Greetings!

Hope you all had a good summer and are ready now to go on in Romans. Just to review, remember that chapters 1-5 deal with God’s coming judgment and His provision for salvation from the penalty of sin. Chapters 6-8 deal with how to live for God after we are saved, by thinking His way. And Chapters 9-11 deal with Israel - with her past (chapter 9), Jews in the present (chapter 10), and Israel’s future (Chapter 11. Notice when Paul deals with Israel, how many Old Testament quotes he uses.) Chapters 12-16 apply principles from chapters 1-8.

12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.

20 But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.

21 But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

 

(Vs 12.) Was the first part of this verse true before Paul’s time? (See Ps 147:19,20; Eph 2:11-12; Mat 15:24) What riches did the Lord give us when we called on Him? (How many can you count in just these two references? Eph 1:3-8; & 2:5,6; Col 1:12-14; & 2:3,10-14)

 

(Vs 13.) "Call" in this context means to reach out in dependence. (Strong’s Concordance) This is a call from the soul, not the physical mouth. (Also in vs.9) Remember this chapter is dealing with salvation for Jews in this age of Gentile opportunity. (Rom 10:1) We see that Jews today are saved from the penalty of their sin in the very same way that Gentiles are, by reaching out to the Lord Jesus Christ to pay for their sin. (Quote is from Joel 2:32)

 

(Vs 14.) But how, Paul asks, can Jews (or anyone else) call on Jesus the Christ, if no one sent a preacher to them so they could hear and believe?

 

(Vs 15.) God sent twelve preachers to Israel. In Acts 1 to 7, the 12 disciples proclaimed that Jesus is Israel’s Christ and that the fulfillment of all prophecy was about to happen. (Acts 2:16-23,36; & 3:19-24). Read Isaiah 52:7 and see that the prophecy quoted here is about world peace with God reigning in Zion (Jerusalem). (Is 2:1-4; 9:6,7; 11:1-9) Prophecy has been interrupted and this is not the same gospel we have today, but this definitely was good news (gospel) about peace, and it was definitely preached to Israel. Notice when you read the first seven chapters in Acts, that Peter and the disciples spoke only to Jews during that time. Paul did not start to get his revelations from Jesus about the body of Christ, in which Jews and Gentiles are equal, until his conversion in Acts 9. (Acts 26:12-18; Gal 1:11,12; Eph 3:1-6; Col 1:24-27)

 

(Vs 16.) How does one "obey" a gospel? By believing it, trusting it! Did the nation Israel believe? To answer, Paul quotes Is 53:1. (Read Is 52:13 through 53:12. This is a marvelous prophecy about Christ.) Many individual Jews believed during the time of Acts, (Acts 2:41,47; 4:4,32; 6:7) but the nation as a whole and it’s leaders did not. (Acts 7:51-53; 13:45,46)

 

(Vs 17.) Believing some one’s words is having faith in them. So, faith in God comes from hearing and believing the word of God. Believing anything else about God results in idolatry and superstition, not faith. (Rom 1:21-25; Jer 23:25-32)

 

(Vs 18.) So haven’t people heard God’s word? Yes, the knowledge of God is in all the earth. (Ps 19:1-4; Rom 1:19,20)

 

(Vs 19. ) But how about Israel specifically? Deut 32:15-21 summarizes Israel’s (Jeshurun’s) condition before Paul’s day, so he quotes Deut 32:21 here. Who is the "foolish nation"? Notice that "nation" is singular, so it is not the many Gentile nations. In Mat 21:43, Jesus tells Israel’s religious leaders (Mat 21:23) that the kingdom of God will be taken from them "and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof". In Luke 12:32, Jesus says God will give the kingdom to His "little flock" of disciples, who were mostly uneducated men from Galilee. (Acts 4:13) So His disciples are the "foolish nation" who will be given the leadership of the kingdom on earth when Christ returns. (Mat 19:28) These men made the religious leaders very angry and jealous indeed, because they had the signs and wonders promised to Israel, and the religious leaders did not. (Ex 34:10; Acts 3:1-8; 5:12,15-18,33; 7:54-58)

 

(Vs 20.) Read this whole quote in Is 65:1. Back in the time of Solomon’s son, the 10 northern tribes of Israel split from the tribe of Judah and turned totally to idolatry. (I Kings 12) They were not seeking God, they were not called by His name, and their land, which included Galilee, was considered Gentile territory. (Is 9:1,2) Those that cared about God had moved away to Judah. (II Chr 11:13-16) But years later, Jesus called His disciples out of Galilee, not from the religious system in Jerusalem of Judah. (Mat 4:12-23)

 

(Vs 21.) Religious Israel with it’s center in Jerusalem, had left God too, even though they maintained the outward show of keeping God’s law.(Mat 15:7-9; 23:27-28) For hundreds of years God had been trying to call them back to Himself through His prophets, but they would not. (Is 65:2-6; Mat 23:33-37) Then when His Son, Jesus their Messiah came, they killed Him, as in the parable of Mat 21:33-43 and Luke 20:9-19. The next thing to happen in the parable (and in prophecy) was for God to come and destroy those that killed His Son. But instead He temporarily postponed that judgment and offered them, and all others, a free pardon based on the payment for sin that Christ had made. (II Cor 5:17-21) God revealed this interruption in prophecy through apostle Paul and this is the age in which we live now. (II Peter 3:15)