Romans Series # 45 July 03, 2002
Title: A Biblical Understanding of God’s Plan for Israel
Website: www.newlifeinchrist.info
Email: pastorsarver@yahoo.com
Introduction: Welcome to New Life in Christ. We are currently in Chapter 11 of Romans as we continue with message #45 of our verse-by-verse study of the Book of Romans.
Read Romans 11:1-10
Opening Prayer
Tonight I will be sharing with you on the subject of: "A biblical understanding of God’s plan for Israel." This is the theme of all of Chapter 11. Although there several lessons for us from this chapter the two main points Paul is making are:
1. God has not completely rejected the nation of Israel.
2. God has not permanently rejected the nation of Israel.
Even though the church, which is composed mostly of non-Jews (Gentiles), is the main instrument God is using now, God still will use the Jewish people as he promised.
Before I share verse by verse on this chapter, I wanted you to know why it is important that Christians understand God’s plan for Israel. There are practical and important reasons for having a biblical understanding of Israel’s present and future part in God’s plan. For instance, our understanding of God’s plan for Israel greatly affects certain aspects of our theology. One area of our theology that is affected is eschatology (end-times). How we view and understand the end-time scenario will be affected by how we view and understand God’s plan for Israel. If God is through with Israel, as some people teach, then the 144,000 from the tribes of Israel who go through the Great Tribulation in the Book of Revelation must be spiritualized to represent the church. On the other hand, if God still has a plan to use the nation of Israel in a special way then the 144,000 represent literal Israelites.
Our understanding of God’s plan for Israel also affects our trust in God’s faithfulness; if God is through with Israel then what about his unconditional promises to Israel? Can God be considered faithful and yet not do what he promised with the nation of Israel?
A biblical understanding of God’s plan for the nation of Israel also affects our attitude toward the Jewish people (verse 28). As a church we’re very much pro-Israel. We’re very supportive of the Jewish people and the nation of Israel, but this support is not based on political ideology, rather it is based on a biblical understanding of God’s plan for Israel. Without a biblical understanding of God’s future plan for Israel, Christians tend to be either neutral toward Israel or in some cases even anti-Semitic.
I’ve made these few points about the practical implications of a biblical understanding of God’s plan for Israel so that you would understand the importance of this subject. Now let’s look at this passage verse by verse.
Read Verse 1.
"Did God reject his people (Israel)?" Has God reneged on his promises to the nation of Israel? Has he said, "Enough is enough, I am through with you!" In one respect it looked like this is just what had happened. After all it was now the Gentiles who were called God’s adopted sons, who were promised eternal glory and inheritance, and who were being used by God to show the world his character and ways. These things were promised to Israel and yet it was the non-Jews who were experiencing them according to Paul. It certainly seemed like God had broken his promise and rejected the Jewish people.
Illustration: Jay Fielder is the quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. That is the position he was promised. That is the position he is trained for. That is the position he is paid to play. Now let’s suppose that when the season starts, he starts to ignore the coach’s directions and plays lousy. If he continues to do this, the coach will pull him from the game and put in another quarterback. He may feel that the coach has broken his promises to him. He may feel that he has been rejected by the coach, but that isn’t true. He is still on the team; he’s just not on the field. In due time, he will return to the starting quarterback position when he listens and obeys the coaches directions.
This is illustrative of the situation of Israel. They were chosen for a certain position and equipped to fulfill that position, but they had not responded appropriately, so God would now use the Gentiles in their place. They were pulled from the starting position but not completely rejected by God. God is faithful to his promises to Israel, even though the Gentiles might have the prominent position now. This is why Paul answers the question, "Did God reject his people?" with a firm "by no means!"
1. God has not completely rejected the nation of Israel.
How do we know this is true? First Paul points to himself as evidence that God is still using the Jewish people, albeit in small numbers. After all Paul says, "I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin." Paul is saying, "I am Jewish and God has saved me and is using me, therefore we cannot claim that God has completely rejected the Jewish people."
The evidence that there were some Jewish believers indicates that God had not completely rejected his people. Now there were not many Jews who were believers in comparison to the Gentiles, but this small number of faithful Jews among many unfaithful was nothing new and hardly indicative of God completely rejecting his people. Paul uses the Old Testament history of Israel to point this out.
Read Verses 2-4
"God did not reject his people whom he foreknew." God knew ahead of time how Israel would reject Jesus because of their pride. This did not catch him by surprise but he chose them and gave them promises anyways. There had been many times in Israel’s history where it seemed that their rebellion had been so complete that there was no hope of recovery. One of these times was during the ministry of the prophet Elijah. He was convinced that Israel’s rebellion was beyond recovery. He complained, "Lord they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I’m the only one left, and they’re trying to kill me." It certainly seemed to Elijah that God’s plan for Israel had failed, that there were no faithful people left to work through. In verse 4 we find God’s answer to Elijah, "I’ve reserved for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal." In other words, God had a remnant, a small number of faithful Israelites, to work through and fulfill his promises even in the worst of times. According to verse 5 the same is true today.
1. God has not completely rejected the nation of Israel.
Read Verses 5-6
There may not be many Jewish believers but there are some, a remnant. If this is true, it cannot be said that God has failed his promises or completely rejected his people. Why were these few Jewish people saved and used by God? Was it because they worked harder than other Jews? Was it because they kept the Law better? Was it because they were better Jews? The answer is an absolute "no." Paul says in verse 6, "They were chosen by grace, not works." The difference is that this remnant of Jewish people accepted God’s offer of salvation instead of trying to work for it.
What happened to those Jews who reject grace? Why are the Jewish people so resistant to the Gospel to this day? Paul answers those questions next.
Read Verses 7-9
Paul says that the Jewish people as a whole are "hardened." This means that they are resistant to the reception of spiritual truth in the same way that hard ground is resistant to the planting of seeds. You can not get anything to grow because you cannot penetrate the hard soil, or in this case the hard heart. In verse 8, Paul makes clear that this spiritual resistance and blindness is the result of God’s just punishment. They rejected Jesus so "God gave them a spirit of stupor (spiritual ignorance), eyes so they could not see and ears so they could not hear. . ." In verse 9 Paul quotes King David who used slightly different metaphors to express the same thing about spiritual blindness. In this verse, David specifically states that "their eyes be darkened" as a "retribution for them." In other words, this spiritual blindness or hardness is just punishment for rejecting the Gospel when they could have understood.
There are many issues involved in verses 1-10 but the main point that Paul makes is that:
1. God has not completely rejected the nation of Israel.
There remains a small remnant of faithful Jewish believers, but this will not always be the case. One day the majority of Jewish people will believe and be restored to be used by God as is promised. Right now there is a believing minority and a blinded majority, but that will not be the permanent case. That leads us to Paul’s second point.
2. God has not permanently rejected the nation of Israel.
Read Verses 11-15
"Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?" In other words, is God through with Israel? Is it too late for God to use them as he promised? Paul’s answer is "not at all!" In verses 25-29 Paul will expound on this topic, but for now he wants us to understand that God is not through with the Jew. They will be placed back into the starting lineup of the game, so to say.
This is important because many in the church are taught that God is through with Israel as a distinct people. They teach that the church has replaced Israel permanently. This teaching is known as "Replacement Theology" and the basic thinking is that all of God’s promises to Israel were forfeited because of Israel’s rejection of Jesus and are now transferred to the church. This is the theology or the doctrine of a large part of the church. This understanding leads to people spiritualizing many Bible texts that were for Israel and applying them to the church today. It has also led to anti-Semitism, which is totally contrary to the attitude that Paul said, in verses 13-24, Gentile Christians should have toward the Jews.
2. God has not permanently rejected the nation of Israel.
Paul points out how God even uses Israel’s rebellion for a good purpose. First, "Because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles." God used the Jew’s rejection of him as a springboard for sharing the Gospel with the Gentiles. It is wonderful the way that God can take something bad and use it for the good.
In football I’ve seen an offensive team fumble the ball for what looked like a significant loss, only to have another offensive player pick up the fumble and run for a touchdown. What looked like a tragedy has turned into a blessing. This is what happened with Israel and the Gentiles. They fumbled the ball but God used another group to pick it up and run for a touchdown, i.e. the Gentiles. This is the wonderful thing that God did with Israel’s sin. Now if God can do something so great and wonderful with Israel’s rejection of Jesus, imagine what he can do with her acceptance of Jesus! That’s the point of verse 12. If Israel’s "loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their (Israel’s) fullness bring."
Rather than be against the Jewish people, we should be praying for and seeking their salvation, especially considering the positive results that this will have for the whole world! Paul continues this line of reasoning through verse 15 where he notes that Israel’s acceptance by God will mean "life from the dead." What does this mean? There is debate but the logic of the verse indicates that it must mean something better than reconciliation, since Paul said Israel’s restoration would mean "greater riches" than there rejection had meant. What could be better than salvation? The resurrection! Although there are differences of opinion, I believe that when Paul said that the spiritual awakening of the Jewish people would mean "life from the dead", he was speaking literally. I think the Bible teaches that in the end-times there will be a Great spiritual awakening in Israel, when the Jews will receive Jesus as their Messiah, and some time during that time period, the resurrection of the righteous will occur.
Conclusion: I hope you’re beginning to understand God’s plan for Israel and the implications that this has for you. The main things we need to understand for today are:
1. God has not completely rejected the nation of Israel.
2. God has not permanently rejected the nation of Israel.
