Four Results of Israel’s Fall

Introduction

As we have been studying God’s plan for Israel, we have seen that God’s rejection was not complete. Did God cast off all of Israel? Paul argues no because even in his day, there were believing Jews. But Paul asks a second question in our passage today beginning in Romans 11:11 “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.” Have the Jews tripped over or stumbled over the stumblingstone Jesus Christ so badly that they will be completely, permanently cast off and destroyed? In vs 11-12, we see a key word repeated three times. In English it is the same word, but in Greek it is actually two different words and the distinction is important.

The first word fall here means to suffer defeat, ruin or be destroyed. The implication of the word is that someone has been totally done away with. The second and third word are actually the same word and they refer to Israel’s sin or transgression. you could paraphrase vs 11 like this “Have they tripped up so badly that they are completely destroyed? No in no way, but rather through their transgression, salvation is now offered to the Gentiles to cause them to be jealous.”

The question Paul is really asking is “Has Israel so messed up that God is permanently done with them?”

Have you ever messed up at work? I remember working for Burger King, I was in charge of all the inventory, and truck orders. Sometimes I just couldn’t get the orders right because of special events and we would run out of burger meat. I couldn’t order too much because there was no room for it, but if I ordered too little we would run out. At times, I would mess up on how much I ordered even when I followed the computer generated build-to. It was my mistake and I would have to fix it. Those little mistakes never cost me my job though I had to bear the inconvenience of driving to Richmond an hour away to get more burgers from another store. It was just a minor infraction.

I remember though one time when I was working at a grocery store. We had just hired a guy and he seemed to be a hard worker. I was excited that he was joining the team. We worked overnight stocking the shelves for Kroger. Most the other guys would take little work and then spend the night reading while me and one other guy continued working the whole night long. Well this guys jumped in with us and worked all night long. I was excited until one night, he disappeared. It seems that night, he got into the alcohol, got drunk and passed out on the bathroom floor. The bosses found him the next day lying there. This infraction was a step too far and he was fired from his job.

Paul asks, has Israel messed up like that. The question is technically rhetorical and has an expected no answer, but Paul emphasizes it even more with the phrase God forbid, may it never be. So why did God allow Israel to make this false step? What did He accomplish through it. This morning we are going to look at four results of Israel’s fall.

The Salvation of the Gentiles

Romans 11:11 “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”

One benefit of the Jewish rejection is that salvation was offered to the Gentile world. If you remember from the book of Acts, Paul always began preaching to the Jews, but when they wouldn’t listen, he would preach to the Gentiles. There is one thing that the Jews completely missed in their religion: they were always intended to bring salvation to the Gentiles.

Back when God established his covenant with Abraham, he promised that in Abraham all the families, all the people groups of the earth would be blessed through him. Israel was always intended to bring a special blessing to the rest of the world. We know primarily that blessing was through the person of Jesus Christ, a Jew who would bring redemption for the world. But Israel’s role was not merely to be the vessel through whom the Messiah would come.

God’s interactions and blessing to Israel were a message to the world. Psalm 67:1–2 “God be merciful unto us, and bless us; And cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. That thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations.” They were to declare His glory to the nations Psalm 96:3 “Declare his glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people.” As a people they were a light to the Gentiles Isaiah 42:6–7 “I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, And will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, And give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, To bring out the prisoners from the prison, And them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” Both Micah and Zechariah prophesied that in the future the nations would go to Jerusalem to worship. Israel was intended to have an evangelistic effect on the lost Gentile nations.

But that doesn’t seem to be the way Israel approached their religion. Outsiders were ostracized and kept at arms length. Religious pride caused them to look down on others. Something was wrong with their heart, but God would accomplish His goal one way or another. The gospel went out to the Gentiles primarily because the Jews wouldn’t listen.

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to focus on multiple groups at the same time? Imagine if you had a group of teenagers who have gathered to play a game and you divided them up into groups of 5. You’ve got about 15 separate groups doing a game. Part of that game is going to involve you touching base with each team. By yourself, it is hard to give equal effort and time to each of those groups. Sometimes ministry is like this. I have tried to make an effort to reach out, visit, show hospitality to people in the church and I know that there are people I haven’t gotten to. Sometimes certain groups of people are more needy than others.

What God did with Israel allowed the gospel to be refocused on the Gentiles for a time and I am glad that it has because you and I are the recipients of that change.

To Provoke the Jews

Romans 11:11 “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”

Romans 11:14 “If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.”

Paul desires to provoke the Jews. This provoking is trying to make them jealous.

We’ve all seen the love stories where a girl likes a guy but he seems to be interested in someone else. She’s trying to get his attention and to get him to realize what he’s missing so she flirts with someone else. It drives the point home even further if the guys she flirts with is someone he doesn’t like.

In a way Paul desires for the Jews to see how God is blessing the Gentiles in salvation and become jealous. After all this was the thing that they were promised: forgiveness of sins, the Messiah, eternal life etc. But more specifically, Paul wants them not to be merely jealous because that just leads to bitterness or defeat. Paul desires the Jews to become so jealous that they do something about it: they emulate what the Gentiles have done. Emulation is not in the Greek text, but Paul’s desire is that their jealousy would lead them to be saved; so its implied.

There are a lot of people in our world who are jealous of others. They see someone who has a good job, works hard, has a nice house and family; but they aren’t willing to do what that man did to get there. I have had people comment on the behavior of my kids saying they wish their kids were like that, but they reject some essential piece of my parenting style. Sometimes you just can’t get there without doing certain things. You must emulate the life of those you want to be like. Now obviously don’t emulate the world, or even adopt every aspect of a person’s life. But if you want to reach a certain goal, you have to do what others have done to get there.

Earlier in Romans 9 we saw that the Jews wanted to achieve righteousness, but failed to do so. Meanwhile the Gentiles did because they sought it by faith. So if the Jews want to acheive their goal, what do they need? faith.

The Riches of the World

Romans 11:12 “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?”

Primarily the riches of the world are related to the salvation of the Gentiles, but it has a broader meaning than that. If you think about it, there are spiritual blessings that we as Gentiles never had access to. We can come before God, we have forgiveness of sins, we look forward to a home in heaven. These were spiritual blessings that belonged primarily to the Jews . Paul here is reaching all the way back to Romans 9:4–5 “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.”

God had blessed Israel with all these things, but now we as Christian’s have become sharers of these blessings. Romans 15:27 “It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers (Sharers) of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.” Gal 3. Start in vs 7

Vs 7 Echoeing Romans 4, those who believe are children of Abraham

Vs 8 Paul ties the promise in Gen 12 to the salvation of the Gentiles

Vs 9 Those who are children of Abraham are blessed with Abraham.

vs 10 Those who are under the law are cursed

vs11 salvation is by faith alone

vs 12 law and faith are mutually exclusive

vs 13 Christ freed us from the law by bearing our curse for us

vs 14 The result is Abraham’s blessing comes on the Gentiles key phrase through Jesus Christ. This is the crux of the whole matter because we only receive the blessings in Christ. Christ was a Jew, the perfect Jew, the only one to keep the law and all those promises are His. This ties in to Paul’s doctrine of being in Christ. Because we are in Christ, we receive the blessings.

Skip middle verses discussion of seeds and law

Vs 26-29 We become heirs of the promise made to Abraham.

It is often argued that the land promises don’t belong to the church and there is a sense in which that is true. The Spiritual blessings are ours, but there is a sense in which we still share in the land promises even because during the Millennial reign that is where Christ will be. But the blessings are seen as flowing out from Israel through Christ to the Church. Later on the language of the text states that we are nourished from the fat of the tree vs 17.

The Salvation of the Jews

Romans 11:12–16 “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.”

Diminishing of them- fewer are being saved. Paul argues from lesser to greater. (Illustrate- if I would but a toy for my kids when they want it, I would definately buy them life saving medicine) If the fewer of the Jews being part of the people of God has led to such a great outcome, how much greater will the outcome be when they come in their fullness. fullness speaks of a complete turning of the nation of Israel. This is prophesied in vs 26. All Israel shall be saved.

What will the receiving of them be- life from the dead. There will be a day when there will be a great Awakening in Israel where the Jews turn in mass to Jesus. This was prophesied in the OT as well in

Zechariah 12:9–10 “And it shall come to pass in that day, That I will seek to destroy all the nations That come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, The spirit of grace and of supplications: And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, And they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, And shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”

This moment will occur after all the nations have come to destroy Jerusalem. In that moment, God will pour out the spirit of grace and they will have their eyes opened to see the one whom they pierced. The overtones are clear without going into the details of the context. They will mourn for Him and turn to Him. This event will usher in the Millennial reign of Christ.

Paul concludes this section by arguing that if the roots were holy, set apart, special to God; so will be the branches that have come from those roots. If Abraham was special, so are the people of Israel to God.

Conclusion:

The obvious application to this message is that we should pray for the salvation of Israel confident knowing that it will happen someday.

But I want to make one closely related application to our lives. Israel failed in this moment. Jesus came and she rejected her Messiah. She stumbled and fell because of her unbelief. How often do we stumble and fall because of our own unbelief? We need God to provide for a need but we fall back on credit cards and depending on man because we can’t believe he would do anything. We are struggling with something but we can’t believe that God will intervene? We choose our own way instead of His. We harden our hearts to God’s will. We are blind and do not see what God has clearly put right in front of us. We hurt and pull away from God. All ways in which we stumble.

Is God done with us when we fail? Can God use our failures for His own glory and a greater good? Israel’s fall was temporary. She could return really at any time and God would receive her. In spite of all she has done to reject Him, God still used it to accomplish these four things. He took ashes and made something beautiful from them.

Just like in Israel’s case, failure was not permanent. You do not have to wallow in the mud. God has a plan for your life and can make something beautiful from the ruins that are left behind by sin. Rise up and Return.