A Bible study series in 17 parts
The general theme of Romans: How to be right with God.
Lesson ten: What about those Jews? (Romans 9)
[To watch this on YouTube as it was given live on Zoom, click https://youtu.be/4yuJ2p3OQa8 [The whole biblical text and my bibliography are at the end of this blog]
Introduction
Last week we ended with this thought, “Nothing can separate us from God’s love.” And “If God be for us, who can be against us?” I loved chapter eight and hope if you didn’t watch our lesson that by this time next week, you will do so. It’s all on our YouTube playlist of Romans.
This chapter introduces a new section which lasts for 3 chapters. I must say I have heard pastors skip this section of the book because, they say, it’s unnecessary for ‘us’ since ‘we are not Jews’ or because Paul is answering only a problem that existed then, therefore let’s get to the part relevant to today, or any number of other reasons. I find that skipping to be scandalous. Tough sections of Bible are good for us to tackle and to learn.
Welcome to those of you who are new to our class in this the 10th lesson, as we take up Paul’s comments recorded in chapter 9 of The Book of Romans. If you are watching this video on YouTube long after our class ended today, then please pause the recording and read the 9th chapter. It will only take 3 minutes, or maybe 4 if you get a wee bit confused, then push play again, and come back as we will try to bring meaning to it all. OK, welcome back. For those of you on the Zoom call just now, have your Bible open, will you? And next week, please read the chapter before you come to class. Thanks.
We have learned in this letter/ book that the way to being right with God is through faith in the Messiah, who loved us and gave himself for us. The death and resurrection of Yeshua (some of you will know him as Jesus) assures us of this faith, and last week we ended with a series of celebratory statements of assurance. Nothing can separate believers from the love of God. We are more than conquerors, etc. But here’s the rub… and what brings us to chapters 9 through 11. A believer might then ask, “How can I be secure in God's love and salvation to me when it seems that Israel was once loved and saved, but now seems to be rejected and cursed? Will God also reject and curse me one day?”
In today’s chapter, Paul begins to unpack this in light of the Sovereignty of God.
Some old school folks will remember a British sovereign, that is, the coin. Others will think of Queen Elizabeth as our sovereign, and others have no clue what sovereign means.
God wants to comfort his people, but today’s issue is the rejection by Israel of her messiah. How does Paul handle that?
Let’s get to today’s full lesson. As usual I have outlined it.
A. Paul’s great sorrow for Israel (.1-5)
B. Israel has failed but God has not failed to keep His word (.6-13)
C. God cannot be accused of unfairness in selecting Israel (.14-.29)
D. Faith in God’s promises are the needed human response by all people (.30-.33)
A. Paul’s great sorrow for Israel (9.1-5) [God’s people]
It starts with sorrow. Remember Moshe rabeinu used this same sentiment of his taking the rap for the Jewish people (Exodus 32.31-32). I will quote it in a moment. But Paul introduces his personal replacement theology with a series of assurances that he is of a sound mind. He says, “I tell you the truth. I am not lying. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.” (v. 1) Threefold assurance that he is deeply committed to this reality he is going to state.
He never sought to distance himself from the Jewish people, although many of them sought to separate from him. In fact, this has played out in so many of us Jewish believers over the last two millenia, it’s almost our cry as well.
Paul, according to Stuart Briscoe was ‘justifiably proud of his Greek culture and his roman citizenship, but it was his Jewish heritage that was dearest to his heart.” Briscoe goes on to say, “The Jews alone had seen the glory…in the cloud and the fire during the wilderness wanderings. Only with the Israelites had the Lord entered into covenants such as those that promised lands to Abraham and a dynasty to David, and only to them had He also given the privilege of knowing his law…” In other words, Paul was a proud Jew, and rightfully so!
Derek Prince said: "We owe the Jewish people an enormous debt. Without them, the church would have no patriarchs, no prophets, no apostles, no Bible and no Saviour. My most precious possession in life is my Bible, and I owe it to the Jewish people."
[From his Destiny DVD series on Romans 9-11 available here: https://catalog.jewsforjesus.org.au/catalog/books/israel/destiny-of-israel-and-the-church.html ]
Paul is agreeing with the prayer of Moses in Exodus: “this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. But now, if You will, forgive their sin — and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” (Ex 32.31-32)
Dear friends in today’s zoom class and those watching later on YouTube…this love that Paul has…it’s compelling. I’ve never come close to that. I’ve spent the last 4 decades of my life trying to help my countrymen to find eternity in Jesus, and I will tell you with all honesty, I’ve never once even thought of trading my own salvation for the possibility that all Israel would be saved. I so admire the apostle here. I can’t wait to meet him one day.
What does Paul cite as the benefits of being Jewish? He lists 7 separate things, and then the 8th which is then available to all people. Seven things: adoption (family relationship), glory (the Shekinah from the Tabernacle), covenants (like Torah), giving of Torah (like we just celebrated last week on Shavuot), service (Avodah: both work and worship in the Tabernacle), promises (and that’s a key word for the rest of the letter), based back on the Fathers ( the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) and then the 8th, which is the culmination of it all, Yeshua the Messiah himself, who did not come as a Scandinavian Viking or an African Zulu but as a Jew at the time which was right.
B. Israel has failed but God has not failed to keep His word (.6-13) [God is faithful]
His idea of selection, and really de-selection, immediately follows. Verse 6 gets us started. In verse 5, he says the category: fathers. Now he gets down to it. God chose Abraham. OK, that means he didn’t choose Terah or either of his other sons Nahor and Haran. He chose Abraham. And that’s just the way it is. And he chose Isaac, not Ishmael. That is based on the ‘word of promise.’ (verse 9) And this is not only about the mothers. I mean by that, that he didn’t choose Isaac because of his mother, Sarah, vs Ishmael because of his mother, Hagar. That’s clarified with the twins in the next thought. He chose Jacob, and not Esau. They were of the same mother.
In verse 7, Donald Robinson makes this point in chapter 3 of the compilation book of his writings by Mark Thompson and Peter Bolt, taken from an essay of 1976. His own translation breaks down the presuppositions of most translators and says “It is not as if the word of God had failed, for not all the offspring of Israel are ‘Israel.’ Nor is it that all the children (of Abraham) are the ‘seed of Abraham’ but in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” (page 46)
Verse 11 says something contrary to some teachings you might have elsewhere heard. Some say that God chose (remember that from chapter 8) some over others because he knew they would choose him. That is, God merely was a forecaster of the work others would do, rather than the one who chooses. Paul says that is not so. Verse 11: “God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls.” That also goes against most Jewish teaching about God’s choice of Abraham and the others because he saw their intentions to be good. No, it’s not about our goodness, and Paul has spent significant ink in dispelling that rumor already in Romans.
Verse 13 about “Esau I have hated” might bother some of you. This notion of selection, of calling, is designed to showcase ONE person alone and that’s Yeshua himself. NT Wright says, “God’s purpose was to act within history to deal with the problem of evil, but this could only be done by employing a people who were themselves part of the problem, until the time was ripe for God’s own son to emerge from their midst, and all alone, to take their destiny upon himself.” (page 8)
More on Esau being hated. John Murray cites examples where the word ‘hate’ seems to mean something like ‘loved less’ (Gen. 29.31, .33, Deut. 21.15, Matt. 6.24, Luke 14.26, John 12.25). Yet he agrees with Calvin’s idea that the real thought here is much more like ‘accepted’ and ‘rejected’ more than our modern terms ‘loved’ and ‘hated.’ In fact, if I read Genesis correctly, (33.8-16, chapter 36), God blessed Esau well, therefore the ‘hate’ had to do with inheritance of the covenant.
And ponder this, in light of Malachi saying the love/ hate line, I wonder if Paul isn’t giving stick to Jewish people anyway. (Malachi 1.2-3). According to Dunn, this “rounds off the first stage of the argument introduced by “the word of God has not failed.” (verse 6). Dunn continues, “This negative corollary to the election of Isaac and Jacob was always implicit in vv 7–12, but now Paul deliberately brings it to the fore to introduce the transition to the next phase of the argument.”
C. God cannot be accused of unfairness in selecting Israel (.14-.29) [God is sovereign]
Verse 14 offers us another question of Paul. What are you thinking now, oh reader? That God isn’t fair? Ha, not even close, he would reply. The imagery Paul uses is of a clay pot and a potter. Now in light of the previous thought, I wonder if he isn’t comparing a golden calf to a pot of favourable use.
Look at verse 15. Paul quotes the Golden Calf imagery. That was already in mind when he offered to trade his salvation even earlier in our chapter. He cites the Pharaoh declaration about God hardening Pharaoh (and we dealt with that in chapter one). If the Jewish people built a calf out of gold, and God wants to build his people as a potter makes a pot, what’s the problem? One builds a vain idol, the other builds something eternal. And God has a right and a responsibility to choose well. Israel chose poorly at the Golden Calf; God chooses well in his people. He will have mercy. He can do so. He is God and you are not. Left up to you, oh Israel, you would fashion idols; but God being rich in love, and we saw that in chapter 5, in that while we were yet sinners, messiah died for us, so we learn more and more of God’s awesome mercy.
Remember the definition of mercy. Not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we didn’t earn. Let me say that another way. Mercy keeps us out of hell. Grace gives us heaven.
Basically God chose Israel, and we Jews did pretty badly in maintaining God’s purposes, and therefore we went into exile, where we were reshaped, like a pot meeting the potter who revises his plans. All that to say, we are not tossed out altogether, but rather God is bringing in others to share in the ‘ministry of the pot.’ This does not in any way remove the Jewish people, but in fact, amplifies our ministry among the Gentiles who are brought in as well. The new pot is Jews and non-Jews, together in Messiah! (that’s verse 24)
Some of you have heard that Israel in these three chapters is now the Church. That’s what is titled classically “replacement theology.’ That is, that the church has replaced Israel. The former archbishop Donald Robinson of the Sydney diocese of the Anglican church said, “this theological equation I believe to be mistaken and the mistake to be due in part to the fact that we no longer have a Jerusalem church, or a distinctive Jewish Christianity, as the representative of a continuing Israel among us.” (page 47, written in 1967) If only we had existed in Sydney before Archbishop Robinson wrote that. We met in 1997, 30 years later and he and I discussed this very thing. He wondered if we would actually be such a representative. I can assure you as I did the good archbishop, that indeed we are. Jewish believers in Jesus ARE the remnant for which he waited.
Paul quotes Hosea twice. First 2.23 and then 1.10. Backwards, I know, but hey, ask Paul. And it’s the nicknames of Not my People becoming ‘my people.’ Look, God is keeping his word; no doubt, and Israel’s failure will highlight the idea of the remnant which Paul addresses next and throughout the 3 chapters.
Paul now quotes again from the Tenach, this time from Isa. 10.23 (and 28.22). This speaks at the time to God’s work in saving a remnant from the destruction caused by Assyria. This takes place in 722 BCE. Dismay would set in, but God comforts Israel by saying he will always preserve a remnant to himself.
Yeshua taught about divides in the community of faith. He distinguished those who were disciples and those who were truly disciples (John 8.30-32). Nathaniel was a ‘true Israelite” (John 1.47) Paul might be better to quote here as he talks to the Galatians about the “Israel of God.” (Gal. 6.16) which are the Jewish believers Paul will call the ‘remnant’ here and in chapter 11 more clearly.
D. Faith in God’s promises are the needed human response by all people (.30-.33) [God is calling]
Paul now quotes again from Isaiah, chapter 28.16 this time. A foundation is laid and that will either make you stumble or settle. And for Jewish believers, we are settled in the building with Yeshua as the chief cornerstone. Other Jewish people, not yet believers, are stumbling over him, tripped up over him.
Our responsibility to take it by faith (verse 30). Not on your own. Not because you are somebody. But because HE is somebody. He is the cornerstone, and that’s worth looking at this building forever!
Dear friends on Facebook and on this zoom call, if you are not yet a believer in Yeshua, I urge you today, call on him while he is near. If you know your Torah, and you know yourself, you know you need help, you need salvation, you need a Saviour. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be rescued, will be saved will be made to be in right relationship with God. It’s worth all the social distancing people will give you when you tell them about God. It’s worth all the rejection of others who don’t want to know about God’s love in Messiah Yeshua.
If you want, you can pray a prayer with me just now to solidify your choice. Something like this, “Father in Yeshua’s name, thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Yeshua to save me from myself, from my selfishness, from my despair and the harm I cause so many. Thank you for making me right with God by your sacrifice. I receive Yeshua (Jesus) as my saviour and the lover of my soul. He frees me to love others. I repent of my sins and ask for God’s forgiveness to be my portion. I receive the free gift of God, eternal life in Messiah Jesus our Lord. Amen.”
If you prayed that prayer, will you let us know via the messages or write me directly. I would appreciate that.
NEXT WEEK we will look at the 10th chapter and listen to Paul’s heart again for the Jewish people. He will tell us about evangelism and about our responsibility again. And as often is the case, his support will come from Tenach.
I’m delighted to be able to read and help us understand this book each Friday here from my home in Sydney. Shabbat shalom!
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End of talk
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The actual text:
Rom. 9:1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could 1wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Messiah according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Rom. 9:6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. 9 For this is the word of promise: “AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON.” 10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11 for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would 1stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12 it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.” 13 Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.”
Rom. 9:14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
Rom. 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
25 As He says also in Hosea, “I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, ‘MY PEOPLE,’ AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, ‘BELOVED.’” 26 “AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’ THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD.”
Rom. 9:27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED; 28 FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD ON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY.”
29 And just as Isaiah foretold, “UNLESS THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME LIKE SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH.”
Rom. 9:30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
33 just as it is written,
“BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”
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Bibliography
Briscoe, Stuart. The Commmunicator’s Commentary (Romans), Word Books, Waco Texas.1982.
Dunn, James D.G., Word Biblical Commentary, Romans, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1988.
Murray, John, The Epistle to the Romans, New International Commentary on the New Testament, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1965.
Prince, Derek, The Destiny Of Israel And The Church, DVD series, Derek Prince Ministries, 1990.
Robinson, Donald. Selected Works (Volume I) edit by Bolt and Thompson, Australian Church Record, Camperdown, 2008.
Wright, Tom, Paul for Everyone, SPCK, Westminster John Knox Press, London, 2004
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