What [is it] then? What Israel seeks for, that he has not obtained; but the election has obtained, and the rest have been blinded,
Paul has just pointed back to Elijah's day, when God kept seven thousand for Himself while the nation drifted. Now he draws the same line in his own time. Israel as a whole missed what it chased, while a chosen few received it. Two questions follow: what was Israel looking for, and why did most fail to find it?
What Israel Was Seeking
Israel pursued righteousness, but tried to get it by keeping the law. That road ended one way:
As a nation Israel had despised grace and sought righteousness by keeping the law, only to miss it and be blinded (v. 7). The remnant bowed to grace, and so was saved.
The failure was not for lack of trying:
We have already seen that the most eager seekers seemed to be the ones furthest from meeting the conditions of a successful search.
Why the Election Obtained It
One group did succeed, and not by trying harder. The seven thousand of Elijah's day explain the believing remnant of Paul's day:
When Paul quotes the case of Elijah, he shows that God had not rejected Israel. The nation was in such a state that even Elijah pleaded against them. Yet God had kept seven thousand men for Himself. This was the election of sovereign grace. It was the same thing now. But it was by grace, and not by works. The election then has obtained the blessing, and the rest was blinded.
They did not obtain a different prize. They obtained the same one, in a Person:
The election the apostle speaks of is plainly what the grace of God drew out of a nation that had turned away and been blinded. What separated this saved remnant from the rejected nation was their faithful confession of Christ. In Him the election had obtained the very thing the nation was still groping for in the darkness of their unbelieving hearts.
The Words "Election" and "Hardened"
Paul's labels run against expectation. He calls the believing minority "the election," and hands the majority the very name readers usually reserve for the faithful few:
Notice that the people we usually call the remnant, the righteous part of Israel, are here named "the election," while the mass of the nation is called the rest, or remnant. "Hardened" is also the right sense here rather than blinded, though blinding is taught elsewhere.
Commentators differ over the best word here. Some keep "blinded," others prefer "hardened."
What Happened to "the Rest"
This hardening was not a mood the nation drifted into. Writers describe it as a sentence passed by God, one their own prophets had already announced:
They have fallen under God's judicial sentence, as their prophets again testified. God had given them eyes that did not see and ears that did not hear.
The Reach of the Election, and the Limit of the Hardening
"The election" reaches beyond one generation. And the sentence on "the rest" has a time limit:
reason
Summary
- Sought. Israel chased righteousness by keeping the law. Zeal alone left the most eager seekers furthest from what they wanted.
- Missed. Israel despised grace, so the prize stayed out of reach. Chasing is not the same as receiving.
- Obtained. The election received the very thing the nation groped for. They received it in Christ, by grace and not by works.
- Hardened. The rest fell under a sentence from God, one their own Scriptures had announced long before.
- Not forever. The blindness is not permanent. A believing remnant has existed in every age, past, present and still to come.