"For I would not brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." Romans 11v25
Paul now gives the summary of what he has been saying; so there was an event which happened to Israel; this event has a time limit; it also has a purpose, and when the time limit is completed, God will turn again to Israel. He describes this as a mystery. It is the mystery of the present blindness of Israel. There are fifteen such mysteries in the New Testament, and it is a profitable study to trace them all out and understand their meaning. The idea is not so much mysterious, but secret; something which God chose to hold back in terms of revelation, until the present period of time appeared. All of the mysteries, except perhaps the one in Revelation chapter 10 refer to the present age of grace in which we live.
This Divine sanction on Israel took place at a certain point in time, and although there were in the ministry of Jesus many indications of it, the time when it happened was defined clearly in Matthew chapter 23v38 - 39 "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." Up to this point, despite the real departure of the Jewish people from the principles of God, Jesus had still acknowledged their synagogues as "my Father's house." John 2v16 Now he says "your house" thus finishing the Divine association with the synagogues of Israel. In the early verses of Matthew 24 Jesus pronounces the political fall of Israel in the world's scene when He forecasts the sacking of Jerusalem by the Roman occupiers "Verily I say unto you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." Matthew 24v2. So we have the spiritual fall and the political fall of Israel. In Matthew chapters 1 - 11 the record is clearly of the Jewish rejection of Christ as Messiah; in Matthew chapter 12 the tenor of Jesus preaching was of His rejection of them, seen in three condemnations in the one sermon. "O generation of vipers." Matthew 12v34; "An evil and adulteress generation." Matthew 12v39; "This wicked generation." Matthew 12v45. This three fold spiritual diagnosis of the state of things in Israel culminated in His disowning of their wayward religion, as stated above. This was the starting point of Israel's blindness, and has continued until the present day.
The apostle makes it clear that this state of things will continue "Until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." Firstly, notice the blindness is only "in part" so the door is open to any Israelite who will receive the Saviour. We now have to consider what is the time period between this blinding of Israel and their reception by God again. What does it mean "the fullness of the Gentiles?" We see that after an overlapping period of time during which many Jews became Christians, from Acts chapter 10 onwards (which chapter is the turning point in God's dealings with the world) God has turned in the main to the Gentile nations, and that situation still pertains today, but it will come to an end. The word "fullness" in scripture refers simply to the full quota, if you like the complete filling up of the cup. He uses the same word in connection with the restoration of Israel in chapter 11v12, when he talks about the fullness of Israel. This represents a staggering truth in the word of God. Not only does God know how long each of us will be on this earth, and where each of us will live whilst here on this earth ( Acts 17v26) He knows exactly how many Jews will be saved and how many Gentiles will be saved; since that knowledge is only in the eternal counsels of God, only He knows when that fullness will have been reached. There are those who believe that this point will be reached at the HARPAZO (the Greek word used to describe the removal of the Church) . The difficulty with this is that there seems to be evidence that many Gentiles will be saved during the period of time after the Harpazo (refer to Revelation chapter 7v9-10) . We satisfy ourselves by leaving it in the hands of an all knowing God. He knows exactly when the fullness of the Gentiles will come in and when it does happen in the sovereign purposes of God, He will turn again to the nation whom He first chose to bring His revelation to the world. In the meantime the glorious gospel of the grace of God described in Romans chapters 1 - 8 goes forth to all the nations of the earth. Some amongst the peoples of Israel will be saved, but in the main until that time comes they will be blinded. The purposes of God go on unhindered and Paul is about to show the tremendous wisdom of God because He will use the mass conversion of the Gentiles to bring His people back to Himself.
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