In his epistle to the Gentile followers of Yeshua (Jesus) at Rome, the Apostle Paul skillfully uses rhetoric and comparison to counter the anti-Semitism already raising its ugly head in the church. Paul, a Benjamite gathered to Judah, labors with the Gentiles under his Apostleship to keep them mindful of their relationship to Israel.
Apparently the notion that the Gentiles replaced Israel had already circulated among some Gentile believers. This was the case, or Paul was writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit addressing the heresy that would soon find place and flourish into a formitable end time veil over the minds of Gentile Christians.
And, in our day, to the credit of some Messianic Jews, Paul’s message is now getting to more Gentiles in a truer light. Contrary to the teaching of many Gentile Christians; Paul did not cut himself off from his Jewish roots. Neither, did he encourage the Gentiles to pursue a path away from Jesus as Israel’s Messiah who opened a door of grace to the Gentiles.
While these leading Jewish believers place the writings of Paul in a truer context; they have their own veil to deal with. In our day, most Jews, whether they have converted to Yeshua or not, do not care much for talk about any other tribes. (This topic, the envy of Judah and Ephraim, will be explored in greater depth elsewhere in future articles.)
In dealing with the foolish notion that would eventually purge all Jews from the early church, Paul says, “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew . Romans 11:1 -2
Paul rhetorically poses the question of Israel’s being cast away and then answers it quickly in verse one “God forbid”. And just as rapidly Paul reiterates “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew”. verse 2
For the sake of getting his point home, Paul later indulges the false notion that Israel is cast away. “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” 11:15
In verses 7 to 11 Paul sets up another rhetorical question which brings up the differences of stumbling and falling and darkened eyes versus total blindness.
What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded
(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall?”
Again, giving place to the opposing notion that Israel fell through blindness. Paul says, “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?”
The pattern here is plain. Paul is addressing the argument that the Gentiles have replaced Israel. He says God forbid that Israel is totally cast away and God forbid that they have fallen to rise no more.
Paul reveals the starkness of the Gentile replacement argument. Stumbling is not the same as falling completely. Slumbering eyes are not the same as blind eyes. Casting away is not the same as being temporarily cut off and being grafted back in at a later time.
In verses 16 through 24 Paul lays before the Gentiles the case that they are as branches grafted from a wild tree to a tame one. The root of the tree is in Judaism. The works of righteous Jews preceded the acceptance of the Gentiles through faith.
Seeing how the Gentiles might turn things around one hundred eighty degrees, Paul says, “Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.” Romans 11:18
Paul’s use of the root to signify the Jewish investment in Israel’s tree and the Gentiles’ inclusion, was not just a case of Paul having a great ability to teach spiritual truths from the natural creation.
The root which Paul referred to in the eleventh chapter of Romans has a very specific context identified in the fifteenth chapter of the same book.
“Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.
And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people. And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust. “ Romans 15:8 -12
The hope that springs from the revelation of the Jewish roots of Christianity is not just a theological enterprise. It is much more than that. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ as the rightful king of the earth, ruling from David’s throne!
And, it is the end time revelation of the Lion of Judah as king which unites Gentiles and Jews. As the Lamb, Jesus suffered and gave up all rights. As the Lion of Judah, Jesus comes because it is his right to assume the promised throne of David.
John the revelator, in his great heavenly vision saw all mankind’s plight. Mankind, for the most part goes through warring generation after generation in a struggle to gain and maintain rights. Jesus’ walk on earth was totally contrary to our ways of struggling for rights.
And, it was this lamb nature of the root of Jesse that shook Jesus’ disciples to the core at his crucifixion. They couldn’t understand how Israel’s king could just let go of his rights. They knew Jesus as the rightful heir to David’s throne. They anticipated Jesus’ exercising his rights to David’s throne in their own lifetime.
But, John saw the connection between the suffering lamb and the conquering Lion.
“And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” Revelation 5:4 - 6
The Jews looked for a lion and Jesus came as a lamb. The Gentiles look for a lamb who will rapture them out of the warfare and He comes as a lion in the defense of Israel.
The Jesus of too many Gentiles is just the end product of anti-Semitism. For so many Jesus is one dimensional. He is the Gentiles’ king, but the Jews have to deny His and their Jewishness, because the Gentiles’ superior religion has replaced the inadequate, foolish Torah/law.
And Paul’s warning of forgetting roots echoes over the centuries “Be not wise in your own conceits”.
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