This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32. The English Standard Version places these verses under the headings “The Remnant of Israel,”[1] and “The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation.”[2]
Israel is very much in the news. Our Prime Minister recently emphasized a long-standing policy in Malaysia: Citizens of Israel, if they’re found in Malaysia, will be deported.[3] I suppose this applies even to persons who are citizens of two countries, one of which is Israel. I suppose there may be some US diplomats and executives who have such dual nationality.
Eight US lawmakers responded to our Prime Minister’s speech by calling on the US Secretary of State – the Foreign Minister – to review the USA’s relationships with Malaysia. The US State Department “summoned” the Malaysian ambassador for a meeting. At the meeting, our ambassador rightly said that we’re a sovereign nation and the US has no right to tell us whom we can allow in or keep out.
Before I proceed, I must remind you of what I said in my reflection on Romans 9, which I titled “Paul’s Sorrow, Israel’s Promise, and the Church’s Calling.” I said,
We have to be very careful when we use the words “Jew,” “Israel,” and “Israelite.” Please be aware that I do not use them to mean the modern state of Israel, or even those who identify today as Jews.
Christians, like other groups all over the world, are divided over how to respond to the creation of Israel as a nation in 1948, and the policy of settler colonialism[4] which drives so many of the actions of the modern state of Israel – whose elected Parliament, called the Knesset, includes Arabs, though they’re mostly in the opposition. In fact, there’s even one Arab judge among the 15 members of the Supreme Court of Israel.[5]
The author of the book of Romans[6] is Paul, a Jewish rabbi whom God converted and appointed to draw people to live as if they were ruled by God,[7] rather than local rulers – resisting them when necessary, not by using weapons of war, but by using weapons of love and sacrifice, often enduring hardships like flogging, stoning, imprisonment, crucifixion.
Although Paul called himself “apostle to the Gentiles,”[8] which means missionary to non-Jews, he persuaded everyone, including Jews, to become disciples of Jesus.
Paul was proud of his Jewish ancestry. Proud of his culture, which had preserved the scriptures, “the book,” the words spoken to men, for men, by God, through his prophets, his spokesmen. Proud of the suffering his fellow Christian-Jews endured at the hands of other Jews who didn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah promised in their scriptures.
Jews are people of the book, the writings of the prophets. People who have rabbis to teach and to lead them. People who gather regularly in synagogues,[9] to sing psalms, read the scriptures, pray, and be taught.
Now, as then, there are Jews who don’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah. How should we regard them? And what about Israelites – people who don’t live according to the precepts contained in their Bible – but hang on to the “land promises” contained in it? How should we regard them?
Today, our first text reads,
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
In the following verses, Paul qualifies what he says. He points out that centuries earlier when Prophet Elijah, in a state of depression, cried to God that he was all alone, God replied that actually, there were 7,000 others who chose to see and to do what pleases not themselves or their neighbours, or their priests, or their king and queen and their officials, but God.[10] Paul’s point is that we mustn’t despair because we seem to be alone. We mustn’t judge people according to their ethnicity or culture.[11] We must urge them to see and to fear doing things which displease God.
Our second text reads,
As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
Here, Paul uses the word “they,” to mean members of one of the twelve tribes of Jacob.[12] What I find striking is his use of the words “disobedient” and “disobedience”. We live in an age which resists use of these words, which mocks those who use these words – although I think our age welcomes the word “mercy,” which Paul also uses.
As I said in my earlier column on Romans 9, you really have to closely read at least Romans 9-11 before you can make sense of what Paul says in Romans about Jews and Israelites. What we can be sure of is this: we must not mock them. We must join Paul in using words like “disobedient,” to describe them, just like we use such words to describe ourselves. We must announce to them that God is merciful to all, regardless of ethnicity.
Peace be with you.
[1] Verses 1-10.
[2] Verses 25-36.
[3] See for example, https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2026/07/16/pm-well-deport-any-israelis-found.
[4] I’m baffled how anyone who claims to be Christian can support settler colonialism, which has even resulted in Christians becoming a minority group in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus.
[5] Justice Khaled Kabub, appointed in May 2022. He’s a Muslim. According to some accounts, 7% of those who work in the Israeli judicial system are ethnically Arabs, (who constitute about 20% of the population).
[6] More correctly, “Letter to the Romans.”
[7] The Kingdom of God is at the heart of Jesus’ teachings.
[8] Verse 13.
[9] Which they sometimes call temples.
[10] See 1 Kings 19.
[11] Which is precisely what Hitler and his followers did during the Holocaust.
[12] Because Paul, in verse 1, bases his claim to be an “Israelite” by referencing his tribe, “Benjamin.” Note however that in verse 14, he says “make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them,” meaning he uses the word “Jew” as a synonym for “Israelite.”
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