"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.

1) See our "Studies in Zechariah."