It would appear that Paul, as he is led by the Holy Spirit, makes a sharp turn here. Go and read Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore…” This beseeching can flow naturally from the end of Romans 8 into Romans 12. But Paul makes a clear and deliberate turn from the flow; for the next 3 chapters, he focuses on God and Israel, and he answers the question of ‘Is God done with Israel?’ The emphatic answer is ‘No, He is not!’ But Paul will help us to see that as we journey through chapters 9-11.
There is a heresy in many local churches and denominations that says that God has replaced Israel with the church. We are about to find out that this is not true and simply not possible. Come with me for the journey.
Verses 1-5: Paul wishes that he could be accursed – go to Hell – if this would bring Israel to salvation. If we go back to Exodus 32:32, we will find a similar spirit in Moses as he asked God to curse him and save Israel. We can see, and we are reminded that the very core of the Gospel is a Jewish one. Jesus is a Jew, the King of the Jews; Abraham was a Jew; the life of Jesus was lived in Jerusalem; the vast majority of the Bible writers are Jews; Jesus is coming back to live in Jerusalem and rule the world from Jerusalem. It would seem that if God were done with the Jews, there would be some issues in Jesus’ return and subsequent kingdom reign.
Verses 6-13: There are a lot of Jews, descendants of Abraham, that are not the chosen. Abraham, we can recall, had a son with Hagar (Ishmael), then he had a son with Sarah (Isaac). Then, after Sarah died, he married Keturah, and with her he had 6 other sons and daughters (Genesis 25). So, there are descendants of Abraham that are not the sons of the promise. Even in the sons of Isaac, Esau and Jacob, there are children of Esau that are not children of the promise. Only the children of Jacob are the children of the promise. So yes, there are many ‘Jewish’ people that are not children of the promise.
Some will say that Israel has been unfaithful to God and that, as such, their sins are so evil that God has rejected them. God dealt with this in the book of Hosea; Paul recalls this in Romans 9: 25-26. In this prophetic book, God tells the prophet to marry a ‘harlot,’ a prostitute. He knew what kind of woman he was marrying, as did God when He called Israel his own. After he has children with the harlot, she leaves Hosea and finds another man, picturing the way that Israel would follow after other gods. Then, in Hosea 3:1-3, God once again tells Hosea to go and get his wife back from the other man. In verse 2, he buys her back, and in verse 3, Hosea tells his harlot wife that ‘she will not play the harlot, not have another man.’
One day God will redeem Israel, and she will remain with God forever. Paul then points out in Romans 9:27-29 that the prophet Isaiah makes it clear that God will have a remnant in Israel. He will not allow them to be totally destroyed.
Paul reminds us in verse 30 that we Gentiles figured out that salvation is by faith, and many of the Jews are still trying to keep the law and earn God’s favor. The law is still a stumbling stone with the Jews, and it blinds them to Jesus.
I see countless interviews with devout Jews; they simply cannot see Jesus in the Old Testament, and they refuse to read the New Testament. Jesus is that ‘stumbling block’ in Romans 9:33; He tripped up the Jews when He faced them on Earth in Jerusalem. They could not see that He was and is God; they thought they could shut up Jesus by killing Him. But His resurrection caused such a boldness in His followers that the very first converts, the first huge revival, was right there in Israel on the Day of Pentecost.
The Jews shipped the Gospel all over the world from Jerusalem. So, no, God is not done with Israel. We will explore this more over the next couple of weeks.
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario
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