God Gave Israel Its Spiritual Blindness, Part 1 (Romans Sermon 82)

Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 11. We are continuing our series in Romans, and we come to Romans 11:7-10 that you heard Chris just read. These are some amazing verses, and as I was thinking about them, I thought about the capability that God has given us of eyesight. I think that the human eye is one of the most extraordinary things in the universe. As a matter of fact, it’s so complex and extraordinary that Charles Darwin, the originator of the Theory of Evolution, used it as an example of extraordinary organs that are so complex and so incredibly put together, that he doesn’t know how they could have been evolved and so it troubled him.

The human eye has an incredible complexity to it. There are 7 million cones and 75 to 150 million rods at the back of your eye in the retina taking light from off my face and from this room and transferring it at this moment to chemical impulses that your brain is receiving a sight. You can see all different kinds of colors, different hues and shades you can see a tiny spark of light if somebody lights a match a 100 yards away, you can see that, or a little red LED on a cell phone from a long distance all the way to different shades and hues. You can tell the difference between the color of the leaves in August after a rain and the color of the leaves in September when they’re a little bit more pale green and you know that they’re just getting ready to turn. You can tell that difference because the eye can just take in literally millions of different shades, and intensities and wavelengths and just recognize them as color. The human eye is truly astounding. And so therefore, I think Darwin have every right to be suspicious that evolution could not have put this thing through. It is not an accident of biochemistry, coming up from a little pond of slime over millions and millions of years but rather eyesight is a personal gift from the creator God, the eternal God, that he gives as he chooses. And none of us deserves it, it’s just a gift of grace, it’s something he gives or he doesn’t give according to his will.

Now, you may wonder why God wouldn’t give it and that’s a mystery, isn’t it? If you think about it, this is exactly what God told Moses as Moses was standing on holy ground, he was told by God to take off his sandals, for the place where he was standing was holy ground. And brothers and sisters I have that sense with Romans 11:7-10. The doctrines that are taught here, are holy and high and difficult, and so there’s a sense of the holy ground. And so Moses was told to take off his sandals for he’s standing in the presence of almighty God. And God gave Moses a difficult mission to go back to Pharaoh and tell him to let the people go, and Moses was ruminating on this question, which was totally irrelevant to the mission. Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh? That’s irrelevant. “I will be with you,” he was told. But he was saying, “I’m not really good at speaking actually.” And so God said this striking thing to him in Exodus 4:11, “The Lord said to him, who gave man his mouth, who makes him deaf or mute?” Listen to this, “Who gives him sight or makes him blind is it not I, the Lord.” Now, half of that, we embrace and we welcome, and we say, I praise God and my eyesight is a gift from God, but that’s not all that God said there. Who gives him sight and who makes him blind? Why? Why would God form an eyeball in a human head that is incapable of receiving sight? Why would he do that?

That’s the very question that the disciples posed to Jesus, you remember in John 9 when they came across a man who had been born blind. And they were deeply troubled and they were asking a theological question, who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Now there is a deep question and a deep concept, there is actually a purpose to this man’s blindness. There’s a ‘so that’s behind it, there’s a reason for it, a good and redemptive purpose. That God’s power and his work might be displayed in his life and friends what is true in the physical realm with physical eyesight is also true in the spiritual realm with spiritual eyesight. God gives physical vision, or he does not, and he gives spiritual eyesight or he does not, and that is his purpose and he does all of these things so that the works of God might be displayed in history that he might be displayed as the giver of eyesight, the giver of spiritual sight, the giver of salvation that he might be worshipped as the only savior that there is.

Why would God thereby give spiritual blindness to anyone? That is the question. That is the question of Romans 11. God loves to take away blindness. Jesus did that in John 9, he took away the blindness of that man who had been born blind and I can’t imagine the joy, it must have been for him at that late date of his life to see color for the first time. What it must have been like for him as a fully grown man to see his first sunset, that’s incredible, God loves to take away blindness. But the question we have to ask is, Why would God give blindness specifically a spiritual blindness? Specifically, why is it that the Jews do not see Jesus in the Old Testament? Why is it that they don’t see Jesus as their Messiah and their Christ? We believers in Christ we see him, don’t we? We know that he’s the Christ, when we read Isaiah 53, we see Jesus there. Why don’t they?

That is the question that Romans 11 is dealing with, and I want to just give you a simple concept, Simple to say, but difficult to grasp. God gave Israel their spiritual blindness. That’s what Romans 11:8 is teaching. God gave Israel their spiritual blindness and beyond that as we’ll see in the rest of the chapter in Romans 11, he has a purpose in doing it. He has a good and glorious purpose in doing it and I’m not going to get into all of that today, it’s going to be the unfolding of Romans 11 of what God’s purpose is in this spiritual blindness. But today, I want to say it simply in a plain way. God gave Israel their spiritual blindness, that is what the Lord says here in Romans 11.

Now let’s get our context, again, as we try to understand Romans 9 through 11, the question that Paul is dealing with in these chapters, Romans 9, 10, 11 is this issue of why the Jews were not embracing Christ as their Messiah. It is a big problem. And the question that goes, it goes even deeper. The question is, how can God who seems to have made all of these marvelous promises to the Jews has he forsaken them? Has he broken his promises? Has God’s word failed? And if God’s word is failed to the Jews, how do you know it’s not going to fail toward you as a gentile believer? That’s a big issue.

And so Paul takes it on and on in Romans 9, 10, 11 that is his answer to this whole problem of Jewish unbelief in Christ. His first answer in Romans 9, specifically in verse 6. It is not as though God’s word has failed for not all who are descended from Abraham are Abraham’s. They are not all who are descended from Israel are actually Israel. There is a physical nation of Jews physically descendant from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but then there is the spiritual Israel, the remnant within and they are the elect, and God chooses them unconditionally. Romans 9 teaches that very plainly, we’ve been through Romans 9, carefully. And Paul’s first answer of this question is the issue of individual personal election by God, sovereign election, unconditional election.

But the second answer that he gives in Romans 9:30-33, and then in chapter 10 is that Israel has pursued their own righteousness. They’ve pursued self-righteousness and thereby they stumbled over what God was doing, they stumbled over Christ, they couldn’t believe in him, they couldn’t accept him because they were trying to establish their own righteousness. God was establishing a simple and straight forward Gospel of salvation. A Gospel of justification by faith alone in Christ apart from works, that anybody can receive simply by hearing and believing. You just hear you believe you’re justified from all of your sins. But it was something they could not accept.

Now Romans 11 is Paul’s more or less, final answer to this immense problem of the Jews, and he begins right from the start in verse 1 by saying first of all, God has not rejected the nation of Israel, and I believe in Chapter 11, he’s dealing with the future of the nation as a whole, he’s dealt with individual Jews up to this point in chapter 9 and 10 but now he’s dealing with the whole nation.

And he said it’s not as though God has turned his back on the nation, either because I’m an Israelite. The fact is that there are Jewish believers in Christ, and if God had forsaken the Jews entirely if he had turned his back on them there would be none. Nobody gets saved, except God works it. Simon Peter was told this, this was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in Heaven, nobody can be saved, except by the sovereign work of Almighty God. And you know why, because salvation is a miracle, it’s a miracle to be born again and to live for ever and ever, it’s something only God can do. Isn’t that a marvelous thought? But he’s saying, if God had forsaken the Jews entirely there would be no Jewish believers but there are in every generation there are. God has reserved a remnant, the 7,000 that have not bowed the need of Baal, he’s held on to them, they are his in every generation, he’s got his Jewish believers in Christ. They’re precious. Just like the 7000 that had not bowed the need of Baal. They are his remnant.

But God has hardened the rest of Israel as he said he would, and he covered the issue of hardening with Pharaoh’s heart in chapter 9, Now, he brings it up again here in Chapter 11, Israel’s hardening therefore is a part of God’s eternal plan. And therefore I say to you very plainly that every single human being on the face of the earth either gets election or hardening from God. One or the other. We all get something from God, God’s not passive, he deals with each one of us, deals with us, and we either get election and salvation from it or we get hardening. And so it was also with the Jews. There’s no difference and God has a purpose in that. We’re going to see that purpose in the rest of the chapter. Not today, but I’ll tell you already what it is, it is that gentiles might be saved and that Israel might be humbled and in the end saved that God might get the glory that everyone gets saved the same way by mercy alone and that is what God is working, that is his ultimate purpose.

I. Israel’s Stupor and Blindness

Now first, we need to take on this issue of Israel’s stupor and blindness. And we start right at the beginning of Paul’s ministry. Paul was called by God to be the apostle to the gentiles, but from the very beginning of Paul’s ministry, he had to face Jewish opposition to Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, when Ananias he went to lay hands on Paul that he might have his sight again, his sight might be restored, and he might be baptized into the fellowship of believers, Ananias didn’t want to go. That’s a tough ministry to go and baptize Saul of Tarsus, he didn’t want to go because he had heard that this man is a vicious persecutor, and so he was. But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the gentiles and their kings,” listen, “and before the people of Israel.” Yes, he was apostle of the gentiles, but he had a ministry to Israel. And so in every city, he went to the Jew first and then to the gentile. He went to the Jew first, he went to the synagogue first, he was ministering to Jews.

Well, it started right from the beginning, as soon as Paul was in the city of Damascus and he had been baptized, he had miraculously received again his sight, he began to preach boldly in the synagogue in Damascus that Jesus was the Christ, the Jews didn’t know what to make of him. They expected Saul to come but they didn’t expect this. They were shocked, they were stunned, they were amazed and then they plotted to kill him.

Well, that was the first in the long and vicious journey. It was so bad that Paul had to be lowered in a basket at night over the wall of Damascus, so he could make his escape. Well, where does he go? He goes to Jerusalem, and there the Grecian Jews tried to kill him, and so they hustle him off back to Tarsus and it says, “Then all the churches in Judea had peace,” because everywhere Paul went, he just stirred people up, especially the Jews. When he began on his missionary journey in Acts 13, in Cyprus it was Elymus, a Jewish sorcerer that opposed him and Paul had to deal with him. When he goes to Pisidian Antioch it says that the Jews filled with jealousy talked abusively against the gospel and they had Paul expelled from the city. He goes to Iconium then, and some Jews believed but the rest stirred up the gentiles and plotted to have Paul stoned. In Lystra they actually accomplished that. Some Jews believed but the rest of the Jews stirred up the gentiles and actually had him stoned. He was stoned, dragged out of the city and left for dead. Some people believe he was dead, and God raised him from the dead, so he could continue his ministry. Picked himself up out of a pile of stones and continued to minister. He goes to Thessalonica and there, the Jews formed a mob and stirred up a riot in the city trying to kill Paul.

He goes to Berea, and there they are more noble-minded and they search the scriptures and a lot of them come to faith in Christ. But some Jews from Thessalonica come down stirrup the people and have Paul expelled, they’d like to kill him in Berea. He goes to Corinth, and the Jews opposed Paul there and became abusive, but God thwarted their plans and told him that he would have some space or some protection around him so that he would not be killed and so that he could minister and for a year and a half, he ministered in Corinth. In Ephesus Paul tried to reason with them in the synagogue, but they became obstinate. So Paul left them, and rented a lecture hall where he could carry on his ministry, the lecture hall of Tyrannus. He worked there for two years. In Greece again the Jews made a plot against him to show just as he was about to sail for Syria, so he couldn’t go on the boat. They were going to get on the boat with him and assassinate him there probably, so he had to go overland. He goes to Jerusalem, and some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the Temple and assumed that Paul had brought a gentile into the temple, so they started a riot, and tried to kill him. They tried to pull him limb from limb.

And then some other Jews formed a conspiracy. And bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had murdered Paul. Finally he ends up in Rome and the Book of Acts ends with him meeting with the Jewish leaders explaining the Gospel. Some of them believed and some of them didn’t, and began to oppose him. And the Book of Acts ends with the warning from the Book of Isaiah that they would believe and not be hardened. That is the history of Paul’s ministry in the Book of Acts, and how consistently the Jews opposed to him.

And why do they do that? Well, it’s because of the blindness, it was because the spirit of stupor, it was because of the deafness. They could not see Christ in what Paul was presenting in the law and in the prophets, in the Scriptures. They couldn’t see it, and so they were blind. Paul’s summation of the ministry you really can see in Romans 7:11 “What then,” it says, “What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain but the elect did, the others were hardened.” And so there is the elect, but then there’s those that are hardened.

And so, it is at the present time. At this present time as Paul says in verse 5, “So too at the present time, there is a remnant.” So to at this present time, there’s also a remnant in our day and there are also Jews that reject. There are many, many Jews as we’ve mentioned: Messianic Jews, Jews for Jesus, that have embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are our brothers and sisters, they are delightful people who have retained the knowledge of Jewish heritage and Jewish customs but have believed and embraced the New Covenant of faith in Jesus Christ. Estimates of Jewish Christians in the US, over a 100,000 that’s a good number but still really very small, percentage-wise. Most Jews reject the Gospel, perhaps bitter by gentile antisemitism. And let me tell you something, one of the major themes of Romans 11 is how ridiculous and how wicked is gentile antisemitism. It’s a form of arrogance that Paul’s going to be ministering directly against it in Romans 11, how wrong it is for the gentiles to boast over the Jews. But it has happened again and again and because of that there’s some bitterness, some memory.

You remember a few years ago when Mel Gibson came out with his film The Passion of the Christ, there was a great hue and cry about the possibility of antisemitism coming from this film. At that time Abraham Foxman, who was president of the Jewish Anti-defamation League, was vocal about the possibility that Gibson’s film might stir up reprisals and attacks against Jews all over the world. And this is what he said, “For almost 2,000 years in Western civilization four words legitimized, rationalized and fueled antisemitism. Those four words are ‘the Jews killed Christ.'” And that’s what he’s afraid was going to come up as a result of Gibson’s film. Well, this history of Jewish antisemitism connected with the Jews and the killing of Christ while neglecting the fact that Pontius Pilate, sentenced him to death, and so in the providence of God, both Jews and gentiles worked together that Jesus would be killed is perverted and wicked in sight of God.

Now the film as far as I know, didn’t produce any great antisemitism but it was a great concern. Frankly, most Jews that I know, and most Jews in America today are really actually secular people. They don’t attend worship services, statistics show, the majority of them do not. Majority of them do not read the Scriptures, the Old Testament. A majority of them, do not know much even of their Jewish heritage. As a matter of fact, there was a story in the San Jose Mercury News talking about the union of Orthodox rabbis from the United States and Canada formally declared that 80% of the US Jews who are reformed or conservative “are not Jewish.” That’s what their own rabbis were saying because there was a secularizing tendency in American Judaism.

So what is it at the present time the situation hasn’t changed at all. There is a blindness, there is a rejection of Christ. They do not see God, they do not see Christ, when they read the Scriptures, they do not understand that these things testify concerning Christ. The deepest issue is that they do not see Jesus in the Old Testament prophecies.

In Isaiah 53, it says, “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet, we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted, but He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed, we all like sheep of gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Does that speak Jesus to you? Well, it speaks Jesus to me, but it does not speak Jesus to the Jews that read it. On the website that I’ve mentioned before, Jews for Judaism, an obvious response to Jews for Jesus. The website there said that the best interpretation of Isaiah 53 is that it refers to the Jewish nation as a whole. The Jewish nation as a whole has in some sense, suffered for the sins of the world, the Jewish nation as a whole is like a lamb led before God for the slaughter.

Well, the Jews have suffered greatly but are the Jews innocent and pure? “He committed no transgression, nor is any sin found in their mouth.” How can that be said? Their own prophets testify against them that this is not so. Moses said ahead of time, that it would not be so. And frankly, right in the middle of Isaiah 53, Isaiah says it’s not so, for he says this, “For the transgression of my people he was stricken.” Who are Isaiah’s people? They are the Jews and therefore Jesus is the Savior and the only savior, the Jews have. For the transgression of Jews He was stricken, and for Gentiles too. But they don’t see it, they don’t see Jesus in Isaiah 53.

Neither do they see Jesus in Daniel 7, “The Son of Man vision,” where it says, “In my vision at night, I looked and there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of Heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power. All peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Who is the Son of man? He is led into the presence of the Ancient of Days on the cloud of heaven. But all nations and all nations worship him, but he’s not the Ancient of Days in this vision. He’s the son of man. Who is he?

I was on a plane flight back from China, and there was a Jewish woman sitting to my right, pinned between my seat and the wall of the plane, but I was gentle with her, I think, anyway, I don’t know. But we had some incredible conversations about… I just stuck to the Old Testament. Psalm 22, pierced hands and feet; Psalm 16, “You will not let your holy one see decay.” I mean just all the best scriptures, went to Daniel 7, she’d never heard of the Son of Man vision, never heard of it. Attend synagogue worship every week in Brooklyn, New York. I said, “When you get back,” she talked about her Rabbi in Brooklyn, I said, “When you get back, ask your Rabbi this question, ‘Who is the ‘son of man’ in Daniel 7?” Just ask him that question.

I think Jesus is asking you that question right now. They don’t see, they don’t see Jesus in the “Son of Man” vision. The Jews for Judaism site said this also, is in some sense, Israel, in some sense, the Jewish people. Alfred Eder Shin, who was a convert to Christianity from Judaism in the 19th century, wrote an incredible work, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. He cited 456 passages in the Old Testament which Jewish commentators in the Talmud, ancient Jewish commentators had identified as messianic; including Daniel 7, including Psalm 110, including Psalm 16 and some of these others. They had identified them as messianic. The Jews were almost unanimous in agreeing that the Son of Man passage in Daniel 7 was messianic, the Talmud said this. In the Babylonian Talmud, the Jewish Rabbi Akiva said that the throne set up in the heaven was one for the Ancient of Days and one for the son of David.

Well, another Jewish commentator, criticized him and said, “That’s blasphemy.” How can you have a throne for the Son of Man right next to the throne of the Ancient of Days? But they didn’t fully understand the deity of Christ, the incarnation, but they were right there, and they said, “It’s messianic. But after after Christian evangelists, and apostles began to use these passages to prove that Jesus was the Christ, they turned and said that they’re not messianic. There was a blindness that came over. Jesus faced it even in his own day, He said in John 5:39-40, “You diligently study the Scriptures, because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” And Paul says in effect a veil is over their hearts whenever the Old Testament scripture is read. It says in 2 Corinthians 3:14-16, “But their minds were made dull, for to this day, the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”

II. Israel’s Stupor and Blindness Caused by God

Now the question is: Israel’s blindness, their stupor, their deafness, their inability to see Christ in these passages; what is the cause of it? And Paul’s answer here is stunning. Look at verses 7 and 8. It says, “What then, what Israel sought so earnestly, it did not obtain but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written. God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear to this very day.” Now, Paul has already mentioned hardening in Romans 9. He talks about the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, and summarizes it in Romans 9:18. He says, Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. As I said, Every human being gets either mercy or hardening from God, one or the other.

And so the Jews, some of them got mercy, some of them were hardened and the same thing here in verse 7. What Israel sought so earnestly, it did not obtain but the elect did, the others were hardened. Paul says it again in Romans 11:25, look down further on the same page in Verse 25, he says, “I do not want you to be ignorant to this mystery brothers so that you may not be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” So there’s this hardening.

Well, the key concept is where does this hardening come from? Well, the text says it comes from God. The key words here are: “God gave them.” Do you see it in verse 8? God gave them a spirit of stupor, God gave them eyes so that they cannot see, God gave them ears so that they could not hear to this very day.

Now I believe that they close their own eyes. I believe that. I believe they made a choice, and they close their own eyes. Jesus says so. In Matthew 13:15, it says, “This people’s heart has become callous. They hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and I would heal them.” They closed their own eyes, that is true. Furthermore, another scripture teaches us that Satan blinds our eyes. Satan actually has the power in some way, through his world system to blind people’s eyes. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “The god over this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.”

But friends, yes, individual sinners blind, their own eyes. Yes, it is true that Satan blinds their eyes. But that’s not what Paul is talking about here. Here he ascribes it ultimately to God Almighty, to God Himself. Notice the connection between 7 and 8. It says, at Verse 7, “the rest were hardened.” Verse 8 begins, “as it is written,” so he’s going to explain the hardening. That’s what he’s getting at here in verse 8, he’s explaining the hardening. Now verse 8’s quotation, he’s about to quote, he really is mixing elements from Deuteronomy 29:3-4 and Isaiah 29:10. And he changes it a bit, he actually intensifies it. Deuteronomy 29, Moses said to Israel at that time. Listen to this: “With your own eyes, you saw those great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders. But to this day the Lord, listen, has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.”

So there is something that God has not given them, He’s not given them an understanding of mind, not given them eyes that see, not given them ears that hear. Well what, what is it they didn’t see? Well, they had seen 10 miraculous plagues in Egypt, astounding plagues. They had seen a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. They had seen water walled up on the left and the right, they had seen God do astounding things. They had seen water from a rock, they had seen manna every morning miraculously appear to feed millions of people every day for 40 years. They had seen miracle after miracle, and Moses said, Still, you don’t see.

You still don’t know him, you still don’t see. And so they were in some sense blind. Actually, Paul intensifies it. What Moses said God did not do, Paul says God did, he gave them eyes that do not see and he gave them ears that do not hear and it says very plainly, in Verse 8, God gave them a spirit of stupor. This is a quote from Isaiah. It’s related to drunkenness, you can imagine somebody who’s had too much to drink way too much to drink, slumped over a table disgusting, filthy, wretched and you go pick the man up by the scruff of the neck and shake him. And ah, you just can’t get anything out of him, just not there. That’s what Isaiah 29:10 is talking about, there’s a spirit of stupor. They don’t see spiritual truth and there’s nothing you can say that will get through to them. That’s what Isaiah 29:10 is talking about. Romans 11:8 says God gave it to them, He gave them a spirit of stupor. He gave them this blindness, He gave them this hardness.

It’s a similar statement made in John Chapter 12, actually directly parallel to Deuteronomy 29. Deuteronomy 29 talks about all the Exodus miracles, all the plagues, all of the things that they saw. John 12 talks about all of Jesus’ miracles, all of the things He did. The signs and wonders to prove the deity of Christ. Walking on water, feeding the 5000, raising the dead, healing a man born blind, casting out demons with a word; incredible power. A river of miracles. What more evidence could there have been? And this is what John says, a summary of Jesus’ public ministry in John 12:37-40 “Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, ‘Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ [That’s Isaiah 53] For this reason they could not believe, because as Isaiah says elsewhere, ‘He has blinded their eyes and deaden their hearts so that they can neither see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts nor turn, and I would heal them.'”

He has blinded their eyes, He has deaden their hearts. Who can John mean but God himself? But you don’t have to wonder in Romans 11, Paul says it directly, Paul’s answer therefore to the grief, the grief and the agony of Jewish rejection of Christ is that God has given them, the spirit of stupor, and the blindness. Now there is a purpose for it. And we’re going to talk about it in Romans 11. All I want you to see this morning, is that He did it. Now originally, this was going to be a three part sermon. This morning as I was going through it, I said, “My goodness.” And you probably saying the same thing, you know it’s 12:10, and you’re saying, “My goodness, were only two points through this three point outline.” The third point is so deep and so weighty, that it really deserves full treatment next week. It has to do with how God did it, and how a table of blessing can become a stumbling block.

And it’s a message I think we Americans need to hear almost as much as any message that I’ve worked on and so I’m not going to hurry through it. There is a way that our blessings can become our curses that they can blind us and deaden us spiritually. I think that’s what happened to Israel as well. We’ll talk about that next week this week. This week all I want you to do is just understand the simple words, God gave them.

III. Application

Now, by way of application, I want to say this, I was listening recently to a John Piper sermon on Romans 9, 10 and 11. And he was talking about the way that Americans approached Bible truth. And I read a lot of good books that helped me understand church life and a lot of good perspectives and I learned but I’m hearing more and more about relevant preaching. Relevant preaching.

Well, let me tell you something, I never have a yearning to be irrelevant, I don’t like to be irrelevant. I guess youth call it random. What a random thing. I don’t desire to come up here and be random. I actually am kind of methodological I’m just going through and taking the next passage and preaching what it says. So there’s a certain pattern there, but when we get to this issue of relevant preaching you know what they’re really meaning? Pragmatic, practical preaching. Preaching where I’m told 10 things I can do to improve this problem area of my life.

Right? I’m having marital troubles, what do I, what are four things, three things, two things, I can do to help me be a better husband, okay? What are some things I can do to be a better parent? I want to make more money, or I’m having trouble financially, I’ve got physical problems. How can I cope with my chronic illnesses or that of a spouse or a loved one? I’ve got problems in my life, and friends I am not in any way saying that everyday life isn’t hard, it is.

But John Piper was talking about the arrogance of the pragmatism in thinking that either the preacher or the hearers can actually know what they need, that we can actually figure out what we need to hear in order to get our problems fixed and solved.

You know what I think you need and I need? I need the word of God. Because all scripture is useful and beneficial and health producing. And therefore, I don’t presume to tell a physician, “Would you give me this prescription, or that one?” This is not… Well there may be some input I might have on what this medication did to my body last time, but I wouldn’t presume to tell them what to mix into the medicine, how much less would I tell God, Please tell me what I need to hear so I can fix these four problems, that are immediately pressing in my daily life. All Scripture is relevant, and especially something right in the middle of Romans. It must be relevant. So therefore, what could the relevance be to you, of knowing that God gave Israel it’s spiritual blindness.

I asked that question, this one as I was going through this message. And I had a kind of a mental vision of God seated on His throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and these seraphs, these burning angels before whom I would really be tempted to worship are covering their faces in his presence. And he dwells in unapproachable light, and he is awesome, and he is exalted and all heaven is circled around him and focused on him. And I realize the relevancy of that vision, that God is an awesome, powerful King, and I am a created being. I am a servant. I am saved by grace alone, and if I can see Jesus in Isaiah 53, it’s because God gave it to me to see it.

If I can see Jesus’s hands and feet pierced, in Psalm 22, it’s because God gave it to me to see it. It’s the very thing that Jesus said to Peter, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. God has willed to show you himself.

And what could be more relevant than that, to know that there is a King who rules over every detail of life and it’s not an accident or a tragic circumstance that these Jews are rejecting Christ. It is part of a deep and mysterious redemptive plan that God holds the powerful key to, and when he wants, he will release salvation for the Jews, and they will turn to him, and they will embrace him. In the words of Zechariah, They will look on him, and they will see him for the first time, and they will mourn for him as for an only son, and they will embrace him. And Paul says in Romans 11, what will that be, but life from the dead? Close with me in prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Introduction

Exodus 3:5-6 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Take off your shoes, for this ground is holy!

This passage is a most solemn one, very difficult for the human mind to comprehend

Paul ascribes some things to God in this passage that the human mind cannot comprehend, would never have thought to ascribe to God

Here Paul claims that the shocking failure of the Jews to see Jesus Christ as their Messiah is due to the direct actions of God

Context:

Key Question of Romans 9-11: Why is Israel rejecting their own Messiah, despite all the obvious evidence that Jesus is the Christ?

First answer: Romans 9:6 Divine election

Second answer: Romans 9:30-33 Israel pursued righteousness unrighteously Salvation is a simple gift of God through faith in Christ

It is available to anyone, Jew or Gentile who trusts in Christ, who calls on the name of the Lord

Romans 11: Paul’s final answer to this immense problem

1)     God Has Not Rejected ALL of Israel: Paul is a Jewish Believer

2)     God Has Reserved a Remnant, as He Always Has

3)     God Has Hardened the Rest of Israel, as He Said He Would

4)     Israel’s Hardening is part of God’s Eternal Plan… for Two Purpose

5)     First, that the Gentiles Might Be Saved

6)     Second, that the Jews Might Be Humbled

7)     Ultimately, “All Israel will be saved” = the nation of Israel and the Elect of Israel will be the same at the end

I.   Israel’s Stupor and Blindness

A.  Paul’s Call by God

Acts 9:15-16 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

B.  Paul’s Evangelistic History with Israel

■      Damascus (Acts 9): Jews in Damascus conspired to kill him (Acts 9:20-25), so Paul had to escape the city by being lowered over the city wall in a basket

■      Jerusalem: The Grecian Jews tried to kill him after he debated with them (Acts 9:28-30)

■      Cyprus: Elymus the Jewish Sorcerer bitterly opposed him (Acts 13:6-11)

■      Pisidian Antioch: Jews, filled with jealousy, talked abusively against the gospel and had Paul expelled from their city (Acts 13:45-51)

■      Iconium: some Jews believed, but the rest stirred up the Gentiles and plotted to have Paul stoned (Acts 14:2-5)

■      Lystra: some Jews came from Iconium and won the crowd over; they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, leaving him for dead (Acts 14:19)

■      Thessalonica: Jews there formed a mob and stirred up a riot in the city, trying to kill Paul (Acts 17:5)

■      Berea: a large number of Jews believed, because they were more noble- minded than the others, and searched the Scriptures to see if these things were true about Jesus; BUT Jews from Thessalonica came down to Berea and stirred up a riot against Paul, so he fled for his life (Acts 17:13)

■      Corinth: Jews opposed Paul and became abusive; however, God thwarted their plan to attack Paul, and allowed Paul to work there for a year and a half (Acts 18:6)

■      Ephesus: Paul tried to reason with them in the synagogue, but they became obstinate; so Paul left them and rented the lecture hall of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9)

■      Greece: the Jews made a plot against him just as he was about to set sail for Syria, so he had to travel overland (Acts 20:3)

■      Jerusalem: Some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the temple and assumed that Paul had brought a Gentile in the Temple; they started a riot and tried to kill Paul (Acts 21:27-31)

■      Jerusalem: Tried before the Sanhedrin, the Jews called for Paul’s death, and some tried to tear Paul apart physically (Acts 23:10)

■      Jerusalem: Some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink anything until they had murdered Paul (Acts 23:12)

■      Caesarea: The Jews presented their legal attack against Paul by a lawyer named Tertullus and sought the Roman governor’s decision to put Paul to death (Acts 24:5-9)

■      Rome: Paul ends up under house arrest in Rome and presents the Gospel to Jews living in Rome; some believe, others oppose (Acts 28:25)

Paul’s summation of his ministry experience with the Jews:

Romans 11:7 What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened

C.  So, Too, At the Present Time

Romans 11:5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

1.  Today the same phenomena is true

2.  Some Jews hear the gospel of Christ and believe

a.  Messianic Jews

b.  “Jews for Jesus”

c.  Estimates of Jewish Christians in the United States: over 100,000

3.  BUT Most Jews reject the gospel

a.  Bitter about the persecutions of false Christians

b.  Seeing no difference between true Christians and the German people responsible for the holocaust in WWII

c.  Remembering the history of Anti-Semitism: the crusades, the Inquisition, the pogroms in Russia, Martin Luther’s virulent statements against the Jews, Nazi Germany: they lump it all together and reject Christ

d.  Uproar around the time of Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ

Abraham Foxman, President of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, was vocal about the possibility that Gibson’s film would produce Anti-Semitic attacks and danger for Jews all over the world

He said, “For almost 2,000 years in Western civilization, four words legitimized, rationalized, and fueled anti-Semitism: ‘The Jews killed Christ.’ ”

This history of Gentile Anti-semites connecting Jews with the death of Jews, while forgetting that Gentile sin is equally responsible for the death of Christ, is an ugly one indeed… and it has left a bitter taste in the mouth of many modern Jews

4.  Most Jews today are secular

Many Jews today (some say at least half of all living Jews) identify themselves as Jewish but prefer to remain “secular.” They identify with no particular Jewish movement, and have no understanding or affiliation with any Jewish Biblical roots. The concept of Messiah as expressed in the Hebrew Scriptures or Judaism’s “13 Principles of Faith” is foreign to most Jews today.

San Jose Mercury News March 22,1997 p. 1 The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada formally declared that the 80% of US Jews who are Reform or Conservative “are not Jewish”.

Summary: “At the present time”: the situation has not changed at all from Paul’s day— some Jews have come to trust in Jesus of Nazareth as their Savior, their Messiah, their God; BUT the overwhelming majority of the Jews reject Christ, and many reject active participation in even Old Covenant lifestyle

D.  Deepest Issue: The Old Testament Does Not Speak Christ to Them

1.  They do not see Christ in Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53:4-6 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

2.  “Jews for Judiasm” web site said that the best interpretation of this passage is that it refers to the Jewish nation as a whole, in all their suffering and their dispersion!!!

3.  Incredible! In this way they present themselves as the innocent, sinless sin- bearers for the whole world! The direct opposite of what God intends and is saying to them

Isaiah 53:8 for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

4.  They do not see Christ in Daniel 7

This is the awesome “Son of Man” vision, and I believe this is the passage Jesus thought of when He chose the title “Son of Man” to refer to Himself 55 times in the gospels

This was the passage he cited about Himself when on trial before the High Priest

Daniel 7:13-14 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

I was witnessing to a Jewish woman as we flew back from China… she had no idea about Daniel 7, had never read it, had no idea who the “Son of Man” was. She talked at length about her Rabbi in Brooklyn, and I asked her to ask him who the Son of Man was in Daniel

7. She said she would!

5.  Before Christ, the Jewish Rabbinic writings saw Messiah in these passages

See http://ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ422.HTM

Alfred Edersheim (1825-1889), a convert to Christianity from Judaism, in his Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (2 vols., 1883), cited 456 passages in the Old Testament which Jewish commentators had interpreted as messianic (vol. II, pp. 710-743).

The commentaries in the Talmud, written before the onset of Christianity, clearly discuss the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 and puzzle over how these would be fulfilled with the glorious setting up of the Kingdom of the Messiah.

The Jews were almost unanimous in agreeing that the “Son of Man” passage in Daniel 7 is messianic. The Messiah was called “man of the clouds,” a title which is espoused by the Talmud. Abravanel said: “The expositors explain these words, ‘like a son of man,’ as referring to the King Messiah.”

The second century Jewish rabbi Aqiba, in the Babylonian Talmud (38b) said the thrones place in Daniel 7:9 were one for God and one for the Son of David, the Messiah. Another Jewish rabbi at the time said “How can you give a throne to the Messiah equal to that of God?

That’s blasphemy!” But that it what Rabbi Aqiba taught about Daniel 7!

After the Church used these prophecies to prove the claims of Christ, the Jews took the position that the prophecies did not refer to the Messiah, but to Israel or some other person

Abraham ibn Ezra (Spain, 1092-1167) was one of the greatest Jewish scholars. He considered Gen 49:10 messianic, and also Zech 13, but he considered the “son of man” in Dan 7:13 to be Israel.

Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508; originally from Spain) wrote more about the Messiah than any other Jew before him. He followed the Talmud and the Midrash in his messianic interpretations. The following verses are messianic: Gen 49:10, Is 11:1-5, Is 61, Micah 5:2, Zech 9:9, chs. 12-13, Malachi 3:1. Is 9:6 applied to Hezekiah. Is 53 referred to the nation of Israel, as did the “son of man” of Daniel 7:13.

However, once Christians started using these passages, the hearts of the Jews were closed to their truth

6.  Jesus saw this phenomena during His ministry

John 5:39-40 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

7.  Paul says a “veil” is over their hearts whenever Moses is read

2 Corinthians 3:14-16 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

8.  The question is: WHY??? Paul’s answer is DEEP and SHOCKING to many people

II.   Israel’s Stupor and Blindness Caused by God

Romans 11:7-8 What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, 8 as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.”

A.  Hardening Mentioned in Romans 9

1.  Paul is consistent

2.  In Romans 9, every human being (including among Jews) gets one of two things from God: either they are elect by grace or they are hardened

Romans 9:18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

3.  SAME HERE in verse 7

Romans 11:7 What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened

4.  Paul says it again in verse 25

Romans 11:25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

B.  “God Gave Them”: The Key Concept

1.  The difficult part to accept: This hardening comes ultimately from God Himself

2.  Yes, Israel had hard hearts and blind eyes and deaf ears through their own unbelief and sin

Matthew 13:15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

3.  Yes, Satan is the “god of this age” who blinds the eyes of unbelievers so they cannot see Christ

2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

4.  BUT Paul here ascribes it ultimately to God Himself:

a.  Connection between verse 7 and 8

i)  Verse 7 ends, “The rest were hardened”

ii)  Verse 8 begins, “As it is written…”

iii)  So verse 8’s quotation explains the statement “The rest were hardened”

iv)  NOTE: verse 8’s “quotation” is not actually a direct quotation of Moses, but Paul interprets it properly and intensifies it to make the direct point that Israel’s hard hearts, blind eyes and deaf ears were ultimately given by God Himself

v)  Paul mixes elements from Deuteronomy 29:3-4 and Isaiah 29:10

Deuteronomy 29:3-4 With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders. 4 But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.

Moses said the Jews had seen all those great signs and wonders in the Exodus, but still they did not understand God or believe in Him. That is directly relevant to the Jews’ rejection of Christ who performed even greater miracles

Moses said it passively: God has NOT given you a mind to understand; He has NOT given you eyes that see; He has NOT given you ears that hear.

Paul turned it around and made it active: GOD gave them eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear… so Paul is stressing it, as we’ll describe in a moment

The second quote has to do with a “spirit of stupor”

Isaiah 29:10 The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep

There the prophet Isaiah said Israel was as if they were in a drunken stupor, unable to hear the words of the prophets

The quotation of Deuteronomy and Isaiah are combined by Paul to explain the statement “The rest were hardened”

Paul’s main point: IT IS GOD WHO DOES THIS… God is in control here, God is sovereign over Israel’s state… both the elect remnant and the hardened people

b.  Clear statement

vs. 8 “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.”

GOD GAVE THEM

1)     a spirit of stupor: it’s as though they were drunk, like in Isaiah’s time… their minds unresponsive to the clear logic and proof of the gospel

2)     eyes so they could not see: they looked right at the miracles of Christ and said “We want to see a miracle from you”

3)     ears so that could not hear: they heard Him say plainly that He was the Messiah, and they asked Him “Tell us plainly if you are the Messiah”

Paul’s point: GOD GAVE THEM THIS HARDNESS

Therefore, it is not that they were hardened because of unbelief, but that the hardening PRODUCED the unbelief

5.  Similar statement in John 12

John 12:37-40 Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: 40 “He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn– and I would heal them.”

HE has blinded their eyes… HE has deadened their hearts… who can John mean but God Himself? Especially since Paul openly states that God does it here in Romans 11:8

C.  Paul’s Answer to the Grief of Jewish Rebellion: God’s Mysterious Sovereign Purpose

1.  The very fact that Paul is about to give a PURPOSE to all this hardness and blindness shows that it must be God who does it

ESV Romans 11:11 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.

Paul gives THREE purpose statements in verse 11… And there are many others in Romans 11:11-32

Romans 11:19-20 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true.

Romans 11:25 Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

Romans 11:30-32 Just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

Purpose after purpose after purpose!!! God has planned all this out for His own glory and the eternal joy of a countless multitude from both Jew and Gentile peoples!

NOW: These purpose statements make it OBVIOUS that the hardening Paul is speaking about is from GOD… Satan has no good purpose in hardening hearts, in blinding eyes and deafening ears; the Jews themselves had no such good purposes in hardening hearts and blinding eyes and deafening ears

So, God has a high and lofty purpose in all of this

2.  Therefore, God is in control, even when the vast majority of Israelites are rejecting Christ and being eternally condemned as a result

3.  If it were opposite, then Paul’s message would ultimately be hopeless… Israel is rejecting Christ and there is nothing God can or will do about it

4.  Instead, Paul is saying, “Even in the agonizing midst of the national rebellion of Israel against the Gospel, God is still on His throne… in some mysterious way He is working out a glorious plan

5.  It is this vast mystery that causes Paul to conclude Romans 9-11 the way he does

Romans 11:33-34 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

Paul’s unfathomable doctrine of election and reprobation, of God’s total sovereignty over both, leaves us with a soaring vision of an absolutely powerful God who rules on His throne and whose plans cannot be thwarted… it also leaves us with some mysteries we will NEVER be able to solve fully

III.   Israel’s Stupor and Blindness Caused by God’s Blessings

A.  God’s Table of Blessings for Israel

1.  Paul quotes one of David’s many “curse” Psalms

a.  “David and His Enemies” a major theme in the Psalms

b.  “Curse” Psalms are generally not personal… David himself was very gracious to his enemies, again and again

c.  These Psalms represent God’s stance to those who will never receive His grace… it is a plea to God to act on the wicked who reject His grace

d.  This Psalm is 69, which all the Jews recognized as containing Messianic prophecies: “Zeal for your house has consumed me” and

Psalm 69:21 They also gave me gall for my food And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

2.  The “Table” here represents God’s blessings to Israel

a.  Physical blessings: a land flowing with milk and honey, served on a laden table of blessings for the Jews

Psalm 23:5 -6 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

b.  Even more… Spiritual blessings: the “table” represents Israel’s rich spiritual heritage—the sacrificial system, with all its symbolism

Numbers 4:7 And over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall spread a cloth of blue and put on it the plates, the dishes for incense, the bowls, and the flagons for the drink offering; the regular show bread also shall be on it.

Malachi 1:7, 12 [these passages call the animal sacrificial system of the temple “The Lord’s Table”]

The “Table of the Lord” in the Old Covenant was the sacrificial system, their temple worship that was meant to be a rich source of blessing to Israel

B.  The Table Becomes a Snare and Trap

Romans 11:9 And David says: “May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them.

1.  The Israelites trusted in their blessings and grew fat and hardened against God

a.  They trusted in the Table of the Lord and turned away from the Lord of the Table… they trusted in the Temple, and thought God would never abandon their place of holy worship

Jeremiah 7:4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!”

i)  When the Lord came and fulfilled the temple sacrificial system, they should have let it go

ii)  Instead they clung to the Old Covenant table of the Lord, and refused the Master of the Feast, Jesus Christ

Instead of embracing the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, they clung to the Temple itself and to the sacrificial system, and angrily stoned Christ’s messenger Stephen, who predicted that the time would come when Israel would no longer need the animal sacrifices or the Temple itself… Christ’s atonement at the cross had made that table of the Lord obsolete

Acts 6:13-14 hey produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”

b.  They trusted also in their physical blessings and turned entirely to other gods

i)  When Israel was led by God out of Egypt and through the desert, they knew there was no other god but the true God

ii)  But when they entered the Promised Land and conquered all their enemies, they settled into a life of comfort and ease

iii)  Then, they quickly forgot God and in their ease and comfort and affluence they turned away from God and experimented with exotic gods the way food connoisseurs experiment with exotic dishes and wine tasters with exotic mixtures of wine: they tried new gods, and new religions… and they used the material blessings of god to worship those new gods

2.  They were arrogant and forgot God who gave them their blessings

3.  God warned Israel twice about the dangers of comfort and ease in the promised land

a.  First, Deuteronomy 8

Deuteronomy 8:7-19 the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land– a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. 19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.

Israel’s table became a snare to them when they stopped heeding God’s warning about prosperity and ease… they forgot God when their table was laden with His rich blessings

b.  Second the Song of Moses

The “Song of Moses” predicted Israel’s rebellion:

Deuteronomy 32:12-15 LORD alone guided him, no foreign god was with him. 13 He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. 14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat- and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape. 15 “But Jeshurun [Israel] grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.

c.  The prophets warned them again and again of their ease and their idols

Amos 6:1-7 Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come! … You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. 5 You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. 6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. 7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.

4.  Even worse, they did not realize the blessings of the Lord’s table were meant to bring them to Christ as the ultimate fulfillment…

Romans 2:4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

C.  God Hardened Israel by the Blessings He Gave Them

1.  The Jews were given overwhelming spiritual and material advantages

2.  But by choosing not to transform their hearts, God hardened the Jews by means of the very blessings He had lavished on them

3.  Their spiritual blessings made them nationalistic and prideful, and they refused to consider that Christ had come for their sins

4.  Their material blessings made them fat and lazy and complacent and willing to experiment with false gods… and made them forget the true God

D.  David’s Curse: Stumbling, Trapped, Blind, and Bent

Romans 11:9-10 “May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. 10 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.”

1.  The curse of Psalm 69 is dire and devastating

2.  Israel is cursed with stumbling, with being trapped, with being blind, and with backs bent forever

3.  Paul’s point is that it comes from the unsearchable, mysterious plan of a sovereign God!

4.  Next time, God willing, we will try to understand God’s purpose in hardening the Jews against Christ

IV.   Application

A.  Accept the “Things Revealed”: God’s Sovereign Plan

1.  John Piper on American pragmatism and arrogance

2.  God has revealed His sovereignty over human salvation

3.  We must embrace it and delight in it… even if we cannot fathom all the details

B.  Be Humbled by God’s Sovereign Plan

1.  God’s ultimate purpose is to save both Jews and Gentiles in such a way that they cannot possibly boast in anything of themselves

2.  The better we understand God’s sovereignty in salvation, the more humble we should be and will be

3.  Know that, if you are a Christian, it is only by God’s sovereign grace… give Him all the glory for it!!

4.  Also, be humbled in that you cannot fathom what God is doing with the Jews… His plan is too deep!

C.  Be Secure in God’s Sovereign Plan

D.  Be Warned: Do Not Let Your Table Become a Stumbling Block to You

1.  America is in the very same position as Israel materially and spiritually

2.  We need to heed the warning of Deuteronomy 8: Beware lest, when you are enriched by all the blessings of this good land, your heart will become dull and hard towards God… you will become arrogant and spiritually dull… full of food and entertainment and pleasure and comfort and ease, and making plans for more and more of the same… BUT CHRIST YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN

3.  Romans 11:11-28 is a warning to Gentile believers: DO NOT BECOME ARROGANT TOWARD GOD OR TOWARD THE JEWS…

4.  We American Christians need to be serious about repentance