But I say, Have they not heard? Yea, surely, Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the extremities of the habitable world.
The chapter has just said that faith comes by hearing. So Paul takes up the obvious objection: did Israel ever get the chance to hear? His answer is a line from Psalm 19, a psalm about the sun and stars. Why should a text about the heavens settle an argument about the gospel?
Paul answers his own question with one Greek word. A writer follows that word through its other uses and gives its force in plain speech:
The word has the sense of "yes, indeed, if you talk of that." So in Luke 11:28, "If you talk of blessing, such and such are the really blessed." ... And in chapter 10:18, "If you talk of not having heard, why their sound is gone out into all the world."
The psalm Paul quotes falls into two halves, and the contrast between them carries his point.
The apostle quotes Psalm 19 as a striking and very fitting illustration of how wide God's testimony is. We can easily see that the psalm divides into two parts. The works of God and the law of Jehovah both give testimony. One is outward and for everyone; the other deals with those who had the law. The heavens belonged to no one land, and the sun and stars do not shine for Israel alone... In the same way, however limited the sphere of the law, the gospel goes out in the grace of God with no restriction.
The likeness goes further than reach. One writer sets the two ministries side by side:
The service one renders to the earth is like the service the other renders to the world. Both spread everywhere, so that nothing can be hidden from either heat — the heat that makes the earth fruitful, or the heat that saves. The ministry of the heavens to the earth reaches everyone, and it is the pattern of the gospel's ministry to the world.
Commentators differ on how Paul uses the psalm. One writer says the words are borrowed, not predicted, and that God had the wider world in view:
The testimony was not confined to the Jews. The Gentiles had heard it everywhere. Paul does not quote the passage as a prophecy of what was then taking place. He borrows the words, not as a prediction, to show that this universal testimony was in the mind of God, whatever the means used.
Another writer finds a symbol here that Israel should have caught:
Israel's boast in her earthly inheritance rose so high that it shut Gentiles out altogether. Yet their own Scriptures declared what their eyes saw every day — that a heavenly testimony went out into all the earth. This heavenly message is only a symbol of the blessed world-wide gospel message sent from the Son of Man in the heavens. It is not God speaking on earth, but from heaven (Heb. 12:25), so it is a voice addressed to all people everywhere — Jews and Gentiles.
The verse closes off the last defence available to unbelief:
Since faith comes by hearing, could anyone excuse their unbelief by saying the report had not reached them? Even that way of escape was cut off. The gospel was in all the world, and preachers proclaimed it in the whole creation (not to every creature) under heaven (Col. 1:6, 23), so that the words of the Psalmist could be used of it... The combined testimony of Moses and the prophets cut away all ground of objection on the Jew's part against the gospel.
"The ends of the world" translates a Greek word for the inhabited earth. Some tried to limit that word to the Roman empire. One writer replied:
Is it only into the Roman earth that God brings in the First-begotten? Or has the sound (Rom. 10:18) gone out only into the Roman earth — the word being translated "the ends of the world"? There it stands for Tebel, the world, in its largest Hebrew sense.
The same witness still goes out today. One writer draws out what it does now:
It does so now toward all in responsibility, for "their sound went into all the earth" (Rom. 10:18), and it works in the conscience of those it awakens, so that their conscience finds itself in the light. Wherever conscience can be acted on as from God, the gospel has a way in.
- Question — "Have they not heard?" Paul's answer is firm, not hesitant: yes, indeed, they have.
- Pattern — Psalm 19 sets two witnesses side by side: the law for one people, the heavens for everyone. The sun's ministry to the earth is the pattern of the gospel's ministry to the world.
- Reach — "the ends of the world" means the inhabited earth in its widest sense, not one empire's borders. The gospel goes out with no restriction.
- Verdict — the last excuse is gone. No one can claim the report never arrived. Israel's own Scriptures answered the objection.
- Today — the same testimony still reaches the conscience. Wherever conscience answers to God, the gospel has a way in.
But I say, Has not Israel known? First, Moses says, *I* will provoke you to jealousy through [them that are] not a nation through a nation without understanding I will anger you.
Paul asks whether Israel understood what God was doing. He answers by calling their own lawgiver, Moses, as the first witness against them.
Israel objected to a gospel that reached beyond them. Paul answers them from the books they treasured most:
Were Israel unaware of God's purpose to bring blessing to Gentiles? Did the free proclamation of the gospel take them by surprise? The law and the prophets had already pointed to this work of divine grace... See how the Word opens up here! The combined testimony of Moses and the prophets cut away every ground of objection the Jew had against the gospel. Their objections could not stand. Their ignorance of what was in the Hebrew Scriptures stood out in broad daylight.
The word "first" matters. Paul starts with Moses, the man Israel honoured most:
The first is Moses himself. Moses says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation." How could the Jews say that this meant themselves? On the contrary, the Gentiles were the ones provoking the Jew — "with a foolish nation I will make you angry." Did they deny that they were a foolish nation? Very well then; Moses said a foolish nation would make them angry.
God answers in kind:
They had provoked God to jealousy by trusting in false gods and idols. So God would provoke them to jealousy by means of a foreign nation. He will use the people Israel despised to discipline her, and to gain such a place over her that Israel becomes jealous of that nation.
Which nation did Moses mean? Not one of Israel's old neighbours:
Paul declares that these words are the language of Moses, and that they refer to the Gentiles called while God counts Israel Lo-ammi — "not my people". Moses does not point to the Syrians or the Assyrians. He points to the call of those who were not a people, while God sets His ancient people aside for a time, to move Israel to jealousy.
The people Israel looked down on became the instrument of her rebuke:
In the days of Roman rule, Israel scorned the Gentiles for the folly of idol worship. But God had said He would use such a people to rebuke Israel. He would favour them to provoke Israel to jealousy. So Gentiles turned to God from idols, while Israel clung to her desolate state. It was bitter to her to think of Gentiles finding blessing from God apart from her authority.
God's mercy to the Gentiles was not the end of His people:
This clearly points to His mercy to the Gentiles. He is not abandoning His people. He is provoking them to jealousy, and in fact drawing out their irritation.
God's kindness to the nations carries a second purpose:
When God proclaims salvation to the Gentiles, He does not do it only to bless the Gentiles. He does it so that their blessing may stir Israel to jealousy, and Israel may turn to God again.
Paul worked toward the same end in his own ministry:
Moses speaks of the LORD making Israel jealous by letting them see Gentiles coming into blessing. Paul sought to do the same, so that they might be saved.
- Warned. Israel could not claim surprise. Moses and the prophets had already announced God's blessing for the nations.
- Matched. They stirred God's jealousy with false gods. He answers by stirring theirs with a people who were not a nation.
- Despised. "Not a nation" and "foolish nation" name the idol-worshipping Gentiles Israel scorned. God favoured those very people, and used them to rebuke her.
- Provoked. The jealousy is not a farewell but a call home. God blesses the Gentiles so that Israel will turn back to Him.
- Imitated. Paul takes God's own method as his ministry: bless the nations, make Israel jealous, and save some of them.