Romans 11:7-10 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” 9 And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”
God hardens those who reject the way of faith. For Israel as a people, they have rejected their Messiah. God in his mysterious sovereignty has hardened their hearts as a response. Paul writes that this was predicted long ago in several passages of the Old Testament. This is not a permanent problem. But how does this affect individual Jews? Paul does not specifically address the individual issue here, but it is addressed in chs. 1-3. Everyone needs the grace of God to be saved. This grace is offered to all, either through prevenient grace of the conscience and culture or through the saving grace of the gospel. Individual Jews can choose to respond to the light God has given them. And then, we leave it all in the hands of the great Judge. Paul imagines here that God has a grand scheme for the history of salvation that will ultimately show His glory to the world. We cannot begin to fathom what this might be. Our compelling duty is two part. One, we must respond to the gospel in faith as Paul has shown in every chapter of this letter. Two, we must bear witness to this gospel to the unsaved around us. The testimony of the Gentiles will be what brings Jews to the Messiah.
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