TUESDAY January 30th
Romans 11:25
‘Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.’
Before we move into this devotion I will bring another verse which I feel is important toward our understanding of the context of our text, it is from John 1:11 ‘He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.’
To me, at first, it is a mystery in itself that having been given all the Old Testament promises and prophecies concerning the Messiah who would come, even with all the details of how he would come and where he would be born etc. that the Jews still rejected Jesus!
But Paul reminds us that this was all a part of God’s plan and purpose to unveil the mystery at work through the Church, for it was because of the rejection of Jesus by the Jews, his own people that he ended up going to Calvary, for when given to them, they chose instead to cry out ‘away with him, crucify him’, thus bringing about redemptions story.
When Peter addresses the crowd on the day of Pentecost, he says this ‘Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men’, Acts 2:22-23.
The Jews rejection of Jesus was a part of God’s plan to incorporate Gentiles into this one new man which was to become the church. And thus since the time of Christ’s death and resurrection and through what we now call the day of God’s grace, although Israel are God’s chosen nation, (and God still has a purpose and plan for Israel) as individuals they also need to come by faith and to accept Jesus as Saviour, the same way as it is for we who are the Gentiles, so that together we will make up the Church which is the body of Christ.
And ever since the time of Christ’s first coming into the world, there has been a partial hardening of the hearts of Israel and it will continue until the day of the Gentiles has been fulfilled, that is the moment of Christ’s coming again.
Paul addresses it again in 2 Corinthians 3:14 ‘But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.’ Thank God that there are those who have had the veil lifted as Christ has made himself known to them, and we thank God for every Jew who has come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, recognising him as their Lord and their Saviour.
But despite the partial hardening—we need to still pray for Israel, we need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and we need to pray that as Christ makes himself known, that the veil will be lifted and many more from among the Jews will come to accept Jesus for who he really is, the Son of God who came into this world to save sinners.