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Welcome to our look at Romans chapter 11 and our daily drive time devotions.
Today we're looking at verses 7 to 15 and we're going to pick up on Paul's
question of whether the Jewish people have been completely rejected. The answer
he says is clearly no.

In the verses we looked at yesterday he says, "I myself am an Israelite. " He
looked at the example of Elijah where thousands had faith when Elijah didn't
know it and he said there is now a remnant chosen by grace. You can trust in
that.

There's one other reason he talks about that can help us to realize that God's
people are not rejected and it's the most challenging. The fourth reason he says
is they are not rejected because God is working a plan. He has a plan.

Let me read for you verses 7 to 10. What then? What Israel sought so earnestly
it did not obtain, but the elect did.

The others were hardened. As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear to this
very day. And David says, quoting again from the Old Testament, "May their table
become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them.

May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see and their backs be bent forever. "
What Paul is saying in these verses that at first glance are difficult to
understand is God knows what he's doing and it is all part of God's plan. And
God uses even the fact that hearts are hardened, even the fact that people
become stubborn and refuse to see in his plan to lead more and more people to
salvation.

Now stick with us the rest of this week. We're going to get into this in even
more detail in the last part of this chapter. In these verses, verses 9 and 10
are from Psalm 69, verses 22 and 23.

It's one of the most important of the Psalms that focus on Jesus and the coming
Messiah. And David in this Psalm talks about a table that's become a snare. He's
giving the picture here of blessings that have turned into burdens.

A table should be a place of rejoicing, but it's become a snare. And he talks
about their backs be bent forever. Your back is bent under a burden.

So blessings have instead become burdens. And then he uses this phrase that
we've heard a number of times in chapters 9, 10, and 11. Their hearts will be
hardened.

Just remember a couple of things about that phrase, the hardening of hearts. The
hardening of the nation of Israel was as a result of their resisting the truth.
Just as the hardening of Pharaoh's heart was a result of his resisting the
truth.

God was at work, but they were also resisting. Hardening of hearts does not mean
that God unfairly condemns some. God doesn't do anything unfair.

We do. We do unfair things all the time, at least I do, but God never does. So
this is not a matter of God being not fair.

This is a matter of God at work in human history. Whenever we talk about the
hardening of hearts, we think about Pharaoh in the Old Testament and the people
of Israel here. I think it's important to remember that there is a spiritual law
behind this idea of the hardening of hearts.

And there is something of this that can happen to even you if you are a believer
in Jesus Christ. Not to the extent that you would lose your salvation, but to
the extent that you'd miss living out the truth. How does it happen that a
person's heart gets hard?

Well, all you have to do is hear it once and not do it. And then the next time
you hear it, it's a little easier to not do it. And the next time you hear it,
it's a little easier to not do it.

So when you hear somebody talk about a scripture verse and God prompts your
heart to act and you don't do it. When you hear somebody talking about a sin and
God prompts your heart to change and you don't do it, every time you say no to
that, your heart gets a little bit harder. The easier it is to disobey every
time you hear it and say no to it.

As Paul is talking about the people of Israel here, he's talking about the fact
they're not rejected because God has a plan. And then he talks about them not
seeing and he talks about them becoming hardened. We're going to see as we walk
through the rest of this chapter how that fits into God's plan.

But here's something you can count on even in these verses. Count on the fact
that God is always faithful. And so his plan always expresses his faithfulness.

We're going to see that through the rest of this chapter. We will see God's
faithfulness and God's plan, how they work together. There is a second question
that Paul asks in this chapter.

Besides the question, did they suffer rejection, he also asked, did they fall
beyond recovery? Maybe they weren't rejected, he's saying, but maybe they fall
so far that they could never recover. Listen to what Paul says in verses 11 to
15.

Again I ask, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Rather,
because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make
Israel envious.

But if their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means
riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring? I'm
talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I make
much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy
and save some of them.

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their
acceptance be but life from the dead? Paul is laying out very quickly here God's
three-part history for the Jews and the Gentiles, these two great spiritual
nations. Three-part history, part number one in this history is that because of
the transgression of the Jewish people, salvation has come to the Gentiles.

He's saying there that the Jewish people rejected God's offer of Messiah and so
God immediately shared the news with the Gentiles and more Gentiles immediately
came in because they refused the message, the message was taken to others. But
that's just the first part. He says that's not the end of the story, that's just
the first part.

The second part in this history is because of the salvation of the Gentiles,
that means the envy and the eventual restoration of the Jewish nation to faith
in God. He's saying those who are not Jews, which is all the Gentiles means,
have come to faith. And so the Jewish nation, the people of God are looking at
those who have come to faith and thinking why is it that they have spiritual
benefits that we don't seem to have?

Why have they found a Messiah and we're still looking for a Messiah? And he says
first that creates envy but then that's going to create the restoration of the
Jews. Now how does that work, that envy and that restoration?

Well Chuck Swindoll, he has a picture of it this way. It's like you go into a
restaurant and you're with a friend and you order a steak. But you have to leave
before you can eat the steak.

And your friend had to order maybe a hamburger, they didn't have as much money
or they weren't ordering as big as you that day. You'd ordered the best steak on
the menu, they'd ordered a hamburger. You have to leave and when you leave,
you're having to go somewhere and you're standing outside in a line, maybe in a
taxi line, you can see in the window and you're not able to go back in the
restaurant but you can see them bring the order, the steak and the hamburger.

And you see your friends sort of look around and they know you're gone and the
steak's going to go to waste so they may as well eat it. So they take the steak
and they begin to eat it. And you're looking at this through the window, now
what do you feel?

You feel like that's my steak. Even though you decided not to eat it, even
though you left, there's a certain kind of envy that that creates. And Paul says
that envy is not going to lead to further rejection of the Jewish people of the
Messiah.

It's going to lead to their restoration. And then a third part of history,
because of their restoration, there is going to be riches to the world. If their
rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but
life from the dead?

Talk about riches. And it's this picture in Ezekiel chapter 37 of dry bones
coming to life. Life from the desert.

And so Paul says in verses 13 and 14, "I promote my ministry. " He says, "I
promote my ministry intentionally to the Gentiles and one of the reasons is
because I care about my own people. I want to make them envious.

" Make them envious. Now, doesn't that at first sound like a bad motivation? It
is not bad to make someone envious of the right thing.

It's interesting. When people want what you have, the first reaction is often
not respect but envy. When they see that you have something that they don't
have, the first human nature response is not, "Wow, how can I get that?

" But instead it's, "I'm mad at you for having that. Something I don't have. "
So we have to let people know everyone can have this.

In fact, there's a personal question behind this talk about envy and riches to
the world. It's a question for those of us that have faith in Jesus Christ and
are living a life of faith. Does my life, does your life, make others envious of
what it means to be a believer?

I'm not talking money here or things, envious of things. Paul didn't have that.
I'm talking about peace and significance and joy and fulfillment.

When people look at your life, do they see, "Wow, he has, she has a kind of
peace that I don't have. " Maybe they feel envious at first until they hear the
good news. They can have it too because we're all equally in need of God's love
and God's offered it all equally to us.

Do you live your life in such a way that people see that? As we end this study
together today, let's take a minute to talk to God and pray that he'd give us
the strength to live that kind of way. Just say to him, "God, I want to live my
life in such a way that people see you in me.

I'm not perfect, I'm far from it, but I can grow and you do make a difference. "
I pray that you would put a peace in my heart that other people would see and be
drawn to. I pray that you put a sense of joy into my life that would be obvious
to others and they'd see you in me.

I pray that I would have a fulfillment, a purpose in my life that others would
see and want. And Lord, when some might react with envy, I pray that instead of
acting like they can't have it, I pray that I would let them know I was there
one time too. I envied also the peace and the joy and fulfillment in the life of
those who knew Jesus and that it's for everyone.

God, I am grateful for the differences you've made in my life and I pray that I
would live my life in such a way that people could see those differences. I pray
it in Jesus' name, Amen.