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Romans 11:17-24, the Olive tree of blessing Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep...I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, even as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. And other sheep I have that are not of this fold. Them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd" (John 10:11, 14-16). These other sheep are those outside of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Jews), known as Gentiles. Their knowing the Lord was spoken of by several prophets, especially Isaiah. For example, Isaiah 9:1-2 writes, “by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, In Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined.”Isaiah 11:10-12 “ And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.” Isaiah 42:1-4 “ Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.” Isaiah 49:6-7 Of his servant, “ I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'“ Gentiles are mentioned over 50 times throughout the Old Testament, right up to the last book, Malachi 1:11 “My name shall be great among the Gentiles;…For My name shall be great among the nations,” Says the LORD of hosts.” God had promised in the Old Testament that non-Jews (Gentiles) would know Israel’s God. After Peter participated in giving the gospel to the Gentiles (in Acts 10) watched them be saved as the Jews were. The leadership in Jerusalem heard what had taken place with the Gentiles and called a Council— Acts 15 — as Peter reported to them (about Acts 10,11). The Jewish leadership in Jerusalem determined that God’s will was that Gentiles could become believers, be saved, and join the Church. Approved by the Jewish leadership, they were now willing to go to the other nations to bring the Gospel to non-Jews. Paul was called to the Gentiles, and Peter was to stay in Israel for ministering to his brethren, the Jews. We know from history that after several hundred years, a reversal occurred in which Gentiles in the Roman Empire came to be the head of the church. Instead of being grateful to those who brought them the gospel, in just a few generations, this was turned around on them. The Roman Empire was shaken by several factors: famine, drought, plagues, and the invasion of barbarians. Roman generals fought over control of the empire, which led to civil wars and, of course, competing religions, one of which was Christianity. The Roman church was developed under Constantine. It began its own Christianity, merging the government with the religion, allowing former pagans to enter, and many of their practices were more easily Christianized. He made hatred known to the believers within Judaism first and then also to the Jews who did not believe. They severed the church from its Judaic roots, where all the prophecies were spoken from, and were now null and void on Israel for its leadership position. The Gentile teachers of the Roman church said the church replaced Israel; they are blessed, Israel is cursed, and for many, this attitude continues to this day. These were such bad bible teachers that they did not notice that not only what they were saying is impossible according to God, but by saying this, they condemned themselves by the Word of God. Eph. 2:12 Paul writes, “remember that you were at that time separated from Messiah, alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenants of Promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”God had v.13 “to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, that He might reconcile them both to God in one body …”V.14 “made one”, v.15 “one new man,” v.19 “fellow citizens” … “members of the household of God” … this was Gods intention for the Gentiles to be saved, spoken of in the Old Testament (especially Isaiah). Paul tells us that the Olive Tree represents the place of spiritual blessings. The Olive The tree does not concern only Israel or only the Gentiles, but both. The natural branches IN the Olive tree represent the Jewish people. The Gentiles are represented by the wild olive branches GRAFTED into the same tree. The Olive Tree in this passage does not represent the Church; it represents the place of spiritual blessing for those in the new covenant that God made to Israel. And one must be in the new covenant to be a recipient of the covenant blessing (Jer. 31:31). One received the spiritual blessings through the seed of Abraham —from Isaac to Jacob—Israel (Gen. 12:1-3). So, from the outset, if what the Roman church claimed is true —that the church replaced Israel —then there is no covenant tree rooted in the ground. As the Bible speaks of a tree with no root, it has no growth and no fruit. We need to know prophecy correctly for the History of Israel to be understood, which occurred before the Church began and after. Without understanding the covenant with Israel, you cannot know how God deals with humanity or how the last days culminate in Israel and the world. In Jeremiah’s day God spoke (31:31-34) " Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah -- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Ezekiel, a contemporary, speaks of their breaking the covenant; however, he also says in Ezekiel 16:59-61,"Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you .”He speaks of the future, Ezek. 37:26 “ Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore” And to Isaiah 55:3 “And I will make an everlasting covenant with you--The sure mercies of David.” ( On replacement teaching being false 11.00) The Bible records the Gentiles coming to God, as prophesied by Isaiah the prophet. This was done by the first-century Jews who, at the council in Jerusalem (Acts 15), approved of going outside their people to give them the message of salvation. They were obedient to the Word to bless the Gentiles. The Gentile believers – those who believe in the gospel of Christ become partakers along with natural branches, the Jewish believers, grafted into the olive tree to receive the spiritual blessings. This is the mystery found in the Book of Ephesians. The point of verse 17 is that both Jewish and Gentile believers are partaking of the spiritual blessings of the last of the unconditional Jewish covenant[s]. Paul’s illustration and the principle of the Olive Tree are seen in Romans 11:16: “ And if the firstfruit is holy, so is the lump: and if the root is holy, so are the branches.”The firstfruitand the rootrefer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were the primary recipients of the AbrahamicCovenant. The rootof this tree of blessing is the Abrahamic Covenant. The Gentiles become children of Abraham. Paul makes the same point here that he made in Ephesians 2:11-16 and 3:5-6. Gentiles, by their faith, are now partakers of the same spiritual blessings contained in the Abrahamic Covenant. They are of Abraham, but not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are strictly the Jews. Both share in the spiritual blessings In Gen.12, Abraham was told that all the nations were to be blessed by Abraham’s covenant, and the nations were to receive the revelation because we as humanity are all in the same predicament together. The Savior is Jesus; He is our salvation, the one who came from Israel. The LORD shall save Israelwith an everlasting salvation”(Isa. 45:17). Rom 11:1Paul makes it absolutely clear, “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! There are those of you who are dense and whom he warned not to be haughty. He repeats it in v.2, “ God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.” Paul exhorted the gentile believers now grafted in to not think too highly of themselves but to reach out to the Jews, not accuse them, or make them guilty of what their forefathers have done to the covenant maker, Jesus. They are to make them jealous. God’s spirit will do His work through believers who are not hostile or accusatory, but kind and patient. V. 18-20 Gentiles are not to be arrogant or hateful, for it is the goodness of God that brings one to repentance. But some of them need an attitude and doctrinal adjustment, just as Israel does. The Abrahamic Covenant was first given to Abraham, through his offspring, which is the basis for the expectation of Israel's future national salvation. According toRomans, believing gentiles have been grafted into the olive treethat has its roots and trunk in the patriarchal Promises and the people of Israel.The church does not have an independent existence or genesis on its own,as if it had no roots or history before the fulfillment of Shavuot--Pentecost.If it did, it would be devoid of all association, root or previous foundation.The body of believing Jews, which believing gentiles are also grafted into,
is what Paul is referring to inGalatians 6:16
as “the Israel of God.
” Verse 17: “ But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and did become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree.” The word "if"offers hope of a future national restoration. It says some of the branches were broken off, not all of them. What did Israel get from olives? Oil, used for lamp lighting, is one of the main symbols of the Holy Spirit. Again, the natural branchesare the Jews, Israel, and the wild olive branches are the Gentiles. Paul speaks of grafting wild olivebranches into the olive tree as unnatural, so this must have been a supernatural work of God. Blessings are now distributed also to Gentiles who believe, they are grafted into this tree and are partaking of its sap, just as the natural branches are, the spiritual blessings of the covenant. The Gentiles are not the only recipients of the blessing, but share in it. God’s covenant people, as a nation today that is temporarily not connected to the tree, Paul explains the reason in Rom 11:28-32 “Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.” The Gentiles who were once estranged by disobedience are grafted in. But Israel’s natural grafting continues for a few, because the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable, meaning that Israel is beloved for the sake of the fathers, with whom the covenant was made, and God will not forget. The Covenants To interpret Bible prophecy allegorically destroys the actual meaning conveyed in God’s Word. If prophecy does not mean what it plainly says in a literal sense, then it becomes whatever the individual wants it to mean. One of the most critical subjects in these last days for interpreting prophecy is the future of Israel. If the church is now spiritual Israel, what of the land of Israel? The early church changed literal teachings into allegorical ones; they spiritualized the meanings. This misinterpretation of the church being spiritual Israel removes the concept of a physical land of Israel. This affects several prophecies, least of all whether Christ will rule as king on earth in Jerusalem (Zion). If the New Covenant is fulfilled by the church and has nothing to do with Israel, why does the writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 8:6-13; 10:15-19) state twice that the New Covenant belongs to “the house of Israel” (Heb. 8:8, 10), whom we know are Jews? Hebrews 8:7 If that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second . V.13 “ A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” Rabbinic Judaism in many temples of our day does not represent what Moses and the prophets taught. A smaller percentage of Jews adhere to books like the Talmud, mostly the ultra-orthodox. Many rabbis use the Talmud rather than the Tanach for their understanding of Jesus, and it says hardly anything good about him (except for the older commentators before he was revealed). What they have done is take the least accurate commentaries and make them the basis for most beliefs. Though many have not abandoned the Bible, they see it through the lens of bad commentaries and cannot understand what God wrote in Scripture. Little has changed since the Pharisees. Much of Judaism is then made into a religion of man, much like the religious teachers had done when Jesus arrived among his people. Jesus' main contention with the Pharisees was their traditions, their added teachings to the Word that reinterpreted the Word. This is the state of much (but not all) of Judaism today. So the Jewish people wait for the Messiah, not knowing that he spoke of two comings in Scripture, one being the suffering servant of Joseph, the other as David, their king. In between these, he would save the Gentiles. The church, which began as all Jews had, as time progressed, predominantly became Gentile; the Jews were first witnessing to them, but the favor was not returned. Scripture teaches they are grafted in to make God’s people of the old covenant jealous. But instead, many seem to make his people angry by saying that they, as the natural branches, are forsaken and no longer part of the tree. In Romans 11, the Apostle Paul declares that God has not forsaken Israel, the nation is in a state of unbelief, ‘temporarily.’ So, where does it say that Israel has forfeited the kingdom? Acts 1 also tells us that Christ taught that the kingdom of Israel would be restored. After His resurrection, He spoke to the disciples “of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Before Jesus ascended, he was asked by his disciples, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). They believed that Israel’s kingdom would be restored, Jesus said it would, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority . Christ does not deny there is a kingdom for Israel, they were not to know the when,only that it will. Instead, focus on now, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8). First, the spiritual kingdom is established, which includes the Gentiles; in fact, it majors on the Gentiles, just as Isaiah and others prophesied, until the end, when he focuses on Israel. When he returns, the actual physical kingdom on earth is established by him removing the opposers, and he will rule over all from Zion. The kingdom Christ taught them throughout his ministry is the same promised in Old Testament prophecy. He had not said anywhere that the church has or will replace Israel. If you put together prophecy by piecemeal, instead of in context and with other Scriptures,it becomes confusing. What Jesus did distinguish was his two comings. When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; then saying For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you”(entos, meaning among you) Luke 17:20-21. His healings and miracles that he produced were the foretaste of what the kingdom would be like for everyone. First, a spiritual kingdom is established in the hearts of those who submit to and live in the gospel. It is at the second coming the timing of restoration of the kingdom to Israel takes place. Peter states in Acts 3:20-21, “Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things , which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” This statement shows that it includes the people of his covenant. But today, so many still disagree because they have bought into an ancient prejudice produced by the early Church of Rome. An unprecedented statement in church history that led to the persecution of the Jews. The Word of God says the gospel is to the Jew first, but they claim God does not care for the Jews any longer, they are removed from his blessings. It is only when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, Israel will be saved (Zech. 12:10). The Church has not, nor can it ever permanently replace Israel (Jews); or there is no return of the Messiah. Scripture explains that Israel’s rebirth is the prelude to the far greater event that will change the world forever —the return of their Messiah. The procession for this event has begun. The Romans 11 olive tree, whose roots are Israel/Jewish, and its branches reach out into the nations. Luke 22:18 Jesus told his Jewish followers at the Passover, “ I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." The Abrahamic Covenant is the basis for the expectation of Israel's future national salvation. |
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