Changing circumstances

Time to adjust

Moving from bright sunlight into a darkened room can leave you momentarily blinded. It’s not pitch black and neither have you lost your eyesight – but for a second or two you can’t see anything. Your eyes need time to adjust to the new conditions. Such sudden changes can be disorientating and confusing.

The church in Rome had moved very rapidly from being made up predominantly of people from a Jewish background to one in which they were in the minority. In this way they mirrored what was happening to the whole church in the second half of the first century. Did this mean God had rejected his people (v 1)? For some that’s what it looked like.

God at work

But that is to get things out of perspective. Even the great Elijah had this experience (v 3) and sometimes so do we. Have you been praying hard for revival and seen no fruit? Been sharing your faith and got no response? Notice what Paul does.

He gets his readers to focus on what God is doing. Paul himself is living evidence that God has not given up on his people (v 1). Have you been blinded by disappointment? Then ask the Spirit to show you where God is at work.

God’s in charge

Then Paul reminds them that God often starts with the small, a remnant (v 5), rather than the big. So give thanks for the seemingly small evidences of his grace in your situation.

Finally he asserts that even when there is opposition, God is still in charge. He is always sovereign over human affairs, offering grace where it will be received and punishment where he is resisted (vs 6–10).

Mick Taylor

Spend a few moments in worship, because ‘In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will’ (Ephesians 1:11).

Nevertheless, God has not abandoned his people. In Elijah’s day, in spite of Israel’s murderous hostility toward his prophets, the Lord had still a ‘full’ remnant (7,000) among his people. It remained so in Paul’s time; he himself being one of them. The key is remembering that not all Israelites belong to Israel, and that true Israel has always been defined by God’s gracious mercy.

So, yes, of course God’s promises and election stand. For even when the bulk of the nation pursued idols, there were always some who, through faith, participated in his elective mercy, or as Paul’s shorthand designates them, the elect.

But what about the rest? God honoured their idolatrous choices by giving them over to, and making them in, the very image of the gods they worshipped. They became as sleepy, blind, and deaf as the lifeless images themselves.

Those Jews who rejected Jesus, David’s true son, continued the same pattern into Paul’s day (see 2 Corinthians 3:14,15). With chilling logic, Paul observes that David’s terrible invocation against his enemies now falls on them (Psalm 69:22,23).

This is serious. For Israel to deny Jesus, son of David and Son of God, is no light thing. If Christ is indeed God’s final word, to reject him is to reject God himself. Tragically, over the years certain Christians and many who were Christian in name only have taken words like these and used them to justify all kinds of calumnies against ‘the Jews’.

This is hardly in the spirit of Paul who, imitating the Jesus he followed, began this section by stating his deep anguish for his people (Romans 9:1,2). But neither should Christians affirm everything that modern Israel does, right or wrong. What it does mean is that our response to Israel’s situation, shockingly rebellious as it is, should be one of earnest and compassionate prayer.

Rikk Watts