Study Desk

He who did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up on behalf of us all — is it possible that, having given us his Son, he would not give us everything else too?

But the present condition of Isra'el does not mean that the Word of God has failed. For not everyone from Isra'el is truly part of Isra'el;

In other words, it is not the physical children who are children of God, but the children the promise refers to who are considered seed.

and before they were born, before they had done anything at all, either good or bad (so that God's plan might remain a matter of his sovereign choice, not dependent on what they did, but on God, who does the calling),

This accords with where it is written, "Ya‘akov I loved, but Esav I hated."

Thus it doesn't depend on human desires or efforts, but on God, who has mercy.

But you will say to me, "Then why does he still find fault with us? After all, who resists his will?"

that is, to us, whom he called not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles?

But Yesha‘yahu, referring to Isra'el, cries out, "Even if the number of people in Isra'el is as large as the number of grains of sand by the sea, only a remnant will be saved.

So, what are we to say? This: that Gentiles, even though they were not striving for righteousness, have obtained righteousness; but it is a righteousness grounded in trusting!

Why? Because they did not pursue righteousness as being grounded in trusting but as if it were grounded in doing legalistic works. They stumbled over the stone that makes people stumble.

As the Tanakh puts it, "Look, I am laying in Tziyon a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will trip them up. But he who rests his trust on it will not be humiliated."

for I can testify to their zeal for God. But it is not based on correct understanding;

But how can they call on someone if they haven't trusted in him? And how can they trust in someone if they haven't heard about him? And how can they hear about someone if no one is proclaiming him?

"But, I say, isn't it rather that they didn't hear?" No, they did hear — "Their voice has gone out throughout the whole world and their words to the ends of the earth."

"But, I say, isn't it rather that Isra'el didn't understand?" "I will provoke you to jealousy over a non-nation, over a nation void of understanding I will make you angry."

but to Isra'el he says, "All day long I held out my hands to a people who kept disobeying and contradicting."

But what is God's answer to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not knelt down to Ba‘al."

What follows is that Isra'el has not attained the goal for which she is striving. The ones chosen have obtained it, but the rest have been made stonelike,

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you — a wild olive — were grafted in among them and have become equal sharers in the rich root of the olive tree,