Castlebar Christian Fellowship

Has God finished with the Jews?

Reading: Romans 11:1-10

1I ask, then,(A) has God rejected his people? By no means! For(B) I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham,[a] a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2(C) God has not rejected his people whom he(D) foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3(E) "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life." 4But what is God's reply to him?(F) "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5So too at the present time there is(G) a remnant, chosen by grace. 6(H) But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
7What then?(I) Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest(J) were hardened, 8as it is written,

(K) "God gave them a spirit of stupor,
(L) eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day."
9And David says,

(M) "Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
10let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and bend their backs forever."
Introduction:

Last week we saw how the gospel was at work throughout the then known Roman world. We saw how a certain process has to be in operation before people call on the Lord and are saved.
1 a preacher must be sent;
2.the sent preacher must preach the good news;
3.the preached good news must be heard;
4.the heard good news must be believed;
5.the belief must be the kind that calls on God for salvation.
We thought about the beautful feet that preach good news and we thought about the beautiful hands of God forever reaching out as the word of his grace goes out.

Paul reminds us of the words of Isaiah, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?"
And he finished chapter ten with the picture of God stretching out his hand to his disobedient and obstinate people.
As you read these chapters from Paul you might get the impression that God is well and truly fed up with Israel. Which leads to the opening question in today's reading.

One way to look at this passage is to see in it the ways of God!
By way of summarizing this section it can be pointed out that:
First it speaks of something God does not do - he does not reject his people. Verse 1: "I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means!"
Then it speaks of something God did do - he foreknows them. Verse 2: "God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew."
Then it speaks of something God did and does - he kept for himself a remnant of faithful people in Elijah's day and Paul's day. Verse 4: "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." And Verse 5: "So too at the present time there is a remnant."
And it tells us (at the end of verse 5) how God did it - he chose them by grace.
Then in VV7-10. were told that the rest were hardened! Which raise other questions, such as does that mean the door is finally shut for the rest? (Outline adapted and expanded from J. Piper)


---00O00---
First it speaks of

Something God does not do

V1. I ask, then, has God rejected his people? They say that, "the form of the question in the Greek expects a negative answer, so he answers immediately with the strong negative, By no means!" (Alan F. Johnson)
This is not a question for debate. Paul is emphatic in his response, By no means!

The question has an Old Testament background that immediately cries out no! e.g. 1Samuel 12:22 For the sake of his great name the LORD will not reject his people, because the LORD was pleased to make you his own.
Psalm 94:14. For the LORD will not reject his people;
he will never forsake his inheritance.

The next part of his answer may seem strange to us.

For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. Why is he communicating these facts? The answer must lie somehow in that he is declaring, that he along with those first believers, are living proof, that God has not rejected Israel?

Paul was a true-blue. He was "a Hebrew if there ever was one, unquestionably an Israelite." (Hendriksen) His pedigree declared him to be the genuine article. He was a member of the tribe of Benjamin. He is not connected to Abraham in a general sense. He brings focus into this. He's from the tribe of Benjamin; he's connected to physical Israel. Physical Israel matters. There's a future for Israel.

Then these verses speaks of

Something God did do

V2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
V1-2 'his people'x2
They are His people whom he foreknew. There are many OT references to God's election (or choosing) of Israel and they usually refer to Israel as a whole, corporate Israel. They are his people, his treasured possession, and his chosen people! Isaiah 43:1 But now, this is what the LORD says-
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine. etc.

In chapter nine we see references to a more particular election i.e. God choosing particular individuals for salvation and service. We see an Israel within Israel.

But in this reference here, many of the commentators see a general reference to the nation of Israel. God has not rejected his people Israel (Ethnic Israel; natural Israel in contrast to spiritual Israel!) "The visible corporate nation of people called Jews."
God's purpose for Israel is not over (and God willing in the coming weeks we'll be able to look into that more).

V2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
So what does this foreknowing mean? The clearest illustration of it in relation to the whole people of Israel is found Amos 3:2. God says to Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth." Almost everyone agrees that this means, "You only have I chosen. You only have I sought out and made mine and known you the way a husband knows a wife." I think that's the foreknowing in Romans 11:2. Israel is God's foreknown, that is, chosen people.
This is confirmed in Romans 11:28-29, "As regards the gospel, they [Israel] are enemies of God for your [Gentiles'] sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."




Then it speaks of
Something God did and does (vv2b-4)

Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life." 4But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
Paul refers to this account of the story of Elijah from 1Kings 19:1-18, as further proof that God is still concerned about Israel and has not completely rejected it.
Perhaps he sees parallels between this account and the present large scale rejection of the gospel by Israel.
Paul pictures the very discouraged Elijah lamenting his lot. The nation of Israel has to his mind totally departed from the faith. He feels that he is the only one that is left.
God reminds Elijah that he has a very limited perspective on the reality of the present situation. He tells him,

I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
This means that there were at least seven thousand men. You can't imagine that it was just men who remained faithful to God. Surely there were women and children also! Often in scripture a symbolical meaning is attached to the number seven and its multiples; it signifies completeness and fullness. Though this was a remnant in terms of the overall population it was still significant.

Notice too in this scripture God says, I have kept for myself seven thousand. This was nothing to do with Elijah's brilliant skills. He doesn't even seem to be aware of their existence. It has nothing got to do with the brilliance or goodness of the people either. It's all down to the power and love of God to save and keep his people.
Don't forget those amazing words in Jude. To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy- 25to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

We're not only told that he did it but we're told,

How God did it (vv5-6)

V5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.

V6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

J. B. Phillips "And if it is a matter of the grace of God, it cannot be a question of their actions especially deserving God's favour, for that would make grace meaningless."

We know that for Paul grace was never meaningless. It wasn't just some sort of Christian jargon!
We're reminded "the very essence of grace is unmerited divine favour." (Hendriksen)

In Romans 4:4-5 as he discusses how Abraham was made right with God, Paul makes this point as an illustration reminding us again of the nature of grace as God's unmerited favour.
The Message Bible puts it this way, If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it-you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked-well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

Paul in this verse in Romans 11:6 wants to make sure that everyone knows, this is about sheer grace. It has nothing to do, whatsoever about human merit or effort.
G.R.A.C.E. (Gods Riches At Christs Expense!)
This is not sourced in something that we can come up with! It's totally God's initiative and totally God's generosity! Ephesians 2 not only tells us that we are saved by grace but that in the coming ages he [will] show the immeasurable(A) riches of his grace in(B) kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:7

Which raises the question,
Has God shut the door on the rest of them? (vv7-10) Has God rejected the rest of the people who have stubbornly resisted?

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,

V7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. What it was seeking is not made explicit here but when we look a little further back in the chapters it becomes obvious that they were seeking a right relationship or right standing with God, on their own terms. They failed miserably as a result.

The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,
This hardening is expressed in terms of numbness, blindness and deafness. Total insensitivity!

Paul paints a very bleak picture in vv8-10. The first quotation were told is a combination of verses from Isaiah 29:10 and Deuteronomy 29:4.

The next quotation is from Psalm 69. This Psalm is frequently quoted in the New Testament and was valued by the early Christians as referring to Christ.
We see in David's imprecations a reflection of what was happening in Paul's own day.

However there is Even hope in this. Its been pointed out that this is not a proof text for a process of divine reprobation. (That is, a process whereby a person is condemned by God and excluded from salvation.)

Not that we should take these verses lightly either. We know from chapter nine that God does harden people to the point that there is no remedy. Here however this does not seem to be the final picture. I'm not trying to water down its seriousness! It is very serious! But our God is the God of all hope and while it is still called today God can make athe valley of trouble into a doorway of hope!

Romans 11:25. I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
That word until expresses to me that there is still a hope and a future for Israel. That hardening is not necessarily the final word. (As you read down through these verses you get a greater sense of that!)


Conclusion:
Back to grace.
V5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.

V6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

As we come to know the meaning of grace it humbles us!

There is hope for mankind. There is hope for every man woman and child!
There is hope for the most hardened heart!
There is hope for you! As somebody put it,
Finally, a word to you who are not yet believing - not yet saved. Listen carefully and may God speak this word into your own soul: Do not say, "I may not be chosen." Rather say, "Since all God's choosing is by grace, there is absolutely no reason to think I am excluded."
May you hear the Lord Jesus calling: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). (John Piper)



Notes:
Romans 11:28 is a reference to corporate Israel as a whole, alive in any given generation. This is the visible corporate nation of people called Jews. And because they reject Christ, they are presently enemies of God (I say it with trembling and longing for their faith), and cut off from Christ (Romans 9:3). But that is not the whole story. There is a future for corporate Israel, because they are as a corporate people (not every individual who lived) "elect." That is, they are "foreknown." God made a covenant with their forefathers. "You only have I known from all the peoples of the earth."
And in Paul's mind the fact that there is a remnant of Jewish believers in the Messiah that God has kept for himself (vv. 4-5) signals to Paul that God is not through with corporate Israel.
Words:

V7 G4456
po¯roo¯
po-ro'-o
Apparently from p????? po¯ros (a kind of stone); to petrify, that is, (figuratively) to indurate (render stupid or callous): - blind, harden.


V25 G4457
po¯ro¯sis
po'-ro-sis
From G4456; stupidity or callousness: - blindness, hardness.

Cross references:
A. Romans 11:1 : 1 Sam 12:22; Jer 31:37; 33:24
B. Romans 11:1 : 2 Cor 11:22; Phil 3:5
C. Romans 11:2 : Psalm 94:14
D. Romans 11:2 : Romans 8:29
E. Romans 11:3 : 1 Kgs 19:10, 14
F. Romans 11:4 : 1 Kgs 19:18
G. Romans 11:5 : Romans 9:27; Jer 3:14; Zech 13:8
H. Romans 11:6 : Romans 4:4; Deut 9:4, 5
I. Romans 11:7 : Romans 9:31
J. Romans 11:7 : Romans 11:25
K. Romans 11:8 : Isa 29:10
L. Romans 11:8 : Deut 29:4; Isa 43:8; Jer 5:21; Ezek 12:2; Eph 4:18; Matt 13:14
M. Romans 11:9 : Psalm 69:22, 23
Footnotes:
a. Romans 11:1 Or one of the offspring of Abraham