These chapters are like highly pressurized canisters. Paul has included a lot of information here. But Paul left out a lot of things that should have been “obvious” to his Jewish readers. Today, when we read these chapters, we need to supply all that missing information to make the text meaningful. Unless we fill in all the missing details, we will not understand these chapters.
Believe me. I am so sad that my beloved people, the Israelites, are lost and accursed. They are cut off from their Messiah. I love my people so much that I don’t mind trading places with them. Imagine! My folks had all the exclusive privileges and the insider information that they needed to believe that Ye’shua was the Messiah. They were given the Torah (the Law) through divine revelation. God entered into a covenant with them, giving them valuable promises. They had the privilege of worshipping the true God, beholding His glory, in His holy temple. Still, they did not believe Ye’shua was the Messiah. Why?
Didn’t God promise to bless Abraham’s descedants? Don’t tell me God’s promises to Abraham were hollow or that God failed to keep His word. Far from it, God’s promises were accurate. God said, “Through Isaac will your descendants be counted”. Abraham had many sons. But God, being God, had the right to bless just one son out of many. No one can question His choice.
There’s a catch here, though. Isaac was not born in the natural course of events. He was a special “promised child”. Even if Isaac would be blessed, not all of his descendants would qualify as “children of promise.” Isaac’s natural descendants are natural descendants. Only the “children of promise” would be counted as Abraham’s heirs. That explains why most of Isaac’s descendants did not make it to God’s list of Heroes of Faith. [Refer to my earlier letter to the Galatian Church in which I argued that only one person – the promised “Seed” – was worthy of inheriting God’s promises to Abraham. That “Seed” was none other than Ye’shua. Ye’shua inherited the promises from Abraham. If any Israelite wishes to inherit Patriarch Abraham’s blessings, he must attach himself to Ye’shua.]
Israel’s unbelief or their destruction should not surprise us. Prophet Isaiah had predicted it. In fact, considering how the vast majority of ethnic Israelites got “lost” or destroyed, we ought to be grateful that a tiny fraction even survived. If God had not spared that tiny remnant, Israel would have been driven into extinction like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Similarly, we should not be surprised that God welcomed Gentiles to be His own people. Through prophet Hosea, God had said, “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.’” (2:23). “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” (1:10)
Gentiles did not seek a covenant relationship (“righteousness”) with God. But they obtained it through faith. There is no other way to enter into a covenant relationship with God. Israelites disregarded this simple fact even though their own ancestor Abraham was welcomed to this covenant relationship (“justified”) through faith. They assumed that they were in a covenant relationship with God because they possessed the Torah (Law). Was their confidence in the Torah of any use? No, because they had excluded faith from the equation.
Membership in the covenant community is obtained only through faith. Obedience to the Law was supposed to be a response to God’s grace received through faith. Unaware of this basic truth, the Jews became zealous for God. They were ignorant of God’s covenant faithfulness (righteousness). Instead of accepting what God was offering them, Israel tried to establish their own norms and rules regarding who all could become God’s people.
They failed to understand that the Torah was meant to lead them to the Messiah. The Messiah did not belong to the Jews alone. Both Jews and Gentiles who come to the Messiah are welcome into the fold of God’s covenant people. At the right time, When God sent Ye’shua to Israelites, they were offended by His openness to the Gentiles. It was as if they “tripped” on a stone. The Jews stumbled on a very important “Stone” that God had laid in Zion. (Isaiah 28:16; 8:14)
Let me now remind you what the Law says about Israel’s restoration from exile. Towards the end of his career, Moses encouraged Israealites to obey the Law.
“So you must keep my statutes and my regulations; anyone who does so will live by keeping them. I am YHWH.” (Leviticus 18:5)
Moses also spoke about the blessings that would come upon Israel if they obeyed the Law. He also listed out the curses that would land on them if they disobeyed the Law (Deut 28 and 29). He predicted that Israel would indeed suffer exile due to their disobedience.
But Moses gave hope to Israel. If Israel was to go into exile, he said, they could still repent and turn to God (Deut 30:2-3). Moses said that God would cleanse the hearts of repentant Israelites so that they could love God with all their heart and could once again obey His commandments (Deut 30:6,8).
Would such wholehearted obedience be an impossible task? Let’s see what Moses says,
“This commandment I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it too remote. It is not in heaven, as though one must say, ‘Who will go up to heaven to get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ And it is not across the sea, as though one must say, ‘Who will cross over to the other side of the sea and get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ “For the thing is very near you—it is in your mouth and in your mind so that you can do it.” (Deut 30:11-14)
This latter passage is about a golden age that Moses envisioned. There is no need to go in search of the commandment, whether in the heavens above or in the lands beyond the sea. The commandment will find you. When it does, Israel’s exile will come to an end.
I want to tell you that this golden age of repentance and obedience to God’s Law has arrived. This “commandment” that Moses talks about is “in your mouth” and “in your mind” so that “you can do it.” We have had enough of our Jewish brethren speculating as to what these mean.
This “commandment” is about Ye’shua whom I proclaim! You do not have to ascend to heaven to bring him down. He had already come. You do not have to go “into the depths” to raise him from the dead. He has already risen. So, what about the commandment being “in your mind” and “in your mouth”? Well, you must believe “in your mind” – that God raised Ye’shua the Messiah from the dead – and you must confess “with your mouth” – that God indeed made Ye’shua the Messiah (King/Lord) over all – before you go about obeying the Law. If you embrace this Ye’shua, God will mark you out in the present as the people who will be saved in the future. Because the way to covenant membership is by believing with the heart, and the way to salvation is by professing with the mouth. Did not Isaiah say, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame”? (28:16) Prophet Joel too said that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (2:32)
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich towards all who call upon him. ‘All who call upon the name of the Lord’, you see, ‘will be saved.’
So how are they to call on someone when they haven’t believed in him? And how are they to believe if they don’t hear? And how will they hear without someone announcing it to them? And how will people make that announcement unless they are sent? As Isaiah exclaimed, ‘How delightful it is to see the feet of a messenger who announces peace,a messenger who brings good news!’ (52:7)
But sadly, Israel’s case is different. It is not that they did not get to hear the good news. They refused to obey the message. God said, “All day long I held out my hands to this disobedient and stubborn people!” (Isaiah 65:2)
God, then, made Himself available to those who did not ask for Him. “I appeared to those who did not look for me. I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ to a nation that did not invoke my name.” (Isaiah 65:2) “They have made me jealous with false gods, enraging me with their worthless gods; so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them.” (Deut 32:21)
Philip Eapen, an environmental scientist by training, devoted his life to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ ever since he realized that the world needs Jesus Christ more than anyone or anything else. Apart from sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, Philip teaches Christians in order to equip them for service. He is supported by donations from readers. Philip is married to Dr. Jessimol and they are blessed with three sons and a daughter.
Date: October 7, 2023
