But I say, did not Israel know?
etc.] Some supply the word "God", did not Israel know God?
verily, they did; they knew the being and perfections of God, the
unity of God, and the trinity of persons in the divine essence;
they knew the will of God, and the right way of worshipping him;
for they were favoured with a divine revelation; to them were
committed the oracles of God, and to them belonged the giving of
the "Gospel", did not Israel know the Gospel? yes, they did; they
not only heard it, but knew it; not spiritually and
experimentally, but nationally and speculatively, and, against
the light and conviction of their own minds, obstinately rejected
it with contempt: but I rather think this question refers to the
calling of the Gentiles, and their own rejection; and the sense
is, did not Israel know, that the Gentiles were to be called by
the grace of God, and that they themselves were to be cast off?
they did know this, at least something of it, though not so
clearly as it is now revealed to the holy apostles and prophets
by the Spirit; but in some measure they could not but know it,
since there were such strong hints of it in the writings of the
Old Testament, some of which are hereafter produced:
first Moses saith;
not "Moses the first", as if there was another, or a second
Moses, but either Moses, who is the first of the inspired
writers, and chief of the prophets; or rather this regards order
of time, Moses in the first place says so and so, for other
testimonies are after cited; the passage in Moses referred to, is
( Deuteronomy 32:21 ) .
I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people,
and by a
foolish nation I will anger you.
The Gentiles are here designed by "them that are no people": who
before God, and in his sight, as all nations are, were as a drop
of the bucket, as the small dust of the balance: nay, even as
nothing, yea, less than nothing and vanity: likewise they were no
people of any account, of any name; they were mean and
contemptible, neglected and overlooked by God himself, and
treated with contempt by the Jews, his professing people: and
besides, they were not as yet openly and visibly the people of
God; they neither called upon his name, nor were they called by
his name; he had not as yet taken from among them a people for
his name: these are also meant by "the foolish nation"; Jarchi
F13 says, the Cuthites, or Samaritans,
are intended; who were neighbours to the Jews, and greatly hated
by them: but it may more rightly be applied to all the Gentiles
in general, who notwithstanding their large pretensions to
natural, civil, and moral wisdom, yet being without a true
knowledge of God, Christ, and the Gospel, were a foolish people;
and in nothing more did their folly appear, than in their
idolatry and superstition. Now the Lord threatened by these
people to provoke the Jews to jealousy, and to anger them; and
this was but just, and by way of retaliation; for since they
provoked him to jealousy and anger, by worshipping strange gods,
which plainly declared their want of faith in him, affection for
him, and their departure from him; it was a righteous thing in
him to provoke them to jealousy of him, as if he had no affection
for them, who had been so long, in some sense, an husband to them
all; and as about to cast them off; and to anger them, by sending
his Gospel among the Gentiles, and calling them by his grace, and
making them partakers of his special favours; whereby this
prophecy had its full accomplishment: for though the Jews
rejected and despised the Gospel themselves, yet nothing more
provoked them than that it should be carried among the Gentiles;
see ( Acts
22:21 Acts 22:22 ) ( 1
Thessalonians 2:16 ) . Now from these words of Moses, the
Israelites must needs know, they could not but know that it was
the will of God to call the Gentiles, and reject them.