<p>3:3&nbsp;<i>For what if some were without faith?</i>- Israel never adopted atheism nor did they ever inform Yahweh He was no longer their national deity. Yet for all their professions of faith and loyalty to the temple cult, God viewed them as unbelievers. Or it could be that Paul&rsquo;s implication is that they did not believe in Christ, in their Saviour Messiah.</p><p><i>Shall their lack of faith make of no effect the faithfulness of God?</i>- God&rsquo;s faith and hope in His people. See on Rom. 3:2. The awkward translations can make us miss the wonderful point here: Israel&rsquo;s unbelief didn&rsquo;t abolish Gk., do away with, make of no effect AV, God&rsquo;s faith in Israel. Here we see His love, His grace; a faith and hope in a weak other party which can only come from very deep love. They didn&rsquo;t believe in Him, but He didn&rsquo;t stop believing in them.&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Some&quot; Jews didn't believe (Rom. 3:3); the majority, actually, but the Father is more gentle than that. The whole tragic history of God's relationship with Israel is a sure proof of His essentially positive character. Right at their birth by the Red Sea, the Almighty records that &quot;the people feared Yahweh, and believed Yahweh, and His servant Moses&quot; (Ex. 14:23). No mention is made of the Egyptian idols they were still cuddling (we don't directly learn about them until Ez. 20). Nor do we learn that this &quot;belief&quot; of theirs lasted a mere three days; nor of the fact that they rejected Moses, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. &quot;There was no strange god&quot; with Israel on their journey (Dt. 32:12); but there were (Am. 5:26). The reconciliation is that God counted as Israel as devoted solely to Him. The Angel told Moses that the people would probably want to come up the mountain, closer to God, when in fact in reality they ran away when they saw the holiness of God; almost suggesting that the Angel over-estimated their spiritual enthusiasm (Ex. 19:21-24 cp. 20:18). Likewise the Angel told Moses that the people would hear him, &quot;and believe thee for ever&quot; (Ex. 19:9). Things turned out the opposite. At this time, God saw no iniquity in Israel (Num. 23:21).</p>