But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
But to, х pros (G4314) to (G3588)] - rather, 'But with regard to'
Israel he saith, All day ('All the day') long I have stretched out ('did I stretch forth') my hands (the attitude of gracious entreaty) unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. These words, which immediately follow the announcement just quoted of the calling of the Gentiles, were enough to forewarn the Jews both of God's purpose to eject them from their privileges, in favour of the Gentiles, and of the cause of it on their own part.
Remarks:
(1) Mere sincerity, and even earnestness in religion-though it may be some ground of hope for a merciful recovery from error (see 1 Timothy 1:13) - is no excuse, and will not compensate, for the deliberate rejection of saving truth, when in the providence of God presented for acceptance, (Romans 10:1-3; and see Remark 3, at the close of Romans 9:1-33).
(2) The true cause of such rejection of saving truth, by the otherwise sincere, is the prepossession of the mind by some false notions of its own. So long as the Jews "sought to establish their own righteousness," it was in the nature of things impossible that they should "submit themselves to the righteousness of God;" the one of these two methods of acceptance being in the teeth of the other.
(3) Is there one soul sighing for salvation, but saying within itself, 'Ah! Salvation is beyond my reach: others may be able to lay hold of it; but for me, who have so long and so perseveringly set at nought all His counsel and despised all His reproof, Christ seems so far off that I may as well think to mount up to heaven and pluck Him down, or descend into the deep to bring Him up from thence?' How gloriously does the apostle here teach us to deal with such a case. 'The word (says he) is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart-the word of faith which we preach: Christ is in the heart of everyone who believeth on Him, in the mouth of whose confesseth Him; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.'
(4) How will the remembrance of the simplicity, reasonableness, and absolute freeness of God's plan of salvation overwhelm those that perish from under the sound of it? (Romans 10:4-13.)
(5) How piercingly and perpetually should that question - "HOW SHALL THEY HEAR WITHOUT A PREACHER?" - sound in the ears of all the churches, as but the apostolic echo of their Lord's parting injunction, "PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE" (Mark 16:15); and how far below the proper standard of love, zeal, and self-sacrifice, must the churches as yet be, when with so plenteous a harvest the labourers are yet so few (Matthew 9:37-38), and that cry from the lips of pardoned, gifted, consecrated men - "Here am I, send me" (Isaiah 6:8) - is not heard everywhere (Romans 10:14-15)!
(6) The blessing of a covenant-relation to God is the irrevocable privilege of no people and no church: it can be preserved only by fidelity, on our part, to the covenant itself (Romans 10:19).
(7) God is often found by those who apparently are the farthest from Him, while He remains undiscovered by those who think themselves the nearest (Romans 10:20-21; and see Matthew 8:11-12; Matthew 19:30).
(8) How affectingly is the attitude of God toward the ungrateful and persevering rejecters of His love here presented to us-all the day long extending the arms of His mercy even to the disobedient and gainsaying. This tenderness and compassion of God, in His dealings even with reprobate sinners, will be felt and acknowledged at last by all who perish, to the glory of God's forbearance and to their own confusion, imparting to their misery its bitterest ingredient.