29And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:

“If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

had not spared a few of our children,

we would have been wiped out like Sodom,

destroyed like Gomorrah.”ⁿ

Israel’s Unbelief

30What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law^o instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. 33God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,

“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem^p that makes people stumble,

a rock that makes them fall.

But anyone who trusts in him

will never be disgraced.”^q