Apr 6, 2017
It would have been easy for the Gentile recipients of Paul’s letter to have concluded that the Jews had blown it. They had rejected Jesus as their Messiah and, therefore, God had chosen to take His message of salvation to non-Jews. But Paul, a Jew himself, wouldn’t allow them to draw this conclusion. In response to whether God had rejected His people, Paul responded, “By no means!” They may have rejected Him, but He had not rejected them. He had a plan for the people of Israel and had made binding promises regarding their future that He was going to keep. Their rejection of His Son had not caught God off guard. He hadn’t been forced to knee-jerk react and come up with a plan B. In fact, everything was going exactly as He had pre-ordained it to happen. No surprises. No setbacks. No cause for concern. Because God had always planned for all the nations to be blessed, including Israel, and so they were.