Rom 10:17 | KingComments | STEP | . Maybe the previous verses gave you fresh courage to preach of peace and of good news. You want to tell others what the Lord has done with you and how happy you now are. You can see it quite clearly. You think others will be impressed by your testimony and will be converted to the Lord. But many will not be converted. This will be a sad disappointment. The results you were so fervently hoping for would not come. Instead of conversions based on your testimony, they will turn against you. Isaiah knew something about this. He spoke a lot about the Messiah Who was to come to His people, but few believed his preaching. At the coming of the promised Messiah, were the masses of people awaiting Him? You know they weren’t because He didn’t meet their expectations. They didn’t like it that He came as a Baby in a manger. Had it been someone appearing with pomp and circumstance, which would have been very different, they would have accepted Him. But what was their response? “Away with [Him], away with [Him], crucify Him!” ( ). The Lord Jesus was rejected and He returned to heaven. You can’t see Him now. . To have contact with Him, faith is required, and this faith must be stirred up by preaching. And the preaching must have the Word of God as its contents. Only then can man discover himself, Who God is, and what He has done to save him. . Consider the following question. At the time when the Word of God had not come to the Gentiles by way of preaching, hadn’t God already spoken to them? Certainly. So Paul quotes from Psalm 19. In this psalm David praises God’s glory and the work of His hands as seen in creation. The testimony of God that speaks from creation was and is not limited to Israel, but can be perceived all over the world. Here we have proof from the Old Testament that God preached to the Gentiles to enable them to have knowledge of Him and to believe in Him. . But then there is another question. Should Israel have known that God would make Himself known to the Gentiles, or shouldn’t we blame them for resenting God for also blessing the Gentiles? Moses is the first to speak in . He was Israel’s great leader and they respected him. He was the one who told them of their unfaithfulness and that God would turn to another “nation” because of their unfaithfulness. By doing so, He wanted to awaken their jealousy so they would return to Him. . Isaiah is also quoted. Paul says it in the following way: “Isaiah is very bold and says.” This implies it was quite a bold venture of Isaiah, which it was. For it really was a direct attack on Israel’s national pride as God’s nation to tell them that God would consider another nation. . This last verse is the most penetrating. God Himself speaks. You can taste the sorrow of His heart when you read what He has to say to His people. You can see God, His hands wide open to bring His people to His heart. And God doesn’t remain with this attitude for only a few minutes, but “all the day long”. This refers to the entire time He dealt with that nation. Is there anything more grievous than being rejected in such a way? From His viewpoint, God did everything to bless His people, but the only answer of His people was disobedience and opposition. They turned their backs on Him. The people broke their connection with God. Therefore, God had to put His people aside. But thankfully not forever. In Romans 11 we read that a new day will rise for Israel. Now read Romans 10:16-21 again. Reflection: What do you experience when your testimony is rejected?

‏ Romans 10:17

The Preaching Rejected

Rom 10:16. Maybe the previous verses gave you fresh courage to preach of peace and of good news. You want to tell others what the Lord has done with you and how happy you now are. You can see it quite clearly. You think others will be impressed by your testimony and will be converted to the Lord. But many will not be converted. This will be a sad disappointment. The results you were so fervently hoping for would not come. Instead of conversions based on your testimony, they will turn against you.

Isaiah knew something about this. He spoke a lot about the Messiah Who was to come to His people, but few believed his preaching. At the coming of the promised Messiah, were the masses of people awaiting Him? You know they weren’t because He didn’t meet their expectations. They didn’t like it that He came as a Baby in a manger. Had it been someone appearing with pomp and circumstance, which would have been very different, they would have accepted Him. But what was their response? “Away with [Him], away with [Him], crucify Him!” (Jn 19:15a). The Lord Jesus was rejected and He returned to heaven. You can’t see Him now.

Rom 10:17. To have contact with Him, faith is required, and this faith must be stirred up by preaching. And the preaching must have the Word of God as its contents. Only then can man discover himself, Who God is, and what He has done to save him.

Rom 10:18. Consider the following question. At the time when the Word of God had not come to the Gentiles by way of preaching, hadn’t God already spoken to them? Certainly. So Paul quotes from Psalm 19. In this psalm David praises God’s glory and the work of His hands as seen in creation. The testimony of God that speaks from creation was and is not limited to Israel, but can be perceived all over the world. Here we have proof from the Old Testament that God preached to the Gentiles to enable them to have knowledge of Him and to believe in Him.

Rom 10:19. But then there is another question. Should Israel have known that God would make Himself known to the Gentiles, or shouldn’t we blame them for resenting God for also blessing the Gentiles? Moses is the first to speak in Rom 10:19. He was Israel’s great leader and they respected him. He was the one who told them of their unfaithfulness and that God would turn to another “nation” because of their unfaithfulness. By doing so, He wanted to awaken their jealousy so they would return to Him.

Rom 10:20. Isaiah is also quoted. Paul says it in the following way: “Isaiah is very bold and says.” This implies it was quite a bold venture of Isaiah, which it was. For it really was a direct attack on Israel’s national pride as God’s nation to tell them that God would consider another nation.

Rom 10:21. This last verse is the most penetrating. God Himself speaks. You can taste the sorrow of His heart when you read what He has to say to His people. You can see God, His hands wide open to bring His people to His heart. And God doesn’t remain with this attitude for only a few minutes, but “all the day long”. This refers to the entire time He dealt with that nation. Is there anything more grievous than being rejected in such a way?

From His viewpoint, God did everything to bless His people, but the only answer of His people was disobedience and opposition. They turned their backs on Him. The people broke their connection with God. Therefore, God had to put His people aside. But thankfully not forever. In Romans 11 we read that a new day will rise for Israel.

Now read Romans 10:16-21 again.

Reflection: What do you experience when your testimony is rejected?