Romans 11:1-36

Paul continues to teach how people from the Israeli and people from the Gentile backgrounds can become members of God’s family during the present time as we await Christ’s coming to gather all holy-people (true Christians, those who receive the spirit of Christ within them during their lifetime) together with him.

Romans 11:1 and 2(a):

^11:1Therefore I say, God did not thrust-away His people from-Himself, did He? – (no) – may it not become! – for I also am an Israelite, out-from (the) seed of Abraham, of (the) tribe of Benjamin – ^.2(a)God did not thrust-away His people from Himself whom He knew-beforehand.

Following-on logically from what is written previously (in chapter 10) I say…

• God did not push-away (repel, repulse, reject) His people from Himself (the word “people” here is a singular noun laos meaning: a mass or group of people collectively as one unit, one united assembly, referring to those who are descended from Israel [some Greek texts have the word “inheritance” instead of “people” and include “which He knew-beforehand”; refer to Psalm 94:14]),
  • did He?
    • The answer: No! The Greek construction of this question indicates that the expected answer is "no." Then Paul confirms the negative answer by writing: may it not become! May that not come to pass! May that not happen! The thought of such a thing being so repulsive to Paul is conveyed in his expression of may it not become or come into being that such a thing would occur at any time! –
• in truth, emphatically I also am an Israelite (in Greek there is a definite word for “I” plus the verb meaning “I am” giving emphasis – I myself am a descendant of the man who was named Israel),
  • originating from Abraham’s seed (his offspring physically, his posterity genealogically),
• of the tribe (clan) of Benjamin (one of the twelve tribes of Israel) –

…God did not thrust-away His people from Himself whom He knew before the day of Pentecost (whom He had a truly active and relative knowing of in advance, whom He was personally knowledgeable of prior to time recorded in Acts chapter 2 when the gift of holy spirit was first made available to mankind by means of the Lord Jesus Christ).

The name Israel was given by God via one of His angels to Jacob, the biological father of the twelve men forming the twelve tribes of Israel. “Jacob” means: supplanter, contender, organizer, the one who strives or wrestles to get goals accomplished via the natural realm. “Israel” means: the one who is strong with God, the one who strives or wrestles to receive God’s blessings, and who accomplishes God’s goals by doing God’s intention, allowing God to be his guide via God’s spirit realm – God commands, rules, and has authority over Israel. Refer to Genesis 32:27, 28, 35:10, and Hosea 12:3 and 4. The title “Israelites” (referring to the physical descendants of Jacob/Israel) may also include those who call themselves “Judeans.” The record in I Kings chapter 12 details the division of the nation of Israel into the 10 northern tribes (then referred to as Israel) and the 2 southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin (then referred to as Judah).

God made a covenant with Abraham and part of that covenant was regarding his seed, and that he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 15:3-6 and 17:3-6), and ultimately that the Christ would be his seed (Galatians 3:16). Paul was both physically/naturally and spiritually Abraham's seed. Today all the believers are holy-people (true Christians) and we are the seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:5, 6, 13 and 14) because we have the spirit of Christ in us, Christ being the true seed of Abraham. We are part of the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with Abraham. We have received the token of the new covenant of spirit!

[Reference: Genesis 32:28; 35:9-29; Deuteronomy 33:12; I Samuel 12:22; Psalm 94:14; Jeremiah 32:36-40; Acts 2:1-4, and 22:3; Romans 1:16; II Corinthians 11:22; Philippians 3:5.]

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