. . . . . saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me from the least of them unto the

greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their

sin no more". And then God appeals to creation (verse 35): "Thus saith the Lord, which

giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a

light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar: The Lord of hosts is

his name". Now a challenge thrown out: "if those ordinances depart from before Me,

saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me

for ever". This cannot be just the blessing of individual Jews and their being saved by the

Gospel today. "Thus saith the Lord, If the heaven above can be measured, and the

foundations of the earth searched out beneath", (then--another challenge) "I will also

cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord". What a

challenge this is! Nobody can accept it because it is impossible to carry out!

So there must be, then, a future for this people, for God could not be more emphatic or

more clear. We shall see some other parts of Scripture confirm this, and at the end the

combined testimony is overwhelming.

Let us now turn to the N.T. to Rom. 11: 11.  Here the Apostle Paul is dealing with

Israel's lack of response, their opposition to the gospel right throughout the Acts of the

Apostles. God had opened the door, through Peter's ministry, to the Gentiles, and here

Paul tell us why. "I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid; but

rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them (Israel)

to jealousy"--in order to stimulate them spiritually, if it was possible so to do. And then

in verse 14: "If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and

might save some of them. 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?" If this is true, how

can some say there is no future for Israel in the plan of God? Paul says there is coming a

time when they are going to be received back into blessing. God has lopped them

temporarily in unbelief, the branches had been `broken off'. But God is able to put them

back again and restore them, and when that happens it is going to be like resurrection life,

life from the dead, to the world. That is what a dead world needs, resurrection life.

We will go on further to verse 24. The Apostle now speaks to the Gentiles: "For if

thou wert cut out of the wild olive tree which is wild by nature" (the olive tree is simply a

symbol of the people of Israel Jer. 11: 16) "and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good

olive tree; how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into

their own olive tree?"  This is the receiving of them back again.  Then he drops

symbolism and says plainly: (Verse 25) "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be

ignorant of this mystery (this secret), lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that

blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in".

Even if we do not understand what "the fullness of the Gentiles" means, we can surely

understand that Israel's blindness cannot be for ever. It is only blindness for a limited

period on this people. After that (verse 26) "And so all Israel shall be saved". And the

context makes it clear that he is not dealing with the Church which is His Body! This is

the literal people of Israel, the nation of Israel, those who are "my flesh" as Paul

describes them in chapter 9: as his own kinsmen. "And so all Israel shall be saved: as