Daily Thoughts from Romans: If in Doubt, Go (10:14-21)

Daily Thoughts from Romans: If in Doubt, Go

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for

   “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,

   “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”

Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,

   “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”

But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”  (Romans 10:14-21 ESV)

Remember that Paul is defending the validity of his gospel as from God against the charge that since it is the gospel of Israel’s God then Israel should have embraced it.  And Paul acknowledges that someone needs to preach this gospel to them if they are going to hear, believe and call on God as a result.  But they have heard, he argues.

He quotes Psalm 19 about the witness to God being made universally through what He has made (recall Romans 1:18-20 as well), and the Gentiles have heard also, but only they have responded.  According to Isaiah, Israel’s disobedience is not a new thing.  God has been holding out his hands “all day long.”  Israel has been consistently guilty of rejecting the gospel.

If calling on the name of Yahweh in faith is the way of salvation, then people, including Israel, need to hear the message, which means someone sent by God needs to preach it.  But Israel has had the gospel preached to them and has not obeyed it, at least not all of them.  And this accords with the witness of the Old Testament to Israel’s dullness of hearing and God’s prediction that He will bring Gentiles to Himself to make His people jealous and desire to have Him again.  But for now, they are disobedient and contrary.

This does not lessen our obligation to preach to Israel, and it is hard when so few Jews respond in faith.  But how glorious when they do!

One summer, a man spent the day on the beach in Jacksonville, Florida. The undertow was unusually strong that day and three times life guards jumped down from their tower to rescue swimmers from the surf.  Finally, the man went to the life guard station to express appreciation for the dedication of these persons. When he walked inside, he noticed a sign on the wall in large red letters. “If in doubt, go!” After seeing those words, he said to himself, “It strikes me that this ought to be on the wall of every church and on the table of every heart as we see the multitudes around us and read the command of God to “Go!” -Mark A. Doty