God and Grasshoppers Pt 1

people would take their Bibles
and turn to Romans Chapter 11. Romans Chapter 11. Now, I know
the rule that if I have to explain a sermon title, it’s probably
not a very good sermon title, but I did this one on purpose.
God and grasshoppers. I could have called it something
very straightforward and plain like the sovereignty of God over
nations which was my original thought. But I wanted I wanted
to prove really to provoke your thinking on this and the image
is a biblical image. It comes from Isaiah 40 which
we preached this past Christmas. In Isaiah 40 it says, Do you
not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you
from the beginning? Have you not understood from
the foundation of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle
of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches
out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent
to dwell in. Please don’t misunderstand as
we clarified when I preached that. When God says all are like
grasshoppers, it doesn’t mean that God is unconcerned. God
has done everything. Everything for the lost. God
has done everything in providing a Savior and crafting His plan
of redemption for the lost. When it says that they are as
grasshoppers, it means that nations don’t call their own shots. craft their own destiny. They
don’t control things. It’s God that’s in control. And
what a beautiful thought as we come to Romans chapter 11, that
God is sovereign over the nations. God’s plan will prevail. We are
in that great section, Romans chapter 9 through 11, where the
sovereignty of God is in focus. That essentially is the theme.
The sovereignty of God. And we have seen that Israel
has been in the forefront through much of this discussion. The
nation of Israel and essentially the questions asked regarding
the nation of Israel. How could this nation have so
completely rejected the Messiah that was their Messiah. First
and foremost Christ had come for Israel for the Jews and yet
they had rejected him almost completely. Well, what Paul opens with by
way of a very quick reminder in Romans chapter 9 is essentially
a vindication of God. That look, God didn’t mess up. God hasn’t lost control of the
plan. It essentially is perfectly nestled
within God’s plan. God knew, not only did God know
that Israel could and would defect, reject the Messiah, but God even
prophesied that it would happen. God knew. And God declares His
sovereign mercy there in Romans chapter 9. And in Romans chapter
10, we saw the explanation of why Israel had fallen so short. It begins this contrast between
the Gentiles, that is, anybody outside of Israel, and tiny little
Israel itself. Why had they so missed the mark?
Why had they missed the Messiah? And Paul goes on to say that
they missed it because they pursued their course of righteousness.
They wanted to achieve righteousness. They didn’t want righteousness
by faith, which is what Christ came to offer. No wonder Paul’s
fervent prayer on their behalf in chapter 10, because of their
uneducated passion, they just were as the blind leading the
blind, pursuing their course. And ultimately, that left them
completely dulled to the means of God’s saving faith. But not all. Some Jews, Paul
notably, were saved. And Paul moves here in Romans
chapter 11 to take up the whole discussion of Israel one last
time. And to look at two different
kinds of people, there is either the graced remnant or there is
everyone else. Those who are essentially what
I would call the hardened majority. If you would, let’s look at just
the first ten verses this morning of Romans chapter 11. I say then, God has not rejected
his people as he may never be. For I too am an Israelite a descendant
of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people
whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what the scripture
says in the passage about Elijah how he pleads with God against
Israel. Lord, they have killed Thy prophets. They have torn down Thine altars.
And I alone am left. And they are seeking my life.”
But what is the divine response to him? I have kept for myself
7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. In the same
way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant
according to God’s gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is
no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer
grace. What then? That which Israel
is seeking for it is not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained
it, and the rest were hardened. Just as it is written, God gave
them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not,
down to this very day, As David says, let their table become
a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution to them. Let their eyes be darkened to
see not and bend their backs forever. Paul takes up Israel’s condition. The condition of this once so
favored nation, which every nation could look at and see that objectively
God had blessed and provided, singled them out for good. So
far in this section on the sovereignty of God, and not just in this
section, Paul has pointed out the waywardness of this nation
in chapter 3 and 4. He pointed out that Israel, likewise,
was sinful, just like the Gentile nations. But in chapter 9, he
takes up that study of how this nation, so favored, so blessed,
so privileged, had fallen so far. But now, Paul turns to a
more pleasant side, and specifically to the side of divine election,
and ultimately to the argument that Israel would turn to the
Messiah. You see, Paul looks back on Romans
9 and 10, and he says, if all of those things are so, if Israel
had been so privileged, and yet they had constantly pursued a
course of pursuing their own righteousness, almost thumbing
their nose at God at every turn, at His means of redemption, Maybe. Maybe God has rejected them. Maybe because of their absolute
rejection of Christ, not to a man, mind you, but certainly as a
nation, it would be not a stretch to say that Israel had rejected
the Messiah. And maybe God, in turn, maybe
God is totally done with the nation of Israel. Maybe God is
prepared to reject them. As we acknowledged at the start
of Romans chapter 9, and what Paul so immediately takes up,
is the whole matter of God’s integrity. This is a matter of
God’s integrity. Because God had made promises
to Israel. God had made specific promises
to this nation. Promises of blessing. And if
we can’t take God and His Word for His promises to Israel, how
can we Gentiles. Non-Jews. How can we take God at His Word
now? It’s a crucial question. And Paul begins to take it up.
And he essentially points to, as I mentioned, two different
kinds of people in this answer in verses 1-10. There are two
different kinds of people. There is either the graced remnant. A portion of people who have
been singled out by God for a blessing. There is either a graced remnant
or there is a hardened majority. And he’s talking primarily about
the nation of Israel. We’ll talk about the Gentiles.
Those outside of Israel in the days and weeks to come. Paul
will skirt things and make promises and acknowledgements here and
there. But in the main, Israel is in view. Turn, if you would,
back to verse 1, where Paul says, I say, then, that God has not
rejected His people, has He? That little word, then, points
backwards. And it points back, as I’ve already indicated, to
all that he has said, not just in Romans 9 and 10, but primarily
in Romans 9 and 10. Paul had already identified Israel
as being equally sinful along with the Gentiles. But in Romans
9 and 10, Paul really draws the focus close. The fact that Paul had just confirmed by way
of explicit arguments in chapters 9 and 10 that not only did Israel
hear of the gospel of Christ not only had they heard of the
Messiah not only had they heard of justification by faith they
knew it they knew it in their heart that this was God’s way
and Paul proved that over and over again. And because of that
the nation of Israel was without excuse and you never see once
Paul grading on a curve you never see scripture doing that. What
Paul presents in Romans 9 verse 1 and following is that there
is a nation in absolute peril because of the way that they
have responded to Christ. This is no casual offense. This is a rejection of the Messiah
himself. This is a grave condition in
which they stand. This is a position of judgment. But there’s hope. And that’s
what Paul consistently communicates as well. No wonder he offered
his very salvation if he could. No wonder he prayed on their
behalf. No wonder he constantly mentions
the hope of the Gospel that they might turn. But he raises this
question. This possible conclusion that
because of Israel and because of their not only occasional
stubbornness, but consistent, constant stubbornness. Their
constant waywardness. Their stiff-neckedness is the
possibility that perhaps God had cast them away. That He had
turned His attention to the Gentiles exclusively and now having cast
away Israel. Is it even possible? Paul presents the question in
those terms God has not rejected his people, has he? As if to
say, is it even possible? But even as Paul expresses the
idea, he begins to dispatch the idea by using a repeated biblical
promise. Did God thrust Israel aside? Psalm 94 would have been known
to every Jew. The Lord will not abandon his
people. Nor will He forsake His inheritance. 1 Samuel 12, 22 would have been
known to every Jew. The Lord will not abandon His
people on account of His great name. Because the Lord has been pleased
to make you a people for Himself. By using those words that would
have been well known to the Jewish nation, Paul reminds his readers,
both Jew and Gentile, of that promise. And once again, already
baits the answer to that question. I say then, has God rejected
his people? Is it even possible God has not
rejected his people, has he? And even in the identification
of the people, there is a clue to the answer. They are his people. Even the form of the question
asks for a negative answer and Paul provides it. May it never
be. We would have our own vernacular
if we were to use a phrase so common in the Greek world. May Genoita. No way, we might
say. Are you kidding me? It’s an absolute
denial of what is proposed. And that’s why Paul builds the
question the way that he does. He doesn’t even entertain the
thought that God could have thrust aside this nation. You see, God
had chosen them for Himself. No doubt, Israel had brutally
treated the Savior and had rejected God’s plan and provisions for
centuries. spurned him to his face. But Scripture’s constant account
is that God would not abandon them. Psalm 89 says that if they
violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I
will visit their transgression with a rod and their iniquity
with stripes, but I will not break off my lovingkindness from
him. nor deal falsely in my faithfulness. My covenant I will not violate,
nor will I alter the utterance of my lips. Once I have sworn
in my holiness, I will not lie to David. His descendants shall
endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall
be established forever like the moon, and the witness in the
sky is faithful.” Well, Paul begins to build his argument. He’s already answered the question.
Has God cast Israel aside? Has God rejected them outright? No. And not just no, but may
it never be. And he offers three proofs, three
arguments as to why this cannot possibly be the case that God
would cast aside this nation. The first is proven by Paul’s
own calling Paul’s own calling. Look at the remainder of verse
1. Where Paul’s simple reply is, For I too am an Israelite,
a descendant of Abram, of the tribe of Benjamin. God had sovereignly
appointed each of those. God had sovereignly chosen Israel. God had sovereignly chosen Abraham. And God had sovereignly chosen
Benjamin. And Paul makes a particular denial
by this first argument. He says that it is absolutely
unreasonable to conclude that God had rejected Israel outright.
And he uses none other than himself as the argument. An Israelite. A descendant of Abraham. A son
of the tribe of Benjamin. There’s no way that God had cast
off the entire nation. And Paul cites the fact that
he was a Jew to prove that. If there was such a rejection,
he himself would be included. Martin Luther took up this argument
and studied it and made an excellent point when he said, if you consider
Paul, Paul is the one who had opposed God with particular fury. If God had cast off His people,
then He above all should be cast off. But God had not cast him
off. Much less the others who did
not depart from him as far as Paul. Not only that, but if you
consider or step back and look, that not only was Paul saved,
Paul had been appointed as the apostle to the Gentiles. And
to think that God had completely obliterated Anything to do with
the nation of Israel is really an unreasonable conclusion. Paul basically says, I’m living
proof to the contrary. I’m an Israelite in the strongest
and strictest sense of bodily descent. And yet, at the same time, I’m
a Christian. I’m a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m a
follower of the Lamb. There’s no way that God has rejected
Israel outright. But there’s a second little argument
that Paul introduces. Not only is it proven by Paul’s
calling, but it’s proven by the nature of foreknowledge. Now,
we’ve been here before, but we’re going to take a moment. Look
at verse 2. Paul says this is a graced remnant. And we’ll get to that whole concept
in a moment. What Paul means by a remnant
and what we mean by the fact that they are graced. But the
nation of Israel is not going to be set aside completely and
totally. And it’s proven not only by Paul’s
calling, but it’s proven by the nature of foreknowledge. Look
at verse 2. God has not rejected His people
whom he foreknew.” Paul repeats the biblical language
regarding the very idea of rejection. It’s almost as if he’s rubbing
this idea in the nose of those who might propose such. And here it’s in the form of
an explicit denial. God has not rejected his people. And he bases that on God’s foreknowledge. Note that they are his people.
And he’s pointing to the nation of Israel as a whole. In fact,
the reference throughout this entire section has been to the
nation of Israel. They were the ones that have
received the promises. They were the ones that were
wayward. They were the ones that pursued their own righteousness. God had chosen the nation of
Israel, as one said, to be his people. the people in whom his
purposes would be worked out in a special way. They would
be the recipients of that revelation. They would be the recipients
of those blessings. God would never go back on that.
But none of that ever meant the entire nation of Israel would
be saved. And that’s the point that Paul took up in chapter
9. But it says here, and that’s the proof that we’re considering,
is that not only Is this idea of God rejecting his people untenable
when you consider that Paul himself had been saved but also the fact
that God had foreknown Israel. Now you could gloss over that
really quickly if you wanted to. We’re not going to allow
you to do that. We need to consider and reconsider what is foreknowledge
anyway. We’ve seen the word before. We
saw it in Romans 8 29 where he referred to believers in that
capacity. Those whom God had foreknown.
And there were some that suggested that it was a foresight of faith
that God sees who will believe. And so then he sets his love
upon them. That’s not the way it works.
It’s not the way it works. One described it in these terms.
There are those who say that it simply means God is omniscient
and knows everything. We know that God is omniscient.
But that’s not what this means. The foreknowledge that he points
to is a divine activity. It is active delight on the part
of God. It is God setting his love upon
somebody purely for his own pleasure. That word doesn’t point to the
fact that God simply knew beforehand, but that God chose to love. Ephesians 1-4 says that He chose
us in Him before the foundation of the world. That knowledge
isn’t just a passive knowledge as if God is simply aware of
everything future, but it points to a a definite love on the part
of God that originates in His own heart. That word, knowing,
that little word, knowing, so often in the Old Testament Scriptures
spoke of the deepest element of human intimacy. In this particular case, When
it says that God knows someone, it means that He has a special,
self-motivated interest in them. It means that He has set His
love upon them. Throughout the Scriptures, it’s
used in that special way. And this word, when it says that
God foreknew them, it points back to such verses as Exodus
2.25. God saw the sons of Israel and took notice of them. God saw them. It’s not that Israel
had inclined themselves to Him. It’s not that they commended
themselves to His favor because of their faithfulness. In Amos chapter 3, God says to
them, you only have I chosen among all the families of the
earth. God set His love upon them. And Deuteronomy chapter
70 explains why. The Lord did not set His love
on you or choose you because you were more in number than
any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all the peoples.
It wasn’t that they were a big and powerful and mighty nation.
But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore
to your forefathers, The Lord brought you out by a mighty hand
and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh,
the king of Egypt.” God loved them. God loved them first. God
set His love upon them. God foreknew them. One faithful
shepherd put it this way. This refers to God’s eternal,
predetermined, loving and saving intention. That’s pretty clear.
God moved first. God foreknew the nation of Israel. God set His love upon them. And
He’s not about to set them aside. He’s not about to cast them aside.
Not for any misperformance or misbehavior on their part or
anything in the course of history that would
seem to try to alter God’s plan. The fact that God foreknew them,
where God had deliberately joined them to himself, completely excludes
this idea of him casting them off. Israel was the nation, the race
that God in his foreknowledge had chosen and could not and
would not cast it off. But there’s a third argument.
There’s a third argument here in Scripture and it essentially
articulates the title that I’ve selected for this particular
people. The graced remnant. The graced remnant. You see the
third argument in favor of this not only is it proven by Paul’s
calling and proven by the nature of foreknowledge but it’s proven
by the principle of the remnant. What is the principle of the
remnant. Paul gives it here explicitly. Look at the end of verse two.
Or do you not know what the scripture says in the passage about Elijah,
how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed
thy prophets, they have torn down my altars, and I alone am
left, and they are seeking my life. But what is the divine
response to him? I have kept for myself 7,000
men who have not vowed the knee to Baal. If you would turn to
a clean part of your Bible. Unfortunately, we don’t spend
enough time there. 1 Kings 19. We will come across
the perils and plight of a man named Elijah. And we’ll take
these particular verses in their context. You see, we could read
this and say, you know, maybe Elijah had a point there in his
complaint against God Maybe the nation of Israel was
already wayward and to be tossed aside then. God just showed more
patience toward them as the years stacked up. Elijah, it is said
in the course of this passage, literally goes before God and
argues his case against the nation of Israel. Here’s what happened. Look at verse 1. Ahab finds himself
dealing with that evil woman Jezebel. Ahab told Jezebel all
that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets
with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger
to Elijah saying, so may the gods do to me and even more if
I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow
at this time. In other words, she threatens
him with the same murder. She says, you’re a dead man,
Elijah. And Elijah, unfortunately, fears
Jezebel. And he was afraid and arose and
ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah,
and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey
into the wilderness. Not only was it enough to get
away, he wanted to go even further. And he leaves his servant behind
and goes into the woods. And he came and sat down under
a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die.
You know kind of reminiscent of Jonah right. Frustrated with
God frustrated with God’s plans. Now his life is being pursued.
And what does he ask for early retirement. Right. In a sense
he said it is enough now. Oh my Lord take my life for I
am not better. Am I not better than my father’s.
He lay down and slept under a juniper tree, and behold, there was an
angel touching him and said to him, Arise, eat. Then he looked,
and behold, there was at his head a bread cake and baked on
hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down
again.” And here, in the midst of this amazing miracle, this
angel bringing him food, there is not the wherewithal to reach
up and cry out to God for grace The angel of the Lord came again
a second time and touched him and said, Arise, eat, because
the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and
drank and went on the strength of that food forty days and forty
nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. He’s in pursuit of God,
but he goes before God, as it were, with a faulty request. He came there to a cave and lodged
there. Behold, the word of the Lord
came to him. And he said to him, what are
you doing here, Elijah? Now, God knew. God doesn’t need
to be informed. He said, I have been very zealous
for the Lord. I’ve been working, God. I’ve
been profiting. And I’ve been working hard as
a prophet. And it’s almost cost me my life.
I’ve been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the
sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your
altars, and killed your prophets with the sword.” Do you know
what your people are doing to your prophets? Now, this isn’t
whining and complaining. This is serious business. This
is the very prophet of God going before God and saying something
is haywire. Something’s wrong. And you need
to intervene. Look at his closing sentence.
I alone am left. They seek my life to take it
away. God, don’t you see this? So he said, go before and stand
on the mountain before the Lord. Behold, the Lord was passing
by and a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and
breaking into pieces the rocks before the Lord. I mean, can
you imagine the scene? A scene that would just evoke
pure trembling in the heart of any one of us. But the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind, an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire, the sound of a gentle blowing.” And when
Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out
and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice
came to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? A repetition
essentially of what he said earlier. And then Elijah complained. Then he said, I have been very
zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the sons of Israel
have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed
your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left, and they
seek my life to take it away. He didn’t change his complaint
one bit. He reiterated it. And what’s
the Lord’s response? The Lord said to him, Return
on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have
arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram. And Jehu, the
son of Nimshi, you shall appoint over the king of Israel. And
Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-Maloah, you shall appoint
as prophet in your place. It shall come about, the one
who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death. The one who escapes the sword
of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Yet I, We’ll leave 7,000 in Israel,
all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that
has not kissed him.” Now, Baal worship was one of the blights
on Israel. Idol worship alone was one of
the blights. And it was not wrong for a prophet,
Elisha, to complain about this evil. God considered it evil. And Elisha’s complaint about
that is not wrong in and of itself. But God’s response is that there
is a graced remnant, Elisha. There is a graced remnant that
I have called. Paul says it this way, what is
the divine response? And the word that Paul points
to there is an authoritative, a divine warning, an edict if
you will. A pronouncement by God Himself. And He says, I have 7,000 who
have not bowed the knee to Baal. That bowing the knee was a symbol
of worship. I have 7,000 that have not committed
the sin of idolatry. And it seems here, you could almost say that Paul
inserted a little word here. Myself. I have kept for myself.”
You see, the original doesn’t say that. Paul interprets it
as such to say that it was God who had done this. God had literally
set aside the 7,000. God had protected them from sin. God Himself had stepped in and
preserved them from error. When it says that He was preserving
for Himself 7,000 men, it amounts to a declaration of God’s faithfulness. It wasn’t that these had of themselves
been so incredibly faithful to God. It’s that God had providentially
spared them, preserved them. The emphasis here is placed on
God and His goodness. And Paul, under the direction
of the Holy Spirit, inserts this and interprets this passage and
says, look what God can do. Whereas, man is wayward And the
entire nation of Israel seems to have turned its back on God,
yet God would not have it. God would not allow it. As one
said, notwithstanding the apostasy of Israel as a whole, yet there
was a remnant whom God had kept for Himself and preserved from
the idolatry of Baal worship. There’s a remnant. And the remnant
was a graced remnant. Look at verse 5 as Paul begins
to apply this. In the same way then, just as
in the days of Elijah, in dealing with this wayward nation, and
God Himself says that I’ve done something. I’ve set aside 7,000.
In the same way, there has also come to be at the present time
a remnant. Not just the Apostle Paul. and
probably not even limited to 7,000, but even at the time that
Paul is writing this epistle. He says at this very moment,
there is already a remnant of the nation of Israel that does
believe. There has come to be at the present
time a remnant, and watch this, according to God’s gracious choice. God had His way with them. God
called them out. God preserved them. God led them
to the Savior. And it was according to God’s
free, saving grace. And he points here to the ground
of that behavior. The ground of that action. What
moved God? What prompted Him? It was His
own free grace alone that moved Him to set aside the remnant. In Elijah’s day, there was a
remnant. A small, very small number of
people that were set aside for faithfulness. But even as Paul
indicated there, the motivation was not from themselves. It was
from God. God set them aside. And likewise
here, it was God’s gracious choice to set them aside. And Paul’s
point that he makes in verse 6 is that if it’s by grace, If
God has set them aside, then obviously it’s no more by works.
This remnant is and never will be saved by its works, by its
adherence to any kind of law. Paul makes this case that there
is either a graced remnant, proven by Paul’s own calling, proven
by the nature of foreknowledge itself, proven by the simple
lesson of the graced remnant. There is either that graced remnant,
or what Paul says is there is the hardened majority. Everyone
else that really ends up having their own way. They get what
they want. Look at verse 7. What then? That which Israel is seeking
for it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained
it, and the rest were hardened. Just as it is written God gave
them a spirit of stupor eyes to see not in the ears to hear
not down to this very day as David has said. David says let
their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block
and a retribution to them let their eyes be darkened to see
not in their backs bend their backs forever. This little phrase
in the beginning of verse 7, what then? It just is a summary
statement. What do we make from verses 1-6?
What are we supposed to do with that? Well, it’s a simple summary. That which Israel is seeking
for, it is not obtained. Paul has said this before. Israel
as a nation, not merely the Jewish individuals. Israel as a nation
was seeking salvation. They wanted to be saved. But
they wanted religiosity. They didn’t want a relationship
with Almighty God. They wanted their own righteousness. They didn’t want the righteousness
of God. And yet, those who were chosen obtained it. Whereas,
one nation missed it almost completely. Not all. A select remnant. A select group attained it. They saw the offer of the Savior.
They saw the offer of God’s grace. They saw the offer of justification
by faith that they could stand before a holy God purely by believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ. They saw that. And the rest,
it says, were hardened. When they turned their back on
God, God turned His back on them. God didn’t harden them first.
God hardened them because of their response, and He did it
with a purpose. I mean, look at the imagery here.
God gave them a spirit of stupor. It’s as if they’re groping about
blindly. From Isaiah 29.10 and Deuteronomy
29.4, those images there of just being absolutely blinded by your
own foolishness. And then he closes with this
that their table become a snare and a trap. I’ll tell you what
I absolutely believe Paul is doing here. Paul is pointing
to the fact that those difficulties those hardships this in this
terrible quotation were meant to provoke Israel to return to
their God. They’re meant, those difficulties
of life, just as in Romans, to point us back to the Savior,
not away from Him. They’re meant to say, look at
this table laid out for you. It’s a table of rest. It’s a
table of enjoyment. It’s a table of sustenance. And
it becomes a snare and a trap. And even that, Paul says, should
be the means of pointing this nation back to its God. You should note that he blends
two verses together there. One from Isaiah, one from Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy, the context in Deuteronomy is one of grace. And the context
in the passage cited in Isaiah chapter 29 is also one, it’s
not one of judgment. It’s one of hopefulness. It’s
one of restoration. Listen to the rest of Isaiah
chapter 29. Is it not just a little while
before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field and the
fertile field will be considered a forest. On that day the leaf
the death will hear the words of a book and out of their gloom
and darkness the eyes of the blind will see the afflicted
will increase their gladness in the Lord the needy of mankind
will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the ruthless will
come to the end. The scorner will be finished.
All who are intent on doing evil will be cut off. Who cause a
person to be indicted by a word and ensnare him who adjudicates
at the gate and defraud the one in the right with meaningless
arguments? Paul says, you know what? There
is hope. And that whole quote at the end
is God’s great means of humbling those who had so turned their
back on God that God had hardened them. But God is not done. And out of God’s mercy there
is going to come hardship into their lives. And that is Israel’s
condition. And just as their reaction to
God and His provision of the Messiah had been one of rejection,
God in His turn had hardened them. Even to this day. But even this, this hardening,
this difficult condition has a divine purpose. This is not
God’s final word on the matter on the people of Israel. Next
week we’ll begin to consider the implications of Israel’s
condition. even as we ponder before God
our own. Would you pray with me? O merciful God, it is a fearful thing to fall
into the hand of the living God. And Lord, we ourselves know that
best. How many testimonies are so replete
with the example that You brought us to the very end of ourselves.
You brought us to the end of our rope. You brought us to the
depths of despair. And yet, as we looked up to You, we had come to realize our sinfulness.
We had come to realize our desperate need of a Savior. We had no hope
being without God. You showed us a Savior. You showed
us forgiveness and grace and mercy. And Lord, we pray for
that for any and all of whatever nation. We pray that they might
have their own eyes opened to the Savior, to Your provision
of such, and that You would bring them to repentance for their
sin and restoration by Your grace. We thank You And we praise you
in Jesus’ name, Amen.