Lesson 125

Romans Chapter Nine

The Faithfulness of God to Israel

 

Intro Review:

9:25-26 prediction of Gentile salvation.

 

- In the previous dispensation [age of Israel] the Gentiles were separate, they were not a people of God as Paul noted in Eph 2:12

 

 

Hosea was a prophet to the N.K. Israel in the 8th century BC. before God sent the Assyrians in 722 BC to administer His judgment on them for their spiritual adultery and apostasy, having pursued after the false gods who are not gods of the Canaanite peoples.

 

 

Idolatry is destructive for a nation, for a people then and still is!

 

 

Idolatry consists not merely in erecting an image and worshiping it.  Its seat is in the heart, which stupidly stares in other directions and seeks help and comfort from creatures, saints or devils...

 

How godless do you think it is to rely on these things and to reject confidence in the eternal and omnipotent God? 

 

So how important or how destructive is idolatry today? Or is it?

 

Rabbit trail

John’s Final Warning is Against Idolatry (v.21) 

 

"Little children, guard yourselves from idols."

John's terse command "guard yourselves from idols" sums up his strong spiritual concern for their spiritual safety.

 

 

 

The reflexive pronoun "yourselves" stresses their/our personal respon­sibility in assuring their safety.  Responsibility for choices.

 

 

"the word  eidwlwn  is invariably used literally: Acts 7:41, 15:20; Rom. 2:22; 1 Cor. 8:4, 7, 10:19, 12:2; 2 Cor. 6:16;  1 Thess. 1:9; Rev. 9:20. 

 

It also is clear in Scripture that the term "Idolatry" has a wider sense as used by Paul; and the context here seems to imply a corresponding extension of the meaning of the term.  (Col. 3:5)

 

 

An "idol" then is anything which occupies the place due to God.

 

 

Need to recognize that idolatry blinds one to the true God and to Eternal life!

 

Anything that takes you away from sound doctrine and detracts from your relationship with Christ can and will become a form of idolatry.

 

 

Back to Romans

- In the context of Hosea the point or principle in view is that here is the people of God, Israel, called not My people, separated from God, from YHWH, because of their spiritual adultery; their unfaithfulness and idolatry.

 

 

- Paul takes this prin. not My people, and then becoming My people as applying in our context in Rom 9:25-26 to the Gentiles becoming a part of the called, a part of this new relationship that includes both Jew and Gentiles.

 

- God's choice of Israel has made possible God's grace to Gentiles!

 

9:27-29 

- The response Paul senses to what he just taught by the skeptic is okay, I will concede that the Gentiles are a part of the called, vessels of mercy but Paul what about the Jews? 

 

- To make his point he once again goes back to the prophets, the Jewish Old Testament Scriptures for documentation, related to this remnant. 

Isa. 10:22-23; 1:9

 

Apart from God's mercy and compassion, none would have survived the judgments, remember what God said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."  [9:15]

 

God delivered them, when Sennacharib came [Isa 37:33-38], they eventually returned to apostasy and spiritual adultery, pursuing the idols of the peoples surrounding them and they were taken captive by Babylon, 586 B.C.

 

 

Rem: Paul's point here is that there will be a remnant only who are saved, even though they will number in the millions, apart from God's mercy they would have been as Sodom and Gomorrah, totally destroyed.

 

 

- The promises made to Israel to preserve a remnant, to save a remnant was fulfilled in the captivities and exile of the people, the destruction of Jerusalem and will also be fulfilled in the time of Israel's great testing, the Tribulation.

 

 

9:27 And Isaiah cries out [krazw indicates urgent nature of his msg.] the  message is concerning Israel,  "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved

 

- Paul comes back to this, that there will be a remnant of Jews saved in the future. Will see this in 11:26-27 time = end of Tribulation.

 

 

9:28 For the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly.

 

- God is faithful to His word, what He has said that He will do; and this includes the discipline of His people;     Ezek. 20:33-39; Lev 26

 

 

  Whether it is the Assyrian, Babylonian, the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. or the great Tribulation; whose primary focus is on Israel,  the secondary focus is man attempting to rule without God to the greatest extent in all of history; to man's great loss.

- God will accomplish His word, His purposes and the remnant will survive.