5. Paul gives the future status of Israel that: if Israelites cease to remain in un-belief, God would revert their relationship, and they will again be joined to their original root and enjoy the blessings given to Abraham. God is able to graft them again. It is agriculturally impossible because that a broken branch cannot be grafted to the tree again. But our God is God of impossibilities. He can make the dry bones live and restore the severed branches of the Jewish nation. He can bring back the broken branches to make them fruitful again. Throughout the OT, the prophets have called the Israelites to return to God. In the NT era, the same Israelites come back to God in faith accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, they will be blessed once again and enlarge the Kingdom once they had.
6. Paul once again explaining (11:12), says that the Jews who rejected Christ with prejudice against the Gospel, seemed very improbable that they ever would return to God’s fold, but the possibility is very much at hand and it would be accomplished by the mighty hand of God. When Gentiles who were wild by nature, strangers to covenants of promise could be grafted into a good olive tree which brought riches, how much more readily the natural branches would be grafted into their own olive tree, when they come to Him in complete obedience. There is no hope for apostate church, but there is hope for apostate Israel, because of the roots of the olive tree. God will keep His promises to the patriarchs, but God will break off the Gentiles because of their unbelief.
Covenant restored: (11:25-32):
God made covenant with Abraham and his sons. Israel was chosen by His grace. It was His unmerited election (choice) to show His kindness. It was His nature and character that a Covenanted God cannot change His action. Many people may dispute about prophecy and differ in their interpretations of OT, but we must realize that we are dealing with Gods people.
- A Mystery: (11:25a): Israel’s stumbling is temporary. It was in His plan and purpose to put Israel aside temporarily in order to show grace to Gentiles. This is the mystery, which is something previously hidden but now revealed to all. It was God’s plan that Israel would resist their own Messiah for a while as evident when John said: “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him” (Jn.1:11). But this rejection was temporary until the full number of Gentiles comes into faith.
- Israel’s hardening: (11:25b): Paul uses the word “hardening” which gives a meaning of dullness, differs from “hardens” which is used for Pharaoh for his stubbornness. After a partial hardening, Israel will be saved. Gentile believers should not have such false pride that Israel is cut off and they are being grafted in place of Israel.
Paul has already said that the Jews have not stumbled beyond recovery, and Jewish branches can be grafted back in if they believe. They are hardened until the full number of Gentiles are added into God’s fold which again implies that the hardening was temporary. He also says that the Jewish people are still loved, their calling cannot be officially cancelled, and that God will have mercy on them if they believe in Christ.
- God’s promise: (11:26): Paul quoted from (Isa.59:20-21) that all Israel will be saved. We must also understand that it does not mean that every Jew living at the time of Christ’s return will be regenerated, but many of them will be regenerated and saved because the judgement of Israel would follow soon after the Lord’s return. He will remove the Jewish rebels as prophesied by Ezekiel, “I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. I will bring you into the desert of the nations and there, face to face, I will execute judgment upon you. As I judged your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will take note of you as you pass under my rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. I will purge you of those who revolt and rebel against me. Although I will bring them out of the land where they are living, yet they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord” (Eze.20:34-38). God establishes His New Covenant with the saved Israel.
- God’s covenant: (27-28): Continuing from (11:26) Paul says that God chose Israel in His grace not because of any merit. He indirectly takes the quotation from (Jer.31:33-34), that God will make a covenant with the house of Israel, a redeemer will come to Zion. Now Paul sees that the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ has already come, He will accomplish the work for which He came to do. The Redeemer has come not only to save Israelites but also the Gentiles and every human being. In saving vast number of Gentiles, His covenant to Israel has not become void or the promise has been broken . The New Covenant included both Jews and Gentiles. Following the judgement of (Jer.31:33-34), God will remove godlessness and sins from the nation and establishes His New Covenant with the regenerated.