The media is full of naïve and uninformed college students protesting in behalf of Palestine. At that age they think they know everything. They also believe that by illegally protesting they could make a change that would favor the enemies of Israel even though Israel was first attacked.
Most of the Middle East history is full of anti-sematic attacks as part of persecution on God’s chosen people. This goes all the way back to their slavery in Egypt before Moses was chosen by God to lead his people to a new land. One would think that the Israelites would eagerly accept Jesus as the Messiah, but this was not true because they were looking for an earthly Messiah who would relieve them of Roman domination. However, there is a reason for this disconnect. The apostle Paul explains it in Romans eleven.
He said that the “casting away” led to the reconciling of the rest of the world but that the receiving of them back into a close relationship with God would be like someone who rose from the dead. Most of the world are Gentiles. If they’re not Jews, they are Gentiles. God’s plan was for the Jews to evangelize the world. They were unable to do this because of their own unbelief. Paul compares their unbelief to a natural branch that was cut off from an olive tree.
Then he compares believing Gentiles to a wild branch that was grafted into the olive tree. He said that the reconciling of the rest of the world occurred by the casting away of the original branch (Jews) how much more wonderful it would be when they are grafted back into to the tree.
He offers a warning to the Gentiles saying, “if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lease he also spare not thee.” He reminds them that the following away of the Jews and refusing to serve God, refusing to be part of his goodness because the alienation between them and the Son of God as the true Messiah was a mystery. Paul summarized his thoughts by saying, “blindness in part had happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles become in.” He rejoiced about the riches of wisdom and knowledge God has blessed all with unsearchable judgments that are beyond finding out.
This chapter offers a powerful lesson. It is through God’s mercy that the Gentiles were able to experience eternal salvation. It is also through God’s mercy that someday the Jews will recognize Jesus as their Messiah. In the meantime, all the turmoil in the world is part of Satan’s hostility against God’s plan for both Jew and Gentile to experience salvation.
Christian Writer 