Romans 11:11-12
Some of God’s grand and mysterious purposes are revealed in Romans 11. Once we’ve explored our way through this chapter, we’ll find ourselves awed by God’s majesty, saying with Paul:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! (11:33)
For this sermon, we’ll explore just two verses: 11 and 12.
What We Know For Sure
These two verses do not fully reveal God’s plans for Israel and the world; but there are four concrete truths we can know for sure:
1. Israel’s stumbling/trespass/failure has purpose. (v.11a)
They didn’t reject Jesus just so they’d fall. God’s up to something more.
2. The purpose of Israel’s stumbling is to open the door for the world’s salvation. (v.11b)
If it weren’t for Israel’s trespass, we Gentiles wouldn’t be included into his people. (See Luke 20:9-18, Acts 28:23-30)
3. Gentile salvation has further purpose too: to make the Jews jealous. (v.11c)
By opening the door to the Gentiles, God increases the heat beneath Israel, causing them to boil over with desire for him (that’s what the word translated jealous means).
4. God has even more to reveal regarding his purposes. (v.12)
There are more riches to come associated with Israel’s full inclusion. And this is the mystery that unfolds in the rest of the chapter.
What This Means for Us
Maybe four points about God’s plan for Israel doesn’t seem relevant for your life. It is! Here are a couple of implications that effect you:
1. God is brilliantly sovereign.
We’ve firmly established God’s sovereignty during our study of Romans. Here we see that God isn’t in control like a computer program or a machine. He’s in control like a master artist, a genius.
What Shakespeare did with words, God does with worlds. What Michelangelo did with paint, God does with people. What Mozart did with sonatas, God does with souls. (Or, if you aren’t into those guys: What Dale Earnhardt did with races, God does with reality.)
God is working our life along with all others into a masterpiece. Each chapter builds the story he’s telling. Each brush stroke furthers the picture he’s painting. The notes of history are not noise. He’s composing them into a beautiful song.
2. God’s purposes are manifold.
He is always doing more than one thing.
Think of your situation, the one that makes you ask, “Why must it be this way?!?” Perhaps you can imagine a purpose that God might have for it. Now, multiply that by 3 or 4 or 5 or infinity (who knows!). That’s how many purposes God is working in your situation. What he’s doing in you has to do with what he’s doing in your family, your community, your world and all of history.
We’re involved in something WAY bigger than we can comprehend. If God is like Shakespeare, we are like Hamlet. All we see is the page we’re on, while God is composing the whole play.
3. God’s purposes are not always revealed to us.
In The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom tells the story of her experience in a Nazi concentration camp during which she and her sister, Betsie, were forced to sleep in cramped, flea infested barracks. Betsie insisted they give thanks in all things, including the fleas. Why thank God for fleas?! But they did, and then moved on with life in the concentration camp, leading covert prayer meetings at night. During these powerful prayer meetings, dozens of haggard women found hope in an otherwise hopeless world.
They had smuggled in a Bible, which was dangerous because, if caught, the might be killed for it. Yet, the Nazi guards inexplicably never entered their barracks during the prayer meeting. This was strange because the guards were otherwise vigilant. Months later, they found out why the guards never entered their barracks and caught them studying the Bible. They didn’t want to be near the fleas.
He chose to reveal the purpose of the fleas to Corrie and Betsie. But what if he hadn’t? We must come to trust God deeply enough to give thanks for the fleas, even if we don’t understand why there are fleas. Because God has manifold wonderful purposes behind all that he does; but we’re not guaranteed that he will reveal those purposes to us.
What to Do
God is brilliantly sovereign, so let’s trust him. Let’s trust him specifically, not just saying generally, “I’ll try to trust God better.”
Find a quiet spot and write down the areas of anxiety in which you need to trust God. Further, teach your children to trust God this way. Encourage one another to trust God this way.
Then wait and watch as God’s plan unfolds over time.
Discussion Starters
- How was your week? Share the highs and lows together.
- In what way did Israel stumble, trespass and fail? (See Romans 9:30-10:4)
- How did salvation come to the Gentiles through Israel’s trespass? (See Luke 20:9-18 and Acts 28:23-30)
- Read the following instances when Israel is made jealous by the spread to the Gentiles: Acts 5:12-20; 13:44-47; 17:1-9. What common threads run through all 3 accounts?
- What does Paul mean by their full inclusion? (Read the rest of chapter 11 and discuss.)
- Has God done wonderful things through confusing or even terrible circumstances in your life? Share your experiences together.
- What is going on in your life now that you don’t understand?
- Pray together for deeper trust in God’s sovereign purposes.
