Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
A few years ago I got into boxing.
I know there are some MMA fans out there, but I’m more of a boxing guy.
I just don’t get MMA.
But back in 2018, there was this match up between Deontay Wilder who was undefeated and Tyson Fury who was also undefeated.
I didn’t get to see that match.
But it ended in a draw.
In 2020, there was a rematch betwen the two.
This time, Fury won in the seventh round by technical knock out, which means the referee called the fight because it was clear (and it was clear) that Wilder could not go on.
A couple of weeks ago, there was another rematch between the fighters.
I didn’t get to see this one either.
There were times when Wilder went down but got back up.
There were times when Fury went down but got back up.
The fight was scheduled for 12 rounds and in the eleventh round, Fury once again won the match.
Wilder was knocked out.
At one point it looked like Fury would lose the fight, but it soon became clear that while Fury was down, he was not out.
So it is with Israel.
For nearly 2,000 years, it has looked like Israel, the Jewish people as a whole, has been down and out, but that is simply not the case.
As we saw last week, God has always kept for himself a remnant.
And though Israel, the Jewish people as a whole, have rejected their own Messiah, it does not mean that they are out of God’s plan.
You see, Israel’s rejection of the Messiah was not the goal of God’s masterful plan.
It was the means to the end, but not the end itself.
As we look at the passage today and in a couple of weeks, we are going to see that God is not finished with Israel.
God has been and is still up to something glorious.
And Paul is helping us to understand God’s method by explaining in these six verses what God is doing.
Stupefying Spirits
Recompensing Rebels
Enriching Everyone
Stupefying Spirits
The first explanation that Paul gave in these verses that help us to understand what God is doing, is that he is stupefying spirits.
If we go back a couple of chapters, we’ll be reminded of what Israel was seeking.
Romans 9:30-32 tells us that they were seeking to obtain righteousness.
But Israel, the Jews as a whole, did not obtain it.
They sought it; they pursued it, but they did not obtain it.
Why?
Because they pursued it according to the law instead of faith.
Now here, in Romans 11:7 we see that some actually did obtain it.
Paul argued in the first few verses of eleven that God has kept a remnant—those who believed and were faithful to him.
In Romans 11:5
God equates the remnant with the chosen, the elect.
So Israel, the Jews as a whole, failed to obtain the righteousness they sought because they sought it by trying to be good enough rather than by faith.
But there were some, the elect—the remnant—that obtained it.
Now, quickly note that the elect must still attain righteousness.
While there is an election from eternity past, justification (the obtaining of righteousness, right standing before God) does not take place back then.
It takes place when the person believes the gospel.
But also note that the rest of Israel, those who were not elect, were hardened.
And to explain, Paul quotes Isaiah and Deuteronomy.
In context, Isaiah is prophesying that Jerusalem is going to fall.
And part of that prophecy was God’s giving over to the people what they were wanting in the first place.
They were carousing and partying and getting drunk.
So God said he would give them a spirit of stupor which means a senseless, dull mind—the kind that comes with drunkenness.
But then in Deuteronomy, Moses spoke about what God had already done to the people.
They had seen all that God had done in Egypt against Pharaoh.
They had seen his works in the wilderness.
Yet, God did not give them eyes to see or ears to hear so that they understood what he was doing.
People will look at this and be floored that God would do such a thing as harden the hearts and stupefy the spirits of the Jews.
But lest we forget, it is not only them, but most of the world.
Unbelievers, whether Jew or not, cannot see the beauty of God because the beauty of this world hides him.
They cannot hear his symphonic voice because the cacophony of this world drowns it out.
This is why the majority of people can hear the words, “God loves you,” and be so completely unaffected by them.
It’s why we can talk with our coworkers or our next door neighbors about Jesus and they just don’t get it.
The world has too much hold upon them and they do not know it.
As Paul wrote to the Corinthians
Let us not give up in proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and pray that one day God will say say, “Let light shine out of darkness,” and save those whom we long to be saved.
Recompensing Rebels
This leads us into the second explanation that Paul made to help us understand God’s method.
The first was that God was stupefying the spirits of the Jews.
The second is that God is recompensing rebels for what they’ve done.
In other words, God is repaying the rebellious Jews for their actions.
This is similar to the last one, but I think it is distinct enough to carry it’s own point.
In the first explanation, God was, in essence, handing the Jews over to go in the direction they were wanting to go anyway.
Yet rather than passively doing this, he actively gave them a stupefied spirit.
But here, God is judging, repaying, recompensing the rebellious Jews for taking advantage of their blessings.
But where do I get that?
If you go back to Psalm 69, from which these quotes come, you will see there that this is a prayer of David.
Before going further though, I want you to note what Paul did in these three verses.
He quoted Isaiah, a book of the prophets.
He quoted Deuteronomy, a book of the Law.
And here he quotes a Psalm, a book of the writings.
The Hebrew Scriptures are made up of three parts: The Torah, The Navi’im, and the Ketuvim (The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings).
In three verses, Paul has made this argument that this is not his opinion, but something that every part of the Scriptures teach.
So here is the prayer of David.
It’s what we’d call an imprecatory prayer.
It’s a prayer that of revenge, specifically David is calling upon God to take vengeance out on his enemies.
Paul only quoted verses 22 and 23, but if you go back one, you will find that David made the claim that those, about whom he is praying, sought to poison him and give him sour wine.
They were seeking to do away with David.
In turn, he was asking that their table be turned against them.
Their food and drink be a snare and a trap to them.
Then he asked that it would become a stumbling block and retribution.
Retribution simply is a repayment, a recompense.
What David was praying was that God would cause his and God’s enemies to stumble over their own blessings.
And Paul was saying that is exactly what God does.
This table that David wrote about was a banqueting table.
While they sought to make David’s life bitter and sour, they were feasting upon the food that God had graciously given them.
David asks God to turn that table into a snare, a trap, a table of stumbling, a repayment for rebellion.
Now, here’s the kicker: Psalm 69 is a Messianic Psalm.
This was all about Jesus.
It was Jesus whom they sought to kill and did.
Paul was saying what David prophesied: They are stumbling over the very blessings they received.
Let it cause them to go blind and may they be burdened rather than blessed.
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