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God Has Not Rejected His People

11 (A) Am I saying that God has turned his back on his people? Certainly not! I am one of the people of Israel, and I myself am a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not turn his back on his chosen people. Don't you remember reading in the Scriptures how Elijah complained to God about the people of Israel? (B) He said, “Lord, they killed your prophets and destroyed your altars. I am the only one left, and now they want to kill me.”

(C) But the Lord told Elijah, “I still have 7,000 followers who have not worshiped Baal.” It is the same way now. God treated the people of Israel with undeserved grace, and so a few of them are still his followers. This happened because of God's undeserved kindness and not because of anything they have done. It could not have happened except for God's gift of undeserved grace.

This means that only a chosen few of the people of Israel found what all of them were searching for. And the rest of them were stubborn, (D) just as the Scriptures say,

“God made them so stupid
    that their eyes are blind,
and their ears
    are still deaf.”

(E) Then David said,

“Turn their meals
    into bait for a trap,
so that they will stumble
and be given
    what they deserve.
10 Blindfold their eyes!
    Don't let them see.
Bend their backs
beneath a burden
    that will never be lifted.”

Gentiles Will Be Saved

11 Do I mean that the people of Israel fell, never to get up again? Certainly not! Their failure made it possible for the Gentiles to be saved, and this will make the people of Israel jealous. 12 But if the rest of the world's people were helped so much by their sin and loss, they will be helped even more by their full return.

13 I am now speaking to you Gentiles, and as long as I am an apostle to you, I will take pride in my work. 14 I hope in this way to make some of my own people jealous enough to be saved. 15 When Israel rejected God,[a] the rest of the people in the world were able to turn to him. So when God makes friends with Israel, it will be like bringing the dead back to life. 16 If part of a batch of dough is made holy by being offered to God, then all of the dough is holy. If the roots of a tree are holy, the rest of the tree is holy too.

17 You Gentiles are like branches of a wild olive tree made to be part of a cultivated olive tree. You have taken the place of some branches that were cut away from it. And because of this, you enjoy the blessings that come from being part of that cultivated tree. 18 But don't think you are better than the branches that were cut away. Just remember you are not supporting the roots of this tree. Its roots are supporting you.

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Footnotes

  1. 11.15 When Israel rejected God: Or “When Israel was rejected.”

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