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Biblical understanding about Israel
The Remnant of Israel <<
By Rev. Willem J.J. Glashouwer
Many Jews who looked for the Messiah refused to believe in Him when He came. The prophet Isaiah concerning Israel says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people” (Romans 10:20,21). Does that mean God fully and definitively rejected Israel?
No. Look at me, Paul says. God gave me the revelation about Jesus, and I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the beloved tribe of Benjamin. And look at the days of Elijah. This prophet thought that he was the only one left who really served the Lord. But there were another 7000 reserved by God for Himself, who did not bow their knee for Baal. “…So too (says Paul), at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace (according to the election of grace, KJV)…” (Romans 11:5) Only the elect did get the revelation. The others were hardened, as it is written (again fulfilment of prophecy!): “…God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day…” (Romans 11:7-8, Deuteronomy 29:4, Isaiah 29:10) Jesus acknowledges the same fact when He enters Jerusalem. In Luke 19:41-42 we read: “…As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes…”
But this stumbling by the majority of the Jewish people over the stumbling stone Jesus, does that mean that they have fallen beyond recovery? That they are rejected forever? Not at all! Because all this serves a deep, prophetically foretold purpose! Because of their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles! (To make Israel envious, Romans 11:11). Their loss means riches for the Gentiles, Romans 11:12. Their rejection is even the salvation of the world, Romans 11:15!
But there will not only be hardening of the heart, deafness of the ears, transgression, loss and rejection, but there will also be: Fullness and Acceptance. And when that happens it will be like ‘life from the dead’ and even much ‘greater riches for the Gentiles’! (Romans 11:12/15)
I have already started to make them envious, says Paul, in order to save some of them. And I am absolutely sure that this is a guarantee that one day they all will be saved, because “…If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits (comp. Leviticus 23:10,17; Numbers 15:18-21) is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches...” (Romans 11:17) The pure fact that I and some of my Jewish brothers and sisters have received the Revelation about Jesus is the guarantee that one day they all will see, Paul says. Then all Israel shall be saved.
What is the root? Abraham, or: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the patriarchs – or Israel, or faithful Israel, or Messianic Israel, or Jesus Himself, or the Church, or the elect, or…? Again, in my opinion it is the New Covenant relationship with God - made with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, of which are the signs the broken body and the spilt blood of the Lamb of God - and this was already included in the Abrahamic Covenant, when God promised that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Through faith in Jesus now Gentiles also can enter into this new relationship with God.
In Romans 9:2-3 Paul had said, “…I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel…” Paul’s hearts desire is for Israel to get the revelation about Jesus. He considers himself an early-born child, ahead of time, before the rest of his Jewish people. And he does not like to be alone, with only 0,001% of the Jewish population worldwide sharing this revelation about Jesus with him. The existence of the ‘remnant according the election of grace’ – Paul himself and all the other messianic Jews - is the guarantee that this one day will happen. ‘Firstfruits’, pointing towards - and the guarantee of - a big harvest to come!
Yes, some Jewish branches have been broken off, and we Gentiles have been grafted in among the others as wild olive shoots and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive tree. But remember this, Paul says: “…You are not the root, Gentile Church! You do not support the root, but the root supports you…!” (Romans 11:18)
By the way, are these ‘broken off branches’ lost forever? Or even, is Pharaoh lost forever and ‘rotting in hell’? And the Israelites that died in the desert – God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert, 1 Corinthians 10:5 – were they lost forever? Or could there be temporarily judgements executed by God during our lifetimes in order to ‘display His power’, and are judgements that will decide about our state in eternity matters that are still pending and waiting for His final decisions? We should not too hastily draw our own conclusions in matters that are completely His, and draw straight lines from this life into the next by our logic reasoning and dogmatics. This final judgement is His and His alone.
Broken off branches because of unbelief, and engrafted branches because of faith. And faith is not something we can give ourselves. Saving faith is not on the basis of someone willing, not depending on ‘man’s desire or effort’, but on God’s mercy, Romans 9:16. So be not arrogant, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you Gentile believers either, Romans 11:21. And you had better continue in His kindness, otherwise you also will be cut off, Romans 11:22. And when they do not persist in their unbelief (and one day they will not, Zechariah 12:10-14!), they will be grafted in again. That is easy to do for God. “…After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature (Compare: Ephesians 2:11-13), and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches (Romans 9:4-5), be grafted into their own olive tree…!” Romans 11:24! The New Covenant was made with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. So it is their own Covenant, their own root and tree!
And then follows the conclusion, the climax of this chapter. This apparently is the big plan. But that plan is not fully understandable. It is a mystery. Why God did it and does it this way is not fully comprehensible. But He did it, and He is God and He can and will do like it pleases Him. “…I do not want you to be ignorant of this Mistery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number (fullness, KJV) of the Gentiles has come in…”
Hardening in part
Why a hardening ‘in part’? For two reasons.
First: there has always been this ‘remnant according to the election of grace’, the firstfruits, the root, the messianic Jews, or Christian Jews, or Jewish Christians, or believers from the circumcision, or whatever these Jewish believers are called. They are not many, and their number should not be exaggerated. Of the 15.000.000 Jews that are left in the world after the persecution and slaughters of the past centuries, 5.000.000 live in Israel. Very serious reports tells us that about 5.000 of them are ‘messianic’ Jews, Jews who believe in Jesus, although not all of them are ‘full-Jews’, some of them are married to non-Jewish husbands or wives. So 0.01% believes in Jesus! In the United States of America another 5.000.000 Jews are living. Of those Jews about 50.000 are ‘messianic’ Jews, so about 0.1%. Sometimes the percentage of ‘full-Jews’ who attend these messianic congregations is only 15%. The other 85% are Gentile Christians who love the Jewish style of the services. So about 99,9% of the Jews today don’t believe in Jesus. But they are those who do – and over the centuries God always gave to some Jews the revelation about Jesus. ‘Firstfruits’ as a guarantee of a great harvest that one day will come.
Secondly: in part, because Jews are not without God, but they have a blind spot for Who Jesus is. Again, compare Romans 9:4-5 with Ephesians 2:11-13.
But when the fullness of Gentiles has come in, then ALL ISRAEL shall be saved. On the basis of the promised New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34, established by Jesus in Luke 22:20, and opened for Gentiles in Acts 10.
How will that happen?
“…The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will turn godlessness away from Jacob = Israel. And this is My covenant with them when I (the Lord will do this Himself) will take away their sins…” All Israel will be saved. (Romans 11:26-27)
For the time being they are enemies of the Gospel. Why? For your sake, Gentiles!
But as far as election is concerned, they are beloved of God (these “unbelieving Jews”, beloved of God!), for the sake of the patriarchs, and God’s unbreakable, eternal covenants with them. For God’s gifts and His calling is irrevocable. God is no liar that He should break His word and His promises. They, the Jews, have become ‘disobedient’ in order that we could receive mercy. One can only praise God, knowing that all these things are true, although not fully understanding or comprehending them. Paul does so in Romans 11:33-36. Then he continues in Chapter 12 to conclude that therefore we simply should give ourselves as living sacrifices to serve Him. (Romans 12:1-2)
Israel’s hardening-in-part is guilt and fate. Salvation was offered to them, but most of them declined it and refused to accept it. But it was also fate. There was this plan of God. To get the Gentiles saved and engrafted. When the Church would have realised that it was because of us, Gentiles, that Israel was hardened in part, in order that we could come into this New Covenant relationship with God, she at least could have tried to comfort Israel instead of persecuting and blaming the Jews throughout the centuries. Isaiah 40:1 says: “…Comfort, comfort My people, says your God…”
The work of election and engrafting of Gentiles apparently is almost completed, because the Jewish people are returning back to the land of Israel Why? Because He wants to meet them there. When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then He will return to Israel, in order that all Israel will be saved. And after that the Kingdom will come. Forever.
Paul finalises this chapter by simply admitting that he does not understand either why God works in this mysterious way. He can only praise God for it. As we all should when things are happening in our lives we do not understand either.
He says: “…Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counsellor?" "Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?" For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever! Amen…” (Romans 1:33-36)