- 2 days ago
Several of the Bible writers use "Jew" and "Israel" as metonyms or in metaphoric and other ambiguous ways. Many groups and individuals use that to redefine the word Jew or to claim they're the real Jews. It's not just racist and historically absurd; it makes God out to be a promise breaker no different than the thousands of capricious pagan deities. God will save a remnant of the physical descendants of Israel because he said he would, and he keeps his word.
The "people whom he foreknew" (v2) are not a mysterious "elect" that God chose for eternal salvation before the foundation of the world. They are Israel, the nation with whom God has an established relationship, and he has not rejected them.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
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The "people whom he foreknew" (v2) are not a mysterious "elect" that God chose for eternal salvation before the foundation of the world. They are Israel, the nation with whom God has an established relationship, and he has not rejected them.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
Follow me on Whole Bible Community: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
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LearningTranscript
00:00:01so let's get started with romans and we are beginning romans 11 tonight we finished up
00:00:07chapter 10 last week oops i should have edited that better that's really just verse 21 not 19
00:00:13through 21 i'm going to start reading there and go on to i think like romans 11 verse 9 or
00:00:20something
00:00:20like that but of israel he says all day long i have held out my hands to a disobedient and
00:00:26contrary people i ask then has god rejected his people by no means for i myself am an israelite
00:00:34a descendant of abraham a member of the tribe of benjamin god has not rejected his people whom
00:00:39he foreknew do you not know what the scripture says of elijah how he appeals to god against israel
00:00:45lord they have killed your prophets they have demolished your altars and i alone am left
00:00:49and they seek my life but what is god's reply to him i have kept for myself seven thousand men
00:00:55who
00:00:55have not bound the knee to baal so too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace
00:01:00but if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace would no longer
00:01:06be grace
00:01:07what then israel failed to obtain what it was seeking the elect obtained it but the rest were
00:01:12hardened as it is written god gave them a spirit of stupor eyes that would not see and ears that
00:01:17would not hear down to this very day and david says let their table become a snare and a trap
00:01:23a
00:01:23stumbling block and a retribution to them let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see
00:01:28and bend their backs forever all right i'm hoping we get all the way to verse 10 this time
00:01:34because the references that paul uses in isaiah and deuteronomy and in psalms are i think are
00:01:42really important to understand not just the quote that he makes but the whole context of those quotes
00:01:48all right back in romans 10 21 paul had been talking about the people of israel and how they
00:01:55have been blinded by uh even by yeshua because he wasn't what they were expecting they rejected him
00:02:03they had a certain picture in mind of who the messiah is supposed to be and he didn't fit that
00:02:08picture
00:02:09and you know he goes back to uh uh this is isaiah 65 and you know all day long i
00:02:16held out my hands
00:02:17to a disobedient and contrary people and they are disobedient and contrary but god is still holding
00:02:24out his hands to them despite that and you know he temporarily repudiates them and brings promises to
00:02:30bring them back again so let's move into chapter 11 i asked then has god rejected his people by no
00:02:38means for i myself am an israelite a descendant of abraham a member of the tribe of benjamin
00:02:44so i'm sure that that you have probably encountered people who say that god has completely rejected
00:02:50physical israel that the physical descendants of jacob are no longer israel and god has completely cut
00:02:59them off he is totally done with them but usually people will also say that those people can become
00:03:04christians they can put their faith in jesus and they will be saved like everybody else and that is
00:03:09that is totally true but god made promises to jacob he made promises to abraham and isaac and to moses
00:03:19and the people of israel standing at the foot of montsinai and later even in the middle of their
00:03:26of their rebellion just you know that quote from isaiah at their worst god still promised to
00:03:33retain a remnant for himself and bring them back so if god has utterly rejected the physical
00:03:40descendants of israel as israel then it seems to me he's making himself out to be a liar
00:03:46because if you tell people something like if i say scott i'm coming to your house tonight
00:03:53but i actually meant somebody else and not you wouldn't you consider that to be dishonest
00:03:58i would now if there are two scots in the room and i wave my hands and i say scott
00:04:05i'm coming to
00:04:05your house tonight well there's some ambiguity there who knows which scott i'm talking about
00:04:10only mean one of them unless i said scott's but that's not the case here i mean god is speaking
00:04:17sometimes to a frame or the northern kingdom sometimes to the southern kingdom frequently he's
00:04:22talking to all of the people of israel so northern and southern and he calls them israel says that he's
00:04:29going to exile them for their sins but he's going to bring them back they will repent they will be
00:04:33restored and he even says that he will bring them right back to the same place from whence he exiled
00:04:40them so if it's not the same people that were exiled who is he bringing back to that same place
00:04:47now we do know that the prophecies also say that they'll be bringing back a mixed multitude of from
00:04:53the nations with them but the nations have to have somebody to come back with the same people who were
00:05:01exiled have to be at the core and leading the way in the return and if they're not then all
00:05:06of those
00:05:07prophecies fail and paul has already said that god's word never fails and then he goes on right here to
00:05:13say for i myself am an israelite a descendant of abraham a member of the tribe of benjamin and
00:05:19that's pretty explicit he is saying that a physical descendant of abraham through his great-grandson
00:05:27benjamin is what counts as israel the physical descendants of israel count and paul wasn't always
00:05:35faithful there was a long period of time where he was an enemy of god an enemy of the christians
00:05:41he persecuted yeshua that's in scripture and yet paul remained an israelite all through that time
00:05:50he wasn't rejected from the promises made to israel because he was disobedient now we do know that
00:05:57there are things that you can that will cause you to be cut off from the people of israel there
00:06:02are
00:06:03certain sins you can commit most of them have to do with with sexual stuff or idolatry paul was guilty
00:06:08of murder he was guilty of hatred guilty of all kinds of things but he didn't do anything that
00:06:15would cause him to be cut off from the people of israel he remained a physical israelite throughout
00:06:19i i find it pertinent that he refers to his people not rejected the people or a people
00:06:30but the the the the word his suggests an intimacy a a relation and then it clarifies that
00:06:42an israelite through abraham so it's basically his people abraham israelite benjamin it goes in that
00:06:49order but um i i still think the the term his people is important to note yeah paul is making
00:06:57an
00:06:57assumption that israel is still physical descendants of jacob are still god's chosen people
00:07:04thank you kevin yeah as i was saying yeah that he is emphasizing that the physical descendants of
00:07:10jacob are still god's people they're still his chosen people and in the very next verse he's going
00:07:16to i think it's the next verse he's going to underscore that again yes the next verse so
00:07:23i don't really have anything else to add to this first verse here i don't think any other thoughts
00:07:29or questions about that okay i'm going to swerve and it's in the messianic movement there's a um
00:07:38i've certainly experienced a desire by many to be relevant and many people appropriate for
00:07:49themselves a tribe that they associate with and this may be the the relevance of doing so because
00:07:57paul specifically mentions a tribe he can show a lineage to i don't personally feel that
00:08:05i feel the adoption or the the concept of uh of adoption makes me an israelite i don't have to
00:08:14have a tribe but i know that there are i've talked to many people that will come up with some
00:08:20for some
00:08:21reason they feel they are the tribe of dan or this or that or and it's great you can feel
00:08:29that but i
00:08:29don't know if if that's relevant and i think it's just important to point that out in this verse because
00:08:35it does give a demarcation of benjamin specifically that paul and he had every because he was you know
00:08:42he had every uh right to point to that that truth he probably had his pedigree yeah but if you're
00:08:51without
00:08:51pedigree you're still you're adopted yeah ezekiel 47 i think it's 47 does say that that eventually
00:09:01all of these grafted in gentiles you and me will be associated with a tribe but does that necessarily
00:09:09mean that we have that tribal association now i i kind of agree that it doesn't and i'm i'm not
00:09:15just that people people pick they pick they you know cherry pick what tribe they feel they want to
00:09:21belong to because in their minds it's oh that's a cool tribe they have this characteristic or that
00:09:26characteristic i seem to have that within my spirit i therefore i'm uh benjamin or you know
00:09:32whatever yeah and i in general i think they're it's just wishful thinking i'm not going to say
00:09:40that god can't tell someone that you are from this tribe god can do whatever he wants and if he
00:09:45tells
00:09:45somebody that and you know maybe he did i don't know but most of the time i think people are
00:09:51just
00:09:51engaging in some fantasy wishful thinking and mostly it's harmless but it can also you know it has
00:09:58potential for creating some pride or just some general weirdness that turns off other people i don't
00:10:04know yeah i think i think it's mostly harmless role-playing i don't know what else to call it
00:10:13go ahead kevin yeah i i i i feel like that's very serious because
00:10:21you're basically god has revealed everything in in his word and so when we start adding things to
00:10:31it i would be a little i would be a little concerned because i know how a lot of churches
00:10:38out there
00:10:40non-denominational or whatever they they they do that and it's very dangerous you know god
00:10:49god uh god told us to be careful of angels preaching in the word then you get Mormonism
00:10:58you saw an angel just you know what what could seem as one of those could be very dangerous i
00:11:06was well
00:11:06i'm not saying it's on the same level but yeah it can be especially if you're if you're going down
00:11:12the
00:11:12route of i'm this tribe and you're not yeah many of the black hebrew israelite groups will do that or
00:11:18the the christian identity groups british israelism things like that they'll say that the 10 germanic
00:11:25tribes or celtic tribes or whatever are the actual 10 lost tribes of israel and the the black hebrew
00:11:32israelites will say that they are judah those other people who call themselves jews they're not really
00:11:37judah we are and you know that's when you get into much more serious territory because i mean it's
00:11:45not just racist it's historically absurd and it creates it creates a lot of hatred towards people
00:11:53you know i i think it's it's accurate to say that many people today who call themselves jews are not
00:12:01physically dissented from jacob and you know they don't generally mean that they're from the tribe of
00:12:06they mean that they are from one of the 12 tribes or 13 depending on how you're counting
00:12:11but you know it is true that a lot of them have have been adopted through conversion into judaism
00:12:18and but that's always been the case even in yeshua's day much of the people known as jews had
00:12:25converted from the nations and i'm not really sure that that's necessarily a problem but then when you
00:12:30get a people who have no historical connection to the land of israel and the people of israel
00:12:35who say that because of this linguistic quirk or because our history follows kind of the same
00:12:43pattern is israel we're the real jews that is a bigger deal and that's a real problem well you see
00:12:51it in church and society now because i don't know how many times it bugs me it's just the vernacular
00:12:58that
00:12:58bugs me you know where people associate the their friends as their tribe and they they make an
00:13:07affiliation of we are all rolling in the same direction therefore and they call themselves you
00:13:15know this is my tribe okay it's it's a nice way i understand what you're trying to do
00:13:22by making that statement i just personally don't like it i don't because the tribe is more than just a
00:13:30you know a family or a familiar or just friendship group a tribe has to do with relation and
00:13:36you know it's usually uh growing up in maine and paul you'll know this
00:13:41my quote unquote tribe would be would tend to be from a small french town called waterville
00:13:47and i could go in waterville and find a number of people that i have actual family relationship with
00:13:53and there is a certain culture that that city or town emotes and i i have some affiliation with that
00:14:03well there's actually some meat to that affiliation whereas people now are saying okay i'm gonna have
00:14:09an affiliation with left-handed pitchers because i'm a left-handed pitcher and i feel that that's a good
00:14:16thing to be you know so they'll take something that is maybe important or not important and
00:14:23and they put onus on them yeah we in english we love to to re redefine words in the whole
00:14:31tribalism
00:14:32where really they're talking about affinity groups through right ideology or politics or hobbies
00:14:40or something like that and you know they call it my tribe and yeah like you i understand what
00:14:46they're saying and you know i've used that terminology before at times because i don't
00:14:50know what else to call it calling it an affinity group it seems kind of clunky but yeah as far
00:14:56as
00:14:56historical context and scripture is concerned a tribe is bound by land dna and religion and culture
00:15:07all of those things tied together and if you separate one of those especially if you separate
00:15:14the genetic component is it still a tribe and literally speaking i would say it's not
00:15:21but we know from scripture and history that people can join themselves to a tribe and become part of
00:15:27it i mean there is a way there is some aspects in which you don't have to be genetically related
00:15:35to
00:15:35the people to be part of the tribe but you do have to adopt their religion and culture if you
00:15:40don't
00:15:41you're not really part of the tribe and it's one of the problems that we have in the united states
00:15:45the
00:15:45term is called a propositional nation where we propose a nation based on certain common philosophies
00:15:54and say okay now we're just going to call ourselves a nation except that's not a nation
00:15:59a nation is a group of people related by blood and bound together by a common culture and religion
00:16:07and if you don't have that the nation's going to come apart and you know we we can see this
00:16:12in the
00:16:13united states it's really more like an empire than a single nation because we have all of these
00:16:18different subcultures and regions and people who hate each other and yeah it's it's bizarre we have
00:16:27certainly redefined a lot of terms so if you were to try to apply that to what paul is saying
00:16:33he used
00:16:34what four different his people israelite abraham and then benjamin well all of those do have a
00:16:42commonality and the basis is his people first and foremost and then the culture is starting to be
00:16:50defined as i think israelite would probably be the next term that i would default to and that
00:16:57would help to define who i would be if i'm if i'm attaching myself to you know we'll use the
00:17:04word
00:17:05christian or believer hebrew whatever you want to but that term's irrelevant it's those four terms i
00:17:13think are are relevant his people being foremost than israeli the next and then you you would need
00:17:19to look to define what are the characteristics of his people of israelites and then you go into the
00:17:24word and you say okay this is the what an israelite would do or is somebody that espouses to be
00:17:32his
00:17:32person would do yeah all right let's move on to verse two but before we read verse two
00:17:39but somebody want to take genesis 28 12 to 17 we've got it here if nobody else does i got
00:17:4612 through 17
00:17:49yeah and he dreamed and behold there was a ladder set up on the earth and descending on it
00:17:57wait a minute and let me go back and he dreamed and behold there was a ladder set up upon
00:18:03the earth
00:18:04and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels of god were ascending and descending on it
00:18:09and behold the lord stood above it and said i am the lord the god of abraham your father and
00:18:15the god
00:18:15of isaac the land on which you lie i will give you i will give to you and your offspring
00:18:21your offspring
00:18:22shall be like the dust of the earth and you shall spread up above you shall spread abroad to the
00:18:27west
00:18:27and to the east and to the north and to the south and then you and your offspring shall all
00:18:32the
00:18:32families of the earth be blessed behold i am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will
00:18:39bring
00:18:39you back to the land for i will not leave you until i have done what i have promised you
00:18:45then jacob
00:18:46awoke from his sleep and said surely the lord is in this place and i didn't and i did not
00:18:51know him
00:18:52and he was afraid and said how awesome is this place this is none other than the house of god
00:18:59and this is where the gate and this is the gate of heaven thank you i want to point out
00:19:06several
00:19:07things about this passage before we go on and read romans 11 2 but first although god is speaking to
00:19:14jacob and promising jacob that he's going to be with him until he promises to do what he's going
00:19:19to do he also includes the people and the place it's not just jacob but jacob's descendants he gives
00:19:27this promise to jacob that his descendants will be like the dust of the earth and will spread out to
00:19:32the west and the east north and south and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of
00:19:37the
00:19:38earth be blessed so in the immediate context god is telling jacob you know you're going to go out to
00:19:44uncle laban you're going to spend however many years out there and then i'm going to bring you back
00:19:50and god is promising to make to see him out and back safely but he also adds this promise about
00:19:56his
00:19:56descendants being like the dust of the earth well when jacob came back from from haran from uncle
00:20:03laban's place his descendants weren't like the dust of the earth yet the real fulfillment i mean the
00:20:09greater fulfillment of god's promise here had not yet happened in jacob's lifetime it would not happen
00:20:16until thousands of years later and even though you know at the time that at in yeshua's day you could
00:20:26say that the descendants of jacob were like the dust of the earth at that time and that through him
00:20:31all of the people of the earth had been blessed through the seed of jacob you know what paul also
00:20:37refers to as the seed of abraham in another place same basic idea and you know paul uses this to
00:20:45say
00:20:45and he says seed singular and not plural because it's a reference to yeshua but seed is a plural noun
00:20:51it's a collective noun in hebrew so literally it's singular but it's also understood to be plural so it's a
00:20:58double entendre saying through your seed all of the earth will be blessed but also through all of
00:21:05your descendants scattered north and south and east and west all of the earth will be blessed
00:21:11and then he promises to bring them all back again by promising to bring jacob back he's promising to
00:21:18bring the people of jacob back all of his descendants and this hasn't happened yet they came back in part
00:21:26after the uh their time in egypt they came back for a while but you know they were exiled again
00:21:31and god also promised you know while they were in while they were in the wilderness on their way to
00:21:37the promised land he promised that they would be exiled again but eventually they would repent and
00:21:43return and live in peace and we know that that happened at least the exile part they were exiled to
00:21:50assyria and babylon in all lands beyond and when that happened god also promised that he would bring
00:21:57them back again and when he did they would never fear invasion again they would always be secure
00:22:04they would have peace in the land and you know the wolf will lie down with the lamb and all
00:22:10of these
00:22:10promises but we know that that has not happened there was a partial return after babylon but it was
00:22:17relatively small most jews still lived outside the land most israelites of all tribes still lived outside
00:22:22the land with many of them completely forgotten who they were god can't be done with israel until he
00:22:30fulfills all their promises or his promise that jacob is false and this can only apply to the physical
00:22:38descendants of jacob yet there is a way that we've talked about before in which someone can be a
00:22:45an ideological son of somebody if you are a disciple of somebody you can call that person father and
00:22:53you are like a son to them but here he's not talking he he's it's pretty clear here that he's
00:22:58talking about the physical descendants of jacob and it would be a real stretch i think to say that this
00:23:06only applies to the people who adopt the faith of jacob and are actually descended from jacob because
00:23:14then how can they be exiled if those people weren't jacob when jacob was there at that moment
00:23:20they can't be they can't be called back they can be called in but they can't be called back because
00:23:26they were never there in the first place does that make sense so if somebody's going to be called back
00:23:31from exile that means they have to be exiled first so if the people of israel were exiled then
00:23:37they're the ones being called back if the mixed multitude who returns with them if that's what's
00:23:43being referred to then those people weren't exiled they were out there in the world to begin with
00:23:48the last thing i want to point out in this passage is that there is something special about the physical
00:23:54land of israel it is different there are specific places on earth that god has singled out you know
00:24:02whether it's something about the way the earth is created you know like ley lines and specific holy
00:24:06places or you know a place on the earth where the barrier between the physical and spiritual is thinner
00:24:13i don't really know i don't understand how that works but jacob recognized that this specific
00:24:19place where he was at was special to god same thing on mount sinai there's you know mount zion
00:24:28horib horib is another name for sinai i think hebron which is another one of those places where things
00:24:34happen over and over you know joseph was there later that was david's capital i don't remember exactly
00:24:41where jacob is on this it's he's not on zion i think he's further out i don't remember the precise
00:24:48place but this is another one of those places that god has singled out as special to him
00:24:54and so the people you know when he prophesied that the people would who were exiled would be
00:25:00would be called back to the same place from which they were exiled he's talking about that physical
00:25:06land of israel i don't know why god singles out particular geographic places on earth for special
00:25:14purposes but just like with people he seems to do that and just like with people it's his prerogative
00:25:20to pitch to pick uh which place on earth is going to be special to him and which isn't i
00:25:27have no idea
00:25:27what his criteria are in he didn't ask okay with that said let's go on to verse uh verse two
00:25:35verses
00:25:36two through four actually there's some other passages here i want to read but let's read this
00:25:41first and then we'll go back to those go ahead june about that passage that we just read regarding
00:25:48jacob when he got that vision a question that has always popped up in my mind is angelic beings
00:26:01you will expect them to come from above with messages to humans on earth and then go back to the
00:26:16father
00:26:16but i i i i i read this several times numerous times how these angels they were from
00:26:29the bottom of the ladder going up to the father and coming back down and i've always asked myself the
00:26:39question why these angelic beings started from the bottom and ascended up then coming from the top
00:26:52and descending below that is an interesting observation it does say that they were ascending
00:26:58and descending and not the other way around yeah i don't i don't know why that is offhand i'm sure
00:27:04there is a good reason for it though i don't think god does things like that arbitrarily
00:27:13okay i'll just pull out my notes on genesis to see if i had anything written down about it
00:27:18sometimes i surprise myself with what's written in my notes and nope i don't have any comments on verse 13
00:27:27okay that's all right or verse 12 well i mean if you have going up and down it must be
00:27:33one wide ladder
00:27:35yeah at the same time yeah yeah actually i did find something here and one possibility is that
00:27:42the primary job of these messengers is not to bring messages from god to people but to carry messages from
00:27:48people to god okay like they are they are the conduit for prayers or something like that i i don't
00:27:57know
00:27:58i think that there are gatekeepers in god's throne room you know the the four creatures the four winged
00:28:04creatures who live in god's throne room are the four faced creatures i think that they are somehow
00:28:12gatekeepers for prayers but god doesn't doesn't explain that stuff in scripture so i don't want to spend too
00:28:17much time speculating about it okay all right so romans 2 i mean romans 11 verse 2 god is not
00:28:27rejected his people whom he foreknew do you not know what the scripture says of elijah how he appeals
00:28:31to god against israel lord they have killed your prophets they have demolished your altars and i alone
00:28:36am left and they seek my life but what is god's reply to him i have kept for myself 7
00:28:41000 men who have
00:28:42not bowed the knee to baal the primary connection between this passage and the genesis 28 passage is that
00:28:49god preserves a remnant for himself no matter what happens to israel if they are in the land
00:28:55in apostate or whether they are in exile or whether they have completely forgotten their identity
00:29:01god still preserves a remnant for himself there will always be some among the physical descendants
00:29:07of jacob who are faithful to god we we talked before about this concept of foreknew and how it
00:29:15doesn't necessarily mean that that god knew who they would be from the very beginning of creation
00:29:21maybe he did or maybe he didn't that's just not what is being said here it's talking about a
00:29:26relationship god has not rejected the people with whom he has had a a prior relationship a long
00:29:34established relationship and that's what he means by foreknew in this case not only that but elijah
00:29:39was able to plead on israel's behalf so the relationship is both ways you know we have
00:29:49ability to advocate or have an advocate i'm not sure which one would be but we're not basically
00:29:56if he foreknew then why why is there a need for an advocate oh you mean you're talking about uh
00:30:02like uh like uh the the idea of predestination in election okay yeah yeah yeah that's that's
00:30:11one of the mechanics i for lack of a better word of you know free will versus determinism or whatever
00:30:20i
00:30:21you know god can use evangelists or whoever to as the mechanism for bringing his people to faith
00:30:30but he doesn't have to he can use whatever he wants i mean if they're already chosen they're
00:30:33chosen he's already decided they're saved so why does he need to send a prophet or a teacher or whatever
00:30:39i don't know i mean if that's if that's the way that it actually works why god decides to do
00:30:45things
00:30:45doesn't have to make sense to me i don't necessarily believe that that's the way it works but the onus
00:30:51is
00:30:51upon the relationship i mean moses advocated for on behalf of people um to god abraham did and i think
00:31:03that's an important thing to note is that he listens and i guess we go back to the latter situation
00:31:11you
00:31:12know he does give credence or consideration to his people which is quite amazing i mean he's not
00:31:19he's not an amaton you know amaton or whatever that word is yeah automaton a puppeteer or something
00:31:27like that yeah exactly exactly and it's significant here that god is for the god that paul is talking
00:31:35about elijah in the remnant because actually before we talk about that further let's go go ahead and
00:31:42read the reference here let's see that is oh first kings
00:31:48somebody want to read first kings 19 9 to 14
00:31:52first king first kings what 19 verses 9 through 14
00:31:59he came to a cave there and camped there and behold he always word came to him
00:32:10and he said to him what are you doing here elijah he said i have been very jealous for yahweh
00:32:21the god of armies for the children of israel have forsaken your covenant thrown down your altars
00:32:30and killed your prophets with the sword i even i only am left and they seek my life
00:32:39to take it away he said go out and stand on the mountain before yahweh behold yahweh passed by and
00:32:52a great and strong wind
00:32:54tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before yahweh but yahweh was not in the wind
00:33:03after the wind there was an earthquake but yahweh was not in the earthquake after the earthquake a fire passed
00:33:15but yahweh was not in the fire
00:33:18after the fire there was a still small voice when elijah heard it he wrapped him he wrapped his face
00:33:30in his mantle went out and stood in the entrance of the cave
00:33:37behold a voice came to him and said what are you doing here elijah he said i have been very
00:33:51jealous for yahweh
00:33:53the god of armies for the children of israel have forsaken your covenant thrown down your altars
00:34:02and killed your prophets with the sword i even i only am left and they seek my life to take
00:34:13it away
00:34:14thank you jen would you mind actually reading another four verses down to verse 18
00:34:19he always said to him go return on your way to the wilderness of damascus
00:34:28when you arrive anoint haziel to be king over syria anoint jehu the son of nimshi to be king over
00:34:42israel
00:34:43and anoint elisha the son of shaphat of abel may to be prophet in your place
00:34:54he who escapes from the sword of asia jehu will kill and he who escapes from the sword of jehu
00:35:06elisha will kill yet i reserved seven thousand in israel all the knees of which have not bowed to baal
00:35:20and every mouth which has not kissed him good thank you i just wanted you to read more because
00:35:30i love to hear your accent i'm kidding it is that those verses were actually the most important part
00:35:36i think yes you know this is from one of israel's darkest times jezebel and ahab were running the
00:35:44northern kingdom of israel and elijah is in despair thinking that you know the prophets of baal are
00:35:50running everything and there are no real prophets or teachers left and he's the only righteous one
00:35:56left and you know god says he not only are there righteous people left in the nation of israel or
00:36:05in
00:36:05the northern kingdom of israel but he sends them up to syria and says you know go anoint the king
00:36:10of
00:36:10syria and who's the king of syria to listen to a prophet of israel well apparently elijah's fame
00:36:17had spread pretty far or there's no way that the king that this guy was going to let him into
00:36:23his
00:36:23presence and put oil on his head but god goes on to say that there are seven thousand prophets still
00:36:30remaining and if there were seven thousand prophets how many ordinary faithful men and women must have
00:36:37there have been in israel i mean not everybody is a prophet most people are not but there were seven
00:36:44thousand faithful prophets left in israel who had not bowed the knee to baal so no matter how dark
00:36:51things look there is always it's always better than you think it is well i won't say always sometimes
00:36:58it's worse than you think it is but it's never as bad as it could be and at the worst
00:37:03possible time
00:37:04it's never as bad as it appears to be because god always preserves a remnant among his people
00:37:11i actually got ahead of myself because i also wanted to read first samuel 10 to 25 i'll take this
00:37:17one first samuel 12 10 to 25 uh this is when the people are asking samuel for a king and
00:37:27he says
00:37:29when you saw that nahash the king of the sons of ammon came against you you said to me no
00:37:33but a king
00:37:34shall reign over us although yahweh your god was your king now therefore here is the king whom you
00:37:40have chosen whom you have asked for and behold yahweh has set a king over you if you will fear
00:37:45yahweh
00:37:45and serve him and listen to his voice and not rebel against the command of yahweh then both you and
00:37:50also the king who reigns over you will follow yahweh your god if you will not listen to the voice
00:37:55of
00:37:55yahweh but rebel against the command of yahweh then the hand of yahweh will be against you
00:38:00as it was against your fathers even now take your stand and see this great thing which yahweh will do
00:38:06before your eyes is it not the wheat harvest today i will call to yahweh that he may send thunder
00:38:11and
00:38:11rain then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of
00:38:16yahweh
00:38:17by asking for yourselves a king so samuel called to yahweh and yahweh sent thunder and rain that day
00:38:22and all the people greatly feared yahweh and samuel then all the people said to samuel pray for your
00:38:28servants to yahweh your god so that we may not die for we have added to all our sins this
00:38:32evil by
00:38:32asking for ourselves a king samuel said to the people do not fear you have committed all this
00:38:39evil yet do not turn aside from following yahweh but serve yahweh with all your heart you must not
00:38:44turn aside for then you would go after futile things which cannot profit or deliver because they are
00:38:48futile for yahweh will not abandon his people on account of his great name because yahweh has been
00:38:54pleased to make you a people for himself moreover as for me far be it for me that i should
00:38:59sin against
00:39:00yahweh by ceasing to pray for you but i will instruct you in the good and right way only fear
00:39:05yahweh and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider what great things he has done for you
00:39:10but if you still do wickedly both you and your king will be swept away a couple more things here
00:39:16to underscore what scott said earlier the role of the spiritual leader in israel isn't just to teach
00:39:22but to intercede on their behalf samuel says that even if you guys screw up in the worst possible way
00:39:28i'm going to still be praying for you why would he do that if god had completely cut off israel
00:39:34there
00:39:35would be no point it would be a waste of time but samuel says he's going to keep doing it
00:39:40anyways and
00:39:40that's because even though god promises to exile the people he says you and your king will be swept
00:39:46away he also promises to restore them when they repent and he says that they will repent there's
00:39:52no doubt about it doesn't mean every single israelite but it does mean that the nation will repent
00:39:59branches are pruned in order to save the tree but the tree will come back trying to think if there's
00:40:05anything else there okay do y'all have any thought any other thoughts on this passage uh romans 11 2
00:40:10through 4 for any questions okay so we get an overall picture that even when israel is unfaithful to god
00:40:20they remain god's people he predicted that that would happen it doesn't surprise him and he promises
00:40:26to bring them back he will watch over them while they are in exile so that they can eventually repent
00:40:32and come back and there are in this process there are both faithful and unfaithful and unfaithful
00:40:42prophets and teachers that a prophet like elijah is there to intercede on behalf of the people
00:40:50and there are 7 000 prophets scattered among the people of northern israel they are probably outnumbered
00:40:57by all these prophets of baal all these priests of the pagan gods but 7 000 is still a lot
00:41:05there are there are always faithful prophets to counterbalance the false prophets and that's going
00:41:12to be important in some upcoming verses here so moving on to verse five five and six
00:41:23so too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace but if it is by grace it
00:41:28is no longer
00:41:28on the basis of works otherwise grace would no longer be grace all right who has deuteronomy 7
00:41:36i know we're doing a lot of reading outside of romans but i think it really does add a lot
00:41:40of important
00:41:41context so roman or deuteronomy 7 verses 1 through 11 okay when adonai your god brings you into
00:41:50the land you are entering to possess and drives out many nations before you the hittite and the
00:41:55girgashite and the amorite the canaanite and the perizzite the hivite and the jebusite seven nations
00:42:01more numerous and mightier than you and adonai your god gives them over to you and you strike them down
00:42:08then you are to utterly destroy them you are to make no covenant with them and show no mercy to
00:42:14them
00:42:14you are not to intermarry with them you are not to give your daughter to his son
00:42:19or take his daughter for your son for he will turn for he will turn your son away from following
00:42:25me to serve other gods then the anger of adonai will be kindled against you and he will swiftly
00:42:32destroy you instead you are to deal with them like this tear down their altars smash their pillars
00:42:38cut down their asherah poles and burn their carved images with fire for you are holy people to
00:42:45adonai your god from all the peoples on the face of the earth adonai your god has chosen you to
00:42:51be
00:42:51his treasured people it is not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that adonai set his
00:42:57love on you and chose you for you are the least of all the people rather because his love for
00:43:04you and
00:43:04his and his keeping the oath he swore to your fathers adonai brought you out with a mighty hand and
00:43:10redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of pharaoh king of egypt know therefore that
00:43:16adonai your god he is the faithful god who keeps covenant kindness for a thousand generations those
00:43:23who love him and keep his mitzvah but repays those who hate him to their face to annihilate them he
00:43:31will
00:43:31not hesitate with him who hates him he will repay him face to face therefore you are to keep the
00:43:37commandment both the statutes and the ordinances that i'm commanding you today to do them thank you
00:43:43yeah so when the hebrews were in egypt god rescued them they obeyed him they believed his promise to
00:43:53to rescue them otherwise they would be left in egypt but he didn't rescue them because they were special
00:43:59because they were more deserving or more capable he rescued them because he made a promise
00:44:05and the promise wasn't even to them it was to abraham excuse me so because of the oath that
00:44:14yahweh swore to their forefathers he brought them out of egypt with a mighty hand and redeemed them from
00:44:20the house of slavery and then said then he made a covenant with them still based on that promise that
00:44:27he made to abraham and you know this is what it means to be chosen by god's grace he made
00:44:33a promise
00:44:33to abraham and he chose these people who didn't necessarily deserve it weren't anything special
00:44:39they were the least of all the nations and then you combine this with what it says in kings about
00:44:45elijah's day and how that there was a remnant even then a remnant of the prophets a remnant among the
00:44:52people but then it says so at this present time there is a remnant chosen by grace now this can
00:45:00be a
00:45:01a difficult passage and it certainly appears to be saying that the remnant was chosen
00:45:10or rather they are the remnant because they were chosen and not that they are chosen because they're
00:45:16the remnant but based on other passages that we are reading here i think we'll get to a better one
00:45:26here and a little bit further down might be the psalms in isaiah passage i'm not really sure um
00:45:35jay would you not say because they are referenced that the promise is made to them as well because he
00:45:42talks about the seed of abraham and by saying the seed of abraham that promise is under those seeds so
00:45:48what's under the the people that do not exist yet well the he made the promise to abraham but the
00:45:56promise was inherited by the seed of abraham and so those seed are going to be you know redeemed and
00:46:03rescued because of the promise made to abraham it could be that there's you know there's just semantics
00:46:09and maybe a distinction without a difference i don't really know right so grace as we've defined it
00:46:16before is unobligated favor it doesn't maybe you deserve it maybe you don't but the person giving
00:46:24you grace doesn't has no obligation to do it now god does put an obligation on on himself by making
00:46:32a
00:46:32promise but he didn't have to make that promise he chose to and because he honors his promises then
00:46:40these people were saved and that's the same thing happening in paul's day or yeshua's day in our day
00:46:49now the context of what we're reading here dictates that he is talking about israel the remnant has to
00:46:56be from the nation of israel otherwise it's not really a remnant i mean if you're adding things to
00:47:01it that's addition not remnant how what remains so these are the physical descendants of jacob not
00:47:07christians in general not gentile converts and you know these israelites just like the apostles
00:47:15and the remnant are the ones who remain faithful to god and the messiah and a little bit later in
00:47:20the chapter down in verse 28 let me scroll down to that one so i can read it as regards
00:47:25the gospel
00:47:26they are enemies for your sake but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their
00:47:30forefathers that shows that all of israel whether faithful or not are chosen by god's grace for the
00:47:39sake of his promises to the patriarchs faithful unfaithful saved unsaved they are all chosen by
00:47:46god's grace but one of the things that we saw in the previous chapter is there there are different
00:47:53kinds of being chosen there are different kinds of election there's being chosen to be god's people
00:47:59but then there's being chosen to play a role among those people like the priests and you know we just
00:48:05saw that that god chose a specific people from among the other nations and that was solely his prerogative
00:48:11to do but within that nation he chose the levites for a specific purpose and then from the levites he
00:48:18chose a family and then from that family he chose an individual and so there are degrees and kinds of
00:48:25election it's not always and even most of the time it's not talking about eternal salvation it's
00:48:31talking about being chosen for a specific role or for a purpose so the remnant chosen here in this verse
00:48:38in verse 5 are the israelites chosen by god's grace for their faith but not because they underwent a trial
00:48:46or completed a checklist you know not because they're circumcised but because they are the physical
00:48:52descendants of jacob and they are faithful so the whole nation is chosen but then within the nation
00:48:59you have a remnant that is chosen and they are chosen for a more specific purpose and in this case
00:49:06the faithful remnant is also chosen for eternal salvation so that plays in here too and you know which
00:49:15kind of election which kind of choosing is being talked about you just have to determine that by the
00:49:21context you know by overall of what is being talked about here hopefully i'm making sense and not just
00:49:27rambling in verse 6 uh you know it says if it is by grace it's no longer on the basis
00:49:33of works
00:49:33but god's choosing of israel was never on the basis of works he never chose them because they did
00:49:40anything he chose them because he promised abraham and now he did promise abraham because of his faith
00:49:47and not even because abraham had done anything yet you know it says uh not here i can't remember where
00:49:54it's at but paul points out that abraham was chosen when he was still uncircumcised and that's because
00:50:01he showed faith at that time and it was only in response to that faith that god made him promises
00:50:08and god gave him the god commanded him to circumcise himself and his sons jay was that before he left
00:50:15ur no circumcision was after i mean so he did do things in response to his faith right did was
00:50:22not
00:50:22leaving ur an act of faith yeah it was god told him to go and he went right it's you
00:50:29know it's like
00:50:29the torah portion that's being read this week the israelites out in the wilderness and it says that
00:50:35you know whenever the cloud lifted the people broke camp and followed and when the cloud stopped
00:50:40the people stopped and set up camp and that's what abraham was doing out there in the wilderness and
00:50:46that's one of the ways that we demonstrate our faith it's you know one of the things that we've
00:50:50talked about before is this idea of emunah is it belief in something or is it faithfulness like
00:51:00continuing uh obedience over time and it's all of that the belief not just the belief that something
00:51:07is true but the belief in someone that they are faithful that they keep their promises and will do
00:51:13exactly what they say that leads to obedience and it is the first kind of faith that prompts god's
00:51:21grace in that it's not like it's not a work i mean paul paul puts a distinction between faith and
00:51:27works
00:51:27if you believe that god is who he is and you trust in him that is what god uses to
00:51:37justify you
00:51:38on the basis of that he washes away all your sins and then your ongoing faithfulness is what paul calls
00:51:47working out your salvation and what yeshua refers to later on when he says those who persevere to the
00:51:55end will be saved so it's it's the whole already not yet thing faith and faithfulness is faith is the
00:52:04already faithfulness is the ongoing and not yet i guess all wrapped up into one and maybe our human
00:52:13languages you know whether greek or english neither one of them seem to have all the right words i don't
00:52:19really think hebrew does either otherwise these things would be maybe easier to explain would be a
00:52:26little less confusing and ambiguous okay some counter examples if you know if being chosen for a role in
00:52:36god's kingdom you know whether it's eternal salvation or whether it's priesthood or some or being a prophet
00:52:42if that could be earned or purchased then god would be obligated to respond to the required payment
00:52:51you know if there was a rule that says if you do this and do that if you're circumcised if
00:52:56you get
00:52:56baptized if you say this specific prayer then god will do this well that's putting an obligation on god
00:53:04to do something in response to something that you have done and then it is no longer by grace because
00:53:10god you have made god you have forced god's hand you made him respond to you but that's not how
00:53:16it works
00:53:17god had made a promise first he said he said that he will forgive all of those who believe in
00:53:24him
00:53:25you'll call on his name and you will be saved well calling on his name doesn't mean saying it
00:53:31it means believing in who he is calling on his reputation and the promises that he has made
00:53:37and saying god you promised to save me i submit save me and he saves you and then you follow
00:53:44up follow
00:53:45that up with obedience over time and all of that together is faithfulness it is all emunah one
00:53:54kind of obvious example i mean i don't know how relevant it is today but catholic indulgences
00:54:01that you could make a donation to the church and this would earn you indulgences in your sin
00:54:10okay i've i paid the church this much money that means i can do this many sins
00:54:14and god's going to look the other way he's going to indulge my sin in the time of yeshua and
00:54:20paul
00:54:21the office of high priest could be bought i don't know exactly what the mechanism was or how that worked
00:54:27i'm sure that there were political connections that had to be made but if i understand correctly
00:54:33there were even times when the high priest wasn't even a levite so he wasn't qualified in any way but
00:54:39he had political connections and he had money so he got the job and that is not how god's grace
00:54:45works
00:54:45you can't buy it you can't work your way into it hard work and savings will get you a lot
00:54:51of things in
00:54:51this life but it can't give you it can't bring the gifts of the spirit it can't give you anointing
00:54:58for a spiritual office and it can't earn you salvation those things god doesn't owe you any of it
00:55:07he promises to do things and then it's up to you does that all make sense sometimes i think i'm
00:55:16making
00:55:16more sense than other times you're good okay thank you all right any other comments on verses five
00:55:23and six or questions okay all right i'm going to read verses seven and eight what then israel failed
00:55:33to obtain what it was seeking the elect obtained it but the rest were hardened as it is written
00:55:38god gave them a spirit of stupor eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to
00:55:43this
00:55:44very day i have heard this explained that when god decides who is saved and who is not he gives
00:55:54faith and understanding to the ones who is he has chosen to be saved and he blinds the ones that
00:56:00he
00:56:00has chosen not to be saved to make sure that they can't believe or have faith i'm i don't really
00:56:07understand why god would need to make sure since our default position in that system is
00:56:13unbelief and we cannot believe until god allows it or god enables us to believe so there would be no
00:56:19point in making somebody blind or or deaf but let's read exactly what paul is referring to here
00:56:27because in not just the one verse but the whole context because i think it's really important to
00:56:33understanding what he's really saying kevin you wanted to read isaiah 29 9 to 16 all right let's see
00:56:42hear all right astonish yourselves and be astonished blind yourselves and be blind
00:56:51be drunk but not with wine stagger but not with strong for the lord has poured out upon you the
00:57:00spirit of deep sleep and close your eyes the prophets and cover your heads and the vision of all this
00:57:07has
00:57:07become to you like the words of a book that is sealed when men give it to one who can
00:57:13read saying
00:57:14read this he says i cannot for it for it is sealed and when they give the book to one
00:57:21who cannot read
00:57:22saying read this he says i cannot read and the lord said because this people draw near with their mouth
00:57:31and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me and their fear of me is a
00:57:38commandment taught
00:57:38by men therefore behold i will again do wonderful things with this people with wonder upon wonder
00:57:48and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden
00:57:56ah you who hide deep from the lord your counsel who deeds are in the dark and who say who
00:58:05sees us who knows us
00:58:08you turn things upside down shall the potter be regarded as the clay that the thing made should say of
00:58:16its maker
00:58:17he did not make me or the thing for say of whom who formed it he has no understanding thank
00:58:26you you can
00:58:27tell from that potter and clay analogy at the end there that paul probably had this passage in mind when
00:58:33he was talking about the clay and the potter in the previous chapter or back in chapter nine we can't
00:58:40remember if that was nine or ten i think that was chapter nine this passage in isaiah it it's almost
00:58:47like
00:58:47this was written specifically for yeshua's in paul's generation these are the the teachers and the
00:58:54priests and the prophets of israel who believed that they knew something but they had decided what they
00:59:04were going to believe before they even set out they had decided who the messiah was supposed to be
00:59:09before he came and so they couldn't recognize him and some of the i think you know a really important
00:59:17perspective here is that it says blind yourselves and be blind they had decided i mean they blinded
00:59:24themselves first just like pharaoh who hardened his own heart first and then god responded by hardening
00:59:29it further saying if this is the way you want to play it i'm going to make sure you play
00:59:33it all the way
00:59:34through and that's because somebody has to play the foil i don't know if you're familiar with the term
00:59:39in literature but a foil is something that moves the plot along gives the the hero something to play
00:59:45off of in order to move him on his hero's journey usually the foil is an inept bad guy or
00:59:54a companion
00:59:55who causes problems things like that so the israelites were chosen the pharisees and the sanduisees
01:00:03these people were among the chosen people but they were like foils to yeshua because they had chosen
01:00:10to make themselves drunk and blind and deaf and so god made them more drunk more blind more deaf to
01:00:20ensure that yeshua would be crucified that once they rejected him he made sure they went all the way
01:00:28and not just ignored him but made him their enemy and yeshua came to die he had to do that
01:00:36somebody
01:00:38had to make that happen and so people who chose to put themselves in that position god just pushed
01:00:45them the rest of the way and said all right you you decided that you're going to play this role
01:00:49i'm going
01:00:50to move you all the way through it and you know what happens is what you've already you have already
01:00:57sealed yourself into this and judas would be a great example of that yeah he acted and then
01:01:04it just snowballed and got worse and worse yeah and clearly it didn't turn out the way he expected
01:01:09it to or he wouldn't have ended his life the way he did and you know i think that's true
01:01:14with with
01:01:15some of the priests and the pharisees probably also and you know that there's that one roman soldier
01:01:19who participated in his execution and then at the end says surely this was the son of god
01:01:26i'm sure that he didn't see that coming and but he was there just like everybody else they all saw
01:01:34the miracles they all heard about it but they all decided who they were going to be
01:01:39and so god fit them into the roles that they chose for themselves
01:01:44and just to underscore that i want to go ahead and read uh psalm 69 does anybody want to take
01:01:51this one
01:01:53says psalm 69 uh verses 19 to 28 you know my reproach my shame and my dishonor
01:02:05my adversaries are all before you reproach has broken my heart and i am full of heaviness
01:02:17i look for some to take pity but there was none for comforters but i found none
01:02:28they also gave me gall for my food in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink let their table
01:02:41be before them
01:02:43become a snare may it become a retribution and a trap let their eyes be darkened
01:02:54so that they can't see let their backs be continually bent pour out your indignation on them
01:03:09let the fierceness of your anger overtake them let their habitation be desolate
01:03:16let no one dwell in their tents for they persecute him whom you have wounded they tell of the sorrow
01:03:30of those whom you have hurt charge them with crime upon crime don't let them come into your righteousness
01:03:43let them be blotted out of the book of life and not to be written with the righteous
01:03:53but i am in pain and distress let your salvation god protect me i will praise you want me to
01:04:07stop well
01:04:08you go ahead and read that next verse just to finish up i will praise the name of god with
01:04:15a song
01:04:17and will magnify him with thanksgiving that is a a great passage in there david is pretty sure there's a
01:04:30song of david right yeah this is a song of david so in the immediate sense david is praying about
01:04:37the people who have wronged him this is probably about absalom or you know somebody in his own family
01:04:43because that's usually where his enemies came from who is persecuting him but this is also a prophecy of
01:04:51yeshua of the messiah and there are so many connections in here with yeshua you know it starts
01:04:56out with the you know the vinegar and gall like i thirst and so they give him vinegar on a
01:05:02sponge
01:05:04excuse me but the things that i want to point out here is that you know other than that paul
01:05:11quotes
01:05:11from this passage it's actually in the next verse let me move that slide over 10 verses 9 to 10
01:05:16that
01:05:16paul is quoting from here but he references the table becomes a snare and a trap they set their own
01:05:23table they set their table and their own table has become a trap for them and he says add iniquity
01:05:31or
01:05:31crime to their crimes so they started in iniquity and then god added to it these people god didn't
01:05:39decide ahead of time that these people would be condemned that they were sinners and they could
01:05:44not possibly repent he gave them an opportunity and they chose to set their own table they set their own
01:05:51table in sin and so god gave them more of what they wanted and they became the tool by which
01:06:01god
01:06:02sent his own son to the crucifixion stake so that we could all be saved and the people that he
01:06:09chose to
01:06:10to move that plot forward were people who had already chosen to align themselves against the messiah
01:06:17he didn't take somebody who was faithful or potentially faithful everybody's potentially
01:06:23faithful i guess but he didn't take somebody who had not done anything wrong or right and then say okay
01:06:29this person is going to be condemned forever he took somebody who already chose to do something wrong
01:06:38and then he put that person in a position to do more wrong and to make sure that what god
01:06:44needed to
01:06:44happen would happen let's see i know i've got some stuff in my notes here yeah the one we read
01:06:52earlier
01:06:53i think it was in isaiah where it's talking about the prophets of israel being blinded you know the ones
01:07:01who are blinded in that context weren't the people it was the prophets and if the people were blinded
01:07:06because they had blind prophets he said you know god said i will i will cover your eyes who are
01:07:13the
01:07:13prophets and i will cover your head who are the seers so he blinds the people by blinding their
01:07:19teachers and that's what happened in ancient israel john in the other writers but especially john
01:07:25he uses this term the jews and he doesn't mean the jewish people because he himself was a jew
01:07:30yeshua was a jew he meant the jewish leadership and whenever he says the jews he's talking about the
01:07:37jewish leadership especially in in and around jerusalem you know paul uses that term later for
01:07:43the jewish leadership in synagogues and sometimes for the jewish people as a whole
01:07:49but usually that term is reserved for the leaders and john is following the same pattern established by
01:07:55isaiah by you know when it's talking about uh you know somebody presents a book and says will you read
01:08:03this to me and the other person says you know i can't because it's you know it's sealed the teachers
01:08:09of israel thought that they were reading the book they thought that they were teaching the people what
01:08:16they what needed to be taught but really they were only teaching the traditions of men they were not
01:08:21teaching the commandments of god and so they were blind because they had substituted their own rules for
01:08:28gods their own righteousness for gods and they could never attain it they were seeking a righteousness
01:08:34that they could never attain and it's because they were doing it all the wrong way what they really needed
01:08:40to do was seek the one who is righteous and then his righteousness could become theirs and instead
01:08:46they tried to earn it and you can't earn it and you especially can't earn it by following your own
01:08:52rules
01:08:52as opposed to gods i should have mentioned this a little bit earlier but at the in verse seven
01:08:58here where it says israel failed to obtain what it was seeking the elect obtained it but the rest were
01:09:05hardened israel failed to obtain what it was seeking it was seeking righteousness but they were seeking
01:09:12it as isaiah you know this quote from isaiah says by following their own traditions instead of god's
01:09:19commandments and especially by putting their faith in god even following the commandments won't earn
01:09:24you righteousness at least not sufficient righteousness for salvation it might get you a
01:09:29better life but it's not going to get you eternal life it is only by putting your faith in israel's
01:09:35messiah and in his promise of a forgiveness and resurrection that's where you get the righteousness that
01:09:44leads to eternal salvation god justifies you erases the the debt that you have accrued and replaces your
01:09:53sin with yeshua's righteousness i wanted to point out that where it says israel failed to obtain what
01:10:00it was seeking the elect obtained it but the rest were hardened it makes it sound like the elect is
01:10:06different from israel but as we already saw israel is the elect but then there's a smaller elect within
01:10:15israel and a smaller elect within that elected for different purposes for different destinations
01:10:22so in this case it's saying that all of israel failed to attain this righteousness because they
01:10:29were following these blind and deaf and dumb leaders but there is a faithful remnant within israel
01:10:36when paul i mean even if you go back to the previous chapters when paul is talking about
01:10:42you know it's like the uh the election is not by birth or by a physical descent but through faith
01:10:51so like isaac the uh the promise wasn't given to ishmael it was given to isaac but even within that
01:11:00isaac was still a physical son paul frequently seems to be
01:11:05contrasting physical israel with spiritual israel but what he's really doing is contrasting all of
01:11:11israel with a subset of israel so all of israel was elect for one purpose but that whole israel
01:11:20neglected to find the righteousness that it was seeking but a faithful remnant within that israel did
01:11:27find it the 12 disciples the 70 that were gathered around them the 200 or however many it was in
01:11:34the
01:11:34upper room and then the many thousands the 3 000 that were saved on pentecost and the many of the
01:11:41priests in acts i think it's chapter seven or six or seven where it talks about how many of the
01:11:47priests
01:11:48came to faith these are all israel they're all jews and they are among the faithful remnant
01:11:54you know even the conflict that they had later in acts 15 with the circumcision party you know they
01:12:01wanted all the gentiles to become circumcised and follow all these traditions in order to be considered
01:12:06israel even these were believers their theology was messed up but these were the faithful remnant they
01:12:13just had some wrong ideas and they needed to be corrected there was just a whole lot of the rest
01:12:20of israel who was still lost and still is lost today and you know one of we'll get into this
01:12:28later but
01:12:28one of paul's main purposes or one of the things he really hoped to get out of bringing the gospel
01:12:34to
01:12:34the nations was that by the nations coming to believe in israel's messiah then the native israelites would
01:12:42come to believe too and to some extent that has happened and hopefully it will happen to a greater
01:12:49extent and i i hope that that we can do honor to paul's purpose and in his desire in bringing
01:12:56the
01:12:56gospel to us i hope that we can return the favor and bring it back to israel and you know
01:13:03i don't do what
01:13:05i do in order to evangelize jews i am all about i'm all for it i hope that the jewish
01:13:13people hear the
01:13:14message just as much as everybody else that's not really my purpose in teaching and what i do i want
01:13:21to
01:13:21reach christians who are asking questions i've my church teaches this but the bible says this why is that
01:13:31well those are the people i want to reach but by reaching those people by pointing them to the
01:13:37true messiah and back to his real standards back to his commandments and and what he really meant by
01:13:45the sermon on the mount in saying that you know i did not come to fulfill the law i mean
01:13:52i did not come
01:13:52to abolish the law but to fulfill it by understanding what that means those people will then catch the
01:13:59attention of the native israelites and say hey they're doing what i'm pretty sure the scriptures
01:14:06say we're supposed to be doing why don't we look more like that and what's going on with these people
01:14:12whereas right now they look at christians and think they're doing all this crazy pagan stuff why
01:14:17would i ever want anything to do with that and i really hope that we can correct that problem
01:14:23i don't expect to do that all by myself of course that's why you guys are here
01:14:29so
01:14:32you
01:14:32you
01:14:32you
01:14:32you
01:14:33you
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