During the 1st century, in the earliest churches, there was a great crisis concerning how to understand God’s Word as spoken through the Hebrew Prophets. The majority Jewish rejection of Yeshua, coupled with the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70 A.D., caused many believers to doubt the plain meaning of so much biblical prophecy. Instead of the redemption of Jerusalem, Israel and the Jewish people, they witnessed judgement and scattering. And increasingly, the gentiles were streaming into the Kingdom by numbers that nobody anticipated. Could it be that God’s Word to Israel had failed? (Rom 9:6)
Over the next 3 chapters, the Apostle, by the revelation accorded to him through his ministry to both Jews and gentiles, explains how it is that God’s Word has not failed, but is in fact coming to pass in surprising, yet biblically faithful, ways. He outlines 3 major paradigms of this prophetic fulfillment, and it is vital that these remain our guide to understanding Scripture: the chosen remnant; the One New Man ecclesia of Jew and Gentile; and Ultimate Fullness of all of God’s promises—leading up to and being fulfilled at Yeshua’s 2nd Coming.
In this 2nd teaching of Ariel’s series on Romans 9-11, he focuses on the first two paradigms, as expounded in Romans Chapter 9. First, “not all Israel is Israel, (9:6-13), and the fulfillment of His covenant promises can always be found among a remnant within physical Israel. And second, His glorious plan to include a remnant from every tribe, tongue and nation on equal footing with the Jewish believers (9:14-33).
