"To
Provoke Them to Jealousy."
The next answer to our question
is found in the eleventh verse.
"I say, then, have they stumbled
in order that they might fall?
Far be the thought: but by their
fall there is salvation to the
nations to provoke them to
jealousy." We have learned
before that the setting aside of
Israel is not final, their
blindness and hardness of heart
is not their permanent
condition. They did stumble
indeed, but their stumbling was
not for the sake of their fall.
The second time we find in the
chapter the emphatic "Far be the
thought/' Put this thought as
far away as possible from you,
that God should permit His own
people, His chosen people, the
people whom He foreknew, to
stumble in order that they might
fall. A wonderful fact is now
brought to our notice. God's
deep councils of mercy and
wisdom are being put before us.
"By their fall there is
salvation to the nations."
This great fact is not
altogether unknown in the predictions of the Old
Testament Scriptures, though its
fulness is a new revelation, for
we read in the Epistle to the
Ephesians, that the fullness of
the grace of God towards the
nations (Gentiles) is one of the
mysteries made known through
Paul. "For this reason, I Paul,
prisoner of Christ Jesus for you
Gentiles, if ye have heard of
the dispensation of the grace of
God which is given me to youward;
how that by revelation He made
known unto me the mystery (as I
wrote afore in a few words,
whereby when you read, ye may
understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ), which in
other ages was not made known
unto the sons of men, as it is
now revealed unto His holy
apostles and prophets by the
Spirit; that the Gentiles should
be fellowheirs and of the same
body, and partakers of His
promise in Christ by the Gospel"
(Eph. iii:l-6).
We find, however, while the fact
that the unsearchable riches of
Christ were to be preached among
the Gentiles for the calling out
of the church, which is His
body, is a new revelation, that
the very words in the verse
before us point us back to the
Old Testament.
In Deuteronomy xxxii, the
farewell song of Moses, a
God-breathed song and wonderful prophecy, the Holy Spirit
gives us a history of Israel.
Their origin and calling, the
mercy and goodness of God
towards them, their disobedience
and apostasy, rejection and
punishment, restoration and
glorious future, all is clearly
predicted and outlined. Let the
infidel and higher critic try to
answer this argument of
supernaturalism contained in the
song of Moses. There is no
answer; it is a miracle.
Beginning at the fifteenth verse
of that chapter we read: "But
Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked:
thou art waxen fat, thou art
grown thick—thou art covered!
Then he forsook God, which made
him and lightly esteemed the
rock of His salvation. They
provoked Him to jealousy with
strange gods, with abominations
provoked they Him to anger. They
sacrificed unto demons, not to
God; to gods whom they knew not,
to new gods that came newly up,
whom your fathers feared not. Of
the Rock that begat thee, thou
art unmindful, and hast forsaken
God that formed thee. And when
the Lord saw it He abhorred
them, because of the provoking
of his sons, and of his
daughters. And He said, I will
hide My face from them, I will
see what their end shall be; for
they are a very froward
generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved Me to
jealousy with that which is not
God; they have provoked Me to
anger with their vanities, and I
will move them to jealousy with
those that are not a people; I
will provoke them to anger with
a foolish nation" (Deut. xxxii).
Here we read of Israel's
apostasy. The Rock, whom they
lightly esteemed, the Rock of
His salvation, is none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. In
consequence of their
unfaithfulness and provoking
God, the Lord would move them to
jealousy with those which are
not a people. We notice that
this announcement comes in after
their apostasy was fully
established. And so it was in
its fulfillment. When the Lord
Jesus was on earth and preached
the kingdom of heaven, He did so
to His own and there was no
proclamation to the Gentiles.
His disciples were commanded by
Him, not to go in the way of the
Gentiles, but to go only to the
lost sheep of the house of
Israel. After His resurrection,
ascension and the pouring out of
the Holy Spirit, His loving hand
was still outstretched towards
His blinded, erring people. His
mercy lingered over Jerusalem.
The first part of the book of
Acts is evidence of it. Only
after the apostasy was fully
established the instrument was
called, the Apostle of the Gentiles, Paul, to make known
the fact, "salvation is come by
their fall to the Gentiles to
provoke them to jealousy."
In the ninth and tenth chapters
of this epistle we find other
Old Testament passages, which
give glimpses of the rejection
of Israel, for a time and the
call of the Gentiles, "Even us,
whom He hath called, not of the
Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles. As He saith also in
Osee, I will call them My
people, which were not My
people, and her beloved, which
was not beloved. And it shall
come to pass that in the place
where it was said unto them, Ye
are not My people, there shall
they be called the children of
God" (Rom. ix:25, 26, compare
with Hosea i:10; ii:23). "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.
But to Israel He saith, All day
long I have stretched forth My
hands unto a disobedient and
gainsaying people" (Rom. x:20,
21, and Isaiah lxv:l-2).
We are aware we are stating
that, which is accepted by all
true believers who read and
study God's Word. It is not
denied that after His own
rejected Him, who is God
manifested in the flesh, that He
was preached to the Gentiles. By
their fall salvation is come to
the Gentiles, is generally believed
throughout Christendom; but what
is not known and little believed
is the fact that salvation has
come to the Gentiles, by their
fall, in order to provoke them
to jealousy. In this fact lies
the argument that God has not
cast away His people; for if He
had cast Israel away, why should
He wish to provoke them to
jealousy? The fact that His aim
is to provoke His earthly people
to jealousy by having extended
salvation to the Gentiles, they
receiving blessings in Christ,
is sufficient evidence that He
is still occupied with His
people.
Furthermore, we read in this
chapter that the provoking to
jealousy is with the view of the
salvation of some of them (verse
14). Such is the statement of
the Apostle himself. How fully
it brings out once more "God
hath not cast away His people."
But has the divine purpose been
realized? Has there been from
the sides of the Gentiles in
possession of salvation, a
provoking to jealousy for Israel
? Have the Jews learned through
Christianity that the Gentiles
are in possession of the better
things, which they and their
fathers rejected? Alas! History
gives a far different picture,
even up to the present time. In
the first night vision of
Zechariah1 the accusation is prominent, "They
(the Gentiles) have helped
forward their (Israel's)
affliction." So it has been for
centuries; so it is in the
twentieth century. Instead of
provoking the Jews to jealousy,
that some of them might be
saved, the Gentiles have hated
and bitterly persecuted the
Jews, and by their unchristian,
yea inhuman, cruel and wicked
treatment of the Jews, the Jews
instead of being moved to
jealousy, have become more
hardened and their afflictions
have been increased. The sin
against Israel is the sin of the
Gentiles, it will be the sin for
which they will be judged by
Him, who is not only King of
kings, but also the King of the
Jews (Matt, xxv:31; Joel
iii:l-3).
The writer has spoken sometimes
the Word to hundreds of Jews.
More than once he was
interrupted to answer questions
put to him concerning the
Messiahship of Jesus of
Nazareth. He never had any
difficulty in answering Jewish
arguments against our Lord. But
he had to hang his head in shame
when some intelligent Hebrew
spoke of the awful persecutions
his people passed through in the
past and when he pointed out the
barbaric treatment they receive
in Russia, Austria and other
so-called "Christian" countries.
Once an aged Jew declared, "The
Messiah whose followers can do such
things and hate us cannot be our
Messiah."
And yet it is not universally
thus. In these last days many
Christian believers have a
loving and prayerful interest in
Israel and realize the debt they
owe to the Jew. More prayer is
made, we believe, for Israel and
for the peace of Jerusalem, than
has been made since the days of
the Apostles. And there is no
doubt that "some of them" are
being saved.
We shall find with the next
verse the connection which
exists between the fact that
salvation came by their fall to
the Gentiles, and the fact that
a time is coming when Israel
will be received; the time of
their fullness. It is one of the
strongest arguments for Israel's
Hope and calling which follows.
In conclusion of our meditation
on this verse let us remember
that while salvation has come to
the Gentiles by their fall, that
salvation as it is offered now
is not continually to be offered
to the world. The acceptable
year of the Lord, having lasted
for nearly two thousand years,
is far spent, another day is
coming. |