Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 1 Study # 7
December 9, 2018
Humble, Texas
(094)
1769 Translation:
9 And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.
1901 ASV Translation:
9 And David saith,
Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, And a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them:
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, And bow thou down their back always.
- I. Paul's Second "Proof" That "The Rest Were Hardened".
- A. This second "proof" is another "as it stands written" evidence.
- 1. What "stands written" is what will ultimately be the "final state of things". When a thing "stands written" in the word of God, it is absolutely assured of coming to pass in history.
- 2. This concept is reinforced by Paul's choice of the present tense of the verb in his declaration that "...David is saying...". The words of David were "written" as inalterable Scripture, but Paul takes his words to be an on-going reality: "David is [still] saying...".
- B. At issue is the reality of a "hardened" group of humanity that will be subject forever to the "Justice" of God without mercy and, consequently, will never obtain that for which they are seeking.
- 1. A major point in this text/context is contained in Paul's "unto this very day" phrase at the end of 11:8. His argument is that this "problem" of "blind eyes and deaf ears" has always been the problem; from then until this very day. This is enhanced, as we just said above, by David's "[still] saying", and his "bend their backs through all [probably, 'time']" at the end of verse ten. This means that Paul intends his readers to understand that God's choices (election) to intervene have been exercised throughout human history because human beings are "hardened".
- 2. According to Hebrews 10:28, those who "despised" Moses' law "died without mercy". This is, without dispute, a direct claim that, when "Justice" is expressed against transgressors, there is no mercy in the expression. This declaration is a prelude to the question of the author "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God...?". It is also an indirect claim that there does exist in humanity a large group whose "hardness" is beyond redemption. How this is reckoned is shrouded in some degree of mystery because, on one hand, God saved "the chief of sinners" by reason of reasons of His own, and on another hand, God refuses to show even an inclination to save a great host of incorrigible rebels. "They were hardened..." does not refer to a present event (they did this so that God "hardened" them for so doing -- as in the case of the record of the Pharoah who was hardened by God each time he responded wickedly); it refers to a past event (they were hardened so that they did "this" as an expression of that prior hardness). Those "elected by grace" do often reveal actions that are the result of inner hardness (Mark 6:52 and 8:17), but they also come to repentance out of godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10) as a demonstration of their "election by grace" (Acts 13:48).
- 3. And James 2:13 makes this declaration: "For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy...".
- 4. In both of these texts/contexts there is the question of what happens to those who "are hardened"?
- a. The "How?" of the condition is not specified in detail.
- b. But the outcome of the condition is clear: "hardened" people act "mercilessly" and will come to a "merciless end".
- c. This is entirely within the scope of the "Justice" of God, and entirely outside of the scope of the "Grace" of God.
- C. David's words are an expression of his strong desire that certain people become objects of this pitiless exercise of pure justice.
- 1. The words are from Psalm 69:22 and following, a psalm that the Ryrie notes say is "one of the most quoted psalms in the New Testament." The psalm is decidedly "Messianic" in that it generates word pictures that find their ultimate realization in Jesus. An inescapable "issue" of the words of the psalm is that they stand in sharp contrast to the words of Jesus, uttered while hanging upon the cross. The "Messiah", when treated as the psalm describes His treatment, prayed to God that He would "...forgive them; for they know not what they do..." (Luke 23:24), but this "Messianic psalm" calls for the absolute refusal to forgive those responsible for that treatment.
- a. This is a marked "tension in human minds" that surfaces periodically in the Scriptures.
- 1) David, for instance, is the actual author of the words of the psalm, but he is also the one known as the murderer/adulterer who, afterwards, pled for "mercy", having shown none to Uriah.
- 2) Messiah Jesus, on the other hand, taught His disciples to be merciful to those who were merciless to them, to love their enemies, to refrain from berating those who did them damage, and to show grace to others as they have received grace from God.
- 3) The imprecatory psalms (which, in a metaphor, call down fire from heaven upon adversaries) stand in stark contrast to the gracious mercies of God through Messiah. Indeed, when the disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume those who treated Jesus wickedly, Jesus restrained them and told them they didn't know "what manner of spirit ye are of" (Luke 9:53-55).
- b. This so-called "tension" is, however, not a great difficulty in view of the distinctions that exist in the purposes of God over time and in their own seasons.
- 1) In view of Jesus' reason for rebuking His disciples for wanting to be like Elijah in that Lukan passage (He insisted upon a "gracious" reaction and not a "judicial" one), the words "the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save" come alive. There is a "time" and "season" for all things under the sun and the "time"/"season" for Justice has been (under Moses) and will come (just after Elijah comes to forewarn of the coming of the Wrath of the Lamb), but is not now. Now is the "time"/"season" for the display of "Grace" which cannot be seen in the explosions of "Wrath". Because we are the disciples of the present "Grace" time/season, it is illegitimate for us to call down fire from heaven upon the wicked. But, that does not mean that the legitimate appeal to God for fire upon the wicked is, somehow, a negative in all times/seasons.
- 2) Paul did not appeal to David's words to create a "tension", but to explain that there has been a time/season for "Justice" and another such time is coming when Jesus comes the second time to execute the Wrath of God, thus simply declaring that the "hardened" are those reserved for the demonstration of that wrath and power.
- 2. David's words, then, simply "prove" that "the hardened" have a destiny that includes not being able to obtain a portion in the Kingdom of The God. The "elected by grace" obtain; the hardened do not. And, in regard to the fact that David, the adulterer/murderer, is the author of the appeal for "mercilessness", it must be observed that his "appeal for mercy" in his humiliation and repentance actually reinforces the legitimacy of his appeal, for the appeal is in regard to those who reject humiliation and repentance. In a sense, David's appeal for "mercilessness" is enhanced by the reality that those who embrace humiliation and repentance are forgiven: what should be done to the "merciless" who reject humiliation and repentance?
- a. The failures of those who, having sinned, confess their sins and embrace the good promise of God of forgiveness, do not disqualify them from rendering judgment against those who, having sinned, refuse to confess those sins and reject God's gracious offer of forgiveness.
- b. The bottom line here is not the so-called hypocrisy of those who condemn others for what they have done, it is the legitimacy of condemning others for what they have not done: sought forgiveness through humility and confession.
