ROMANS UNWRAPPED 180

"I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall?   God forbid'; but rather through their fall salvation is come to the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy."   Romans 11v11

Is Israel's fall from grace, from spiritual favour, a permanent and terminal situation?   And the answer is an emphatic "NO".   They stumbled, but that is not the end of the story as we shall see.   Israel could not accept Christ as their Messiah, and as a result they fell into a spiritual slumber, in which their eyes were blinded and their ears were deafened to the truth of God.   Paul calls it their "defection" and later on admits that he was one of the doubters.   At large the nation had turned away from God, and God had turned away from them.   He now asks, is that it?   Are Israel finished?   Is there no future for Israel?   He answers those questions delightfully in three different ways.

The defection of Israel is providential; it is provocative in nature; it is only a temporary situation.   Paul goes on to describe the wonder of God's ways in the face of human failure, to turn things round to His ultimate goal which was to bless all nations including Israel.  

• In the first of these answers Paul brings before us the OMNIPOTENCE of God.   In this he declares something which is all over the Bible, that is God's ability to turn any situation to His own benign purposes.   "Through their fall salvation is come to the Gentiles."    Now we are going to spend a little while considering this.   In the providence of God, the hatred of Israel for the gospel (the means of salvation by just believing) became the means in the hand of an Omnipotent God of the spread of the gospel globally!   Acts 8v1  "At that time there arose a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout all the regions of Judea and Samaria."    Acts 8v4   "Saul made havoc of the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women, committed them to prison.   Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word."   Acts 10v45  "On the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit."   Acts 11v1  "The Gentiles received the word of God."   Acts 11v18  "  Then hath God also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life."   Acts 13v46-48  "Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo we turn to the Gentiles.   For so hath the Lord commanded us saying I HAVE SET THEE TO BE A LIGHT OF THE GENTILES THAT THOU SHOULDEST BE FOR SALVATION UNTO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH and when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord."   The result was the never ending global spread of the gospel, like dropping a stone in the centre of a mill pond the ripples reached the very edge of the pond, so the gospel went to the uttermost part of the earth; and God used the hatred of men to do it!!.
• In the second of these answers Paul brings before his readers the OMNISCIENCE of God.   God did this, says Paul in verse 11b  " for to provoke them to jealousy."   The point of this is that God knows more about human beings than anyone else.   He knows that human beings don't like to be left out of things; that if something good comes along someone's way, everyone wants to be part of it.   It is just human nature, and the God who created us knows exactly what we are like.   It could be said that He uses the inbuilt covetousness that is within us to cause people to desire something that they do not have.   This aspect of salvation was first proposed by Moses way back in Deuteronomy 32.  When Moses predicted the defection of Israel he says quoting the words of God to him  "They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities; AND I WILL MOVE THEM TO JEALOUSY WITH THOSE WHICH ARE NOT A PEOPLE; I WILL PROVOKE THEM TO ANGER WITH A FOOLISH NATION."   Deuteronomy 32v21.   An omniscient God who knows human nature better than any, knows also how to reach us and He is drawing Israel back to Himself by provoking them to jealousy through the prosperity of Gentile nations (spiritually speaking) and in a day to come this factor will finally draw the mass of Israel back to God.   In the meantime the entire world has been blessed with the gospel of Christ.   God knows exactly what He is doing; it will be rather a shame for any of us to miss out on anything such as glorious as this.  
• Thirdly, Paul brings before us the OMNIPRESENCE of God.   He continues in verse 12 "if the defection of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing  of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?"   Romans 11v12    Notice first of all, at a time when Israel have  "fallen"  he talks about their "fullness."   In other words the present situation will not last forever.   He projects us way into the future.   The God of today is the God of many years hence.   the God of today is the God of thousands of years past.   He is the ever present God, He is the great I Am, living in the eternal present; what He is today, He was yesterday and He will be tomorrow and forever.   The God who promised to bless the nation of Israel, will do so in His own time and in His own way.   Right now on the part of Israel there is defection, on the part of God there is diminishing (He has made Israel small).   This process has brought riches to the world, and riches to all nations of the world, but there is a day to come when a sovereign God will make Israel large again; Paul argues that if the diminishing of Israel has meant riches to the world, what will it be for the world when God returns again to bring Israel to their fullness?!   Paul will continue this glorious theme in the rest of the chapter.