Romans 10:21

But concerning Israel he says. The "hands held out" symbolize that love which pleads with Israel all through its history, and which they constantly despised and turned away from. Their problem was not lack of knowledge or intelligence, but of deliberate rebellion and disobedience. Compare Romans 10:3. But the reason they did not know, was that they made themselves blind to God's Truth. But has God been "caught with his back turned?" God's plans are never changed, since he knows the end from the beginning! The questions which may have been in Paul's mind are brought up and answered in chapter 11.