
Romans 11:26 ESV 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.”
You have probably heard the phrase “All Israel shall be saved” in church or in print or other media. Perhaps like me you may have asked how can all Israel be saved and who do we define Israel as?
Currently there are at least 5 million believers around the world praying and fasting for the salvation of Israel. For more information, go here https://isaiah62fast.com/#why-israel. Currently Israel and Jerusalem are divided across all lines, including religion, social, economic and politically. There are also many Jews and others belonging to the ‘lost tribes’ living outside of Israel. They are for the most part unreligious or following Orthodox Judaism.
So, when it comes to defining Israel, it depends on who you ask. If you ask Paul I am sure he meant those Jews living in Israel and also those living in exile. After all, they are all of the seed of Jacob and Jacob is Israel. Indeed all Israel is the twelve tribes. Today, we ask how can all Israel be saved when they are scattered and divided?
Romans 11: 28-32 ESV “As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now5 receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
Israel’s Call : A Light To The Nations
Paul makes it explicitly clear that the nations were enemies of God without the gospel. They lived without the law of God and salvation was far from them. God sent prophets to some nations such as Jonah and Elijah. At other times he included the nations in Jesus’ bloodline: Ruth and Rahab.
God’s heart was to bring the nations back into the family of God. He went to great lengths to create a nation from Jacob, Israel, and to ensure that they would be priests to the nations who were enemies of God. That is the meaning of election. Paul speaks of it here meaning that while they were out of the family by not serving God, they were elected or chosen to come back.
The Nations Receive The Gospel
Jesus came, and before his ascension he told the twelve to go to the nations and be a light. Matthew 28:18-20 is the “Great Commission.” But, it is really a completion of God’s call to Israel as Isaiah prophesied: 49:6 and 42:6. Later, Paul is called as the apostle to the gentiles or nations.
Paul’s goal was to reach Tarshish or Spain as that was the end of the known world then. He also purposed to go there because he knew there were seventy nations or people groups that came out of Babel. His goal was to preach the gospel to them all.
Thomas and others of the twelve went to India and intended to go beyond that. Peter even received revelation that the gospel was for all of the nations in Acts 10. After Rome became Christianized by Constantine the gospel went further into Britannia, Rus and beyond.Northern Africa had long been a Christian stronghold. However, the gospel did not penetrate the African interior or the Far east let alone the Americas which were not discovered for 1000 more years. So, many still had not heard.
A Stumbling Block To Israel
The very thing that Israel was supposed to use to reach the nations became a stumbling block to them. As Paul wrote, the deliverer will come from Zion, they did not receive him. Isaiah, when he wrote ‘the deliverer will come from Zion,’ also said, “They eyes and cannot see and ears and cannot hear.”
Before Isaiah, Moses predicted that they would not be able to see or hear spiritually if they continued the cycle of sin and rebellion. Jesus ministered to His own for 3 ½ years and they knew him not nor did they receive Him. They knew the law and the prophets by knowledge, but they did not know spiritually.
So, other than the original church in Israel and the nations the Jews have not received the gospel. Then there are those of the ten lost tribes who are outside the gospel. Up until the last hundred years or so the term Messianic Jew was unknown. But, as more and more become believers and are discipled, the church among the seed of Jacob grows.
But will they all be saved? How?
Provoking Israel To Jealousy
Romans 11:11 ESV So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.
The question is did Israel fall? Has God forgotten Israel? They stumbled, but they did not fall. It hasn’t helped that many of the early church Fathers were anit-semitic and the church mistreated, tortured and forced conversion of Jews throughout church history. Today, when a Jew sees a cross they are offended much like African-Americans do when they see a confederate flag.
However, many Christians are attempting to evangelize and serve Jews. Many have befriended them and have seen some fruit. Others have seen fruit as a result of apologetics. Still, Israel- all Israel remains outside of the gospel, far outside. So where does hope lie?
Prayer is important and is the key to seeing their hearts softened. Prayer alone is not enough. It will take one on one evangelism, media, apologetics and serving just to reach a few. But, Paul has given us the answer.
The thing that Israel was to be to the nations, a light, has gone to the Gentiles, or nations. The light will return from the nations to israel. When Israel sees nations, or even whole continents like Africa, come to salvation they will be jealous and want in. When the nations of the Middle East accept Isa and throw off Islam, Israel will be so jealous they will come to salvation. If the Muslims can dream of the man in white coming to them and they are saved, how much more can the seed of Jacob see Him in their dreams.
Consider the Prodigal son. We love to tell that story and speak of the son that squandered everything and came home. Sometimes a preacher, like my own father used to, will talk about the jealous brother. That whole story’s application is Israel, the jealous brother, and the nations, the prodigal. It is so obvious, but like Israel we miss it. We make it all about us.
Let’s not make it just about us as individuals or about America or Europe or one particular nation but about all nations and Israel: The one new man: Ephesians 2:14-16 ESV
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Let us thank God that through Jesus we all are a part of the one new man made up of Israel and the nations, for without one the other is incomplete.