We have, in Rom. 11:11I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. (Romans 11:1), this question put by the apostle as to Israel: “Hath God cast away His people?” As far as chapter 8 he has been detailing the history of us all as men, whether Jews or Gentiles; he has fully stated the gospel of the grace of God, namely, the reconciliation of man by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After having established, this point, he begins in chapter 9 the history of the dispensations; he makes known the manner in which God has acted towards the Jews and the Gentiles; and in this chapter 11 he starts the question, “Hath God cast away His people?”
We have seen, in studying the history of the four beasts, and also that of the church, that the Jews were put aside; and that the gospel has appeared in the world to save sinners, whether Jews or Gentiles, in order to reveal the hidden mystery of a heavenly people, and also that “unto the principalities and powers in. heavenly places might be known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God.” A Jew, who is now converted, enters into the dispensation of grace; but upon this comes the immediate inquiry, “Hath God cast away His people?”
It is not concerning His spiritual people that the question is asked, but concerning His people according to the flesh—His people, the Jews. The apostle says (ver. 28), “As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.” In this chapter 11 the gospel is not in view—namely, the calling of the Jews, as a people, into grace by the gospel—although indeed there is an election for the gospel from among this people; but the question treated is that of the Jews, as God's manifested people, of Jews according to the flesh, who are enemies as to the gospel, but beloved in respect of a national election on account of the fathers.
Because, then, the gospel is come in, has God rejected His people? Does He count them enemies? The answer of the apostle is, “God forbid!”
We Christians boast of this, that “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance;” and well we may, for it is a scriptural principle; but to whom does the apostle apply it? Not to us, but to the Jews. It is always important to consider the context of every passage of the word of God, and not to force it out of the situation where God has placed it.
The present is the dispensation of the calling of a heavenly people, and, in consequence, God puts aside His earthly people, the Jews. The Jewish nation is never to enter into the church; on the contrary, “blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in;” —until all the children of God (out of them composing Christ's body, the church, in this dispensation) are called.
Israel, as a nation, will be saved. “There shall come out of Zion the deliverer.” He has not cast away His people. As touching the gospel they are enemies, and they will so remain until the fullness of the Gentiles be come: but the Deliverer will come. This is a summary of the divine purpose as regards the Jews.
From the moment it can be affirmed of the dispensation of the Gentiles, that it has not “continued in the goodness of God,” we can say that, sooner or later, it will be cut off. “Toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”
The root of the olive-tree is not alone Israel under the law; far from it. It is Abraham, to whom the call of God was addressed. It was the calling of a single man, separated, elect, the depository of the promises. The choice fell upon Abraham, and upon the family of Abraham according to the flesh. Israel once served for an example, as depository of the promises and of the manifestation of the election of God; now it is the church which so serves.
In order to make you understand the root of the promises, which is Abraham, I will touch upon the series of divine dealings which preceded.
First, at the fall of man we see him left to himself Although not without witnesses, he had neither law nor government; and, as a consequence, evil was carried to the highest pitch, so that the world was full of violence and corruption; and God purified it by the deluge.
Afterward came Noah. A change took place. It was this, that the right of life and death, the right of taking vengeance, was given into the hands of men: “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” To this was added a blessing to the earth, greater or less. “This same,” said Lamech in speaking of Noah, “shall comfort us, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed;” and a covenant was made by God with Noah and with the creation—a covenant in witness of which God gives the rainbow. “The Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground” (Gen. 8:21; 9:6, 12, 1321And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. (Genesis 8:21)
6Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. (Genesis 9:6)
12And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. (Genesis 9:12‑13)). This was the covenant given to the earth immediately after the sacrifice of Noah, the type of the sacrifice of Christ.
It may be said, in passing, that Noah failed in this covenant, as man always has done. Instead of drawing blessing out of the earth by tillage, he begins to cultivate the vine and gets intoxicated. By this forgetfulness and fault of his, the proper principle of government also lost its power in its first elements. Noah, who held its reins, became the subject of derision for one of his sons.
We see in all dispensations the immediate failure of man; but that which is lost in all of them by human folly will find its recovery at the end in Christ; whether it be blessing to the earth, prosperity to the Jews, or the glory of the church. All that has appeared and has been spoiled, under the keeping of the first Adam, will blossom again under that of the Last Adam, Bridegroom of the church, the King of the Jews and of the whole earth.
Another still more signal failure took place after Noah's. God had made His judgments terribly felt in the deluge, and His providence was thus revealed. What did Satan do? As long as he is unbound, he takes possession of the state of things here below. No sooner did God manifest Himself in His providential judgments than Satan presented himself as God; he made himself, as it were, God. Is it not written, “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God?” Satan made himself the god of this earth. Josh. 24:22And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. (Joshua 24:2); “Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time......and they served other gods,” said the Lord to the Israelites. It is the first time that we find God marking the existence of idolatry. When it made its appearance, God calls Abraham; and thus, for the first time, appears the call of God to an outward separation from the state of things here below. Because Satan had introduced himself as influencing the thoughts of man, as the one whom man was to invoke, it was necessary that the true God should have a people separated from other peoples, where the truth might be preserved. And consequently all the ways of God towards men turn upon this point—that here below God called Abraham and his posterity to be the depository of this great truth: “There are none other gods but one” (see Deut. 4:3535Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him. (Deuteronomy 4:35)). Consequently all the dealings of God upon the earth have reference entirely and directly to the Jews, as the center of His earthly counsels and of His government. This is shown us in Deut. 32:88When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:8) It was according to the number of the children of Israel that the bounds of the nations were set. It was with reference to Israel that He gave them their habitations.
You will see also these two principles distinctly presented in the word: on one side, the promises made to Abraham without condition; and, on the other, Israel receiving them under condition, and so losing all. But as Abraham received the promises without condition, God cannot forget them, although Israel may have failed in the conditions which they engaged for. And this is very important; for if God were to fail in His promises towards Abraham, He could fail also in His promises towards us.
It was at Sinai that Israel received the promises under condition, and failed; but this in no wise weakened the validity and the force of the promises made to Abraham four hundred years before. I am not now alluding to the spiritual promise, “All nations shall be blessed in thee,” which has found a partial fulfillment by the gospel in this dispensation; but I refer to the promises made to Israel, which rest on the same faithfulness of God.
Let us begin our citations upon this subject out of Gen. 12. The chapter is the call of Abraham, who was then in the midst of his idolatrous family. The terms of the promises are very general; but they contain earthly blessings as well as purely spiritual ones. The two kinds of blessing are found in the same verse equally without condition. The spiritual part of the promise is only once repeated (chap. xxii.) and that to the seed; not so the temporal ones. In chap. 15 we have a promise founded upon a covenant made with Abraham, also without condition; it is an absolute gift of the country. Here is also found that of a numerous posterity (ver. 5, 18); and even the exact limits of the country given (ver. 18, and following). In chapter 17:7, 8, the promise of the earth is renewed. These are confirmed to Isaac (chap. 26:3, 4), and to Jacob (chap. 35:10-12). Here are “the promises made unto the fathers,” and to Israel, “beloved for the fathers' sakes;” they are made to Abraham, whether spiritual or temporal, without any condition.
If you say that the spiritual promises are without condition, so by parity of reasoning the temporal ones are. There is as much certainty in the promise made to Abraham, “To thee will I give this land,” as in those which have been made in favor of as Gentiles.
There is no need to cite the wrestling of Jacob. It is, in general, thought to be a proof of extraordinary faith in him. This is true; but, at the same time, it is a faith which, exerted after conduct much to be reprehended, was to be accompanied by an evident humiliation. It was God who wrestled with him; but God also sustained his faith. So shall it be with Israel in the end: they shall feel the effect of leaning on the flesh; but God shall take this controversy into His own hands and bless them after all.
Thus God made Himself “the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” —heirs of the promises, and pilgrims upon earth.
We shall see that in this name God, as it were, makes His boast on the earth, and that the faithful in Israel ever find in it the motives of their confidence. “Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations” (Ex. 3:1515And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. (Exodus 3:15)).
But in another point of view, Israel placed themselves in relationship with God in a way which is opposed to all that; namely, of their own righteousness—the principle of the law, by virtue of which, acknowledging that we owe obedience to God, we undertake the doing of it in our own strength; for the history of the people of Israel, whether in its largeness or in details, is but the history of our hearts.
(To be continued D.V.)