Why Israel Was Blinded — Romans 11 Explained Verse by Verse

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to see everybody, and we're going to go right back where we left off, and that'll be in Romans chapter 11. Again for those of you joining us on television, all the past programs are available on VCR tape. Now remember that covers a lot of territory. We started back in Genesis 1, clear back in 1990, December of 1990, so that's 91, 92, 93, 94 times rolling by. And we're already way up to Romans. But anyway, there are now 24 of these tapes available, and how many we'll take to get all the way to the end of Revelation, only the Lord knows. I wouldn't even venture a guess, but if He tarries, why, we'll just keep putting them together. And of course, every tape is now available in the printed form in the little books, and they are catching on. People are really appreciating them. So if you're interested in the videos or the books, you just give us a call or write to us and we'll get the order list in your hands, and the topics and everything that I think you need. Also again, we like to remind people we're just an informal Bible study land. I wouldn't even venture a guess how many different denominations we have even in the studio, let alone in our classes, and let alone our television audience. But we're not here to pick anybody else apart. I think I have gone five years without ever castigating anybody or criticizing anybody. That's not my job. My job, I feel, is to just simply open the Scriptures, and then let people search the Scriptures and decide for themselves. So much for announcements. Let's get back into the book then in chapter 11. In the last program we talked about the fact that God has not cast aside His people Israel. They are still in God's program. They have been set aside for the last 1900 and plus years, and He's turned to the Gentiles. A few Jews can be saved, and they are being saved, but as we'll see in the coming verses it's just a remnant, and God has always kept His remnant. But the day is coming as we get to the end of chapter 11, that God is yet going to come back and finish His dealing with Israel. They are still going to enjoy all those covenant promises, and they are still going to enjoy a glorious earthly kingdom, and all the earthly promises that God has given the nation will yet come to fruition. So don't ever subscribe to the idea that God is through with the Jew. Now they are out there in unbelief, and as I've told my classes here in Oklahoma for years and years, don't expect that Israeli government in Jerusalem to be any more spiritual than our government in Washington, or the Bonn government, or the German government, or wherever it is. They are all secular, and they are all under the God of this world, Satan, and Israel is no different tonight. But God still has His eye on them as His covenant people. Now in chapter 11 we just about finished verse 2, and the last half of verse 2 says, Ephesians 2:"And know ye not that the Scripture saith of Elias, How he maketh intercession to God against Israel, when he saith, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down or destroyed thine altars? And poor old Elias saith, And I am left alone, and they seek my life." Now you remember Elijah's setting don't you? That was during the reign of old King Ahab and his lovely, precious, innocent wife, Jezebel. Quite the opposite. She was probably the worst. In fact I always remind people, have you ever seen anybody named their little girl Jezebel? I don't know of one, and I don't think any mother in her right mind would. But anyway, old Ahab and Jezebel had been ruling up there in the northern kingdom, ungodly, wicked king and queen, and they had been promoting the worship of Baal, and idol worship, and the Israelites had been falling for it. And old Elijah had even gone so far as to cause no rain for three years. Utter drought, and still Ahab and Jezebel would not change their ways. Well it finally got to the place by the end of that drought, and northern Israel was just burned up with lack of water, and Elijah got all the Israelites and the prophets of Baal together up there on Mount Carmel. Now for those of you who have been there, it's a little easier to picture. Mount Carmel juts in from the Mediterranean Sea, and just south of the present day city of Haifa, and when you drop off Mount Carmel you go down to the valley of Jezreel, or the valley of Armageddon, where the final great battle will be fought someday. And then it's just a flat plain almost all the way over the Sea of Galilee. Well here they are, gathered up there on Mount Carmel, and Elijah is getting everything ready to test these gods of Baal, and he says, "...and build an altar, and fill it with water, and let it dry for three years, where would they find water?" Well the Mediterranean Sea was just down at the other end, so they didn't have any trouble getting water. But anyway, they filled the trenches with water, and they soaked the sacrifices, and then Elijah began to taunt the prophets of Baal. He said, "...call on your God, let Him devour these sacrifices." And what happened? Nothing. And Elijah just tormented them, and said, "...yell a little louder, your gods are sleeping." And still nothing happened. Well then he called on Jehovah, the God of Israel, and fire came down, and didn't just consume the sacrifices, but it literally licked the water out of the trenches, and Elijah proved to Israel that Jehovah was still the God of Israel. Well you know what happened. Elijah demanded that they kill the 400 prophets of Baal, and they did, but a messenger evidently took off from Mount Carmel across the valley to Jezreel, which was their second government palace, and told old Jezebel what had happened. And of course you know the story. What did Jezebel tell the messenger? Well you go back and you tell old Elijah that by tomorrow at this time, he'll be just as dead as my prophets. Now this is what's hard to understand in all of Israel's history. In spite of all of the manifestations of the power of their Jehovah God, yet at the drop of a hat, they could sink into unbelief. Now even this great man Elijah did. Here he had just performed a tremendous miracle, calling down the power of God, had the prophets of Baal put to death, and with one threat from one little old woman over there at Jezreel, he ran scared. Now the old boy must have been in awfully good physical shape, because do you know how far he ran? All the way down to Mount Sinai. Now in my reckoning that's something like 150 miles. Now he probably didn't do it in an hour or two, don't worry, but nevertheless it says that he ran until he finally sat down under a juniper tree, and we know from the rest of the account that it was down there at Mount Sinai. And then what did he cry? Oh Lord, the ravens fed him, he had a drink of water, so he satisfied that, and he says now I've had my last meal, take me out, I'm ready to go. I'm the only one left, and you know isn't that the way a lot of times Christians are today? We think sometimes we're the only one left, but no we're not. Everywhere you go you can find believers, although they're getting fewer I know, but nevertheless they're there. Why? Because God has always kept His remnant. Now Paul rehearses what took place back there in I Kings chapter 19, and he says in verse 4. But what saith the answer of God to Elijah when he was sitting under that juniper tree? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men. Now we like to think that those men had believing wives and maybe some children, so we're probably talking about 14,000 to 20 ,000 Jews that were still believers in Jehovah. So he says I have reserved unto myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. You know I've always taught my classes over the years, beginning in Genesis all the way through to the end of Revelation, and you can make a study of it. You have a doctrine of the remnant, and you can just pick them up. God has always kept a remnant. Now when you get into Christ's earthly ministry, He promotes that so beautifully with the analogy of the wide way, the broad way, and the narrow way. There it is again, the mass of humanity go down the broad way, but that remnant they take the narrow way, and it's all the way through Scripture. Now Paul goes on to say, "...with regard to the Jew in this age of grace, which is predominantly Gentile as we put it on the board, Gentile only with some Jewish exceptions, even so then at this present time, that is in this age of grace, there is a remnant, a small percentage of Jews, that have become believers of the gospel of grace, and they have become a remnant according to the election not of law, not of Judaism, but of grace." I just finished reading a book this last week, The Testimonies of Jews Who Have Become Believers of this grace gospel, and from all different kinds of backgrounds, and it was just amazing how God just manipulated the lives of these Jewish people until they came to the place that suddenly they could believe that yes, Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah who had died for their sins. It was a thrilling reading, but they are a remnant, and very few can believe it. But they are there, and they are testimonies of this very thing that Paul is saying, that even as Elijah was shown that there were 7,000 who hadn't fallen to idolatry, so today there is that remnant of Jews who also can recognize the very gospel of grace, and the election of grace. Now then verse 6. For these Jews it is no different than for us Gentiles, and remember I emphasized that especially back in Romans chapter 3 and chapter 6, where Paul says there is no difference. A Jew doesn't come in on a different level from a Gentile, he doesn't come in on a lower level. They are all together unworthy, they are all without hope, Jew and Gentile. And so a Jew has to be saved the same way we are today, and so now verse 6 explains that if it's by grace, that gospel by which we are saved, then it is no more of works. And even our Jewish people have to understand that, that if they are going to be saved by this gospel of grace, they have to drop all their works religion of Judaism. As beautiful as their ceremonies may be, and I will be the first to admit that for example their Passover service is a beautiful picture of the whole program of grace, and so many of their feast days are beautiful pictures of our doctrine of grace. But listen, they are not going to be saved by keeping those Jewish feast celebrations. They have to come away from that, and suddenly realize that it's not by works, it's not by keeping any feast days, but it's all of grace. There can be no works for a Jew any more than there is for a Gentile. Because he goes on to say in verse 6, if it's of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. It sounds like double talk, but it isn't. Again Paul is emphasizing what he has been almost screaming since we started Romans. Our salvation is faith plus nothing, or it's no salvation at all. Just as soon as we attach something, be it ever so small, and we attach it to that gospel of grace, it becomes a works religion. And listen, Christianity today is just inundated with works religion, and it can come in various forms. It's so subtle. I was talking to a lady in one of my classes the other night, who when she was living out in California, especially back in the Vietnam War days, her husband was serving in Vietnam, and of course she was under a lot of stress raising her kids, and the New Age people took her under their wing, and so subtly just drew her into all of this New Age phenomena. But fortunately the Lord opened her eyes, and she was able to turn around and come out of it. But you see all of this stuff is based on works, and when it's works it cannot be grace. So whether it's Jew or Gentile, if it's works, it's not grace, and so we have to come God's way, and that is by faith, and faith alone. Now let's move on into verse 7, and I was hoping I'd get the whole chapter done today, but I doubt it. Ephesians 2.7 The election have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Now how can God do this? Well He's Sovereign, and He can do anything He wants. Let's go back to Romans chapter 1, and it's been a long time since we've been back there, so it's a good time to review. Let's go back to Romans chapter 1, and I think it takes us all the way back to the Tower of Babel when all this junk really began, and all of the roots of the Oriental religions and idolatry and paganism started back there at the Tower of Babel. What happened? Romans chapter 1, verse 23, "...they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." In other words, they dreamed up every kind of a God you can think of, and isn't that exactly what Egypt was doing when Israel came out under Moses? Every one of the plagues remember, were directed against a God of Egypt. Yes, even the flies were God's, the frogs were God's, the Nile was a God's. Now then, since mankind had become so saturated with the worship of these man made idols, look what happens in verse 24, "...because of their falling into idolatry, God gave them up to uncleanness." What's He doing? God is judicially causing mankind to even go deeper into His sin. Now we can't comprehend it, but that's what the Scripture teaches. And then when they went into a lower level of sin, then you find down to verse 26, God put them even lower. Why? Because of their behavior, their unbelief, their rebellion. Then verse 26 says, "...for this cause, God gave them up to vile affections." Now that's not loose language, that says that a sovereign God judicially said, if you want to live at that level, then go down one level lower. Now we have the same thing back here in Romans chapter 11, we have the same thing dealing with the nation of Israel. Oh they had every opportunity to know the will of God, they had all of the things going for them. In fact, back up with me again, I'm sorry honey boy, I'm going to drive you crazy today won't I. Back to Romans chapter 3, because after all this is a Bible study, and I don't want you to hear what I've got to say, I want you to see what the book says. Romans chapter 3, verses 1-2 says it better than I ever could, "...what advantage then hath the Jew," now remember Paul is writing this, so this is after Israel has been blinded. "...what advantage then hath the Jew, or what profit is there in circumcision, or being a practicing Jew?" Here's the answer, verse 2, "...much, every way." They had all kinds of things going for them, but what was the primary thing? "...because chiefly unto them were committed the oracles, or the word of God." In other words, why did God come down so hard on the nation of Israel in their unbelief? Because they had the Word of God, they'd had it for centuries, and what did they do with it? They'd ignored it. They refused to believe it. I've said it over and over over the years I've been teaching, when Jesus came on the scene and presented Himself as the King of Israel, Israel should have known. It was in the Old Testament, plain as day, but Israel didn't know. Why? They're unbelieving. They refused to search the Scriptures. It wasn't until the wise men came to Oherod and said, "...where is he that is born King of the Jews?" And of course that scared the living way out of Oherod, another king, and so he goes to the priests and says, "...where is the King of Israel to be born?" Well they didn't know, but they'd look, so they dug up the Old Testament Scriptures. Believe it, they had to go and look, and they found it in the book of Micah that He would be born in Bethlehem. They should have known, they should have just right off the top of their head told Oherod why He's to be born in Bethlehem, and all the other things that would be attendant with His coming, but they didn't know. Now we've got the same thing here in chapter 11. Israel should have known, but they refused, and so they were in their unbelief. Now I'm back in Romans chapter 11, verse 7. So Israel, who of course wanted all those things promised from the Old Testament, how many times haven't I put it on the board? I guess I've got room here, so we'll put it on again. How many times all through the Old Testament are these two parallel lines of prophecy? I call them like railroad tracks. Up here we've already covered a little bit in the last hour in the naming of Benjamin. Up here was a suffering Savior all the way through the Old Testament, that there would be one coming who would suffer and die for the sins of Israel. But over on the other line was the promise of a King and a Kingdom, a glorious Kingdom over which the Son of God Himself would rule and reign, and Israel would be the top dog of the nation. Now my question has always been, which one of these two did Israel want at the time of Christ's first coming? Which one of the two did they want? Well the King and the Kingdom, but they didn't want this. They didn't want anything to do with the Savior, why? They'd have to deal with their sin. That's the same way today. You offer America a utopian Kingdom with a benevolent dictator or king, would they buy it? Oh you bet they would! There's nothing the world wants more than peace and prosperity and everything going hunky-dory. But you tell America to deal with their sin problem, what are they going to do? Well I won't put it in farmer's language, but I can just about let you guess. They don't want any part of that, but that's always been the case. Oh they want this prospect of a glorious utopia, but they don't want to deal with sin. I had a gentleman call again just the other day, all wrapped up in sin, and then expects the Lord to straighten it all out. And I said, good heavens, don't you people have any idea of what's right and wrong? This man was 40 some years old. Well yeah, he realized it was wrong, but not really. And I said, sin is sin, and you cannot gloss over it, but that's the world we're living in. And it was never any different. The Jews of Christ's day were the same way. They didn't want to deal with their sin, but oh they wanted those Romans out of Jerusalem. They wanted the peace and the prosperity that a Messiah would bring. So Israel wanted all that, back to verse 7. So they didn't get what they were seeking. They wanted the King and the Kingdom, but why didn't they get it? Because in unbelief they would not reckon the fact that they had to deal first with the sin problem. They had to have a redeeming Savior, not just a ruling king, and see that's why they didn't want Him. How many times haven't I given the illustration, especially back in the ancients. What was the perfect picture of a conquering hero? Oh, come riding in on a big white steed, prancing like a show horse. That's what they were looking for, but instead of coming in on a beautiful white Arabian steed, He came into Jerusalem on a donkey, and not even a grown one at that, and that just blew their mind. No king comes in on a donkey, he should be coming in on a great white stallion. And so they rejected Him, and they crucified Him, but not all. Not all, for the most part the nation of Israel didn't obtain that which they seeketh, but the election have. Now remember I've told you all through Scripture from Adam all the way to the end of the human experience. Who are the elect? Well the believers. And so some of these Jews have been elected, yes, they have come to the place of salvation, they're the chosen, they're in the Body of Christ with the rest of us, but the rest have been blinded. And so tonight the nation of Israel is out there, some of them practicing their religion, some orthodox, some secular, but for the most part they are spiritually blind. Verse 8. Now whenever Paul says, "...it is written," what is he referring to? Well the Old Testament, it's probably going back into Isaiah, "...according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, ears that they should not hear, even to this day." And you know what? Paul could write this today, and it hasn't changed a bit. It's just as apropos today as it was when he wrote the Book of Romans. Verse 9. Again he's going back to the Psalms, and he's going to quote King David from the Psalms. David said, "...let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense." Now I don't know whether you've ever stopped to think about what table do you think the psalmist was referring to? Let their table be made a snare. Remember the Shepherd's Psalm, "...thou anointest my head with oil, thou hast prepared a table before me." What table was he referring to? God's table. Israel was literally feasting at God's table, and they were getting all the blessings and the ramifications of it. But that exalted position, and that's the best way I can put it, that exalted position of literally sitting at God's table, became a snare, and a recompense, and it caused them to fall. It was a horror of horrors, but you know what? He's going to warn us Gentiles of much the same thing, that we better take all these blessings and this grace for granted, for the day is coming, it's going to be taken from us. Okay, I've got to wind down, I've just about lost track of time, so we'll pick up where we left off in our next program. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time, for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.