Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 I ask then, Did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Yisra'elite, a descendant of Avraham, of the tribe of Binyamin.
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Does this mean, then, that God is so fed up with Israel that he'll have nothing more to do with them? Hardly. Remember that I, the one writing these things, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham out of the tribe of Benjamin. You can't get much more Semitic than that!
2 God didn't reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don't you know what the Scripture says about Eliyah? How he pleads with God against Yisra'el:
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So we're not talking about repudiation. God has been too long involved with Israel, has too much invested, to simply wash his hands of them. Do you remember that time Elijah was agonizing over this same Israel and cried out in prayer?
3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life."
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God, they murdered your prophets, They trashed your altars; I'm the only one left and now they're after me!
4 But how does God answer him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Ba`al."
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And do you remember God's answer? I still have seven thousand who haven't quit, Seven thousand who are loyal to the finish.
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
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It's the same today. There's a fiercely loyal minority still - not many, perhaps, but probably more than you think.
6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
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They're holding on, not because of what they think they're going to get out of it, but because they're convinced of God's grace and purpose in choosing them. If they were only thinking of their own immediate self-interest, they would have left long ago.
7 What then? That which Yisra'el seeks for, that he didn't obtain, but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
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And then what happened? Well, when Israel tried to be right with God on her own, pursuing her own self-interest, she didn't succeed. The chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue his interest in them, and as a result received his stamp of legitimacy. The "self-interest Israel" became thick-skinned toward God.
8 According as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day."
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Moses and Isaiah both commented on this: Fed up with their quarrelsome, self-centered ways, God blurred their eyes and dulled their ears, Shut them in on themselves in a hall of mirrors, and they're there to this day.
9 David says, "Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, A stumbling block, and a retribution to them.
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David was upset about the same thing: I hope they get sick eating self-serving meals, break a leg walking their self-serving ways.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Bow down their back always."
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I hope they go blind staring in their mirrors, get ulcers from playing at god.
11 I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Goyim, to provoke them to jealousy.
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The next question is, "Are they down for the count? Are they out of this for good?" And the answer is a clear-cut no. Ironically when they walked out, they left the door open and the outsiders walked in. But the next thing you know, the Jews were starting to wonder if perhaps they had walked out on a good thing.
12 Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Goyim; how much more their fullness?
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Now, if their leaving triggered this worldwide coming of non-Jewish outsiders to God's kingdom, just imagine the effect of their coming back! What a homecoming!
13 For I speak to you who are Goyim. Since then as I am an apostle to Goyim, I glorify my ministry;
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But I don't want to go on about them. It's you, the outsiders, that I'm concerned with now. Because my personal assignment is focused on the so-called outsiders, I make as much of this as I can
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.
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when I'm among my Israelite kin, the so-called insiders, hoping they'll realize what they're missing and want to get in on what God is doing.
15 For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
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If their falling out initiated this worldwide coming together, their recovery is going to set off something even better: mass homecoming! If the first thing the Jews did, even though it was wrong for them, turned out for your good, just think what's going to happen when they get it right!
16 If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches.
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Behind and underneath all this there is a holy, God-planted, God-tended root. If the primary root of the tree is holy, there's bound to be some holy fruit.
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the root of the richness of the olive tree;
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Some of the tree's branches were pruned and you wild olive shoots were grafted in. Yet the fact that you are now fed by that rich and holy root
18 don't boast over the branches. But if you boast, it is not you who bear the root, but the root you.
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gives you no cause to crow over the pruned branches. Remember, you aren't feeding the root; the root is feeding you.
19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in."
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It's certainly possible to say, "Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in!"
20 True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don't be conceited, but fear;
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Well and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root. The only reason you're on the tree is because your graft "took" when you believed, and because you're connected to that belief-nurturing root. So don't get cocky and strut your branch. Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you lithe and green.
21 for if God didn't spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.
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If God didn't think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would he hesitate over you? He wouldn't give it a second thought.
22 See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off.
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Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God - ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don't presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, you're out of there.
23 They also, if they don't continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
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And don't get to feeling superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don't persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts.
24 For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
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Why, if he could graft you - branches cut from a tree out in the wild - into an orchard tree, he certainly isn't going to have any trouble grafting branches back into the tree they grew from in the first place. Just be glad you're in the tree, and hope for the best for the others.
25 For I don't desire, brothers, to have you ignorant of this mystery, so that you won't be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part has happened to Yisra'el, until the fullness of the Goyim has come in,
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I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what's going on and arrogantly assume that you're royalty and they're just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that's not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house.
26 and so all Yisra'el will be saved. Even as it is written, "There will come out of Tziyon the Deliverer, And he will turn away ungodliness from Ya`akov.
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Before it's all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written, A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion; he'll clean house in Jacob.
27 This is my covenant to them, When I will take away their sins."
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And this is my commitment to my people: removal of their sins.
28 Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake.
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From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God's enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God's overall purpose, they remain God's oldest friends.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
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God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty - never canceled, never rescinded.
30 For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,
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There was a time not so long ago when you were on the outs with God. But then the Jews slammed the door on him and things opened up for you.
31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy.
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Now they are on the outs. But with the door held wide open for you, they have a way back in.
32 For God has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.
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In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in.
33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
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Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It's way over our heads. We'll never figure it out.
34 "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"
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Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?
35 "Or who has first given to him, And it will be repaid to him again?"
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Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amein.
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Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.