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The Jews
(or Israelites) are descendants of Abraham and are the people whom God
foreknew and to whom were committed the oracles of
God and with whom God made a covenant after He brought them out of Egypt. However
the wrath of God came upon them many times because of the stubbornness of
their heart. We can see this very clearly in the Bible. While they were in
the wilderness on their way to the land of Canaan, and
after they entered the promised land (during the period of the Judges) they
broke the commandments of God and God punished them for their transgressions.
Even after the Kingdom
of Israel
was divided in two kingdoms, that is, the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel, the
people rebelled against God many times giving themselves over to idolatry and
to many other sins. God sent His prophets to them to warn them to forsake
their evil works and to return to His Word, but they refused to listen to the
prophets. Therefore God punished them by sending foreign armies against them,
and many of them were killed and many others were carried away captive (to Assyria
end to Babylon).
But God in His mercy and in His faithfulness did not forsake the Israelites,
for He caused them to return to the promised land. Afterward, in the fullness
of the time God sent Jesus, the Messiah, to Israel to save His people from
their sins, but the Jews (or rather most of the Jews) did not recognize Him
as the Messiah that God had promised through His prophets of old and they
killed Him by the Romans, who at the time were ruling over their country. The
people of Israel
and the Gentiles did whatever His hand and His purpose determined before to
be done. Only a small number of Jews accepted Jesus of Nazareth as the
Messiah of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote. Most of the
Jews who live in Israel (as well as outside Israel) still don’t believe that
Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah; only a small number of Jews believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, they are the remnant according to the election of grace
whom God appointed to eternal life; the other Jews were hardened by God so
that they might stumble over the stumbling stone. However this hardening in
part one day will have an end, for the apostle Paul states that a hardening
in part has happened to Israel until the
fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be
saved. Therefore, even though God has hardened many Jews, He has not cast
away His people whom He foreknew. Concerning the Gospel they are enemies for
our sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the
fathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.
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Therefore
let us see that we do not say, ‘God has rejected Israel’. And let
us not boast against the unbelieving Jews. Let us remember the following
things: first, we who are Gentiles by birth were once excluded from
citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise; second,
we were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree through faith
in Christ by the mercy of God, who decided to save us; third, the root of
this olive tree is a Jewish root. Some branches were undoubtedly broken off
because of their unbelief, and we were grafted in by our faith, but let us
take heed to ourselves because if we don’t continue in the goodness of God we
also will be cut off.
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