God, the many covenants wherein God's purpose was so clearly revealed, the giving and

guidance of the law, the great privilege for service, the many vital promises relating to

the will of God for them, and then the greatest Gift of all, their Messiah, Saviour and

King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

These were the tremendous and unique blessings which God had showered on Israel,

concerning which the O.T. is so full. It was these great blessings into which the Gentile

believer was grafted in to share, and it was from this that he could be "cut off" if he acted

in a high-handed way like most of Israel had done. Gentile nations cannot be in view in

Rom. 11:, for such cannot be addressed as "brethren", neither do they stand "by faith"

(Rom. 11: 20).

Once this is seen there is no problem about being cut off from salvation, and in order

to show that this cannot be true, Paul concludes by teaching that the One Who had broken

the natural branches off through their unbelief was able and willing to graft them in

again, in other words, to restore them once more to the position He wills for them in His

earthly purpose, for their blindness is only temporary "until the fullness of the Gentiles be

come in" (11: 25).

There were several excisions of the branches of Israel between Matthew 13: and

Acts 28:; what happened at Antioch and Corinth being two of them (Acts 13: 45-47;

19: 8, 9)  for the record makes perfectly clear that the opposition to Paul came

continually from the Jews, not the Gentiles, who often received the gospel gladly. The

"hope of Israel" dominates the Acts and obviously was related to the twelve tribes

(Acts.xxvi.6,7).  What would happen to the olive tree if the grafting in of Gentile

believers failed is not revealed in Romans. Now that we have the light of all Scripture,

we know that unbelieving Israel were to be "plucked up" and "scattered" to the ends of

the earth as the O.T. had repeatedly warned them, yet had so clearly spoken of their

ultimate restoration and gathering back to the land of promise because of God's grace and

His unconditional promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. Israel's blindness or

hardness was a mystery (secret, 11: 25) for although the O.T. revealed the nation's laying

aside in unbelief there was no revelation of the length of time this would last. Thus it is

that Paul ends his parable of the olive tree by stressing this great goal of God for the

nation. The One Who has disciplined them and scattered them is the One Who will

gather them (Jer. 31: 10).

The O.T. prophets give ample evidence of this (see Isa. 43: 5-7; Jer. 24: 6, 7;

Ezek. 20: 41, 42; 28: 25, 26; Amos 9: 13-15; Micah 4: 1-8; Zeph. 3: 19, 20). (The

reader is recommended to the author's The Kingdom of God in Heaven and on Earth,

pp.58-66, where this is discussed in detail.). The day is coming when the Redeemer shall

come to Zion (Isa. 59: 20; Rom. 11: 26) and Israel shall be restored and enter into the

fullness of God's purpose for them: