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fact that the words "Unto Jehovah our God" in this verse are "dotted", and should not
appear in the translation. The sense of the passage is as follows:
"The secret things, and (even) the revealed things belong to us and to our children for
ever, if we do all the words of the law."
The balancing of these two passages stresses the fact that obedience renders the
commandment plain and understandable. The language used by Moses and by Paul is
highly figurative, but would be easily interpreted by the Jew. To the Jew, knowledge that
was too wonderful for his grasp was "high; I cannot attain unto it" (Psa. 139: 6;
Prov. 24: 7).
And the impossible would be suggested by such expressions as
"ascending up unto heaven" or "making the bed in hell" (Psa. 139: 8). There is no
such difficulty, however, in believing the gospel. Confession with the mouth that Jesus is
Lord, and belief in the heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, mean salvation.
Returning to the excuses that might be offered by the Jew, the Apostle concedes that it
is not possible to call upon the Lord without believing Him, or to believe on Him of
Whom they have not heard. But this was no excuse for Israel. They had heard, preachers
had been sent to them, but they had turned a deaf ear to the gospel message. As Isaiah
had said: "Lord, who hath believed our report?" (Rom. 10: 16). This is followed by
further quotations bearing upon Israel's responsibility.
"But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily . . . . . But I say, Did not Israel know?
First Moses . . . . . But Esaias . . . . . But to Israel He saith, All day long I have stretched
forth My hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people" (Rom. 10: 18-21).
With the opening of Rom. 11:, the Apostle begins to draw his conclusions. Stated
briefly, they are as follows:
(1)
Gad hath not cast away His people: Proof.--I also am an Israelite, and saved.
(2)
God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew" Proof.--In Israel's
darkest days, God had reserved unto Himself a faithful company, unknown even to
Elijah himself.
(3)
There is now also at the present time "a remnant according to the election of grace".
Those who form this "remnant" have believed in the Lord and are justified. Their
standing is in grace, and not in works. Israel as a whole have entered into a period of
darkness and blindness, but the salvation of "the election", foreknown by God, is in
perfect harmony with God's sovereignty as discussed at length in Rom. 9: No Israelite
was coerced into believing; no Israelite was prevented from believing. God's
foreknowledge covers the whole problem, without doing violence either to the principles
of morality or of Divine sovereignty.
The quotation from Psa. 69: with which the Apostle concludes his argument is
suggestive. The Psalm is Messianic, and contains the verse quoted by Peter
concerning Judas: "Let their habitation be desolate." Israel had betrayed the Lord. Their
self-righteousness had blinded their eyes, and the great fact that Christ was the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth became a stumbling-block and an