The book of 4 Ezra, written in the wake of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD begins: “In the thirtieth year after the destruction of the city, I was in Babylon.” In this way it identifies its situation with the situation of the book of Jeremiah, which was written in the wake of the destruction of Jerusalem and exile of the Jews to Babylon in 586 BC. For both books, the destruction of the Jews’ city at the hands of the Gentiles brings into question God’s commitment to his people Israel and whether there is hope for their future.
4 Ezra argues that the destruction of Jerusalem shows the righteousness of God in punishing disobedience and ensures the future punishment of the disobedience of Gentiles as well. Although it insists that God will show no mercy in the future judgment of the world, it holds out the hope that God show himself righteous by rewarding those who obey his Law in another world. The message of 4 Ezra conflicts with the message of the book of Jeremiah which challenges any attempt to ground hope in Israel’s obedience of the Law. (This reading of Jeremiah departs from readings that ground the book’s message in the agenda of Deuteronomistic redactors.) In the book’s narrative, the prophet learns that the exile cannot be avoided by obedience because of the people’s sin is engraved on their hearts. Neither can the exile be ended by obedience. The only hope is that God will have mercy, forgive the people, and change their hearts. The promise is that God will show himself righteous by his faithfulness to his faithless people, bringing them to repentance and restoration in this world.
In light of these differences from 4 Ezra, it can be argued that the book of Romans stands in closer continuity to the book of Jeremiah. Romans responds to a crisis in Israel’s history that also calls into question God’s commitment to his people: the good news of Israel’s Messiah, embraced by the Gentiles, is being rejected by the Jews. Like the book of Jeremiah, Romans argues that because of the Jews have hard hearts like the Gentiles there was never grounds for hope in obeying the Law. The hope Romans offers is that God will have mercy on the Jews as he has on the Gentiles, bringing them to obedience from the heart through faith. Romans reaffirms the promise of Jeremiah that God will show himself righteous by his faithfulness to his people, Israel (despite their sin and present rejection of God) by bringing them to repentance and restoration in this world.