Down an Unfamiliar Road

THE PRICE OF A MIRACLE

The following story has been told at numerous times by many speakers. All the research of various fact-checkers has not proven it false nor have they found the original individuals. So treat it as a lesson that may give you faith that our God is big enough for such a miracle to be true.

Tess, an energetic eight-year-old girl, heard her Mom and Dad talking quietly in the other room about her little brother, Andrew. She knew that he was very sick and in the hospital, but she was not allowed to see him yet. They were moving to an apartment complex next month for two reasons, they wanted to be closer to the hospital, and because Daddy couldn’t afford the payments on the house where they were living now.

Tess knew that compared to her friends’ families, her Mom and Dad didn’t have a lot of money. Their car was old, their clothes were not new, and their meals were simple but delicious. The family was facing a very costly surgery in order to save little Andrew. But their health insurance would only pay a small part, and they didn’t know who they could borrow the rest from on their meager income. Then, one day, she heard her Daddy say to her tearful Mother with whispered desperation, “Only a miracle can save him now.”

Tess suddenly had an idea. She went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from its hiding place in the closet. She poured out all of the coins on the bed and counted them carefully, three times. She wanted to be sure she had the right amount for what she decided to purchase to help Andrew. Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap, she slipped out the back door and made her way over to the nearby Rexall Drug Store, the one with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door.

She went in and found her way back to the pharmacy where she waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention. But at the moment he was busy talking to someone else at the counter. Tess twisted her feet to make a scuffing noise. It received no attention. She then cleared her throat with the most attention-getting sound she could muster. Still no good. Finally, she took her jar and begin banging it lightly on the glass counter. That did it!

The pharmacist whirled around and in a pleasant voice said, “I’ll be with you in just a moment.” But Tess wouldn’t be denied. She told him that what she needed was very, very important. The pharmacist told her kindly that he would be with her as soon as he was through talking to this other person. Then, in order for Tess to understand a little better, the Pharmacist said, “This is my brother from Chicago whom I haven’t seen in ages. I’ll be with you as soon as I can.”

“Well, I want to talk to you about MY brother,” Tess answered back in with a pleading sound in her voice. “He’s really, really sick… and I want to buy a miracle to make him better.” This got the Pharmacist’s and his brother’s attention. “I beg your pardon,” he said, you want to buy a what?” A miracle Tess replied. My little brother is very sick. His name is Andrew, and he has something big growing inside of his head, and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?”

The pharmacist was amused, but he told her, “Well, we don’t sell miracles at this drug store, young lady. They cost a lot of money, so I don’t think I can help you.” “Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn’t enough, just tell me how much it costs, and I’ll see if I can get the rest.” The pharmacist’s brother was a well-dressed man. He walked over and stooped down and asked the little girl, “What kind of a miracle does you brother need?” “I don’t know,” Tess replied with her eyes welling up with tears. “I just know he’s really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But, my Daddy can’t pay for it, so I want to use my money.”

The Pharmacist’s brother smiled kindly and asked gently, “How much do you have?” “Four quarters, a dime, and a penny,” said Tess proudly. I think I know where to get a little more if you need it. “My, what a coincidence,” beamed the man. “A dollar and eleven cents is the exact price of a miracle for your little brother.” He told her to hold on to the money, but first, he wanted to talk to her parents. He asked where they lived, and Tess said it was just down the street. So the man took Tess by the hand and said, “Let’s go see your Mom and Dad. Maybe they can tell me what kind of miracle they need for Andrew.”

When Doctor Carlton Armstrong, prominent Chicago neurosurgeon, talked with the parents they confessed they had no resources for more money. They had borrowed all they could on their house, and now the bank was foreclosing so they had to move to a small apartment. Doctor Carlton replied that he had good news, the cost of the surgery had already been paid. The parents were shocked, they couldn’t believe it! He couldn’t tell them the source, only that it was an anonymous donor.

The operation was completed without charge. It wasn’t long before Andrew was home again and doing well. Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of events that had led them to this place.

“That surgery,” Mom breathed out with while shaking her head in almost disbelief, “that was a real miracle. Dr. Armstrong didn’t tell us, but I wonder just how much it cost?” Tess was standing there smiling real big. She knew how much it cost, one dollar and eleven cents. But that wasn’t all, neither Tess nor her parents realized how priceless this little girl’s faith was that helped pay the whole price.

Sometimes in life when we face hard times and difficulties that are far beyond our control and capability to handle on our own, the first thing we think of is the monetary cost. But God doesn’t take money for His miracles. Jesus said that heaven’s currency was called “faith.” So sometimes it isn’t how much money you have in the bank down here, but how much faith you have on deposit up there in your heavenly account. – Dr. Robert R Seyda.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER ELEVEN (Lesson V)

Verses 5-6: It is the same now. God has maintained a chosen few by virtue of grace and election. And if He chose them by grace, then it is not what they have done that made them His people. If they could be made His people by what they did, His gift of grace could no longer be called grace.

This world has only the children of God to thank for their continued longevity. Had it not been for Noah, the entire human race would have been exterminated and the planet returned to a lifeless sphere in the sky. Sodom and Gomorrah could have been saved if only ten righteous were found. Over and over again it boiled down to a small minority who refused to bow their knee to the prince of this world, otherwise, catastrophes would have long ago overtaken the earth. Woe to those who are left after Jesus raptures the church! Even Sodom and Gomorrah will open their eyes in wonder at what will come upon the wicked and ungodly. God doesn’t need the majority to be moved and show mercy and compassion; so even though you may feel you are in the minority, you are on the winning side.

This concept of “the chosen” or “the elect” has been a source of great debate among Bible scholars for centuries. Paul explained it to the Ephesians this way: “Even before the world was made, God chose us for Himself because of His love. He planned that we should be holy and without blame as He sees us. God already planned to have us as His own children. This was done by Jesus Christ. In His plan God wanted this done. We thank God for His loving-favor to us. He gave this loving-favor to us through His much-loved Son.”¹

The reason this causes some confusion is that when compared with John 3:16, Matthew 28:19, and Romans 10:13 it seems like a waste of time if God has already chosen who He wants. But when you look closer you will see that in John 3:16 it says: “that whosoever believes,” and in Matthew 28:19, it refers to those who are baptized, and in Romans 10:13, “whosoever calls on the name.” In other words, we are not to go out in search of the chosen or elect, but to share the good news with everyone God leads us to and let Him and His Holy Spirit do the choosing and electing.

Paul did not want the Roman believers to misunderstand that salvation would be their choice, but God’s choice. If it were their choice, then it would lose its character, its very sanctified nature, and become an award for doing what they thought was right. It could be that Paul was also echoing what Moses told the surviving children of Israel would happen when they finally entered the Promised Land. He told them that they would encounter strong resistance from known warriors, but not to forget that the LORD their God was crossing the Jordan River with them.

Not only that, but should they become afraid, it would be the LORD Himself who would drive out those who had settled without permission on the land God promised to Abraham. Then Moses cautioned them: “After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, ‘The Lord has brought me in to take this land because I am right and good.’ It is because of the sin of these nations that the Lord is driving them out in front of you. It is not because of your being right with God that you are going to take their land. But it is because of the sin of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out in front of you.”²

So we can see the possibility that in Paul’s mind, those Jews who accepted Jesus as the Christ should not think they got rid of their sin – represented by the heathens who occupied Abraham’s promised land, by their own efforts. It was God who through His love, grace, and mercy drove out the sin that occupied their souls. And Paul also may have wanted them to know that it wasn’t by anything he was doing that brought about the choosing or electing of those who would become children of God. As he told the Corinthians about their coming to believe on the Lord Jesus: “I worked harder than all the other missionaries. But it was not I who worked. It was God’s loving-favor working through me.”³ Paul also reminded the Galatians: “I say that we are not to put aside the loving-favor of God. If we could be made right with God by keeping the Law, then Christ died for nothing.”⁴

And for his two protégés Timothy and Titus he had a similar message. He told Timothy: “He is the One Who saved us from the punishment of sin. He is the One Who chose us to do His work. It is not because of anything we have done. But it was His plan from the beginning that He would give us His loving-favor through Christ Jesus.”⁵ And Paul wrote to Titus: “It was not because we worked to be right with God. It was because of His loving-kindness that He washed our sins away. At the same time, He gave us new life when the Holy Spirit came into our lives.”⁶ So in Paul’s mind, it was clear that no one showed up among those declared saved by chance, accident, happenstance, coincidence, good luck, being in the right place at the right time, through bargaining, good works, or even flattery. It is God’s decision and God’s choice. And when God makes a choice, He does not make mistakes. Not even choosing the children of Israel to be His own.

Early church preacher Chrysostom begins with this question: “If we are all saved by grace, some might argue, why is everyone not saved?” Because they did not want to be, is the answer. For grace, even though it is grace, saves the willing, not those who refuse it and turn away from it⁷.⁸ Then early church scholar Augustine offers that grace is not given to us because we have done good deeds but in order that we may have the power to do them; not because we have done all that the Law said needed to be done, but in order that we may be able to fulfill it through Christ.⁹ However, early Greek church scholar Gennadius notes that the Apostle Paul expresses himself this way because he wants to show that the Law and Grace are completely incompatible when it comes to salvation. The two of them were never intended to work together. So, of necessity, one must replace the other out¹⁰.¹¹

Martin Luther is quick to point out that all those in Paul’s day that were reserved as God’s own from Israel, and all those in Luther’s day that God had reserved for Himself were in both instances reserved by God’s grace. In Luther’s mind, the two share the same mutual favor of God. The Apostle explains the expression here in verse 4, “I have reserved for myself,” with the words “by virtue of grace and election,” here in verse 5. So we can see that the words, “I have reserved,” includes the idea of election, and explains and magnifies grace.¹² In other words, all those whom God set aside for Himself were selected by the goodness of grace. Therefore, it is easy then to say that except for the grace of God we would all be hopelessly and eternally lost.

Reformer John Calvin was very focused on the fact that grace is a gift, not a reward. He explains that no credit for good works can be allowed to be mixed with the election process because it would obscure the gracious goodness of God. He designed it to be freely offered to us. So what solution can be given to Paul to answer his critics? What can he say to those egotistical individuals who credit the reason for their election to the worthiness they saw in themselves? For whether you introduce past or future works as evidence, this declaration of Paul shuts you down. For he says that grace leaves nothing left for good deeds to do.

Paul does not speak here concerning our reconciliation with God, nor of the means by which it is accomplished, nor of any immediate effect of our salvation; he ascends higher, even to this: Why did God, before the foundation of the world, chose only some as His own and passed by others? Paul also declares that God was motivated to make this difference by nothing else than His own good pleasure. And there was no place given for good works to count as having any merit. To have done so would have taken away the full measure of grace.¹³

Calvin goes on to say that since this selection by God was made before we were ever born, how then could good works be part of the formula that qualifies us to be elected? The same goes for those whom He did not select since He saw beforehand that they were not open to salvation. Calvin explains what he understands about the justification of Abraham. He tell us that if good works were involved, it would have required a debt to be paid. This means that grace was not freely bestowed. So now Paul draws his argument from the same fountain: that if good deeds are credited to a person’s account when God adopts an individual to be His child, then it becomes a matter of debt, not a free gift through grace.

Now, though the Apostle speaks here of election, and although it is a general reasoning which Paul adopts, it ought to be applied to the whole of our salvation. This will help us understand that whenever it is declared that there are no merits of works, our salvation is ascribed solely to the grace of God. This is said that we may believe that the righteousness by works is taken off the list whenever grace is mentioned.¹⁴ That raises the question: How many has God predetermined to be elected and how many are to be rejected? Only He knows.

John Locke, suggests that the term “works” may be part of the confusion here. What should be inferred is the idea of “merit.” It is reasonable to understand that good works would certainly be part of whether or not someone was considered worthy of being saved. But so would their character and behavior. But who could be given credit for good works when the Law required perfect obedience. If anyone was able to be in perfect obedience to the Law then they were given the reward. But those who failed were left out in the cold and, therefore, condemned to die. And since all are sinners, then there are none worthy of salvation. Thank God that if any are saved it is only by the grace and mercy of God. Locke goes on to illustrate the idea of being chosen by God by noting that if a jeweler is looking at a pile of stones to select for his use in making jewelry, he only picks out the best gems and leaves the rest. So as far as God is concerned, those He saves are gems meant to sparkle in His Kingdom.¹⁵

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER ELEVEN (Lesson IV)

For Robert Haldane, when Paul used the term “people” in verse one, he was referring to Israel. But here in verse two, the term “people” is restricted to the elect among all the Jews. They were His true people because they were the ones He foreknew to be chosen. Even though God had rejected Israel as a nation, yet He had been able to retain a group of faithful believers. The words foreknow and foreknew signify having knowledge of something before it comes into being. As an example, if you plant a seed into the ground and later it grows into a tall plant, you can tell your surprised neighbor that you knew about the plant even before it appeared above ground. In other words, you had foreknowledge of its existence. In relationship to this faithful remnant of true believers among all of Israel, they were accompanied by a decree from God concerning a certain seed of Abraham.

Also, for Haldane, God’s foreknowledge, in the first of these senses, is God’s foresight of future events and their existence, and His certainty of what will take place in the future. We must also note that this foreknowledge itself is not an order for it to come to pass. That will not happen until God decrees it. But it is a necessary part of the natural consequences that bring it into being and is dependent upon the purpose God has for its existence. As far as Haldane is concerned, the future of all things depend on God’s order by which every supernatural event, with all its circumstances, are decreed, the date fixed, and then ordered into reality.

The second of these senses, for Haldane, is that once God commands that they come into being it proves that they were already contained in His foreknowledge. To put this another way: they could not be part of the future events in God’s plans unless they were already part of the God’s plans, and will, in the past. So when we say that God foreknew such things would come to pass, it means that they were already part of His purpose and plans from long ago. We often find that His foreknowledge is sometimes displayed in Scripture accompanied by the mention of His commands.

For instance, in Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost, he tells the listening crowd that this Jesus whom they just crucified, “Was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.”¹ Also, later on in his Epistle, Peter writes to his readers about the precious blood of Christ as the Lamb of God without blemish or defect, and how it redeemed them from their empty way of life. Then he says: “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”²

But there is a third sense that Haldane sees in this foreknowledge of God as it is explained here in verse two. In this case, it involved God’s love and approval. It signifies that God chose and recognize who already belonged to Him before they were revealed. This proved that when God rejected all of Israel, it was predetermined that it would not include His remnant whom He loved and chose from the beginning. This is the point the Apostle Paul was trying to explain to these Jews who complained that he was suggesting that all of Abraham’s descendants were thrown away in favor of the Gentiles. Paul makes it plain God has already chosen those whom He will keep.³ So with this truth in mind, when we read where John said that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that decision was not made at the last moment but was ready-made in heaven before the earth was formed.

Bible scholar Albert Barnes continues the examination of the Greek word proginōskō in verse 1 and now it helps us understand what Paul is saying in verses 2-4. The word proginōskō, basically means, “to know ahead of time” or “to foreknow.” But this is more than simply foreseeing or forecasting something. As used here, it implies that a previous purpose or plan already existed and was just now coming to fruition. So it isn’t that God decided to reject the unbelieving Jews after they rejected His Son Jesus, but that they were already on the list to be rejected since time began. But in the same way, all those who became His true disciples were already on the list of “the chosen.” This is why predestination is not possible without proginōskō. So never think that you were chosen by chance.

This foreknowledge also provides proof that God is unchangeable. After all, if it is already decided then it cannot be changed. That’s why those in the group of 7,000 that God told Elijah about were already listed as the faithful remnant. Therefore, when God rejected Israel as a whole, He could not throw away the remnant along with them. But Barnes takes this even further. As he sees it, God will make no covenant of salvation with those who are not already on the list to be saved. Likewise, those who are designated as the unbelieving and the wicked to be rejected cannot be saved.⁴

This is the hardest part of the Doctrine of Predestination as taught and preached by some. That is until another provision is revealed and considered. It was discovered in God’s foreknowledge He arranged for a Savior to come and give hope to those predetermined to be lost. So if they were willing to accept His Son as their Savior, His death, blood, and resurrection would be enough to take them off the list. Does this mean that God changed His mind about who was on the list? No! It has always been part of His plan from eternity past. It means that those who chose to go against the tide were given the opportunity to be rescued because of their faith that Christ came to save them.

Preacher Octavius Winslow sees another aspect of this foreknowledge of God that must be taken into consideration. The term foreknowledge, as Paul uses it here, is limited to a particular class of people who are said to be “conformed to the image of God’s Son.”⁵ By accepting this, it is not possible to apply this same foreknowledge to all of God’s creation. So when this term is used properly, it anticipates a particular and specific meaning. As such, it includes the everlasting love of God and His choice of who are His people. That’s why they are thought of as His special and unusual treasure. We see Paul address this here in verse two: “God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew.” When used this way, it implies two ideas – love and choice. That’s why we are justified using the phrase “foreknowledge” in relationship to those God has called and chosen as being special. They were not only on the list to be chosen but were put there by His love. So it is no wonder then why His church is referred to as a “peculiar people.”⁶ But none of it would be possible were it not for His eternal love, grace, and faithfulness.⁷

Theologian Charles Hodge observes that in verse 2 the words His people may be interpreted two ways. In the context of verse 1, it refers to the Jewish nation and when connected to the clause in verse 2 whom He foreknew it provides the reason why God did not reject all of them. The second interpretation takes this same formula in reverse. In other words, placing emphasis on the words whom He foreknew qualifies and distinguishes the phrase, His people. This allows for the understanding that while God did indeed reject the Jewish nation as a whole, He did not reject those He foreknew. While this may sound complicated as theological jargon, it does make a great point. Perhaps what Hodge is trying to say is better understood when put this way: Those God rejected in Israel had always been known as His people. But among those were some He did not reject, and those are the one He foreknew would be faithful and true. They are the ones who were truly His people.⁸

Charles Spurgeon draws an analogy from this to make it clearer by way of illustration. For instance, even when things were so bad in Israel that the man representing the situation best was the weeping prophet, Jeremiah. But even he could not express their sorrows properly since they were more than even he could bear. However, it was in the midst of this calamity that God revealed His love and promised that blessed days should dawn for the seed of Abraham.⁹ These days are yet to come, but they shall surely arrive, for God has not rejected those He did foreknow.¹⁰ In other words, it would be hard for God to go back on His promise because that would show His judgment to be imperfect. However, all of God’s promises come with conditions, and if mankind does not abide by those conditions, then, even though the promise still remains in effect, mankind’s arrogance and disobedience have disqualified them from receiving its benefits.

Frédéric Godet sees Paul saying here is that out of all the nations on earth, God chose only one to be called His people. This was done as a divine act based on God’s foreknowledge. That foreknowledge allowed them to also be predestined as the nation through whom the Messiah would come to offer everyone who believes in Him for salvation. So we can see in the process that the emphasis was shifted from the group to the individual. No longer would God save a nation as a whole. All those saved would be saved as individuals.

So while Israel as a nation rejected Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah, Jesus did not reject those among the Israelites who believed He was the Son of God. However, God’s promise was based on His foreknowledge that He would appeal once again to Israel as a nation. As Godet sees it, God is under no pressure to act on anyone else’s timeline; time can stretch out as long as He pleases. He will add, if need be, ages to ages, until there comes a day when the generation representing Israel will have their eyes opened and freely welcome their Messiah. God foreknew this nation as believing and saved, and sooner or later they cannot fail to be both.¹¹

Why is this so hard to explain? The main reason is that mankind does not have the mind and wisdom of God. Even that which we do understand has only been made possible by the help of the Holy Spirit. Then we might ask, what reason would there be to comprehend it all, right down to each letter and syllable? There is none except a person’s pride of wanting to know what God knows. Furthermore, would God keep anything from us that we should know? Absolutely not! This much we know for sure: this is God’s plan, we have been chosen as part of that plan, so all we need to do is accept by faith what we do know and let God do the rest.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER ELEVEN (Lesson III)

Spreading the Gospel of the Messiah among the scattered Jews was important, that’s why when Paul and Barnabas were in the city of Antioch in the country of Pisidia,¹ they went to a synagogue to preach the Good News. They recounted how God led the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, brought them to the Promised Land, put a king after His own heart named David on the throne, and from this family line the promised Messiah was to come into the world. Their message was, that the Messiah had come. Now everyone who puts their trust in Him will be freed from the curse of the Law and saved by grace, not by works.

But Paul and Barnabas had more plans. The next Sabbath they went over to where the Gentiles lived and gave them the same message. This made the Jews jealous and they started saying bad things about Paul hoping the Gentiles would be turned-off and not listen. However, here is what Luke recorded: “The people who were not Jews were glad when they heard this. They were thankful for the Word of God. Those who were chosen for life that lasts forever believed. The Word of God was preached all over the area.”² This should be a lesson for all who go out to preach the Gospel. Don’t become disappointed or discouraged when the people you were sent to share the good news with do not respond. God has His eyes on everyone He wants to call as His chosen. So don’t give up, God won’t.

Almost as a second-thought, Paul reminds the Roman believers of what was already written in the Scriptures. This was the same method used by Jesus, reminding the opposition of what was said by the prophets on the subject. For instance, when Paul went to Jerusalem to meet with the council, after giving his testimony the Apostle James reminded everyone in the room of what was said by the prophet Amos: “After this, I will return; and I will rebuild the fallen tent of David. I will rebuild its ruins, I will restore it, so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, that is, all the Goyim [Gentiles] who have been called by my name,’ says Adonai, who is doing these things.³”⁴

Paul now turns and focuses on Elijah and the complaint he had about Israel. This was not the first time one of God’s servants broke down in anger because the Israelites rejected their leadership. At one time God wanted to destroy Israel as a whole, but Moses and Aaron both fell on their faces and cried out: “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with all the people?” So God relented and punished only Korah, Dathan, and Abiram with 250 of their followers by opening the earth and swallowing them alive in what would become a mass grave.⁵

In Elijah’s case, after Jezebel destroyed many of the prophets, he took the surviving 100 and hid them by distributing them throughout the caves in the area and provided them with bread and water.⁶ Then Jezebel chased Elijah and he ended up hiding in a cave. But the time came for God to show Who was in charge. So he sent Elijah out to anoint a new king for Aram,⁷ and a new king for Israel, and to anoint his own successor, Elisha.⁸ These two kings were to destroy the enemies of Elijah among God’s own people.⁹ However, God had good news for Elijah: “I will leave 7,000 in Israel whose knees have not bowed down in front of Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.¹⁰”¹¹

Paul also recalls what happened when Elijah proved to the believers in Israel that God was still on their side when he had them build an altar to the LORD. Jewish Rabbi Rashi tells us what he learned about this altar. That King Saul built an altar on Mt. Carmel. That is what the Scriptures tell us in Samuel: “Samuel got up early in the morning to meet Saul; however, Samuel was told, Saul came to Carmel to set up a monument for himself there, but now he has left and is on his way down to Gilgal.”¹²

According to ancient Jewish commentaries, this monument set up by King Saul was an altar on which to make sacrifices to God. We must remember Judah did not occupy Jerusalem during Saul’s reign and so there was no Temple yet. But later, the kings of Israel tore down all the altars and high places in their land to honor God. So Jewish tradition suggests that the altar Elijah built was, in fact, a restoration of the altar King Saul had erected. And the reason Elijah had this altar rebuilt was to remind Israel that they should keep God’s Name always before their eyes.¹³

This altar, however, was surrounded by a ditch, and Elijah instructed his assistants to pour four huge jugs of water on the burnt sacrifice three times until it soaked the sacrifice and filled up the ditch. Then we read: “When it came time for offering the evening offering, Elijah the prophet approached and said, ‘Adonai, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Isra’el, let it be known today that you are God in Isra’el, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your command. Hear me, Adonai, hear me, so that these people may know that you, Adonai, are God and that you are turning their hearts back to you.’ Then the fire of Adonai fell. It consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones and the dust; and it licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘Adonai is God! Adonai is God!’”¹⁴

A number of early church scholars have a variety of comments on what Paul says here. For instance, Ambrosiaster does not feel that Paul is referring here to Jews at large but to those who did follow Jesus when He came. To support his interpretation Ambrosiaster quotes Jesus’ prayer in John 17:12. So for him, it is clear that Paul shows that not only did Elijah remained as one devoted to God who did not worship idols, but that there were many who remained faithful to God, just as there were many Jews in Paul’s day who believed in Christ.¹⁵

Augustine of Hippo, in one of his tracts, wrote about what he feels Paul is inferring here. As he sees it, Paul was pointing out that predestination is sometimes designated by the concept of knowing in advance, as Paul says here in verse 2. So we can safely say that the Israelites were predestined to be chosen as God’s children.¹⁶ Early church scholar Pelagius argues along the same line. How could God reject those whom He knew in advance would believe on His Son? By so doing, Paul eliminates any occasion for pride among the Gentiles, just in case they became boastful because so few Jews, but so many Gentiles, believed in Jesus as their Savior.

The First Covenant prophets had no such foreknowledge. They could only repeat what was revealed to them by the LORD. That is why King Zedekiah asked Jeremiah if he had received any word from the LORD.¹⁷ So it seems that Elijah was also unaware that there were others besides himself who had remained faithful to God.¹⁸ For Augustine, the question now is: If so many faithful Israelites were hidden from the prophet Elijah back then, how many more Jews might be believers in his time in the 4^th Century AD? We cannot always be aware of who is saved and who is to be saved just by counting heads!¹⁹

Bishop Theodoret asked the same question of his people in the 5^th Century AD. Could it be that they, like Elijah who didn’t know about these 7,000 until God revealed their existence to him, were unaware of how many Jews had believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior?²⁰ So Paul uses these instances where God picked out and saved numbers of those who had remained true to His Word, His Will, and His Worship. He wanted his fellow Jews to be aware that there were many Jews who had accepted Christ as their Savior by grace and forsook trying to achieve everlasting life by works.

Martin Luther feels that Paul was not satisfied with just using himself as an example of how God’s grace was always flowing despite the Jew’s hardheadedness and arbitrary attitude with respect to His sovereignty. So he argues against the Jews with a very effective illustration. It was Paul’s way of saying that not all Jews were going to be kept in the fold. Just because none of them had been rejected, then they must think that God was lying when He said it would happen. So Paul asks what could they say when he related an incident in the past where this actually took place? So if it would have been foolish at one time to think that God would not reject any of His people, it would be just as foolish to do the same today. Maybe we all can learn something from history.

What prompted Paul to take such a stance was the fact that the Jews arrogantly assumed that they were God’s people simply because the Gentiles were not. Of course, Paul was speaking of the days in which Elijah thought he was the only one left serving God in Israel. But he found out much to his surprise that there were 7,000 more just like him. Luther focuses on the Greek word kataleipō in verse 4 which means: “to cause to be left over, to reserve, to leave remaining.” By understanding these words we can see how God’s grace and election are magnified. After all, He was the One who reserved them for Himself. What Paul was doing here was reiterating what he said back in Romans 9:16: “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”²¹

Puritan scholar Jonathan Edwards points out one factor that should make all of us even more aware of the kindheartedness of God. He begins by saying: Here in this verse we can see the success the Gospel had among the Jews, for God first began with them.²² He sent His only Son to deliver the Good News to them first; His Son chose all of His disciples from among the Jews; all His miracles and wonders were displayed to convince the Jews first that He was the Messiah. God also sent the Holy Spirit first upon the Jews, and the earliest preachers, teachers, evangelists, missionaries, and Apostles were Jewish. Even though God knew they were going to reject His Son, nevertheless, His first elect were called out from the Jews. So how could they complain if He rejected those who did not and would not believe, and call Gentiles to take their place?

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER ELEVEN (Lesson II) – 04/24/18

Albert Barnes assesses Paul’s argument here concerning clarification of which laws in the first covenant Jews would not be enforced by the Gospel in the last covenant. In previous chapters, Paul declared that all Jews who were not true spiritual Israelites were unqualified to share in the inheritance of the promises to Abraham. Furthermore, they were the ones who mainly rejected the Gospel of Christ and Yeshua as the Messiah.¹ To most Jews, however, it would be unthinkable that the God who chose them and called them His children would now turn around and abandon them.

So it was important for the Apostle Paul to show that his doctrine was consistent with all the prophecies God gave to His people. Yes, if Paul had said that God had universally rejected all the descendants of Abraham and canceled the first covenant, they would be justly outraged at such a doctrine. But that’s not what Paul was saying. He goes on to tell them that should they eventually return to God and be reinstated to His favor, it would clearly prove that God did not cast off His people, or that He voided His promises.²

Canadian Bible teacher H. A. Ironside sees this as a continuation of what Paul has been discussing in the previous chapter. It is based on his rhetorical question of whether or not there was any reason to believe that God had done away with any agreement He had with the children of Israel. This would obviously be the expected reaction of those who didn’t like another Jew telling them they were no longer God’s only children. So Paul shares his own experience to prove that God had not thrown away His covenant with the descendants of Abraham. He himself an Israelite, a natural seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, had been called by the Spirit of God and brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So if this happened to him, then it could happen to any Jew who turned away from the Law of Moses and turned toward Jesus Christ to be their Savior from the curse of the Law.³

Frédéric Godet offers no objection to Paul using himself as an example. However, he does quote from German theologian and New Testament critic Karl Heinrich Weizsäcker (1822-1899) who stated that Paul could not possibly limit his proof to his own persona when the believers in Rome were Judeo-Christians themselves, and therefore, qualified to refute the idea of rejection being raised.⁴ In other words, why did Paul use himself as an example of God’s continued dealing with Jews to effect their salvation through Christ? There were plenty of other Jews who had become Christians in the Church in Rome. What Dr. Weizsäcker fails to consider is that Paul felt more comfortable speaking on behalf of himself, whom he knew, instead of on behalf of others he did not know.

F. F. Bruce wrote a very informative preface to this chapter in which he states that in spite of how disobedient and contrary the people of Israel might have been, God had not disowned them because they rejected His word through Jesus the Messiah, anymore than He repudiated them earlier when they rejected His word through Moses and the prophets. Where it says that those whom He foreknew He also predestined, was a principle still in effect for the Jews.⁵ God did not change the way He was choosing people in the time of the Apostles from the way they were chosen during the era of the Prophets. Those He selected were safeguarded by His promise to always retain a faithful remnant.

Although Israel had stumbled, it wasn’t to the point they couldn’t get up again. In fact, it was through Israel’s misstep that the blessings of the Gospel went out to the Gentiles in neighboring lands. This is illustrated in the Acts of the Apostles where we read that the repeated refusal of the Jewish community on one side of the city allowed the Gospel to be taken to the Gentiles on the other side of the city. In other words, every minister sent to the Jews God turned into a missionary to the Gentiles because of the Jews’ rejection of the Good News.⁶

Verses 2-4: God chose not to renounce the Israelites,⁷ the people He chose before they were born. Surely you remember what the Scriptures say about Elijah, how he pleaded with God against the people of Israel. He said, “Lord, they have killed your prophets and destroyed your altars. I am the only prophet still living, and they are trying to kill me now.⁸” So, what answer did God give to Elijah? God said, “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have never bowed down before Baal.⁹”

At the time of the anointing of King Saul, Paul’s namesake,¹⁰ in Gilgal, Samuel wanted to set the record straight. He asked the Israelites if they believed him to be an honest prophet, and they said, “Yes.” Then Samuel mentioned that it was the LORD who appointed Moses and Aaron to lead them out of Egypt. But their forefathers quickly forgot and so God allowed them to be conquered by their enemies.¹¹ Then the LORD appointed Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel to deliver them. But now that they were in fear of being conquered by Nahash, King of Ammon, instead of turning to God to appoint another deliverer, they decided to choose their own. So Samuel says to them: “All right then, here is the king you asked for. Look him over. You wanted him, and the Lord has given him to you.”¹²

Then Samuel instructed them to continue to revere and worship the LORD, obey His commandments, and follow the king He gave them, and they would do well. But if they rebelled again, they would be in serious trouble, just as their ancestors were in the wilderness. To prove his point, Samuel mentioned that it was highly unusual for it to rain that time of year in Israel,¹³ so he was going to ask God to send rain as a sign that they had displeased Him by rejecting Him as their King and chose a human monarch to be their leader. Sure enough, Samuel prayed and a thunderstorm immediately showed up.¹⁴ That’s when the people realized what a gross error they had made, and pleaded with Samuel to pray for them lest God in His anger destroyed them. That’s when Samuel told them this: “For the sake of His great reputation, Adonai will not abandon His people; because it has pleased Adonai to make you a people for Himself.”¹⁵

So with this background, Paul stated that he was convinced that God would never spitefully turn His back on the people He chose for Himself. Later on, Ethan the Ezrahite wrote a Psalm about God’s love for His people, and in it he penned: “If his [David’s] children forsake my laws and don’t obey them, then I will punish them, but I will never completely take away my loving-kindness from them, nor let my promises fail. No, I will not break my covenant; I will not take back one word of what I’ve said.”¹⁶

I’m also sure that Paul had as much confidence in making his statement about God’s faithfulness as the prophet Jeremiah did when he declared this: “This is what Adonai says: ‘If the sky above can be measured and the center of the earth be penetrated, then I will reject all the offspring of Isra’el for all that they have done,’ says Adonai.”¹⁷ But that still wasn’t enough, the people of Israel were still in doubt, so once again Jeremiah received this assurance from the LORD: “Here is what Adonai says: ‘If I do not keep My schedule for sunrise and sunset, and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will turn away from the children of Jacob and David My servant.”¹⁸

Now, to show that he was not just a bystander or some alienated Jew who took up another religion, Paul assures his readers that he is vouching for God’s steadfast love as an insider. Paul used the same claims with the Corinthians who were taught things different from what Paul told them, by people also calling themselves messengers of the Messiah: “Are they Jews? So am I. Are they from the family of Israel? So am I. Are they from the family of Abraham? So am I. Do they work for Christ? I have worked much closer with Him than they have.”¹⁹

As a note on Jewish thinking on this subject of God overlooking the Jews in favor of the Gentiles, Jacobus Trigland, a Dutch Reform Church theologian (1583-1654), became interested in a sect called Karait Judaism (or Qarait Judaism),²⁰ who arose in the 9th Century AD. The Karaites believed in strict interpretation of the literal text of the Scripture without rabbinical interpretation or paraphrase. They believed that spoken rabbinical law was not part of what had been handed down from God, nor was it inspired by God, but was fictional work of the sages. As such, rabbinical teachings are subject to the flaws of any document written by mere mortals. Nevertheless, each scholar can consider and establish teachings according to their own understanding of the Scriptures.

However, a Karaite motto, quoted in much of their literature, is this: “Search scripture well, and don’t rely on your own opinion.” This doesn’t make it a total free-for-all – like the Rabbinic Jews had done with their commentaries. Karaites derive law from scripture according to their own traditions, scholars, and standards of legal interpretation. They just don’t believe man’s spoken word can ever override the written word of God. In their writings, Trigland found this saying: “The blessed God has not cast away the men of the [Babylonian] captivity, though they are under the chastisement of God.”²¹ This no doubt is in line with Paul’s thinking in this letter.

Paul continues to build his case of defending the Jews’ right not to give up on God because God had not given up on them. But at the same time, Paul wanted to remind them that God will not sit still and become inactive just because the people He chose were sitting on their hands. That’s why God told Elijah, who was despondent over the lack of faith among the Israelites and their allegiance to God, that He will reach out His hand to whosoever will come to Him and believe in Him. Now, if God felt that way about the Jews, how do you think He feels about you, called out of sin, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, chosen to be His own, sanctified for His use, and empowered for His glory?

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER ELEVEN (Lesson I)

Verse 1: In that case, I ask, “Did God force His people to leave Him?” Of course not. I myself am an Israelite. I am from the family of Abraham,¹ from the tribe of Benjamin.

With pain for his people still in his heart, Paul continues his plea to his fellow Jews but now turns from a philosophical approach to make his point a logical one. Today we would call it the process of elimination, or deductive thinking. In this case, Paul asks if what happened to the Jews being pushed aside in favor of the Gentiles so that they might hear the Gospel, a bullying act on God’s part? The obvious answer was, “Of course not!” It was already in His plans.

Early church scholar Ambrosiaster sees Paul using himself as an example to show that he was once part of the Israelites who rejected the Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth. But after he became a believer he realized that, unbeknownst to him, he had been chosen to receive salvation through Christ and become a spokesman for his new Master. However, there were others who were not convinced or convicted by Paul’s conversion, and they chose to remain part of those who were headed for judgment and punishment because of unbelief. Yet he never gave up on their being saved just as he was.²

Early church teacher Pelagius believes that by this time in his letter Paul had convinced his audience to the degree that he could start encouraging them, as a good teacher would, to seek further knowledge on this subject. He did not want to continue his criticism so as not to provoke them into throwing up their hands and walking away. After all, God had not yet rejected them, nor would He. Only those who chose not to believe had rejected God. And since God was the only One who could save them, they had also rejected their salvation. Paul could speak to this with authority since, as an unbelieving Jew, God did not reject him but led him to repentance. So if God could do it for him, He could do it for them.³

For early church Bishop Theodoret, Paul could have used the example of the 3,000 unbelieving Jews who were converted to Christ on the Day of Pentecost, as well as to the many thousands spoken of by the Apostle James,⁴ not to mention all those Jews who left their homeland to settle in other parts of the world who believed the message. But instead, he chose to use himself since he was the one writing the letter.⁵ This is an example of how a personal testimony is much more convincing than telling a story about someone else’s experience.

In this opening verse, Reformer Martin Luther sees a continuation of Paul’s insistence that God had never given up on the Jews. To prove this we can look back to what Paul said in Chapter 3:3: “It is true that because some Jews were not faithful to God it will that stop God from doing what He promised?” And then in Chapter 9:6: “It’s not as though God failed to keep His promise to the Jewish people.” As Luther sees it, in spite of the Jews’ arrogance Paul appeals to God’s faithfulness in keeping a promise. He does so by arguing from the smaller to the greater. In other words, had God rejected all His people at any time, Paul would have been included. However, in spite of his being one of Jesus’ greatest opponents, Jesus met him personally on the road to Damascus to announced that he had been chosen for a special task.

If you think that Paul, when he was a Pharisee, hated Jesus and His followers, he probably despised the Gentiles even more. But our Lord had other plans. He could call Paul to be a Christian to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. By using himself as an example, Paul not only shows how wide God spreads His arms in love but how firm and gracious is God’s purpose of predestination and election to completing His plans. Not even the most desperate circumstances could derail God’s plan of salvation. The cross and the grave certainly didn’t sabotage God’s plans for His Son, how much less for one who called himself the least of God’s servants and the biggest of sinners⁶.⁷

Fellow Reformer John Calvin has a similar impression of what Paul is wanting to say here. In Calvin’s mind, what Paul said up to this point about the blindness and stubbornness of the Jews, might seem to imply that when Christ came and was rejected by the Jews, He merely redistributed God’s promises to the Gentiles, thus depriving them of any hope for salvation. Paul wants the Jews to know that God’s promise to Abraham had not been abolished; God had not forgotten what He said and thereby denied all Jews entrance into His kingdom, as the Gentiles were before Christ arrived. But the question is not whether God had justly or unjustly rejected His people. As proven before, when the people, through false zeal and lack of knowledge had rejected the righteousness of God, they suffered a just punishment for their stubbornness. They were deservedly blinded and denied access to the promises of God’s covenant with Abraham.

In John Calvin’s mind, the reason for their rejection by God is not what’s under consideration by Paul. It’s the dispute concerning something else: If the original covenant which God made with their forefathers had been discarded, then they certainly deserved such punishment from God. However, the idea that it became inoperable through their disloyalty, is totally unreasonable. Paul held the following as a fixed principle: Since adoption is by grace and based on God’s mercy alone, and not on mankind, it stands firm and inviolable no matter how great the unfaithfulness of mankind may be. That by itself cannot abolish it. It was necessary for Paul to point this out to the Jews so that the truth and election of God not be thought of as being dependent on the worthiness of individuals.⁸

Bible scholar John Bengel combines Judges 6:13, where Gideon tells the angel that the people feel that God has abandoned them, with Psalm 94:14, where the Psalmist says that Adonai will never desert His people nor abandoned their descendants. to prove the point that even though God has manifested His grace toward the Gentiles in the face of the rebellion of the Jews, it is still not over between them. Bengel has Paul saying: “Far be it from us to say that God has rejected His people, when the very title ‘His people,’ contains the reason for denying it.”⁹

I find the paraphrase of this verse by John Taylor more appealing than that of John Locke. As Taylor puts it, “But what I [Paul] have argued concerning the present exclusion of the Jews, must not be understood as if God had absolutely, universally, and forever thrust His people Israel away from Him.”¹⁰ Both scholars see this as the beginning of Paul’s prophetic work related to the future of the Jews and Gentile with respect to the spread of Christianity. With the Jews rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, the door had been opened to the Gentiles for centuries to come. But God is not finished with the Jews, a remnant of which will still be brought back into the kingdom. But Paul’s message to the Gentiles includes a warning not to take their current alienation with God as a reason to brag, and in the process consider the Jews a lost cause. Their weeping may endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning when they return to God with a harvest of souls in their hands¹¹.¹²

Adam Clarke sees Paul making the point that this rejection of the Jews is neither universal nor final. Paul could not have put it better: I am also an Israelite – I am a true descendant of Abraham through Israel to Jacob, then by his son Benjamin. So it is with Christian Jews who can say they stand both in the grace of God and in God’s covenant with Abraham. Rejection is only for the stubborn and disobedient. But for those who believe in Christ will remain a part of Christ’s Body.¹³ In this sense, Paul is drawing a distinction between the Jews in the body of Christ with those on the outside to show that God’s grace has proven itself sufficient for the task of saving those who believe from being rejected by God.

Robert Haldane sees a clear reason why the Apostle Paul included himself in this argument. In so doing Paul does something here that few people appreciate. Besides claiming to be an Israelite, Paul also states that he was a pure descendant of Abraham. So why claim in the second part what is obvious in the first part? If he is truly an Israelite, surely then he is a descendant of Abraham. But this should not be taken as needless repetitiveness. A charge is often made against repetitive thinking, which is called “tautology.” Rather, think of this as a needed reiteration of an important truth.

This is done to give what is said doubled force and meaning. That’s why, in addition to declaring himself an Israelite, he adds that he was a direct descendant of Abraham. In other words, he was not an impostor or someone who got in through conversion or marriage. For Paul, this was no ordinary fact, but an important truth on which he placed great emphasis. He will carry this over to show that just because a person says they are a Christian, it does not mean that they are automatically then a follower of Christ. But to say I am a Christian and a follower of Christ gives it more emphasis.

Paul’s reason for doing this is to impress on the minds of his readers a sense of what is called intrinsic importance. That means, whatever is being said has a built-in factor that makes it important. By not only claiming to be an Israelite but also a descendant of Abraham, Paul is revealing the intrinsic value of God’s covenant with Abraham and all the promises made to him respecting his descendants. Paul did this to show that God had not rejected the children of Abraham who was called the friend of God.¹⁴

Furthermore, Paul added that he was of the tribe of Benjamin. This was not a particular honor seeing how they acted in the Book of Judges and the episode in 1 Samuel. You see, the first king of Israel, Saul, was a Benjaminite. But even though King David came from the tribe of Judah, when the 10 tribes of Israel formed their own kingdom, the tribe of Benjamin joined Judah who would then become the Jewish people. That’s why when Paul wrote this letter to the Christian Jews in Rome, it gave him more credibility by noting that he was a Jew by way of Benjamin. Had Paul been a Gentile, who claimed to be a student of Judaism, speaking to the congregation in Rome, the Jews would have dismissed him right away. But by proving that he was a Jew by birth, education, practicing Pharisee, but now a dedicated Christian, they had to listen to what he said. ¹⁵

While studying philosophy at the University of North Dakota, I was introduced to the writings of Chinese philosopher Laozi (also pronounced Lao Tzu (604-531 BC). In one of his books, he made a statement that was very revealing. There are many variations of how the Chinese text was translated into English. For instance, one translator rendered it, “In the pursuit of knowledge, everyday something is added. In the practice of the Tao, everyday something is dropped.”¹ But I also like the more precise translation that goes, “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.”

This is another way of encouraging anyone to learn something new every day to broaden their boundaries of knowledge. But to be wise, you must be open to the idea that whatever you knew about some concept may not be accurate, or you have the opportunity to add new facts to what you already know. In doing so, you remove what you knew to make room for what you now know that will change your viewpoint or expertise. In other words, our capacity to retain knowledge is limited, so out with the old and in with the new.

It has been said that knowledge is the accumulation of facts and experiences. Wisdom is knowing what to do with knowledge and the skill of applying it to make good choices. So in a way, knowledge is the accumulation of information learned through education or experience. On the other hand, wisdom is knowing how to apply your knowledge for the benefit of others.

Years ago it was reported in “The Independent,” a newspaper in England, that a journalist name Miles Kington was heard to say, “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing you don’t put a tomato in a fruit salad.” So the more you learn is of little value unless you also learn how to use it for what’s good. This led me to make up my own quote, “Knowledge is knowing the right thing to do; wisdom is knowing why it’s the right thing to do, and do it.”

King Solomon was the epitome of knowledge and wisdom. In his Book of Proverbs, he makes several statements on this subject. For instance, in one place he says: “[Knowledge] starts with God – the first step in learning, is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.”² If someone ever asks you why you study the Bible or go to God for wisdom, just tell them that God is omniscient. If they aren’t sure they know what that means, just say to them, “He knows everything.”

When Jesus was asked, as a young lad talking to some elders on the Temple grounds in Jerusalem, where did He get such wisdom, He told them, “What I teach is not mine, but belongs to Him that sent me.”³ The Apostle Paul explained that Jesus “…has become to us Wisdom from God.”⁴ So as a Christian, you may know the Bible by heart and have memorized all 1189 chapters, but if you don’t know how to put it into action and why it is important to not only “do” but “be” what the Scriptures say about a child of God, then you may be rich in knowledge, but you are poor in wisdom. – Dr. Robert R Seyda

A BIG REVELATION IN A SMALL OBJECT

A new associate pastor was being given a tour around the church property by the senior pastor. He was a bit insecure about his goals in life and asked this seasoned head pastor for some advice. The older preacher suddenly walked over to a rosebush and plucked off a rosebud and told his young assistant to try and open it without damaging any of the bright red petals.

The young assistant was somewhat amazed. Here he was asking his new mentor about finding the will of God for his life and ministry, and he was teaching him a lesson on horticulture. But he respected his new boss and proceeded to try and unfold the small rosebud. No matter how hard he tried, he realized that it would be impossible to open that little rose without damaging the petals.

When the senior pastor noticed that his young assistant was having trouble trying to unfold the rosebud, he asked if he could recite a poem to him. The young man nodded, Yes. So the pastor began:

It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God’s design;
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.

The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
God opens this flower so easily,
But in my hands, it dies.

If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of God’s design,
Then how can I have the wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?

So, I’ll trust in God for leading
Each moment of my day.
I will look to God for guidance
In each step along the way.

The path that lies before me,
Only my Lord and Savior knows.
I will trust my God to show me,
Just as He unfolds the rose.

A lot of times in life we too are faced with having to make adjustments that require a change or move or reevaluation of who we are and where we are. Too often, we try to open the rosebud of opportunity too fast because we want to see the outcome right away. In doing so, we often damage or even ruin our opportunity before it even begins. So why not do what this young minister and what the poem says to do? Just wait patiently for God to unfold this budding opportunity at the right time for it to blossom big and beautiful. Then you will be given the opportunity to thoroughly enjoy all the blessings He has in store for you. – Dr. Robert R. Seyda

A FASCINATING STORY WITHIN A STORY

Imagine a long, long time ago, a very wealthy and powerful man was looking for a wife. He had his eye on the granddaughter of a very close friend of his. As he watched her grow and mature, he loved her even more. Things seemed to be going well, but then they took an unfortunate turn.

After his good friend died, the girl decided to move away into another country because things were life was becoming very hard where they were. Upon arrival, she was treated somewhat harshly, but because of her honesty and integrity, things got better, much better. In fact, she was given a high position within that country leader’s administration.

But then that leader died, and the next leader did not like the fact that this girl had come into the county and been given such a position of authority. So in a short time, she was reduced to nothing more than becoming a slave girl. When her wealthy and powerful suitor heard about it, he became distraught and decided on getting her out of that situation.

So he found an ex-prince from that country and persuaded him to go back as an emissary and bargain with the leader for her freedom. He promised to give him whatever he needed to gain her release. The ex-prince reluctantly agreed. But the bargaining did not go smoothly. Each time the leader would agree but then at the last minute change his mind, a calamity of some sort would hit the country. This went on for some time, but finally, a tragedy happened, and many people mysteriously died, including the leader’s oldest son.

That was enough, so he agreed to let the girl go. So the emissary helped the girl escape and told her he was taking her to meet the man who helped set her free because he wanted to marry her so they could settle down in the beautiful country where her grandfather once lived. Her groom-to-be promised to give the whole land to her as a wedding gift.

But on the trip, the emissary noticed that this otherwise lovely girl had a mean streak. Whenever things didn’t go her way, she would get upset and start making demands. She threatened to go back to where she had been a slave if they weren’t given to her. But the emissary persuaded her that would be a terrible choice.

One day the wealthy groom told his emissary to meet him at a mountain retreat where he would give him the marriage contract. So the emissary informed the bride-to-be and asked here to not try and follow him because she could get hurt. After spending some time with the wealthy man, the emissary returned with the wedding contract. But upon arrival at the camp where the girl was staying, he was flabbergasted.

While he was away, she had taken all her jewelry and made an image of a man she had eyes for back in the land where she lived as a slave. The emissary saw her praying in front of this image, promising to love this man the rest of her life. The emissary was so angry he tore up the marriage contract. When word reached the wealthy man, he too was very distressed and told his emissary that if she was going to act that way, then he would let her die right where she was. But the emissary interceded, and the future groom agreed to keep her as his bride. So the emissary had to write a new marriage contract.

The story goes on to say that after they married and settled down in the land of her grandfather, the girl would go from loving him to being unfaithful to him with many lovers. As a matter of fact, he sent one of his loyal sons with a letter, telling her that he considered her as nothing more than an adulterous and unfaithful wife.¹ In fact, he even sent her a certificate of divorce.² In fact, he also wrote a story about their relationship for one of his other sons to read to her.³ Yet, he could not bring himself to just abandon her to her own ways because he knew what a dreadful end that would bring.

So now after many, many years, he came up with a plan he had once told her about long ago, he decided to seek someone else to be his wife. It was a woman who lived in another country; one with whom he had not had a close relationship with. He planned to make his ex-wife so jealous that she would come running back to him. But it didn’t work. So since they were divorced, he married this other woman who loved him very much. But instead of this making her envious, she resented him even more for doing this.

So one more time he sent an emissary to her to plead with her to let him still take care of her and provide for her. But she let him know as long as that other woman was in the house she had no interest in their having a cordial relationship. It looked like it was all over. But this last emissary finally told her, that this man didn’t do things that way. He loved her from the beginning, and he would love her to the end.⁴

This my friends, this is the story within the story of Romans, Chapter Eleven. So beginning on Monday, April 23^rd we will start examining this story verse by verse. I hope and pray you come along because there are many exciting insights you will gain from that relationship and how will eventually turn out. God bless you for being a faithful follower and student of God’s Word – Dr. Robert R Seyda

Preparatory Insights Into Our Study of Romans, Chapter Eleven

I am a firm believer in the principles of Bible study as taught by Dr. Charles A. Briggs (1841-1913), an American theologian.¹ He believed that for us to really understand almost any portion of Scripture, we must begin by noting who the author is and their place in the evolving history of God’s revelation of Himself to the world.

Then we must examine how what was written applied to the people, situation, and times in which it was penned. Were they addressing any particular problem or explaining any issues on which God wanted His voice to be heard. Then to look and see what was said on the same subject being studied by other writers of Scripture to examine their various opinions. If this writer has other books in the Bible, then see if they address the same subject elsewhere to note if there is any deviation from what they said in the text you are studying.

While doing this, the original language which the writer used must be kept in mind. Why? Because if you are reading what they say in English or any other language, the translation may not have revealed all the nuances and possible play-on-words that the writer employed. Also, check to see if any specific original words were translated using a different English word elsewhere in Scripture. This will help in putting what the writer is saying into context.

Then comes an acknowledgment that these writers were influenced by the customs and manners of their ethnicity and time in history. This is especially true when they attempt to explain something that the Spirit inspired them to write by using illustrations which were in vogue at that time. To understand these will help to better understand the point the writer was trying to make.

Following this, the Bible student must take into account that whatever capacity they may possess intellectually and emotionally to comprehend and formulate ideas and inspiration that comes to their mind over is being read, there are many others who are even more qualified to explain what the writer was saying, and had insights that they have. Not only will examining those commentaries help the text blossom into a more significant source of perceptivity, but it will also no doubt challenge what they thought they just read and force them to reexamine the text again. Is this a bad thing? No! It will either help them confirm what they have believed all along and that they have the right concept of doctrine, or it may change their mind because they found out that what they believed cannot be supported by Scripture.

This is the method I have been using in our study of Romans, and we will see how important this is in understanding Paul’s message to both Jews and Gentiles in Chapter 11. I look forward to sharing with you what the Holy Spirit has helped me to assimilate from the text and great scholars over the centuries. Hopefully, it will inspire you not be satisfied with just being a reader Scripture, but a student of Scripture.

And finally, let me say that the most successful students in my classes in Seminary were those who asked questions and shared impressions. So please feel free to do this either in our classes on Facebook or on my Blog page. Believe me, I will endeavor to give you a response as quickly as I can. I promise! – Dr. Robert R Seyda