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Sunday, August 24th, 2025
the Week of Proper 16 / Ordinary 21
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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Romans 11:26

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Deliverer;   Jesus Continued;   Prophecy;   Quotations and Allusions;   Salvation;   Zion;   Scofield Reference Index - Christ;   Israel;   Summary;   Thompson Chain Reference - Mountains;   Names;   Titles and Names;   Zion;   The Topic Concordance - Covenant;   Gentiles/heathen;   Israel/jews;   Jesus Christ;   Salvation;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Jews, the;   Salvation;   Titles and Names of Christ;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Captivity;   Olive;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Jacob;   Zion;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Christians, Names of;   Church, the;   Corinthians, First and Second, Theology of;   Deliver;   Destroy, Destruction;   Hardening, Hardness of Heart;   Israel;   Jerusalem;   Mystery;   Remnant;   Sanctification;   Zechariah, Theology of;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Incomprehensibility of God;   Jews;   Merit;   Omniscience of God;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Israel;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Baptism;   Daniel, the Book of;   Gentiles;   Israel;   Judah, Kingdom of;   Noah;   Old Testament;   Saviour;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Deliverance, Deliverer;   Israel, Spiritual;   Jerusalem;   Prophecy, Prophets;   Romans, Book of;   Sion;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Covenant;   Parousia;   Paul the Apostle;   Redeemer, Redemption;   Romans, Epistle to the;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Deliverer;   Freedom of the Will;   Interpretation;   Isaiah ;   Israel;   Jacob ;   Old Testament;   Parousia;   People ;   Quotations;   Redemption;   Remnant;   Salvation Save Saviour;   Toleration, Tolerance;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Matthew, Gospel by;   Prophets, the;   Revelation, the;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Christ;   Olive tree;   Sabbath;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Israel kingdom of;   Jew;   Names titles and offices of christ;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Sieve;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Millenarians;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Jesus of Nazareth;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Eschatology of the New Testament;   Faithful;   Heredity;   Hope;   Inspiration;   Parousia;   Quotations, New Testament;   Salvation;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Adventists;   Luther, Martin;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for March 10;   Every Day Light - Devotion for April 2;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
King James Version (1611)
And so all Israel shall be saued, as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliuerer, and shall turne away vngodlinesse from Iacob.
King James Version
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
English Standard Version
And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob";
New American Standard Bible
and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written: "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB."
New Century Version
And that is how all Israel will be saved. It is written in the Scriptures: "The Savior will come from Jerusalem; he will take away all evil from the family of Jacob.
Amplified Bible
and so [at that time] all Israel [that is, all Jews who have a personal faith in Jesus as Messiah] will be saved; just as it is written [in Scripture], "THE DELIVERER (Messiah) WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB."
New American Standard Bible (1995)
and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB."
Legacy Standard Bible
and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written,"The Deliverer will come from Zion,He will remove ungodliness from Jacob."
Berean Standard Bible
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob.
Contemporary English Version
In this way all of Israel will be saved, as the Scriptures say, "From Zion someone will come to rescue us. Then Jacob's descendants will stop being evil.
Complete Jewish Bible
and that it is in this way that all Isra'el will be saved. As the Tanakh says, "Out of Tziyon will come the Redeemer; he will turn away ungodliness from Ya‘akov
Darby Translation
and so all Israel shall be saved. According as it is written, The deliverer shall come out of Zion; he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
Easy-to-Read Version
And that is how all Israel will be saved. The Scriptures say, "The Savior will come from Zion; he will take away all evil from the family of Jacob.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And so all Israel shalbe saued, as it is written, The deliuerer shall come out of Sion, and shall turne away the vngodlinesse from Iacob.
George Lamsa Translation
And then all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, A deliverer shall come out of Zion, and he shall remove ungodliness from Jacob:
Good News Translation
And this is how all Israel will be saved. As the scripture says, "The Savior will come from Zion and remove all wickedness from the descendants of Jacob.
Lexham English Bible
and so all Israel will be saved, just as it is written, "The deliverer will come out of Zion; he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
Literal Translation
and so all Israel will be saved, even as it has been written, "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
American Standard Version
and so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Bible in Basic English
And so all Israel will get salvation: as it is said in the holy Writings, There will come out of Zion the One who makes free; by him wrongdoing will be taken away from Jacob:
Hebrew Names Version
and so all Yisra'el will be saved. Even as it is written, "There will come out of Tziyon the Deliverer, And he will turn away ungodliness from Ya`akov.
International Standard Version
In this way, all Israel will be saved. As it is written,Psalm 14:7; Isaiah 59:20;">[xr] "The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.
Etheridge Translation
and then all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, The Redeemer shall come from Sion, [fn] And turn iniquity from Jakub;
Murdock Translation
and then, will all Israel live. As it is written: A deliverer will come from Zion, and will turn away iniquity from Jacob.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And so all Israel shalbe saued, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion he that doth delyuer, and shall turne away vngodlynesse from Iacob.
English Revised Version
and so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
World English Bible
and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, "There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, And he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, The deliverer shall come out of Sion, and shall turn away iniquity from Jacob.
Weymouth's New Testament
and so all Israel will be saved. As is declared in Scripture, "From Mount Zion a Deliverer will come: He will remove all ungodliness from Jacob;
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and so al Israel schulde be maad saaf. As it is writun, He schal come of Syon, that schal delyuere, and turne awei the wickidnesse of Jacob.
Update Bible Version
and so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Webster's Bible Translation
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
New English Translation
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: " The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob .
New King James Version
And so all Israel will be saved, [fn] as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion,And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
New Living Translation
And so all Israel will be saved. As the Scriptures say, "The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel away from ungodliness.
New Life Bible
Then all the Jews will be saved, as the Holy Writings say, "The One Who saves from the punishment of sin will come out of Jerusalem. He will turn the Jews from doing sinful things."
New Revised Standard
And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, "Out of Zion will come the Deliverer; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob."
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And, so, all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written - There shall have come out of Zion the Deliverer, - He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
Douay-Rheims Bible
And so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion, he that shall deliver and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
Revised Standard Version
and so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob";
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
and so all Israel shalbe saved. As it is writte: There shall come oute of Sion he yt doth delyver and shall turne awaye the vngodlynes of Iacob.
Young's Literal Translation
and so all Israel shall be saved, according as it hath been written, `There shall come forth out of Sion he who is delivering, and he shall turn away impiety from Jacob,
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and so all Israel shalbe saued. As it is wrytten: There shal come out of Sion he that doth delyuer, and shal turne awaye vngodlynes from Iacob.
Mace New Testament (1729)
and then all Israel shall be saved: as it is written , "there shall come out of Sion the deliverer, and shall turn away Jacob from his impiety.
Simplified Cowboy Version
And then, Israel will come back and be rescued from the fire. The Good Book says, "The cowboy who can save will come from Jerusalem and save Israel from the quicksand of ungodliness.

Contextual Overview

1Does this mean, then, that God is so fed up with Israel that he'll have nothing more to do with them? Hardly. Remember that I, the one writing these things, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham out of the tribe of Benjamin. You can't get much more Semitic than that! So we're not talking about repudiation. God has been too long involved with Israel, has too much invested, to simply wash his hands of them. Do you remember that time Elijah was agonizing over this same Israel and cried out in prayer? God, they murdered your prophets, They trashed your altars; I'm the only one left and now they're after me! And do you remember God's answer? I still have seven thousand who haven't quit, Seven thousand who are loyal to the finish. It's the same today. There's a fiercely loyal minority still—not many, perhaps, but probably more than you think. They're holding on, not because of what they think they're going to get out of it, but because they're convinced of God's grace and purpose in choosing them. If they were only thinking of their own immediate self-interest, they would have left long ago. And then what happened? Well, when Israel tried to be right with God on her own, pursuing her own self-interest, she didn't succeed. The chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue his interest in them, and as a result received his stamp of legitimacy. The "self-interest Israel" became thick-skinned toward God. Moses and Isaiah both commented on this: Fed up with their quarrelsome, self-centered ways, God blurred their eyes and dulled their ears, Shut them in on themselves in a hall of mirrors, and they're there to this day. David was upset about the same thing: I hope they get sick eating self-serving meals, break a leg walking their self-serving ways. I hope they go blind staring in their mirrors, get ulcers from playing at god. The next question is, "Are they down for the count? Are they out of this for good?" And the answer is a clear-cut No. Ironically when they walked out, they left the door open and the outsiders walked in. But the next thing you know, the Jews were starting to wonder if perhaps they had walked out on a good thing. Now, if their leaving triggered this worldwide coming of non-Jewish outsiders to God's kingdom, just imagine the effect of their coming back! What a homecoming! But I don't want to go on about them. It's you, the outsiders, that I'm concerned with now. Because my personal assignment is focused on the so-called outsiders, I make as much of this as I can when I'm among my Israelite kin, the so-called insiders, hoping they'll realize what they're missing and want to get in on what God is doing. If their falling out initiated this worldwide coming together, their recovery is going to set off something even better: mass homecoming! If the first thing the Jews did, even though it was wrong for them, turned out for your good, just think what's going to happen when they get it right! Behind and underneath all this there is a holy, God-planted, God-tended root. If the primary root of the tree is holy, there's bound to be some holy fruit. Some of the tree's branches were pruned and you wild olive shoots were grafted in. Yet the fact that you are now fed by that rich and holy root gives you no cause to crow over the pruned branches. Remember, you aren't feeding the root; the root is feeding you. It's certainly possible to say, "Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in!" Well and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root. The only reason you're on the tree is because your graft "took" when you believed, and because you're connected to that belief-nurturing root. So don't get cocky and strut your branch. Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you lithe and green. If God didn't think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would he hesitate over you? He wouldn't give it a second thought. Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God—ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don't presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, you're out of there. And don't get to feeling superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don't persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts. Why, if he could graft you—branches cut from a tree out in the wild—into an orchard tree, he certainly isn't going to have any trouble grafting branches back into the tree they grew from in the first place. Just be glad you're in the tree, and hope for the best for the others. I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what's going on and arrogantly assume that you're royalty and they're just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that's not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house. Before it's all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written, A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion; he'll clean house in Jacob. And this is my commitment to my people: removal of their sins. From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God's enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God's overall purpose, they remain God's oldest friends. God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded. 3 There was a time not so long ago when you were on the outs with God. But then the Jews slammed the door on him and things opened up for you. Now they are on the outs. But with the door held wide open for you, they have a way back in. In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in. Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It's way over our heads. We'll never figure it out. Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do? Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice? Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes. 4The Loyal Minority Does this mean, then, that God is so fed up with Israel that he'll have nothing more to do with them? Hardly. Remember that I, the one writing these things, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham out of the tribe of Benjamin. You can't get much more Semitic than that! So we're not talking about repudiation. God has been too long involved with Israel, has too much invested, to simply wash his hands of them. Do you remember that time Elijah was agonizing over this same Israel and cried out in prayer? God, they murdered your prophets, They trashed your altars; I'm the only one left and now they're after me! And do you remember God's answer? I still have seven thousand who haven't quit, Seven thousand who are loyal to the finish. It's the same today. There's a fiercely loyal minority still—not many, perhaps, but probably more than you think. They're holding on, not because of what they think they're going to get out of it, but because they're convinced of God's grace and purpose in choosing them. If they were only thinking of their own immediate self-interest, they would have left long ago. And then what happened? Well, when Israel tried to be right with God on her own, pursuing her own self-interest, she didn't succeed. The chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue his interest in them, and as a result received his stamp of legitimacy. The "self-interest Israel" became thick-skinned toward God. Moses and Isaiah both commented on this: Fed up with their quarrelsome, self-centered ways, God blurred their eyes and dulled their ears, Shut them in on themselves in a hall of mirrors, and they're there to this day. David was upset about the same thing: I hope they get sick eating self-serving meals, break a leg walking their self-serving ways. I hope they go blind staring in their mirrors, get ulcers from playing at god. The next question is, "Are they down for the count? Are they out of this for good?" And the answer is a clear-cut No. Ironically when they walked out, they left the door open and the outsiders walked in. But the next thing you know, the Jews were starting to wonder if perhaps they had walked out on a good thing. Now, if their leaving triggered this worldwide coming of non-Jewish outsiders to God's kingdom, just imagine the effect of their coming back! What a homecoming! But I don't want to go on about them. It's you, the outsiders, that I'm concerned with now. Because my personal assignment is focused on the so-called outsiders, I make as much of this as I can when I'm among my Israelite kin, the so-called insiders, hoping they'll realize what they're missing and want to get in on what God is doing. If their falling out initiated this worldwide coming together, their recovery is going to set off something even better: mass homecoming! If the first thing the Jews did, even though it was wrong for them, turned out for your good, just think what's going to happen when they get it right! Behind and underneath all this there is a holy, God-planted, God-tended root. If the primary root of the tree is holy, there's bound to be some holy fruit. Some of the tree's branches were pruned and you wild olive shoots were grafted in. Yet the fact that you are now fed by that rich and holy root gives you no cause to crow over the pruned branches. Remember, you aren't feeding the root; the root is feeding you. It's certainly possible to say, "Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in!" Well and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root. The only reason you're on the tree is because your graft "took" when you believed, and because you're connected to that belief-nurturing root. So don't get cocky and strut your branch. Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you lithe and green. If God didn't think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would he hesitate over you? He wouldn't give it a second thought. Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God—ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don't presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, you're out of there. And don't get to feeling superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don't persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts. Why, if he could graft you—branches cut from a tree out in the wild—into an orchard tree, he certainly isn't going to have any trouble grafting branches back into the tree they grew from in the first place. Just be glad you're in the tree, and hope for the best for the others. I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what's going on and arrogantly assume that you're royalty and they're just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that's not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house. Before it's all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written, A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion; he'll clean house in Jacob. And this is my commitment to my people: removal of their sins. From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God's enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God's overall purpose, they remain God's oldest friends. God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded. There was a time not so long ago when you were on the outs with God. But then the Jews slammed the door on him and things opened up for you. Now they are on the outs. But with the door held wide open for you, they have a way back in. In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in. Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It's way over our heads. We'll never figure it out. Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do? Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice? Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes. 5The Loyal Minority Does this mean, then, that God is so fed up with Israel that he'll have nothing more to do with them? Hardly. Remember that I, the one writing these things, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham out of the tribe of Benjamin. You can't get much more Semitic than that! So we're not talking about repudiation. God has been too long involved with Israel, has too much invested, to simply wash his hands of them. Do you remember that time Elijah was agonizing over this same Israel and cried out in prayer? God, they murdered your prophets, They trashed your altars; I'm the only one left and now they're after me! And do you remember God's answer? I still have seven thousand who haven't quit, Seven thousand who are loyal to the finish. It's the same today. There's a fiercely loyal minority still—not many, perhaps, but probably more than you think. They're holding on, not because of what they think they're going to get out of it, but because they're convinced of God's grace and purpose in choosing them. If they were only thinking of their own immediate self-interest, they would have left long ago. And then what happened? Well, when Israel tried to be right with God on her own, pursuing her own self-interest, she didn't succeed. The chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue his interest in them, and as a result received his stamp of legitimacy. The "self-interest Israel" became thick-skinned toward God. Moses and Isaiah both commented on this: Fed up with their quarrelsome, self-centered ways, God blurred their eyes and dulled their ears, Shut them in on themselves in a hall of mirrors, and they're there to this day. David was upset about the same thing: I hope they get sick eating self-serving meals, break a leg walking their self-serving ways. I hope they go blind staring in their mirrors, get ulcers from playing at god. The next question is, "Are they down for the count? Are they out of this for good?" And the answer is a clear-cut No. Ironically when they walked out, they left the door open and the outsiders walked in. But the next thing you know, the Jews were starting to wonder if perhaps they had walked out on a good thing. Now, if their leaving triggered this worldwide coming of non-Jewish outsiders to God's kingdom, just imagine the effect of their coming back! What a homecoming! But I don't want to go on about them. It's you, the outsiders, that I'm concerned with now. Because my personal assignment is focused on the so-called outsiders, I make as much of this as I can when I'm among my Israelite kin, the so-called insiders, hoping they'll realize what they're missing and want to get in on what God is doing. If their falling out initiated this worldwide coming together, their recovery is going to set off something even better: mass homecoming! If the first thing the Jews did, even though it was wrong for them, turned out for your good, just think what's going to happen when they get it right! Behind and underneath all this there is a holy, God-planted, God-tended root. If the primary root of the tree is holy, there's bound to be some holy fruit. Some of the tree's branches were pruned and you wild olive shoots were grafted in. Yet the fact that you are now fed by that rich and holy root gives you no cause to crow over the pruned branches. Remember, you aren't feeding the root; the root is feeding you. It's certainly possible to say, "Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in!" Well and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root. The only reason you're on the tree is because your graft "took" when you believed, and because you're connected to that belief-nurturing root. So don't get cocky and strut your branch. Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you lithe and green. If God didn't think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would he hesitate over you? He wouldn't give it a second thought. Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God—ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don't presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, you're out of there. And don't get to feeling superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don't persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts. Why, if he could graft you—branches cut from a tree out in the wild—into an orchard tree, he certainly isn't going to have any trouble grafting branches back into the tree they grew from in the first place. Just be glad you're in the tree, and hope for the best for the others. I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what's going on and arrogantly assume that you're royalty and they're just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that's not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house. Before it's all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written, A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion; he'll clean house in Jacob. And this is my commitment to my people: removal of their sins. From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God's enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God's overall purpose, they remain God's oldest friends. God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded. There was a time not so long ago when you were on the outs with God. But then the Jews slammed the door on him and things opened up for you. Now they are on the outs. But with the door held wide open for you, they have a way back in. In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in. Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It's way over our heads. We'll never figure it out. Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do? Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice? Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes. 6The Loyal Minority Does this mean, then, that God is so fed up with Israel that he'll have nothing more to do with them? Hardly. Remember that I, the one writing these things, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham out of the tribe of Benjamin. You can't get much more Semitic than that! So we're not talking about repudiation. God has been too long involved with Israel, has too much invested, to simply wash his hands of them. Do you remember that time Elijah was agonizing over this same Israel and cried out in prayer? God, they murdered your prophets, They trashed your altars; I'm the only one left and now they're after me! And do you remember God's answer? I still have seven thousand who haven't quit, Seven thousand who are loyal to the finish. It's the same today. There's a fiercely loyal minority still—not many, perhaps, but probably more than you think. They're holding on, not because of what they think they're going to get out of it, but because they're convinced of God's grace and purpose in choosing them. If they were only thinking of their own immediate self-interest, they would have left long ago. 7And then what happened? Well, when Israel tried to be right with God on her own, pursuing her own self-interest, she didn't succeed. The chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue his interest in them, and as a result received his stamp of legitimacy. The "self-interest Israel" became thick-skinned toward God. Moses and Isaiah both commented on this: Fed up with their quarrelsome, self-centered ways, God blurred their eyes and dulled their ears, Shut them in on themselves in a hall of mirrors, and they're there to this day. David was upset about the same thing: I hope they get sick eating self-serving meals, break a leg walking their self-serving ways. I hope they go blind staring in their mirrors, get ulcers from playing at god. 11The next question is, "Are they down for the count? Are they out of this for good?" And the answer is a clear-cut No. Ironically when they walked out, they left the door open and the outsiders walked in. But the next thing you know, the Jews were starting to wonder if perhaps they had walked out on a good thing. Now, if their leaving triggered this worldwide coming of non-Jewish outsiders to God's kingdom, just imagine the effect of their coming back! What a homecoming! 13But I don't want to go on about them. It's you, the outsiders, that I'm concerned with now. Because my personal assignment is focused on the so-called outsiders, I make as much of this as I can when I'm among my Israelite kin, the so-called insiders, hoping they'll realize what they're missing and want to get in on what God is doing. If their falling out initiated this worldwide coming together, their recovery is going to set off something even better: mass homecoming! If the first thing the Jews did, even though it was wrong for them, turned out for your good, just think what's going to happen when they get it right! 16Behind and underneath all this there is a holy, God-planted, God-tended root. If the primary root of the tree is holy, there's bound to be some holy fruit. Some of the tree's branches were pruned and you wild olive shoots were grafted in. Yet the fact that you are now fed by that rich and holy root gives you no cause to crow over the pruned branches. Remember, you aren't feeding the root; the root is feeding you. 19It's certainly possible to say, "Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in!" Well and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root. The only reason you're on the tree is because your graft "took" when you believed, and because you're connected to that belief-nurturing root. So don't get cocky and strut your branch. Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you lithe and green.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

all: Isaiah 11:11-16, Isaiah 45:17, Isaiah 54:6-10, Jeremiah 3:17-23, Jeremiah 30:17-22, Jeremiah 31:31-37, Jeremiah 32:37-41, Jeremiah 33:24-26, Ezekiel 34:22-31, Ezekiel 37:21-28, Ezekiel 39:25-29, Ezekiel 40:1 - Ezekiel 48:35, Hosea 3:5, Joel 3:16-21, Amos 9:14, Amos 9:15, Micah 7:15-20, Zephaniah 3:12-20, Zechariah 10:6-12

There: Psalms 14:7, Psalms 106:47, Isaiah 59:20

and shall: Matthew 1:21, Acts 3:26, Titus 2:14

Reciprocal: Leviticus 26:44 - I will Deuteronomy 30:3 - then the Deuteronomy 30:6 - will circumcise Deuteronomy 30:8 - General Psalms 25:14 - he will Psalms 134:3 - bless thee Isaiah 1:27 - redeemed Isaiah 11:9 - for the Isaiah 17:6 - General Isaiah 30:19 - dwell Isaiah 33:5 - he hath Isaiah 49:21 - am desolate Jeremiah 23:6 - Judah Jeremiah 30:7 - but Jeremiah 31:1 - of Jeremiah 31:34 - for I Jeremiah 31:37 - I Jeremiah 33:16 - shall Judah Jeremiah 50:20 - I will pardon Ezekiel 36:24 - General Ezekiel 36:29 - save Ezekiel 37:11 - whole house Daniel 8:14 - then Daniel 9:27 - for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate Daniel 12:1 - thy people Hosea 1:11 - the children of Judah Hosea 2:14 - and speak Joel 2:32 - for Micah 4:1 - and people Micah 7:20 - General Zephaniah 3:18 - gather Zechariah 14:16 - that every Luke 24:47 - beginning Acts 5:31 - to give Acts 13:23 - raised Romans 5:6 - ungodly Hebrews 12:22 - ye are come

Cross-References

Genesis 11:4
Then they said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let's make ourselves famous so we won't be scattered here and there across the Earth."
Genesis 11:5
God came down to look over the city and the tower those people had built.
Genesis 11:20
When Reu was thirty-two years old, he had Serug. After Reu had Serug, he lived 207 more years and had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:24
When Nahor was twenty-nine years old, he had Terah. After Nahor had Terah, he lived 119 more years and had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:26
When Terah was seventy years old, he had Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Genesis 11:27
This is the story of Terah. Terah had Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran had Lot. Haran died before his father, Terah, in the country of his family, Ur of the Chaldees.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And so all Israel shall be saved,.... Meaning not the mystical spiritual Israel of God, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, who shall appear to be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation, when all God's elect among the latter are gathered in, which is the sense many give into; but the people of the Jews, the generality of them, the body of that nation, called "the fulness" of them, Romans 11:12, and relates to the latter day, when a nation of them shall be born again at once; when, their number being as the sand of the sea, they shall come up out of the lands where they are dispersed, and appoint them one head, Christ, and great shall be the day of Jezreel; when they as a body, even the far greater part of them that shall be in being, shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their King; shall acknowledge Jesus to be the true Messiah, and shall look to him, believe on him, and be saved by him from wrath to come. There is a common saying among them c, כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא, "all Israel shall have a part", or "portion in the world to come"; and in support of this they usually produce the passage in Isaiah 60:21: "thy people also shall be all righteous": yea, they even go so far as to say d,

"that hell fire will have no power over the transgressors of Israel;''

fancying, that every individual person of their nation will be saved; though they sometimes except such who deny the resurrection of the dead, and that the law is from heaven, or is an epicure, and he that reads foreign books, or is an enchanter, or pronounces the ineffable name: but the apostle is not to be understood with such a latitude; he refers to the last times, and to a very general conversion of them to the Messiah:

as it is written, Isaiah 59:20:

there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer: the words of the prophet are, "and the Redeemer shall come to Zion": by the Redeemer, or Deliverer, words of the same signification, is meant the Messiah, as the Jews e themselves own, and apply this passage to him; who is the "Goel", or near kinsman of his people, to whom the right of their redemption belongs as man; and who as God was able to effect it, and, as God-man and Mediator, was every way qualified for it, and has obtained it for them: and whereas, in the prophet Isaiah, he is said to "come to", and by the apostle, "out of Zion", this may be reconciled by observing, that the servile letter ל sometimes signifies "from", as well as to, when it is put in the room of מ; of which instances may be given, as Exodus 16:1 compared with

2 Chronicles 11:4. Besides, the Messiah was to come out of Zion, as well as to come to it, according to Psalms 14:7; so that the apostle fitly expresses the faith and expectation of the old Jewish church in this citation:

and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; in the prophet it is, "and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob", Isaiah 59:20. The apostle follows the translation of the Septuagint, and which is favoured by the Chaldee paraphrase, which runs thus; "the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to turn the rebellious ones of the house of Jacob to the law"; so that the Jew f has no reason to charge the apostle with a perversion of the prophet's words, when they are cited so agreeably to their own Targumist: and the sense of them relates not to what Christ did on the cross, when the iniquities of his people were laid on him, and he bore them, and removed them all in one day from them; but to what he will do to the Jews in the latter day, in consequence thereof; he will convince them of their ungodliness, give them repentance for it and remission of it.

c Misn. Sanhedrin c. 11. sect. 1. d T. Bab. Erubin, fol. 19. 1. & Chagiga, fol. 27. 1. e Aben Ezra in loc. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 98. 1. f R. Isaac, Chizzuk Emuna, par. 2. c. 81.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And so - That is, in this manner; or when the great abundance of the Gentiles shall be converted, then all Israel shall be saved.

All Israel - All the Jews. It was a maxim among the Jews that “every Israelite should have part in the future age.” (Grotius.) The apostle applies that maxim to his own purpose; and declares the sense in which it would be true. He does not mean to say that every Jew of every age would be saved; for he had proved that a large portion of them would be, in his time, rejected and lost. But the time would come when, as a people, they would be recovered; when the nation would turn to God; and when it could be said of them that, as a nation, they were restored to the divine favor. It is not clear that he means that even then every individual of them would be saved, but the body of them; the great mass of the nation would be. Nor is it said when this would be. This is one of the things which “the Father hath put in his own power;” Acts 1:7. He has given us the assurance that it shall be done to encourage us in our efforts to save them; and he has concealed the time when it shall be, lest we should relax our efforts, or feel that no exertions were needed to accomplish what must take place at a fixed time.

Shall be saved - Shall be recovered from their rejection; be restored to the divine favor; become followers of the Messiah, and thus be saved as all other Christians are.

As it is written - Isaiah 59:20. The quotation is not literally made, but the sense of the passage is preserved. The Hebrew is, “There shall come to Zion a Redeemer, and for those who turn from ungodliness in Jacob.” There can be no doubt that Isaiah refers here to the times of the gospel.

Out of Zion - Zion was one of the bills of Jerusalem. On this was built the city of David. It came thus to denote, in general, the church, or people of God. And when it is said that the Redeemer should come out of Zion, it means that he should arise among that people, be descended from themselves, or should not be a foreigner. The Septuagint, however render it, “the Redeemer shall come on account of Zion.” So the Chaldee paraphrase, and the Latin Vulgate.

And shall turn away ... - The Hebrew is, “to those forsaking un godliness in Jacob.” The Septuagint has rendered it in the same manner as the apostle.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 26. And so all Israel shall be saved — Shall be brought into the way of salvation, by acknowledging the Messiah; for the word certainly does not mean eternal glory; for no man can conceive that a time will ever come in which every Jew then living, shall be taken to the kingdom of glory. The term saved, as applied to the Israelites in different parts of the Scripture, signifies no more than their being gathered out of the nations of the world, separated to God, and possessed of the high privilege of being his peculiar people. And we know that this is the meaning of the term, by finding it applied to the body of the Israelites when this alone was the sum of their state. See the Preface, page viii, c.

As it is written — The apostle supports what he advances on this head by a quotation from Scripture, which, in the main, is taken from Isaiah 59:20: The Deliverer shall come out of Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Now this cannot be understood of the manifestation of Christ among the Jews or of the multitudes which were converted before, at, and for some time after, the day of pentecost; for these times were all past when the apostle wrote this epistle, which was probably about the 57th or 58th year of our Lord; and, as no remarkable conversion of that people has since taken place, therefore the fulfilment of this prophecy is yet to take place. In what manner Christ is to come out of Zion, and in what way or by what means he is to turn away transgression from Jacob, we cannot tell; and to attempt to conjecture, when the time, occasion, means, &c., are all in mystery, would be more than reprehensible.


 
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