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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
April 3
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Today's Pathway:
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In Romans chapter 9 Paul deals with Israel's past. In chapter 10 he deals with Israel's present condition. Now in chapter 11 he deals with God's plans for Israel's future. Verse 1 gives us the thesis of the chapter: God has not cast away His people, the Jews. He is not done with them as a nation, even though many of them have rejected Him. This simple verse completely repudiates Replacement Theology, which states that God is done with Israel and has replaced them with the church. While it is true that most Jews are not saved, and that most of God's work today is being done to and through Gentiles, God still has a plan for the Jewish nation. In today's passage Paul gives two proofs as to how he knows that God isn't done with Israel. First, Paul says that he himself is living proof. In verse 1 he gives his own genealogical pedigree. He is an Israelite, a child of Abraham, and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, which means that he has come through the line of Isaac and Jacob - the line that God chose to bless. So, if Paul was able to be saved, then God must not be done with the Jews. Therefore, as Paul writes in verse 2, God has not cast away His people. Paul adds that these are the ones that God foreknew. God had chosen Israel as His covenant people from eternity past and entered into a relationship with them that will never be destroyed, in spite of the fact that many Israelites did not believe in Him (Romans 3:3-4).
In the second half of verse 2, Paul begins his second proof that God is not done with Israel. He quotes the prophets. In verse 2 he begins with Elijah. The event that Paul is referencing is found in I Kings 19. In verses 10 and 14 of that chapter Elijah says,
"I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."
Elijah is certainly interceding with God at this point, but it is not intercession for Israel, but rather against them. He points out how the Jews had broken God's covenant, defiled His worship and sacrifices, and murdered those whom He sent to tell them the truth. He then tells God that he alone was still willing to follow the Lord, and that if the Jews had their way he would soon be murdered too. Paul then proves his point be giving God's response to Elijah:
"Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him." (I Kings 19:18).
There was still a remnant in Israel that believed God. 7000 might be a small percentage of the total population, but it was still a sizable group.
Paul begins verse 5 with "even so". In other words, just like God had a remnant in the midst of the unbelieving Jews of Elijah's day, so He still has a remnant in the midst of the unbelieving Jews today, and will continue to do so. In Acts 21:17-19 Paul goes to Jerusalem and tells James and the church leadership about how God was working among the Gentiles. This news caused much rejoicing, and then James said to Paul,
"Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe".
God may have shifted His emphasis to the Gentiles, but thousands of Jews were still getting saved, and this was because God had not given up on His people, but showed grace to all those, be they Jew or Gentile, who chose to believe Him and receive His Son.
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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