God Forbid that the Chosen People are cast aside forever.
God forbid! That was Paul’s reaction to the suggestion that God had cast aside the Chosen People for good. It did not happen. God made a promise to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The promise to those men and their families did not depend on their faithfulness but instead, it depended on the faithfulness of God. God forbid that the Lord would fail to accomplish what He said He would do. If we depend on ourselves to find our way to heaven then we are most miserable souls indeed.
It’s God’s work. It has always been the Lord that draws men to Him, not feeble men who raise themselves up to the glory of God.
This is a continuation of a series that is focused on the question: Is God finished with Israel, especially as it relates to Bible prophecy?
Also, see articles from other scholars. (here, here, or here.) The third article link is especially helpful to compare the two primary oppositional views on this issue.
God forbid that you should forget the context!
The Book of Romans is Paul’s deep doctrinal letter to the Roman Churches. (Not specifically Catholics though, that’s a whole other story.)
The context of the letter is the Gospel or Good News of Christ. He’s trying to explain how the Old Testament emphasis on works, gave way to the New Testament emphasis on grace. God didn’t change his mind or take a detour. It’s all a part of the prophetic story.
This segment, (chapters nine to eleven) within the book provides some details on God’s purpose for Israel. In my commentary, I’ll only lightly touch on some of Paul’s main points because that’s not my focus for this short series. I’m trying to stay focused on the issue of whether or not God has finished with Israel. And the additional question, Is God only focused on the Church now?
It is my contention that God is not finished with the Jewish people. I’m with Paul, in saying God forbid. There are a couple of verses in this chapter that are hard to explain for those who teach that Israel is no longer in God’s spiritual plans.
Romans 11:1 Castaways? God forbid.
“I say then, Has God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.”
This is a very controversial subject. The link below takes you to an excellent film that begins to take the viewer along a path to a better understanding of the entire purpose the Lord has for Israel. The Lord has a purpose for Israel. It’s not past tense but present.
Covenant and Controversy Part One: The Great Rage
Is Israel, the nation, and its people, cast aside for good? Have they been replaced by the believing Gentiles? Paul says God forbid. Despite the apostle’s strong words, many insist on spiritualizing his words. It is thought that if the Jews want to get back into the good graces of God, then they will have to join the Gentiles in a new vine because the old vine is dead and won’t be revived again. Paul has a concise message for those who support that view.
God forbid.
Romans 11:2 Elijah feared they were lost.
“God has not cast away his people which he foreknew. Know you not what the scripture says of Elijah, how he makes intercession to God against Israel? Saying,”
The apostle provides a familiar example. Elijah thought he was the last of the faithful Jews. God assured him there were many others.
Romans 11:3 It appears hopeless.
“Lord, they have killed your prophets and dug down your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life.”
Elijah had firsthand knowledge of the spiritual decline within the Nation. He had to hide in the wilderness for three and a half years to escape certain death at the hands of the government. The government that was supposed to honor God was hunting the last of the true prophets of God.
Romans 11:4 But what did God say?
“But what says the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.”
The Lord has the final say about Israel. Elijah thought their time was over even though he should have known better. Today, doctrines have been established within the Church declaring that God is finished with Israel and is only focused on the Gentile believers. They argue that only the Church has a hope of an eternal destiny with God. Paul says something different. God forbid!
See this article for a better understanding of this doctrine. What is replacement theology/supersessionism?
Romans 11:5 By grace, a remnant remains.
“Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”
Acceptance and forgiveness with God are entirely by grace. It’s always been true. Abraham believed God. That belief gave him a right standing with the Lord. The sign of circumcision came later. It was an outward sign of an inward reality. It’s the same thing as baptism. Baptism doesn’t save the Christian, and circumcision didn’t save the Jew.
Romans 11:6 It’s grace, not works.
“And if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it is of works, then is it no more grace; otherwise work is no more work.”
The Jews thought their adherence to the law was the key element in their salvation. They were wrong about that. Jesus, as the ‘lamb of God,’ came to be the only sacrifice that would suffice for anyone to enter eternal grace in the presence of God. Keeping the rules of the law did not save a single Jew. It only exposed their need to keep sacrificing in order to cover their sins on a temporary basis.
Romans 11:7 Israel is blind, so the election can see.
“What then? Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for, but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded.”
Blindness was imposed upon them by God. They were given complete spiritual blindness when they rejected their Messiah. Paul’s conversion experience on the road to Damascus symbolized that blindness. He thought he knew God’s will. He didn’t, he was utterly blind. The scales of his blindness fell away when Jesus healed him.
Romans 11:8 Israel’s eyes and ears are useless.
“According to as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear; unto this day.”
There is a remarkable truth in this verse. They couldn’t see if they wanted to. Their eyes and ears are useless. They are destined to their fate until God grants them sight again. But the Lord will absolutely heal them of their blindness.
“According to as it is written.” That phrase is the essence of why Bible prophecy is so important. God inspired the authors of the Bible to write down, thousands of years in advance, what would take place in the history of mankind. He told us that when it happens we would know that He is beyond us and has knowledge that far surpasses our weak little brains that we are so proud of.
The temporary blindness of Israel is predicted in the scriptures, as is the restoration of their sight and spiritual renewal.
Isaiah 29:10
The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers).
Romans 11:9 A trap and a snare they earned.
“And David says, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them.”
Paul keeps pulling from familiar Old Testament passages. The Jews will stumble when their Messiah arrives. The bread of Life arrived, Jesus, and they threw Him aside. He returned the favor, but not in spite. It was prophesied so the Gentiles would be drawn in.
Psalm 69:22
May their table before them become a snare; And when they are in peace, may it become a trap.
Romans 11:10 Israel is burdened and blind but God forbid that they should be cast aside forever.
“Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always.”
The long-predicted plan of God for Israel included two dispersions. First, they went through seventy years of captivity in Babylon. Then, after returning from Babylon, they endured the much longer dispersion brought about by the Romans. They now have returned to the land but are still blind. That will change when they cry out to God to save them.
Romans 11:11 Is their fall final? God forbid!
“I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid; but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”
What did Paul mean when he said this? We can dig deeper into the original language for the answer but I’m going to travel a different route.
Let’s look at several translations of the Bible. Granted, some are just paraphrased and not strong translations of the original but they give us a broader understanding of the meaning of Paul’s words. “Have they stumbled that they should fall?”
Paul gives the reason for the Gentile’s salvation. It was intended to stir jealousy in the Jews. Why the jealousy if God hadn’t intended on their return? The tree would get chopped down but it would come back, big and beautiful.
New International Version: God Forbid
Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all!
New Living Translation
Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not!
Berean Study Bible
I ask then, did they stumble so as to lose their share? Absolutely not!
New American Standard Bible: God Forbid
I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be!
In this short mix of translations and interpretations, you have the same idea. Is this Jewish stumble final? Are they beyond recovery? Absolutely not is the answer. I like how the NAS Bible translates it. “May it never be!” Israel, as Paul tells us, will always return. But, it’s God who draws them back, restores their sight, and fulfills His Promises to the patriarchs.
Romans 11:12 A rich return for the Jews?
“Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?”
The prior verse strongly implies the fall of the Jewish people isn’t final. Paul writes, God forbid, or may it never be. This verse is even more conclusive. Their fall led to the riches of the Gospel for the Gentiles. Then Paul writes this, “How much more their fulness?” This wasn’t a hypothetical question. Paul is telling the Gentile church and anyone else who will listen that the Jewish fulness is a future event. Many Christians and theologians have spiritualized the O.T. passages that predict a future Israel. It’s all about the church say many misguided teachers, books, and videos.
Paul made it abundantly clear for the clear-thinking believer. The fullness of Israel, as prophesied in the O.T. is a future event.
Now, I would like to show you an example of a respected Bible commentary. The commentator takes a different view from that what Paul writes. He makes it allegorical instead of literal. That is a great error on the part of many. In most cases, God says what He means and means what He says. That is especially true in the case of a restored Israel.
Matthew Henry Commentary
11:11-21 The gospel is the greatest riches of every place where it is. As therefore the righteous rejection of the unbelieving Jews, was the occasion of so large a multitude of the Gentiles being reconciled to God, and at peace with him; the future receiving of the Jews into the church would be such a change, as would resemble a general resurrection of the dead in sin to a life of righteousness. Abraham was as the root of the church. The Jews continued branches of this tree till, as a nation, they rejected the Messiah; after that, their relation to Abraham and to God was, as it were, cut off. The Gentiles were grafted into this tree in their room; being admitted into the church of God.
Matthew Henry chooses the allegorical approach for his interpretation. He says the Jews were cut off. If they want back in, they only get into the church. The Abrahamic relationship is no longer for the Jews. It’s only for the Church. That’s what Matthew said but it differs from what Paul the Apostle wrote. Paul comes with a much higher authority. 🙂
Matthew Henry goes on to say this.
“It is the natural state of every one of us, to be wild by nature. Conversion is as the grafting in of wild branches into the good olive.”
He doesn’t believe the Gentiles were grafted into the root of Israel’s faith. On the contrary, he thinks the Gentiles were just wild by nature and when they became Christians, they were grafted into a different but good olive tree.
That is not what Paul or the many O.T. prophets taught. That’s bad doctrine, plain and simple.
The Gentiles were grafted into the same tree that the Jewish people were part of. Abraham’s faith was the root. The Jews were the first branches.
Romans 11:13 Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles
“For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentile, I magnify mine office.”
Here Paul takes a moment to take a little pride in the ministry he is called to. Not all pride is bad. In this case, Paul is expressing the honor he feels in the role God has called him to. He took a lot of heat from believing Jews when he started preaching to the Gentiles. He took more heat when he told them they didn’t need to worry about all the food laws and ceremonies of the Jewish faith.
Romans 11:14 Paul tries to provoke his brethren
“If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh and might save some of them.”
Paul shows an inward motivation he has. He loves the Gentiles and is excited about the genuine faith that they have. But, Paul confesses, he still burns with the passion to see the Jews return to God. His hope was about two thousand years ahead of its time. Paul, as a faithful student of the Old Testament, knew the scriptures taught they would return to God.
And, more importantly, the Lord will accept their sincere repentance when it finally comes.
Romans 11:15 Set aside in order to reconcile all
“For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?”
Again, Paul tells us what will happen. As I said before, this is not hypothetical. Why would a learned scholar like Paul express silly hypothetical ideas if he didn’t firmly believe the scriptures taught this?
There was a great benefit to the Gentile world when the Jews rejected their Messiah. The Church started when believing Jews began to spread the Word. Unbelieving Jews led the intense persecution against the Church. That persecution didn’t stop the message it only forced the messengers to spread out to the known world.
Personally, I want to say thank you to the Jews. Getting Jesus on the cross, allowed for eternal life for me and tens of millions of others.
I look forward to the time when the Jewish People will benefit from the death and resurrection of their Messiah. The time is approaching, but it will only come after a terrible heartache and tragedy.
Let me know what you think.