It’s become far too common. We scroll past headlines about another synagogue vandalized, another hateful act against the Jewish people, and we shrug. It’s treated as just another piece of bad news in a world full of it. But for the Christian who knows his Bible, this shouldn’t be just another Tuesday.

The eleventh chapter of the book of is a thunderous declaration from the Apostle Paul that the Jewish people have not been fired from history. Their story isn’t over.

God’s Covenant: An Unbreakable, Everlasting Promise

Before we can understand Israel’s present and future, we must understand the character of the God who called them. Our God is a covenant-keeping God. He doesn’t make promises and then break them when one party misbehaves. If he did, none of us would have a hope of Heaven.

Look at the promise He made to David’s lineage in Psalm 89:33-34: “Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.”

Think about David’s life. He was a man after God’s own heart, yet he was guilty of adultery and murder. He sinned grievously.

Fast-forward through Israel’s history, and the story is much the same on a national scale. Fresh from the miracle of the Red Sea parting, they built a golden calf to worship. They stoned the prophets God sent to warn them. Elijah felt so alone that he ran for his life, believing he was the only faithful one left.

Their national rap sheet is long and, if we are honest, looks a lot like our own personal ones.

Yet, God’s promise holds. Why? Deuteronomy 7:8 tells us it was not because of their righteousness, but because He loved them and because He would keep the oath He swore to their fathers.

His choice of Israel was unconditional. There is no expiration date stamped on the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:3: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

That promise has never been revoked. It stands today as a stark warning and a glorious promise. Our personal and national blessing is tied to how we view and treat God’s chosen people, Israel.

Unpacking Romans 11: The Olive Tree and the Unbreakable Root

Nowhere is God’s unwavering plan for Israel laid out more clearly than in Romans 11. Paul, writing to a largely Gentile church in Rome, confronts the growing arrogance that they had somehow supplanted the Jewish people in God’s plan.

He opens with a sharp, rhetorical question and an even sharper answer: “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid” (Romans 11:1).

This isn’t a debate; it is a declaration. Paul shouts it from the rooftops. To make his point undeniable, he immediately follows up in verse 2: “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.”

That word “foreknew” isn’t just about knowing the future. It’s a word of intimate, personal, relational, predestined love. God chose Israel with full knowledge of their future failures, just as He chose you and me with the same.

The Remnant and the Grafted Branches

Paul proves that God is still working with Israel by pointing to the “remnant according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:5). Just as God preserved 7,000 men who had not bowed the knee to Baal in Elijah’s day, there has always been and is today a thread of Jewish believers—Messianic Jews—who have accepted Jesus as their Messiah. They are living proof that God’s work with His people is not finished.

Then Paul gives us one of the most powerful illustrations in all of Scripture: the olive tree.

• The Root: The holy root of the tree is the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—a covenant fulfilled in the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
• The Natural Branches: These are the people of Israel, who grew naturally out of that covenant promise.
• The Broken-Off Branches: These are individual Jewish people who, because of unbelief, were temporarily broken off.
• The Wild Olive Branches: This is us, the Gentiles. We were wild, separate from God’s covenants, but by His incredible grace, we have been grafted into this tree.

Paul then issues a stern warning in verse 18: “Boast not against the branches.” Pride is the original human sin, and here it rears its ugly head again.

Paul drives the point home in verse 21: “For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.”

We do not own the tree. We are not the root. We are wild shoots, brought in by the Gardener, who are now nourished by a root that is not our own. Our standing is by faith alone, and it should produce humility, not arrogance.

Israel’s Future Salvation

The climax of Paul’s argument reveals a stunning piece of God’s prophetic timeline. “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:25-26).

This “blindness in part” is a temporary, partial hardening of Israel’s heart on a national level. It is not total, as the remnant proves, and it is not permanent. It lasts for a specific period: “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” This refers to the completion of the Church age.

After that time, something incredible will happen: “And so all Israel shall be saved.” The “so” here indicates sequence—in this manner, at that time. This speaks of a future day of national repentance and restoration.

The prophet Zechariah saw this day vividly: “And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son” (Zechariah 12:10). This isn’t replacement; it is the most glorious restoration imaginable.

Pride’s Peril: The Spiritual Danger of Replacing Israel

To teach that the Church has replaced Israel is to indulge in the very arrogance Paul warned against.

As it is written in Proverbs, “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).

When Gentile believers brag that we have the Gospel now, we forget that the Old Testament scrolls were penned by Jewish hands. Isaiah, David, Jeremiah, and Daniel—the biography of our Messiah was written by His own kinsmen. Jesus Christ Himself was a Jew. The apostles were Jews. Our faith is built on a Jewish foundation.

To dismiss Israel is to show an ignorance that borders on the same spirit of Pharaoh, who declared, “I know not the LORD” (Exodus 5:2).

It is to forget the terrifying words of Zechariah 2:8, where God says of Israel, “he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” To curse, harm, or even arrogantly dismiss the Jewish people is to poke a finger directly into the eye of Almighty God.

This prideful stance stands in stark contrast to the heart of our Savior. As He hung on the cross, looking at the very people who had condemned Him—Jewish leaders and Roman soldiers alike—He prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Our response to Israel’s unbelief should not be condemnation and replacement, but grief, prayer, and a humble desire for their salvation, mirroring the heart of Christ.

Not a Footnote, But the Headline: Israel’s Future in Bible Prophecy

Israel’s story is far from over. In fact, they are at the very center of God’s prophetic endgame. The Bible makes it clear that during the Tribulation period, the world’s attention will be riveted on Jerusalem.

• In Revelation 11, it is written that God will raise up two witnesses in Jerusalem, two Jewish prophets who will preach with fire and power.
• Zechariah 14 describes Jerusalem becoming “a cup of trembling unto all the people round about” as all nations gather to battle against it.
• It is to Jerusalem, specifically the Mount of Olives, that Jesus Christ will return to establish His earthly kingdom.

Israel’s national restoration is not a side story; it is the climax. It is the final, undeniable demonstration of God’s faithfulness that will cause every mouth to be stopped. It is the ultimate fulfillment of Romans 11:36: “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

From Doctrine to Duty: How Should We Then Live?

Understanding this truth is not just an academic exercise. It demands a response. It changes how we pray, how we read the news, and how we view our own salvation.

First, we are commanded: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee” (Psalm 122:6). This is not a suggestion. When headlines scream of war in the Middle East, pray harder. When synagogues are attacked, bless louder.

Second, we must live in humility. Our salvation is a miracle. We are wild shoots, saved by grace alone, who have been grafted into a family and a covenant that was not originally ours. Our hearts should overflow with gratitude, not with pride. We should look upon the natural branches with love and a longing for their salvation, never with contempt.

Finally, let God’s faithfulness to Israel be the bedrock of your own assurance. If God keeps His covenant with a nation that built idols in the wilderness, rejected His Son, and has been scattered for millennia, how much more will He keep His promise of salvation to you, who have been washed in the blood of His Son?

His promise to them is the guarantee of His promise to you. The branches are unbreakable, not because they are sinless, but because the God who holds them is sovereign.

Israel is not a footnote in the history of salvation. They are central to the plot, and the final chapters are yet to be written. That glorious future restoration starts with our humility and our prayers today.