God will do what He promised
1Maybe someone will ask: ‘Has God thrown away his people, the Israelites?’
No, He has not thrown them away. You must remember that I am also an Israelite. I am a descendant of Abraham and I belong to the Benjamin tribe. 2God has not thrown away his people. He chose them to belong to Him. He chose them before He made the world and everything in it. Remember what the Old_Testament says about Elijah. Elijah complained to God about the Israelites and he said: 3‘Lord, the Israelites have killed your prophets and they have destroyed your altars. I am the only one left. And now they want to kill me too.’
4But God said to Elijah: ‘I have kept 7 000 people for Myself who have not bowed to Baal and worshipped him.’
5God has done the same now. He has chosen some people to belong to Him and to serve Him because He wants to be very good to them. 6God has chosen them, not because they are good or because they have done good things. No, He has chosen them because He wants to be very good to them. If God had chosen them because they had done good things, then it would not have been God's mercy that saved them.
7What does this mean? It means that the Israelites wanted God to make them righteous because of the good things they have done, but He has not made them righteous. He has chosen some people and He has made them righteous, but He has made the other people stubborn. 8It is like the words written in the Old_Testament:
‘God has made them like people
who can not feel or understand anything.
He has given them eyes that can not see
and ears that can not listen to Him.’
It is still the same today.
9And David says in the Old_Testament:
‘Lord, You must punish them there at their meal-offerings.
Let them fall like birds fall into a trap.
They must fall and be hurt.
Please punish them.
10Make them blind so that they can not see.
Bend their backs so that they can never walk again.’
11The Israelites sinned when they did not want to believe in Christ. Maybe someone will ask again: ‘Are the Israelites lost forever?’ No, they are not lost forever. They have sinned, but because they have sinned, God saved the Gentiles. He did this to make the Israelites jealous. 12When the Israelites sinned, the Gentiles received all the good things that God wanted to give. Yes, the Israelites lost all the good things, and the Gentiles got all the good things. Just think how much more the Gentiles will get when the Israelites turn to God and He saves all the Israelites that He wants to save.
Paul speaks to the Gentiles
13I am now talking to you, Gentiles. I am an apostle and God gave me the work of going to the Gentiles. I am proud of the work that I am doing 14and I hope that the Israelites will become jealous when they see that God is saving the Gentiles, and maybe He will save some of the Israelites too. 15When God turned away from the Israelites, He took away the sins of other people in the world and made peace with them. You should know that when God accepts the Israelites to belong to Him again, it will be the same as when God makes dead people live again.
16If someone sacrifices a small piece of dough to God, then all the dough belongs to Him. If the roots of a tree belong to God, then the branches of the tree also belong to Him.
Wild branches growing on an old tree
17God turned away from the Israelites and left them and He saved you, the Gentiles. It is like when someone cuts off branches from an old olive tree and puts wild branches into the old tree to become part of that tree. Then those wild branches grow onto the old olive tree and they also get all the food that they need from the roots of the old tree. 18You Gentiles are like the wild branches and the Israelites are like the branches from the old tree. The wild branches may not think that they are better than the old branches because the branches of the wild tree can not live by themselves. They must get their food from the roots of the old tree. 19Maybe you Gentiles think you are better and you say: ‘God cut off the old branches so that He could make us part of the old tree.’ 20Yes, that is true, but you must remember that God cut off the old branches, the Israelites, because they did not believe in Christ. You Gentiles have become part of the tree because you believe in Christ. That is why you must not become proud. You must respect God and serve Him. 21You must remember that God did not feel sorry for the old branches and maybe He will not feel sorry for you too.
22You should know that God is very good, but He can also become angry. He is angry with people who do not believe in Christ and who are lost. God is good to you, but then you must keep on living like people who know that God is good to them. If you don't do that, God will also cut you off from the tree like He cut off the old branches. 23If the Israelites start believing in Christ, God will take them back so that they can belong to Him again. God can do that. 24You Gentiles are like branches from a wild olive tree. It is not easy for wild branches to grow onto an old olive tree, but God has cut you off and He has made you grow into the old olive tree. So, it will be a lot easier for God to accept the Israelites again, because they are like the old branches that can easily start to grow onto the tree again, where they were growing before.
God will give his grace to the Israelites
25Friends, I want you to know what God decided long ago and what He has told us now. Do not think that you know everything. Some of the Israelites are stubborn, and they do not believe in Christ. It will be like this until God has saved all the Gentiles that He wants to save. 26This is how God will save all the Israelites. It will be like it is written in the Old_Testament:
‘The Saviour will come from Zion,
and He will stop the descendants of Jacob
from doing wrong.
27I will make this covenant with them.
I will forgive their sins.’
28The Israelites did not believe the Good_News and that is why they became God's enemies and that is why God is good to you Gentiles. But God has chosen the Israelites and He loves them because He made a covenant with their forefathers. 29If God gives his grace to someone, He gives it forever. If He chooses people, He chooses them forever. 30You were Gentiles who did not listen to God. But because the Israelites did not want to listen to God, God started to feel sorry for you and He gave his love and mercy to you. 31Now the same will happen: The Israelites did not listen to God, but God will be good to them again and give them his mercy, because He was good to you. 32All people, Israelites and Gentiles, have disobeyed God. And God has let them stay like that, like people in prison, because He wants to feel sorry for all of them and give them his mercy. 33The wisdom of God, everything that He knows, and everything that belongs to Him is more than we can understand. We don't know what God decides. We are not able to find out what He wants to do.
34‘Who may tell the Lord
what He must think?
Who can tell Him
what the right things are that He must do? No one.
35Who has first given something to the Lord
so that the Lord must give it back? No one.’
36The Lord has made everything and everyone. Everyone and everything comes from Him and everything and everyone must serve Him. That is why we must always praise the Lord. Amen.
