Romans 9 God’s Work in Israel and You
We are at an interesting, and to some, a frightening time in the history of the world. We look at what is going on in the middle east, and we look in our Bibles and we wonder, “Is this it? Is this the end? Is this the beginning of the end?”
We look at what is happening in Israel, and we hear conflicting reports about the fault of Israel, and the fault of the nations around them, and the terrorist organization Hamas. In our country and around the world, attacks on Jews have increased. Thousands are protesting in London.
In our own country, Jewish students have been forced to hide in a library building, in fear of their lives, because of “protesting” students opposed to Israel defending herself. New York City protestors damaged police cars, block the Brooklyn Bridge and call for the end of the state of Israel.
Wednesday evening 2 apparently Middle Eastern men chased groups of Jewish teens through a park on 4 different occasions. Last Saturday, a man stabbed and killed a 6 year old Muslim boy and injured his mother in Chicago, in an apparent hate crime. In the mean time, rockets continuously pour down on Israel from Gaza, while Lebanon, and Qatar attack as well.
It is this setting that we find ourselves, in our study of Romans, at Romans chapter 9. In this chapter, the promises and plans of God are under examination. Some in the church are beginning to question the way God is working.
When Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, the church was undergoing a transition. The demographics of the church are changing.
If you remember, when the early church started, it was made up almost entirely of Jews. The church was started in Jerusalem. Almost all of the early converts were jews. Now, however, the largest portion of the church are gentiles. There are now more gentile believers in Jesus than Jewish, and that number is growing daily.
The jewish people, as a nation have rejected Jesus. The other nations are embracing Him. So, a question arises. Has God rejected Israel? That brings us to chapter 9. This is a new section in Romans.
So, section 1 of this chapter covers Israel’s election.
- Read Romans 9:1-5
I. The Election of Israel
As I read this passage, can’t you feel the heart of Paul for his people, for fellow Jews? In verse 3 he says he wished he could be cut off from Christ on behalf of the Jews. Can you imagine? What parent hasn’t wished to trade places with a sick or dying child, wishing they could take that child’s pain and sorrow? What husband ha not wished he could trade places with his sick or ailing spouse, wanting to take their pain and suffering?
But here Paul takes it to a different level. He says, “I wish I could trade my salvation for their’s”. My word. I can’t say I’d be willing to do that for someone else. But Paul’s grief over his Christ-rejecting people is so great that he says, “I wish I could trade places with them so that they might be saved!” No wonder God used him in such a great way. He loved his people.
Elsewhere Paul said, “I have become all things to all people so that by all means I may win some.” In many of our churches today people are offended when someone sits in their usual seat.
Paul says, “I’d be willing to trade my salvation if only it could mean that more of them might be saved.
If only more of God’s people were marked by an intense love for their brothers and sisters. Jesus said, “By this may all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another./‘
Lord, give us more folks who love folks, and give us more loving hearts.
In this passage Paul, with his heart breaking for his nation, mentions a number of advantages his people enjoy.
Look there again please at verse 4.
- Read vs 4
1. They are adopted
There is no other nation in the world that can claim that. Israel, as a nation was adopted as a beloved son by God.
2. They have the glory - What other nation in the history of the world can say that they have seen the glory of God? What other nation in the world can say they had the glory of God in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night, lead them and guide them?
My word, when I get up in the morning I often have a certain idea of what I’d like to do or what I plan to do that day, but those plans are so often changed. The Israelites in the wilderness could step outside their tents in the morning and say, “The glory has risen and is beginning to move, we’ll be moving today.”
What other nation in the world can say that when they built a tabernacle or a temple, that they had the shekinah glory of God, the visible manifestation of God descend on the place?
Israel was adopted. They had the glory of God in their presence.
3. They had the covenants, or that pacts. To
Abraham God said, “I will give you this land.” To
Moses God said, “I will give you this people.” To
David God said, “I will give you the Messiah, and your kingdom will never end.”
4. They had the law - There are 66 books in the Bible. 39 in the Old Testament. 27 in the New. Of those, all but 2, Luke and Acts, were written by Jews. Luke was a Gentile.
5. They had the Temple - It was a visible reminder of God’s presence in their nation.
6. They had the promises - Some have counted and say that there are 5,467 divine promises in the Bible. A large portion of those are specifically to the nation of Israel. God promised them a land, a people, a Messiah, and a blessing. No other nation can claim that.
“If you were to go to the nation of Israel, into the West Bank. Not a very safe proposition at any time, but especially now. But, if you were to the West Bank in Israel, to the town of Bethel, there at the intersection of 2 streets, you would find a billboard paid for by a local grocer. The sign says, ‘Here in Bethel, 3,800 years ago, the Creator of the world promised the land of Israel to the people of Israel.’” (“God, the Jew and You”, Skip Heitzig).
They had the promises.
7. They had the ancestors. Verse 5.
- Read verse 5
Israel began by God choosing 1 man. Abraham. He wasn’t a Jew. He was a Gentile. He was a pagan. But God spoke to Him as he was living in Ur of the Caladeans, and said, “Through you, I am going to make a great nation.
God took him into a land he did not know, and began to grow his family. Abraham went to Egypt twice then God took the family there, where they served as slaves for 400 years.
God raised up Moses and sent him to pharaoh, and told him, “Let my people go.” Eventually Moses led the people out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, to Mount Sinai where He gave them the 10 Commandments. They went to the banks of the Jordan River, but are frightened, so they didn’t go in and they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
Then God raised up Joshua to lead the people across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land.
The Ambassador to Israel was once speaking of the history of Israel and at this point he said, “God blessed the staff of Moses and Moses used it to perform miracles in Egypt. Moses used it to part the Red Sea and then to close it behind them. Moses used it to strike a rock and bring out water for the people. When Moses died, Joshua used the staff to part the Jordan River so the people could enter into the Promised Land.
Then Joshua needed to relieve himself, but unwilling to carry so sacred an article into the latrine, he left it leaning against the outside of the tent while he went in to relieve himself. While he was inside, a Palestinian came and stole the staff.”
At this point the ambassador to the Palestinians stood up and yelled, “there were no Palestinians in Israel then.” To which the ambassador to Israel said, “After that statement I will discuss the history of our nation and our claims to the land.”
In the promised land God blessed them and they built a nation. But, they turned their backs on God, and so many of them were taken as captives to Babylon. Eventually they returned to their land, but because of their rebellion and disobedience, Israel has known one occupier or another ever since, until 1948 when it was recognized as a nation once again.
Many claim that Israel is an occupying nation. That they have taken other people’s land. I recently saw a video where Israel is called a colonial apartheid state.
What is apartheid? Apartheid is a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.
Let me share a few facts with you.
1) 20% of Israel is Arab citizens and permanent residents with full civil rights.
2) In 1948, when Israel was reestablished as a nation, there were 156,000 Arabs in Israel. Today there are 2 million.
3) These 2 million Muslims also have freedom of religion, with over 400 mosques peacefully existing in Israel.
4) Many Muslims volunteer to join the Israelite army. There are Muslim police officers, judges, political ministers and more. There are even 11 members of Israel’s parliament who are Muslim.
5) At one time the Middle East was full of Jews.
Algeria - 1948, 140,000 2020, <200
Egypt - 1948, 75,000 2020 <10
Syria - 1948, 40,000 2020 - 4
Iraq - 1948, 150,000 2021 - 4
It isn’t the Jews who are trying to exterminate the Muslims and Arabs. It is the Muslims and Arabs who are doing everything in their power to exterminate the Jews and to destroy Israel. When Israel abandoned Gaza, and with troops, forced the last of their citizens to leave the Gaza strip, and Hamas took over. The Israelis abandoned homes, businesses, and greenhouses. Hamas moved in and bulldozed everything. They didn’t want to use it, they wanted to spread destruction.
The United States keeps sending money to the Gaza strip to help those living there build infrastructure and such. Instead, Hamas has used that money to build tunnels. They have dug up their own water pipes to use them as bombs and rockets. And yet, Israel has continued to provide free water and electricity to the Gaza strip. Israel has wanted peace and has given up land to get it, and yet Hamas has said that destroying the land of Israel is not enough. They will not rest until every jew around the world is killed.
While many countries in the world, including ours, aren’t having enough children to replace their own population, Israel’s population continues to increase, with the birthrate there exceeding 3.1 children for every woman in the country. In March of this year, God had built the population of Israel up to 9.73 million, 73.5% were Jewish. This in spite of the fact that almost every generation has people or nations whose stated gaol has been to kill Jews.
In 2022, Israel’s GDP was 522.03 billion, up 6.86% over the previous year.
You are familiar with the Nobel Prize. Established by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel in 1895, the Nobel Prize is a set of annual awards bestowed upon individuals in recognition of cultural and/or scientific advances in six categories – Literature, Chemistry, Economics, Physics, World Peace, and Medicine.
Between 1901 and 2022, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to more than 900 individuals and organizations. At least 213 of them have been to people who are believed to be Jewish or raised Jewish.
Israel has produced a disproportionate number of Nobel Prize winners. In August 2015, Times Higher Education ranked Israel the fifth best performer this century based on the number of Nobel Prizes won as well as the significance and prestige of each one. The publication also ranked global universities based on Nobel Prize winners and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology placed eighth, higher on the list than Harvard and every British University. (Jewish Virtual Library).
God built and blessed a nation through their ancestors.
They have the adoption. They had the glory of God. They had the covenants. They had the law and the temple. They had the promises and the fathers. Oh, but Israel’s greatest blessing, they had the messiah.
- Read verse 5
8. The Messiah.
Jesus, in human form, was born a Jew. He grew up attending the temple and synagogue. He went to a jewish school. He held a bar mitzvah when He turned 13. He walked the streets of Israel. He was baptized in the river Jordan. He was crucified on a Jewish hill. He rested in a Jewish tomb. He left from a Jewish Hillside and will return there one day.
For these reasons and because God told Abraham in Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse,” we stand with Israel.
God choose a people.
God elected a nation and has blessed it.
II. God Elects Others
- Romans 9:6-13
In these verses, God demonstrably makes a choice. He makes a decision. He gives the inheritance to the younger instead of the older. He went against custom and tradition.
Verse 13 is especially troubling. I have loved Jacob but I have hated Esau. Now, Jacob ended up being a father of the Jews. Esua was the father of the Edomites, who rejected God and worshipped other gods. Some can, and have that this election or selection was based on the foreknowledge of God.
A student once told his professor, “Sir, I have a problem with Romans 9:13.” The professor answered, “I do to, but probably not the same problem you have. My problem is that I don’t understand how God could love Jacob.”
The Bible teaches predestination, but it also teaches personal choice and personal responsibility.
- Read Romans 9:16-18
Many take this to extremes and argue that God created some people to save and others He created simply to condemn. He made them just so He could judge them.
When I was in college, I had a friend who was not a Christian. At the time he probably knew more of the Bible than I did and yet he wasn’t a Christian. He quoted this verse to me and said, “Maybe God has chosen to harden my heart and I’m not meant to be saved.”
I have an issue with that for several reasons.
1. The words used to describe Pharaoh’s hard heart.
There are 2 different words used to describe Pharaoh’s hard heart, one is used when Pharaoh’s hardening and the other for God’s hardening. When the Bible says Pharaoh hardened his heart, the word used is Kaw-bad. It means to harden, to dull to make insensitive. The word used when it says that God hardened his heart is the word Khaw-zak. It means to fasten upon. To strengthen. In other words, God says, “You have chosen this path. You have chosen this way, and I will strengthen you in the path you have chosen.
The Bible warned us again and again throughout its pages to not harden our hearts, because we can reach a point of no return.
That is why we are warned in
> Isaiah 55:6-7 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near. Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, so he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will freely forgive
I have another problem with this, and that is the entire nature of God.
2. The entire nature of God.
The Bible tells us that God is love. It is His nature to love.
> John 3:16 For God so loved the world . . .
> 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
Again and again in the Bible we are told about the love of God and invitation after invitation is given, asking us to repent and turn.
> Isaiah 55:1 “Come, everyone who is thirsty,?come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost!
> Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the Bride say come. And let him that hearth say come. And him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take upon the water of life freely.
> Romans 10:13 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
> Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.
God provided through His Son Jesus Christ. God warns and God invites, but somehow all of this is interwoven with the heart and will of God.
D. L. Moody said it like this. It’s like you’re walking down a hallway and see a door that says, “Whosoever will may come.” And you open the door to find on the other side a sign that says, “Welcome God’s elect.” And there on the banquet table you find a tag with your name already on it that says, “Welcome Gene Gregory.”
Somehow God’s election and man’s freewill work together to complete God’s will.
I don’t know how all of that works together because His ways are not my ways. Right now I only see dimly as through a glass. But, there are several things I’m certain of.
1. God’s plans include Israel, so we continue to pray for the peace and safety of Israel.
2. You can be called a Christian and not be one - v6
3. Third, God’s plans include you. Gene you don’t know that. Well, you have an opportunity right now to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
I’m not gonna sit here and argue with you about something neither one of us have completely figured out. That’s senseless. I’m gonna rejoice in the fact that I know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I’m gonna rejoice in the fact that I have been saved, justified in Christ, and know that one day I’m gonna see the One Who made and saved me.
I’m gonna be busy telling there people about what Jesus did for me and what He can do for them, like one starving beggar telling another where to find food.
Let’s thank God for what He has done for us, and go into all the world as Ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ.
