Down But Not Out
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Introduction
Introduction
A few years ago I got into boxing. I know there are some MMA fans out there, but I’m more of a boxing guy. I just don’t get MMA. But back in 2018, there was this match up between Deontay Wilder who was undefeated and Tyson Fury who was also undefeated. I didn’t get to see that match. But it ended in a draw. In 2020, there was a rematch betwen the two. This time, Fury won in the seventh round by technical knock out, which means the referee called the fight because it was clear (and it was clear) that Wilder could not go on. A couple of weeks ago, there was another rematch between the fighters. I didn’t get to see this one either. There were times when Wilder went down but got back up. There were times when Fury went down but got back up. The fight was scheduled for 12 rounds and in the eleventh round, Fury once again won the match. Wilder was knocked out. At one point it looked like Fury would lose the fight, but it soon became clear that while Fury was down, he was not out. So it is with Israel.
For nearly 2,000 years, it has looked like Israel, the Jewish people as a whole, has been down and out, but that is simply not the case. As we saw last week, God has always kept for himself a remnant. And though Israel, the Jewish people as a whole, have rejected their own Messiah, it does not mean that they are out of God’s plan. You see, Israel’s rejection of the Messiah was not the goal of God’s masterful plan. It was the means to the end, but not the end itself. As we look at the passage today and in a couple of weeks, we are going to see that God is not finished with Israel. God has been and is still up to something glorious. And Paul is helping us to understand God’s method by explaining in these six verses what God is doing.
Stupefying Spirits
Recompensing Rebels
Enriching Everyone
What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,
as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”
And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”
So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.
Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
Stupefying Spirits
Stupefying Spirits
The first explanation that Paul gave in these verses that help us to understand what God is doing, is that he is stupefying spirits.
What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,
as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”
If we go back a couple of chapters, we’ll be reminded of what Israel was seeking. Romans 9:30-32 tells us that they were seeking to obtain righteousness. But Israel, the Jews as a whole, did not obtain it. They sought it; they pursued it, but they did not obtain it. Why? Because they pursued it according to the law instead of faith. Now here, in Romans 11:7 we see that some actually did obtain it. Paul argued in the first few verses of eleven that God has kept a remnant—those who believed and were faithful to him. In Romans 11:5
So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
God equates the remnant with the chosen, the elect. So Israel, the Jews as a whole, failed to obtain the righteousness they sought because they sought it by trying to be good enough rather than by faith. But there were some, the elect—the remnant—that obtained it. Now, quickly note that the elect must still attain righteousness. While there is an election from eternity past, justification (the obtaining of righteousness, right standing before God) does not take place back then. It takes place when the person believes the gospel.
But also note that the rest of Israel, those who were not elect, were hardened. And to explain, Paul quotes Isaiah and Deuteronomy. In context, Isaiah is prophesying that Jerusalem is going to fall. And part of that prophecy was God’s giving over to the people what they were wanting in the first place. They were carousing and partying and getting drunk. So God said he would give them a spirit of stupor which means a senseless, dull mind—the kind that comes with drunkenness.
But then in Deuteronomy, Moses spoke about what God had already done to the people. They had seen all that God had done in Egypt against Pharaoh. They had seen his works in the wilderness. Yet, God did not give them eyes to see or ears to hear so that they understood what he was doing. People will look at this and be floored that God would do such a thing as harden the hearts and stupefy the spirits of the Jews. But lest we forget, it is not only them, but most of the world.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Unbelievers, whether Jew or not, cannot see the beauty of God because the beauty of this world hides him. They cannot hear his symphonic voice because the cacophony of this world drowns it out. This is why the majority of people can hear the words, “God loves you,” and be so completely unaffected by them. It’s why we can talk with our coworkers or our next door neighbors about Jesus and they just don’t get it. The world has too much hold upon them and they do not know it. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Let us not give up in proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and pray that one day God will say say, “Let light shine out of darkness,” and save those whom we long to be saved.
Recompensing Rebels
Recompensing Rebels
This leads us into the second explanation that Paul made to help us understand God’s method. The first was that God was stupefying the spirits of the Jews. The second is that God is recompensing rebels for what they’ve done. In other words, God is repaying the rebellious Jews for their actions.
And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”
This is similar to the last one, but I think it is distinct enough to carry it’s own point. In the first explanation, God was, in essence, handing the Jews over to go in the direction they were wanting to go anyway. Yet rather than passively doing this, he actively gave them a stupefied spirit. But here, God is judging, repaying, recompensing the rebellious Jews for taking advantage of their blessings. But where do I get that?
If you go back to Psalm 69, from which these quotes come, you will see there that this is a prayer of David. Before going further though, I want you to note what Paul did in these three verses. He quoted Isaiah, a book of the prophets. He quoted Deuteronomy, a book of the Law. And here he quotes a Psalm, a book of the writings. The Hebrew Scriptures are made up of three parts: The Torah, The Navi’im, and the Ketuvim (The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings). In three verses, Paul has made this argument that this is not his opinion, but something that every part of the Scriptures teach.
So here is the prayer of David. It’s what we’d call an imprecatory prayer. It’s a prayer that of revenge, specifically David is calling upon God to take vengeance out on his enemies. Paul only quoted verses 22 and 23, but if you go back one, you will find that David made the claim that those, about whom he is praying, sought to poison him and give him sour wine. They were seeking to do away with David. In turn, he was asking that their table be turned against them. Their food and drink be a snare and a trap to them.
Then he asked that it would become a stumbling block and retribution. Retribution simply is a repayment, a recompense. What David was praying was that God would cause his and God’s enemies to stumble over their own blessings. And Paul was saying that is exactly what God does. This table that David wrote about was a banqueting table. While they sought to make David’s life bitter and sour, they were feasting upon the food that God had graciously given them. David asks God to turn that table into a snare, a trap, a table of stumbling, a repayment for rebellion. Now, here’s the kicker: Psalm 69 is a Messianic Psalm. This was all about Jesus. It was Jesus whom they sought to kill and did. Paul was saying what David prophesied: They are stumbling over the very blessings they received. Let it cause them to go blind and may they be burdened rather than blessed. James Montgomery Boice put it this way, “This is a critical point. It means that if the blessings of God are misused—and they always are misused unless we allow them to lead us to faith in Jesus as our Savior—they will inevitably harden our hearts, propel us into further sins, and eventually lead to even greater judgment.”
In Romans 3, Paul stated that the Jews had every advantage in the world. They had the very word of God. Yet, they used it against their Messiah. They used it to make them self-righteous. They rebelled against God and so the blessing that should have led them to their Messiah caused them to stumble instead. In essence, God did not harden a softened heart. The Jews were born hardened and continued to harden themselves; God’s hardening was in response to their own hardening.
Each of us know people whom God has greatly blessed, but also realize that those blessings will be their undoing. Rather than causing them to repent and worship the true and living God, their blessings are hardening their hearts against him.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Enriching Everyone
Enriching Everyone
Which leads us to the last explanation of God’s method. And understand that this is only one of God’s method; it is not the only method God uses. The first part was God’s stupefying spirits. It’s what they wanted and God gave it to them. The second was Recompensing Rebels. They rejected God and so God turned the blessings they misused against them; causing the blessings to blind them and burden them. Finally though, we see the outcome. God enriches everyone (and by everyone, I mean both Jews and Gentiles).
So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.
Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
Paul’s question is simply did Israel stumble to the point they can never get up again? Was Israel KO’d? Paul’s response is, “No way!” God was working out his glorious plan. Remember what we saw last week; God told Israel from the beginning that he would woo the foolish Gentiles when Israel went astray. This was always his plan. It took 1,500 years to bring about this wooing, but it was not a spur of the moment idea. The Gentiles would be enriched due to the Jews’ rebellion and rejection of their Messiah. Instead, the Gentiles would get the opportunity it receive the Savior. Not only would they receive the riches of heaven—all the spiritual blessings in heavenly places that Paul wrote about in Ephesians 1—but also the greatest treasure of all which made all the spiritual blessings possible.
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Look at the result of this enrichment of the Gentiles: Israel is made jealous. In other words, Israel—the Jews as a whole—will one day desire their Messiah because the Gentiles have him and they do not. How wonderful is God’s plan here. In order to save the Jews, God must first make their rebellion and hardness complete so that the Gentiles get what they rejected so that in the end, they will become jealous enough to believe and receive salvation themselves. Israel will believe in their own Messiah but only if the Gentiles believe in him first.
While this is specifically speaking about the Jews and the future of Israel, we can see similar principles in Scripture regarding non-Jews as well. There may be that guy at work that seems like he’ll never believe. He’s too hardened. There maybe that son or that daughter, mom or dad, whom you wonder if they’re too wayward; they’ve wandered to far. But remember, God sometimes takes the hardened heart and makes it harder before he does his radical surgery on them.
But beloved, let me ask this question: does your Christianity provoke your co-worker, your child, your parent, your neighbor, to jealousy? Are we living in such a way, speaking in such a way, hoping in such a way, worshiping in such a way, that makes others say: I want whatever they’ve got? Or are we the ones being provoked to jealousy by the world? Do they observe us wishing for what they’ve got?
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish Romans 11:7-12, I hope we have become a little bit more familiar with how God is working in his plan of redemption of Israel, and at the same time understand how God actually enriches everyone. Only by the Jews’ rejection are we given the riches of glory—Christ in us. God’s way of working does not always make sense, but it will always enrich us with the spiritual blessings of heaven.
Beloved, let us live lives that make others jealous of us. Let us pray that we will live provocative lives. Let us flaunt Christ in front of them—not self-righteousness, but Christ’s righteousness. Forget about flaunting the things of this world; the things of this world can be bought, borrowed, or burgled. But the things of heaven can only be obtained by the hand of God. Let people see Jesus in you. Speak often of his love, his joy, his peace, his grace. But let it be genuine. No one wants a counterfeit Christ or counterfeit peace. Let’s give them the genuine article.
While passing through this world of sin,
And others your life shall view,
Be clean and pure without, within,
Let others see Jesus in you.
Your life's a book before their eyes,
They're reading it through and through;
Say, does it point them to the skies,
Do others see Jesus in you?
What joy 'twill be at set of sun,
In mansions beyond the blue,
To find some souls that you have won;
Let others see Jesus in you.
Then live for Christ both day and night,
Be faithful, be brave, and true,
And lead the lost to life and light;
Let others see Jesus in you.
Let others see Jesus in you,
Let others see Jesus in you;
Keep telling the story, be faithful and true,
Let others see Jesus in you.
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