until the day when "all Israel" shall be saved, their "receiving back" bringing with it

"life" (Rom. 11: 15-26).

In Gal. 3: 14 "the promise of the Spirit" is directly connected with the coming of the

blessing of Abraham upon the Gentiles, and while Israel remained a nation in their own

land, these spiritual gifts were enjoyed and partaken of by the Gentile churches. We are

not left in doubt, however, as to the purpose of God in thus allowing the Gentiles to

anticipate that day which could only come with Israel's conversion.

The Gentile believers were reminded that they had been grafted into the stock of the

true olive, contrary to nature, with the express purpose of "provoking emulation" and

"provoking to jealousy" the people of Israel. Israel, however, were not provoked to

emulation. Isa. 6: 10, quoted by the apostle in Acts 28:, showed that the olive tree

of Israel was cut down. It is true that Isa. 6: 13 prophesies that, though cut down, it will

yet sprout again; that in God's good time "all Israel" shall be saved, but this does not

take place until "the fullness of the Gentiles" has come in. (The words, "Cast their

leaves" in Isa. 6: 13 should be rendered, "are felled").

Rom. 11: makes it plain that in the first instance the olive tree was entirely Israelitish.

At the time of writing that epistle "some" only of the natural branches had been broken

off, but during the present time there does not exist the counterpart of this olive tree, that

is, an Israelitish calling with a smaller Gentile addition. To-day Israel does not count.

Only a false spirituality can attempt to prove that the olive tree now stands. During this

present time Gentiles are blessed without association with Israel.  Should anyone

interpose the suggestion that Gentile believers are still blessed by the Scriptures which

came through Israel, are still saved by that salvation which is "of the Jews", are still

accepted in Him Who is of the seed of David, and therefore are still partaking of the root

and fatness of the olive tree, we would reply that this, if allowed, proves too much, for

the epistles of the mystery, though distinct and peculiar, are necessarily linked with all

that has gone before, and so the mystery itself could be "proved" to be a continuation of

Rom. 11:, as some actually interpret Eph. 2: 19.

It throws light upon Rom. 11: and the dispensational position of the Gentile during

the Acts period, to remember that Paul is not employing fiction when he speaks of the

unusual action of grafting a wild branch upon a cultivated stock, for at the time the

apostle was writing it was a process actually used to "provoke" the flagging fruitfulness

of an aged olive tree. The enjoyment by the Gentiles of spiritual gifts, "the fatness of the

olive tree", during this time was not because the blessing that will result from the promise

to Abraham was then actually flowing out to all nations, but because the Gentiles were

being used to "provoke to jealousy and emulation" the fast-failing olive tree of Israel.

But Israel did not respond, they did not repent, and in due course were set aside.