Israel's Privileged Deafness Text: Romans 10:18-21
Introduction: The Excuses of Unbelief
When a man is determined not to believe, he becomes remarkably inventive. He will manufacture excuses with the speed and skill of a factory assembly line. He will claim the instructions were unclear, the lighting was bad, the print was too small, or the delivery boy never showed up. The apostle Paul, having laid out the glorious simplicity of the gospel, that salvation comes by hearing and believing the word about Christ, now anticipates the inevitable objections from his fellow countrymen, the Jews. He knows the excuses that will be offered for their widespread unbelief, and he addresses them here head-on.
The central question Paul is tackling in this section of Romans is this: If salvation is for the Jews first, and if it is as simple as confessing and believing, why have so many Jews failed to do so? Has God's plan failed? Has His word returned void? Is there some deficiency in the gospel's proclamation?
Paul's answer is a resounding no. The problem is not with the message or the messenger. The problem is not a lack of information or opportunity. The problem is a matter of the heart. Israel's unbelief is not an excusable ignorance but a culpable obstinacy. They have heard, and they have known. In fact, God has been shouting at them, not just through the prophets, but through the very structure of His redemptive plan, a plan that has now exploded onto the world stage, bringing Gentiles into the family of God for the precise purpose of provoking Israel to a holy jealousy.
What Paul does in these four verses is dismantle every possible excuse. He shows that the gospel has been universally proclaimed, that Israel had prior prophetic warning about the inclusion of the Gentiles, and that their rejection is not a surprise to God but rather the fulfillment of His word concerning their stiff-necked character. This is not just an academic exercise for Paul; his heart breaks for his kinsmen. But his love for them does not cause him to soften the truth. The diagnosis must be severe because the disease is fatal.
The Text
But I say, have they never heard? On the contrary, they have; "THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD." But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says, "I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION, BY A NATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WILL I ANGER YOU." And Isaiah is very bold and says, "I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME." But as for Israel He says, "ALL DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE."
(Romans 10:18-21 LSB)
Excuse #1: We Never Heard (v. 18)
Paul begins with the most basic excuse: ignorance. Perhaps Israel did not believe because they simply did not hear the message.
"But I say, have they never heard? On the contrary, they have; 'THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD.'" (Romans 10:18 LSB)
Paul answers his own rhetorical question with a quotation from Psalm 19. Now, this is fascinating. In its original context, Psalm 19 is talking about general revelation. The heavens are declaring the glory of God. The sun, moon, and stars have a "voice" that goes out into all the earth, a silent sermon preached to every man, woman, and child, rendering them without excuse. Paul takes this universal testimony of creation and applies it to the universal proclamation of the gospel in his own day.
He is not twisting the Scripture. He is showing the correspondence between God's two books: nature and Scripture. Just as the testimony of the stars is inescapable, so now is the testimony of the apostles. By the time Paul is writing this, the gospel has so thoroughly penetrated the Roman world that he can speak of it in the same comprehensive terms that the Psalmist used for the sun. The sound of the gospel has gone out. The church is the new creation, a new heavens and a new earth, and its voice now fills the world. As he would later write to the Colossians, the gospel had been "proclaimed in all creation under heaven" (Col. 1:23). This is not modern, Western hyperbole. This is a statement of fulfilled prophecy. The Great Commission was not a multi-millennial project; it was an apostolic task, and they accomplished it. The world heard.
So, the excuse of "we never heard" is thrown out of court. The message was preached. It was preached in synagogues across the empire. It was preached in the marketplaces. It was preached in Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish world. They did not fail to hear; they refused to listen.
Excuse #2: We Didn't Understand (v. 19)
The next excuse is a bit more subtle. Perhaps they heard the words, but they didn't grasp the concept. Specifically, how could this message possibly include the unclean Gentiles? This whole business was unexpected, a theological curveball.
"But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says, 'I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION, BY A NATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WILL I ANGER YOU.'" (Romans 10:19 LSB)
Paul's response is devastating. Not only should they have known, but the information came from the highest possible authority: Moses himself. Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 32, from the Song of Moses, a foundational text for Israel's identity and future. God had told them from the beginning what the game plan was. If Israel prostituted themselves with "no-gods" (idols), then God would provoke them to jealousy with a "no-people."
This is divine irony, a covenantal tit-for-tat. Israel, who was a nation, a people set apart, chased after gods that were not gods. In response, God would raise up a people who were not a people, the scattered and pagan Gentiles, and bring them into His household. This was not Plan B. This was part of the plan all along, designed to "anger" and "make jealous" the covenant people.
This jealousy was intended to be a holy jealousy. The sight of Gentiles reveling in the grace of Israel's God was meant to be a spiritual goad, a divine irritant to provoke unbelieving Jews to reconsider their Messiah. It was meant to make them say, "Wait a minute, those are our blessings! That is our Father's table! What are they doing there?" And the answer, of course, is that the door is open for them as well, if they would only come through the same Christ the Gentiles have come through. So, the excuse of "we didn't know this was going to happen" is also dismissed. It was written in their law.
God's Sovereign Surprise (v. 20)
Paul now deepens the point by turning to the prophet Isaiah, who spoke with even more clarity, or as Paul puts it, "very boldy."
"And Isaiah is very bold and says, 'I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME.'" (Genesis 10:20 LSB)
Why was Isaiah "very bold"? Because he was speaking this message of Gentile inclusion directly to a proud and ethnocentric people. It was a scandalous message. The Gentiles were not seeking Yahweh. They were not sending out search parties for the God of Israel. They were content in their paganism, bowing down to sticks and stones. And yet, God in His sovereign, electing grace, determined to find them. He made Himself known to those who weren't even asking.
This verse is a cannon shot into the hull of all man-centered religion. Salvation is not a result of man's quest for God. Fallen man does not seek God (Romans 3:11). Rather, salvation is the result of God's quest for man. He is the hound of heaven. He finds those who are not looking. He reveals Himself to those who are not asking. This is the doctrine of effectual grace in poetic form. The inclusion of the Gentiles was a staggering display of God's sovereign freedom. He is not constrained by our expectations or our ethnic pedigrees. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.
Israel's Culpable Obstinacy (v. 21)
Having shown that the Gentiles were found without seeking, Paul concludes with the tragic contrast of Israel's position. He quotes Isaiah again.
"But as for Israel He says, 'ALL DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.'" (Romans 10:21 LSB)
The contrast is stark and terrible. To the Gentiles who were not asking, God revealed Himself. To Israel, who had every advantage, God stretched out His hands in constant, patient, earnest appeal, and they refused. The phrase "all day long" signifies a continuous, unceasing offer. This is not the posture of a distant, indifferent deity. This is the picture of a father pleading with his rebellious son.
Now, how do we square this with the sovereignty we just saw in the previous verse? Is God wringing His hands, frustrated by the stubborn will of man? Not at all. We must distinguish between God's decretive will (what He decrees will happen) and His preceptive will (what He commands and desires). In His preceptive will, He genuinely commands all men everywhere to repent. His offer of salvation is a bona fide offer. The hands are truly stretched out. Israel's disobedience is their own fault, their own responsibility. They are genuinely "disobedient and obstinate."
Yet, this does not thwart God's ultimate decree. Their very rejection was woven into His plan to bring salvation to the Gentiles, which in turn is the instrument He uses to provoke some of them to jealousy and thereby save them (Romans 11:11). God is a playwright of such genius that He uses the rebellious ad-libs of His actors to bring the story to its intended conclusion. Israel's sin is their own, but the result serves God's sovereign purpose. There is no excuse left. They heard, they knew, and they refused a genuine, heartfelt, divine appeal.
Conclusion: No Place to Hide
Paul has systematically stripped away every hiding place for unbelief. You cannot plead ignorance, because the voice of the gospel has filled the world. You cannot plead confusion, because the plan was announced by Moses. You cannot argue that God is unfair for saving Gentiles, because He is sovereign and free to find those who were not even looking. And you cannot blame God for your own rejection, because He has stood with hands outstretched, appealing to you all day long.
The application for us is exactly the same. The excuses have not changed in two thousand years. Men still say they don't have enough information, when the testimony of creation and conscience screams at them daily, and the Word of God is more accessible than ever before. Men still act surprised by God's terms, as though morality and repentance were some new invention. And men still blame God for their own hard hearts, even as He offers them grace in Christ.
The message of this text is that there are no valid excuses. God has made Himself known. The central issue is not information, but submission. The call of the gospel is not an invitation to negotiate terms with God. It is a summons to surrender. For the Gentiles, it was a surrender to a God they had never known. For Israel, it was a surrender to the God they thought they knew, but had refused to obey. And for every person here, it is a call to lay down your excuses, your obstinacy, and your disobedience, and to take hold of those hands that are, even now, stretched out to you.