Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
God does not want us to be ignorant of the facts. That is why He carefully laid out His Word over a period of 1600 years, through 40 different writers. That is an amazing feat. In all of that, there are no contradictions and no mistakes. God saw to it that His Word would be written down and He also made sure that It would be preserved “from this generation for ever” (Psalm 12:7).
As we look at the many false teachers today who suggest that Israel is finished and that she has no right to be in that land, we know that God has not forgotten about, nor forsaken Israel. Paul was told to describe the situation regarding Israel as a “mystery”.
The Greek word translated as “mystery”, refers to something that is hidden from the ungodly and wicked men but is plain to the godly. There has been much confusion with regard to Israel’s place in the world. We know that the Romans renamed the land and called it “Palestine” while they occupied it. They tried to erase any reference to God from that land. That was not a legitimate name for Israel. The word “Palestine” is found once in the Bible — Joel 3:4. It is mentioned there in reference to land that was close to Israel but an enemy of Israel. The Romans used that name for Israel. After WWII, some of the Arabs claimed the name Palestinians, and they want a “Palestinian state”. As we are being reminded, the chant is: ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’. They do not want a two-state solution. They want Israel removed. Shortly after Israel was given back a portion of their land, after WWII, the enemies of God tried to stop them and tried to destroy them. Hitler tried to wipe out the Jews during WWII and many others have continued that quest since then. They have used subtilty to suggest they agree to peace agreements, which gave them land for peace, but every time they received land that belonged to Israel, they moved their weapons closer to Israel so that they could do more harm to the Jews.
In our text, God did not want the Gentiles to get puffed up with pride. God has not replaced Israel with the Gentiles. God has not replaced Israel with local churches. True local churches are graffed into the same root that Israel, as a nation, has been temporarily cut from. There is a time, known only to God, for Gentiles and for true local churches to be the world evangelists. God is giving special attention to the Gentiles during this time period. As we have mentioned before, there are Jews being saved during this “church age.” The promises that were made to Israel will still be fulfilled by God to Israel.
In verses 26-27 we see that the day is coming when “all Israel shall be saved”. Paul was directed to quote from Isaiah 59:20 and 27:9 to prove this point. God is not finished with Israel. The day will come when the entire nation will recognize the true Messiah. They will weep for Him whom they have slain, and they will trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Saviour and King. As we see in verse 25, the time of the Gentiles has an end. The 7 year Tribulation time is when God will turn His primary attention back to the Jews. It will not be a good time for them. During that time there will be 144,000 Jewish virgin men raised up to be evangelists. There will be two special Jewish witnesses in Jerusalem who will be hated by the antichrist and his followers. The saved Jews of that time will be very prominent. The antichrist will seek to destroy all Jews at that time, and he will go after these special evangelists that God has raised up. The two witnesses will be murdered in the streets of Jerusalem. The antichrist will broadcast their murder across the world. He will leave their dead bodies lying in the streets of Jerusalem for 3 days. The world will celebrate these deaths. However, at the end of that 3 days, God will raise up those two witnesses and He will remove them from the earth. The whole world will see that event taking place as well.
In verse 26 we see the reason why God will not wipe out Israel. He made a promise to Abraham, and He repeated that promise to Isaac and to Jacob. God does not lie. He is well able to keep His Word. He allows the wicked to suffer, but throughout history, since His choosing of Abraham as the father of the nation of Israel, there has always been a godly remnant of Jews on earth.
In verse 28 we are told that as far as the gospel is concerned, the Jews in large part are enemies. Paul (Saul) hated the people of “this way”. He consented to the death of Stephen. He had letters of authority to arrest and imprison Christians in Damascus. After his conversion, he was hated by the unbelieving Jews. He was in prison in Rome due to the hatred of the Jews.
The “election” in verse 28 refers to the “fathers” which include Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The election refers to those chosen to lead the nation of Israel. Others could be saved, but God chose the men He wanted to be in leadership in the nation of Israel. There were not “elections” as we have in our country. God elected Abraham and He elected Isaac and He elected Jacob. Esau did not like God’s choosing, but he could not change it. Every king that Israel and Judah had was chosen by God. He gave them a bad king named Saul. He gave them a good king named David. He blessed them with with some good prophets, and He also gave them bad kings and prophets as a punishment to them.
Psalm 106:15 And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.
Like us, the Jews have been slow learners. They have proved to be very stubborn. They have suffered much due to their stubbornness. However, God is still working with them and one day the nation of Israel will submit to Him.
In verse 29 we see that God never takes back a gift that He gives. This is important for us to know today as well. God’s promise of salvation and eternal life, will never be rescinded. A born again Christian cannot lose their salvation. That salvation is a gift of God and God does not take back that gift. God chastens those who are saved when they are disobedient, but He never removes their adoption papers.
In verse 30 we see that we, Gentiles who are saved, have believed in God and through that belief, we have obtained mercy. In verse 31 we see that we who are saved also need to show mercy toward the Jews. It is as we show mercy toward them, that we can be used of God to win some of them to Christ. It is a privilege to be able to reach out to others and be a vessel chosen by God to be a blessing to others.
We cannot be that blessing if we do not honour God with our words and our actions. As we submit to Him, we can be a help to others and we can see others saved. The numbers are in God’s hands. God does not put out a quota to be reached. He declares that He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Some will be directed to a very fruitful field and others will be directed to a less fruitful field.
I Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
Let us be faithful stewards of the Lord.
Pastor Bartel
