all they hear
without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent?
even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring
glad tidings of good things!

But they did not all hearken to the glad tidings. For Isaiah saith,
Lord, who hath believed our report? So belief _cometh_ of hearing, and
hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, Did they not hear? Yea,
verily,

Their sound went out into all the earth,
And their words unto the ends of the world.

But I say, Did Israel not know? First Moses saith,

I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation,
With a nation void of understanding will I anger you.

And Isaiah is very bold, and saith,

I was found of them that sought me not;
I became manifest unto them that asked not of me.

{52}

But as to Israel he saith, All the day long did I spread out my hands
unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

In this passage St. Paul gives us the other side of the question of the
rejection of the Israelites. God had retained an absolute freedom, not
to be questioned by men, to reject whom He willed. That was the first
point. But can we see whom our God wills to reject, or why in
particular He rejected (though not finally, as will appear) the chosen
people? It is because they failed in faith. And faith is precisely
that which is necessary to maintain correspondence with God--it is
_the_ faculty of fellowship with Him. They failed because the false
principle of justification by works had obscured in their minds the
need and meaning of faith. The false principle meant, as we have
already seen, the maintaining an accepted standard of conduct and
divine service, especially in outward matters, and for the rest
claiming to be left alone. The accepted standard was that which
distinguished Israel from the rest of the world, and what they had
become accustomed to. It was a righteousness of 'their own.' They
prided themselves on it. Their public opinion required its observance.
It had come to usurp the place of any direct {53} relationship to the
voice of God. They had no idea that God could have anything more or
deeper to require of them. They had lost personal touch with Him.
Therefore seeking to establish this, their own righteousness, they
failed to submit themselves to the (now newly revealed) righteousness
of God in Christ. This unprogressiveness of the Jewish ideal, this
substitution of the accepted stand