nation, gave them back their identity. And so historically then what you have here is a prophecy related to Israel being scattered, not any longer pitied or cared for by God, and no longer having a relationship with Him and yet some day being brought back from that and becoming a people who were once not a people.
Now when you read in verse 25 of Romans 9 "I will call them My people who were not My people and call her beloved who was not beloved," you know what he's talking about, don't you? He's talking about Israel. There's no other way to explain it. He has to be talking about Israel because that's who Hosea is talking about.
You say, "Why is this important?" Listen carefully. It's important because what it means is that the prophets of old saw that Israel would enter in to unbelief. So listen, when Hosea wrote, that had an immediate historical fulfillment, didn't it? As the people were severed from God, and carried off into captivity from which eventually God brought back the southern kingdom and a remnant of the northern kingdom. So the prophecy was historically fulfilled and the restoration after the Babylonian captivity. But that was only the first and historical fulfillment. There was yet a future prophetic perspective. And Paul here identifies it with the unbelief of the Jews during the time of Christ. He says, "Look, we are not surprised now when we see Jewish unbelief and we see them separating themselves from God and we see them denying the gospel, we are not surprised now when they enter into unbelief and sever themselves from God. Because Hosea said that that's the kind of people they were. And Hosea saw it in the immediate sense and the Spirit of God saw in the very words He gave to Hosea the future sense."
So the Holy Spirit applies through Paul what Hosea saw historically to the time of Christ. And the Israel of Christ is also a prostitute, also a harlot who has abandoned God and forsaken God. And the truth was in 70 A.D. what happened to them? Scattered, not pitied and not My people...the whole historical scene took place again...at the devastation of Jerusalem when the Jews were scattered. And have they suffered? Have they suffered? It's as if God does not pity them, isn't it? They're not His people for this period of time.
And so when we read the passage in Hosea then, we say yes, God anticipated the unbelief of Israel both in Hosea's time and here the Holy Spirit tells us even in the time of the Apostle Paul, the time of Christ. So the unbelief of Israel doesn't violate God's plan, it does...what?...it fits it. It's a tremendous thing. It fits God's plan. Israel is not now the people of God. They are a not pitied people. They are a scattered people.
You say, "Is this permanent?" No it's not permanent, look back at verse 25 again and see what it says. "I will call them My people who were not My people and her beloved who was not beloved." It even refers to the time of restoration, doesn't it? It even refers to the time when they'll be called back. Israel is not now the people of God but they will be. Look at chapter 11 verse 1. "I say then, Hath God cast away His people?" I mean, is this permanent? "God forbid." Verse 2, "God hath not cast away His people." Look at verse 26 in the same chapter. "And so all Israel shall be...what?...saved." And verse 27 says, "For this is My covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins."
In other words, those who are not now a people will become a people. Those who are not now beloved will become beloved. But the point of the text is just to show you that for the time we are not surprised at the unbelief of Israel. We saw it historically. And that historical unbelief became prophetic of the unbelief that exists since the time of Christ until their belief comes during the time of the Tribulation prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. So we're in the time when Israel fulfills the prophecy of Hosea. They are a scattered, not pitied, not My people.
Now Peter refers to this same idea, this same concept in 1 Peter 2:10. He refers to it indirectly and identifies it with the church. And that's kind of an interesting thing. I don't think he directly quotes Hosea, in my opinion. I think he alludes to the same concept only in this case it's the church. Now listen to what I say. Because we also were a scattered unpitied people who were not the people of God when we were saved, right? That's right. So Peter applies the same principle to us for Gentiles outside the covenant are a scattered unpitied people without a relationship to God.
So, Hosea directly applies the prophecy historically in his time. Paul directly applies the prophecy in his time. And Peter indirectly associates the concept with the identification of the church as a no people become the people of God.
You say, "Well now wait a minute, how can Peter take something clearly referring to Israel and apply it to the church?" Very simple, are you ready for this? When Israel becomes scattered, unpitied and has no relationship to God, they're just like the Gentiles, right? They're just like the Gentiles...no difference. Jew and Gentile in unbelief are equally not God's people, are equally not pitied by God in a special covenantal way, are equally scattered and unsaved. And so Peter sees the general truth of the state of Israel as a general truth also true of the Gentiles.
Now just notice in verse 25 that there's a beautiful set of terminologies, "My people, My people, My beloved," and the end of verse 26, "sons of the living God." Beautiful terms. The Lord's going to bring those people back. Now Paul while he's in Hosea comes to another verse and quotes it in verse 26, "It shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, there shall they be called the sons of the living God." Now he got that out of chapter 1 verse 9 of Hosea where it says, "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured nor numbered, it will come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not My people, it shall be said to them, You are the sons of the living God."
It's kind of interesting because he simply paraphrases Hosea 2:23 but he does a direct quote of Hosea 1:9. It's almost verbatim quote. And again this text affirms the same thing. Look at verse 26 of Romans 9, we don't need to go back to Hosea for the time, but look what it says in verse 26. "It will come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not My people." Where was that place? Where was it said to them, "You're not My people?" Everyplace, they were scattered. "In that place it will be said to them, You are the sons of the living God." In other words, you who were scattered will be regathered, Hosea 1:9 says. And that's happened...that happened historically. After the captivities God gathered His people back from the lands of the Gentiles. They were regathered to be called again the sons of the living God. And that, by the way, is a title that stands in opposition to sons of idols, sons of dead gods, sons of no gods, sons of dumb gods that can't talk and deaf gods that can't hear and blind gods that can't see. We are sons of the living God. It's such a great phrase, isn't it? Not some dumb idol.
So please note that the use of Hosea's prophecies is not particularly to emphasize Israel's restoration, though that appears in the prophecies that He'll call them back to be His people, His beloved sons of the living God. The particular point in using the prophecies is to show that a future restoration of Israel demands a falling of Israel, right? You don't have to restore what hasn't been lost. And the point is that Paul is saying we're not shocked by Israel's unbelief, quite the contrary. We expected it because God promised their restoration from that unbelief. So when you look at the gospel being presented and you ask yourself the question as I have been asked by Jewish people, if your gospel is true, why didn't the Jews believe it? I say it was planned in the prophecy in the plan of God that the Jews would have to be restored from unbelief so we're not surprised they've entered into unbelief from which they'll be restored.
And may I encourage you with this, my friends, have the Jews gone into that unbelief? Have they gone into that unbelief and become a scattered, not pitied people without a relationship to God except for a few? Is that true? Then if we've seen that come to pass, what else must we see come to pass? Their restoration. And I fear that many Bible students are willing to see Israel enter into the prophesied unbelief but refuse to let Israel be restored. And you can't pick prophecy apart like that.
Then Paul chooses another prophet, Isaiah, verse 27. And the similarity between Hosea 1:9 and 10 where his mind has been and this particular quote out of Isaiah no doubt link together, probably he was thinking, meditating on the Hosea passage and it triggered his thought directed by the Spirit to Isaiah. So in verse 27 he quotes Isaiah 10:22 and 23, right in that section. "Isaiah also cried out...very strong word, krazo, to cry out, even sometimes to scream...concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea," now that's exactly what it said also in Hosea 1:9 so that's why I think in his mind he linked those two. It says, "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea a...what?...a remnant shall be saved," right? A remnant. What's a remnant. You ever buy a remnant? It's not the whole thing, is it? It's a piece, it's a small piece. Isaiah prophesied in Judah under Azziah, began about 760 B.C., prophesied for about 48 years and he cried out to the people, he cried out to them that though you number as the sands of the sea, though there are many Jews, only a small piece will be saved, only a small group will be saved, only a remnant will be saved.
So, you see, Isaiah saw the unbelief of Israel, too. He saw that not all Jews were going to be saved. Now I think Isaiah again, like Hosea, historically was looking at a very near fulfillment. Isaiah was looking at the near conquest, looking at the captivity, looking at the enemy who was going to come historically and haul the people away. He was looking at something that was imminent on the historical calendar. But what the Holy Spirit had in mind was not only that but something future as well. For out of all of the Jews in the time of Christ, only a few believed. And out of all the Jews since the time of Christ, only a few believe...just as it was in the time of Isaiah.
So the events of Jewish history monitored by Hosea and monitored by Isaiah are pictures, prophetic pictures of the events about the time of Jesus Christ and the presenting of the gospel and the age in which we live when the Jews have also rejected God and been severed from Him, scattered. There were only a few, by the way, who were saved out of the Assyrian conquest, just a few. And they sort of typify the few who are saved in this age.
Now verse 28 goes from Isaiah 10:22 to 23, the same passage, and it's a very strange verse to interpret. I'm going to read you the New American Standard because I think it has the best translation. "For the Lord will execute His Word upon the earth thoroughly and quickly." Now what does that mean? Well God's going to judge Israel and it's going to be thorough judgment and it's going to be a fast judgment, I mean fast...complete. Isaiah promised that a fast judgment was coming on Israel, a thorough judgment was coming on Israel and very few would escape that judgment, very few.
Amos has a most fascinating picture of this kind of thing. Let me just take a moment, Amos 3:11. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, an adversary there shall be even round about the land and he shall bring down thy strength from thee and thy palaces shall be spoiled, thus says the Lord, As the shepherd takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed and in Damascus on a couch."&