Unbelievers Think They Can Hinder God, But They Cannot!
In the Book of Romans Paul tells us that the Jews had great advantages in being the chosen people of God for they had the Oracles of God given to them. He stressed this particular advantage while there are others that could be mentioned. For it was well known that Abraham and the tribe of Judah were to inherit the promise given to Eve in the Garden that she or one of her daughters somewhere down the line was to be the mother of the seed of the Redeemer, and that was a great advantage. Another advantage was the promise of the Messiah/King who was to rule not only Israel but the whole world, which was just as well known to be the inheritance of Judah. The Word of God, the King of all nations, and the Redeemer of all peoples, yes, advantages indeed.
But to Paul and his readers it was just as evident that most of the Israelites they knew had not believed the teachings of the Word, had rejected God’s way of redemption and had publicly declared that Messiah Jesus, our Jesus Christ, was not their king. Certainly the advantages were there to be believed, but they did not profit from them, they were unbelievers, failures, losers of the promise blessings.
Rom 3:3 What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?
Rom 3:4 May it never be!
Of course many of Paul’s old comrades were still present day unbelievers, but were there not others in times past, Israelites indeed, but unbelievers whom he might have been thinking of? Who then were these unbelievers and how could the purposes, the faithfulness of God, be seemingly nullified by them? Children in line for the promise, but unbelieving children, so could God use them or carry on with His promise through them in spite of their unbelief? Or would He? Would His faithful promises be nullified, frustrated? Never! But how?
In the story of the Patriarchs there is an instance of where this discontinuity happened and from it we can see how God is never frustrated from being faithful to His promises.
That story is found in the context of the story of Joseph, the man of faith whom God did use. It was his brother, the one to whom God instructed Jacob the father to pass the blessing of the Sceptre of God or the rulership of the nation on to, Judah. Judah was not the oldest of Jacob’s sons, Reuben was, but he violated his father’s concubine and as soon as Jacob heard of it he took the birthright away from him and gave it to Judah. But neither was Judah a good boy, for we read that he went along with the sale of his brother Joseph to the slave traders, indeed he suggested it. Later it weighed heavily on his conscience as his memory brought it back to him, but even then we do not have any proof that he repented. He seems to have remained an unbeliever to the goodness and severity of God. Unconcerned at defiling the blessing of the promise that was his and his heirs.
Even after he betrayed and sold his brother he did not pay any more respect to the calling of Abraham that was to be passed on to him. We read that he took up close friendship with one of the infidel young men of the local Canaanite town of Adullam, who was not only an alien Philistine but an enemy of God. These people were idol worshippers indulging in all the debauchery of that practice, but we read no hint that it bothered Judah. In fact he took one of their girls as his wife and had 3 boys by her. But we have not a word that she left her home town or pagan surroundings or even that she told her sons that they were related to Abraham. They like she were evidently unbelievers. Still heirs of Judah, but unbelievers unfit to inherit any of God’s promises.
Furthermore we are told that God considered them too evil to live longer or to carry on the inheritance, so He killed them. A drastic termination to the Redemption promise, looking like God was giving up on keeping true to His word. But no, through another unfaithful act of Judah in unbelief God persisted in mending the broken line of the Redeemer. And even that mending was through a woman who was a stranger to the promises.
Her name was Tamar and although she was a raised in Canaanite surroundings she evidently wanted something more, something that she hoped to get in on by becoming an Israelite mother. She was chosen by Judah to be the wife of his son and carry on the promises but when that was frustrated she connived to find another way to get in to the family of Abraham. We shudder at how low she stooped to become the mother of the seed, but she did get into the line. What if there was unbelief and perhaps downright disrespect for the promise on the part of the unbelievers? Was God’s faithfulness made empty? No!
Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
And He is the same today. Nothing is impossible with God. Believe Him.