We have been studying the book of Romans here at Mishkan Katan. Chapters 9, 10 and 11 are a sort of trilogy, concerning the Jews, which is appropriate, because Paul wrote this letter to believers in Yeshua who lived in Rome. Some of them were Jewish and others were Gentiles.
In Romans 9 we learned that it was decreed from before the beginning that Mashiach would come from God’s chosen people, the Jews. In Romans 10, we learned how to come into a relationship with Yeshua, whether you are of Jewish heritage or as a Gentile. The way is the same, regardless.
Most of us can remember time-out, or being "grounded". Are there any "perfect children" out there?
No, I didn't think so, lol! Our parents, at some time or other, took away some of the privileges of "sonship", due to our disobedience. Or, in my case, they took a switch to my legs. Time-out came along as a parenting strategy after I was a young adult. But, I digress....
We are in Romans 11 today, a chapter in which Paul is describing how God has done this with the nation of Israel. Let’s look at the end of chapter 10, where Elohim referred to the Jews as “a contentious and disobedient people” in Isaiah 65:2. So, this type of behavior was not a recent development, in Paul’s day, that is, in the first century CE.
The Jews have always been a fiery, passionate, vocal people. You know, there are some people groups that just sort of “hang out”. They don’t really become great producers of things. They stay essentially the same way for hundreds of years. The Jews are not like that. They are producers, innovators, game-changers, and they always have been. The flip side of that intensity is that it can also manifest in grumbling, contention, and pridefulness. The same is true with individual people who are “fiery”. My mother would say at this point, “Pot, meet kettle.”
Paul opens chapter 11, though, with a very important point. Just as my mother will never “cast me off”, even when I behave not so well, Elohim will not cast off His people. Let’s read together.
1 But I say: “Has Elohim cast off His people?” May it never be! For I also am of Yisra’el, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 Elohim has not cast off those of His people whom He knew before.
Paul is making the point that if you say Elohim has cast off His people, you are making a wholesale statement that just is not true. After all, Paul says, He has not cast me off, because here is my Jewish lineage, and here I am, an apostle of Yeshua HaMashiach. In verse 2, Paul makes the point that Elohim knew the Jewish people from eternity past, not merely hundreds of years previous to Paul’s time. And, He knew every stinky thing they would do, before He ever chose them. (As a side note, if parents knew this, they would probably not become parents, but again, I digress. There’s a reason little babies are so cute and endearing....lol)
Paul then qualifies what it means that God has put His nation in time-out, during “these last days” that began after the earthly ministry of Yeshua (phase 1) concluded. Reading on the latter part of verse 2:
2b Do you not know what, in the Scripture of Elohim, He said to Eliyahu? When he had complained to Elohim against Yisra’el and said:
3 “My Master, they have slain your prophets and have thrown down your altars; and I am left alone; and they seek my soul.”
4 And it was said to him, through revelation: “Behold, I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed their knees and have not worshipped Baal.
5 So also at the present time a remnant is left by the calling of grace.
By bringing up Elijah (Eliyahu, in Hebrew) Paul is referring to the time when Elijah was very weary after an intense battle with Ahab and Jezebel. This was recorded in 1 Kings 19. Elijah seemed to be a somewhat melancholy personality anyway, but he was really at a low point. From his perspective, he was standing all alone on the battlefield for Yahweh. His perspective was incorrect, though. We note in verse 3 that Mari, “My Master”, that is MarYAH, reminded him that he had preserved a remnant of those loyal and faithful to Him. AGR points out that it was Yeshua in pre-incarnate form who appeared to Elijah under the shrub in the wilderness, and that it is He as part of the Divine, Majestic Mystery, who not only preserved the remnant in that day, but also today.
I know that you, like me, have done that...fallen prey to a skewed perspective. Due to powerful emotions, we have let our perspective become skewed. Thank God, He is always ready to “right our ship” if we will draw close to Him. He does this through His Word, when in times of prayer, through the wise counsel of others, etc. The very moment I was writing this, I received a text from a friend. Here’s what she said (with certain portions blocked for privacy):
“Be praying. Our parent company >>>>>> wants my boss to cut my hours to only 15 hours a week. Since the >>>>>>has been organized and labeled and everything is running great, they do not need me all day, every day.”
I replied, “In other words, you have excelled yourself out of a full-time job. What a great reward!”
Now, listen to her response: “Maybe this is God telling me to move back to >>>?”
Do you see what is happening here? She is hurt, scared to be half-way unemployed, wondering how she will make ends meet, pay her bills....and out of those strong emotions, her perspective is affected. It’s so easy to do, isn’t it?
Paul wants us to have a right and clear perspective on God’s dealings with ethnic Israel. Yes, He did allow 10 of the 12 tribes to become “lost”, scattered all over Asia Minor and beyond, 300 years before Paul wrote these words. Yes, He then later allowed the kingdom of Judah to be hauled off to Babylon in captivity. Yes, He has put the Jews in a sort of “time-out” in these last days. But, HE is not saying that He has thrown the Jews over for this combined group of both Jews and Gentiles, often referred to as The Church. He did not replace the Jews with the Church as His chosen people. Not at all. And, in the midst of the shift in emphasis, there have been and are still Jews who are coming to know Yeshua HaMashiach as Elohim, as Redeemer, as Savior. In Israel today, the number of Messianic Jews has swelled to be over 30,000, roughly double the number from just 10 years ago. This shift has prompted the Israeli government to “redefine what it means to be a Jew”. The first Messianic Jews began arriving in Israel in the 1960s. The miracles of the 1967 Yom Kippur War prompted many to embrace Yeshua as Mashiach. This coincided with the Jesus Movement at work here in the USA, during which time I became a follower of Yeshua as well.
It is by His grace that Father Yahweh has preserved a believing remnant. Going on with verse 6:
6 But if by grace, it is not by works: otherwise, grace is not grace. And if by works, it is not by grace: Otherwise, work is not work.
Paul is drawing a clear distinction here between the strategy of “doing good works in order to earn your right standing with God” and “accepting right standing with God by His grace, through the merits of His Son, the Masiach, and then demonstrating this through works done out of love, as a love offering to the One who did that for us.” Big difference. Paul is NOT saying that grace produces a lack of good works in the life of the follower of Yeshua, or that resulting holy deeds are not desirable. Then, Paul goes on to give some examples from Tanakh prophecy of his prior point, that Elohim has allowed a partial blinding of the hearts and eyes of Israel.
7 What then? Yisra’el did not find what it was seeking: but the called ones found it; and the rest of them were blinded in their hearts.
8 As it is written: “Elohim gave them a stupid spirit and eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear, until this very day.
9 And again, David said: “Their table will be a snare before them; and their reward to be stumbling.
10 Their eyes will be darkened so that they will not see; and their back will always be bowed down.
Verse 8 is quoting Deuteronomy 29:4 and Isaiah 29:10. Verses 9 and 10 are quoting Psalm 69:22-23.
On my first trips to Israel, I had a tour guide who is an Arab Christian. His family has lived in Jerusalem for hundreds of years. His parents were born in Jordan, but without the family moving at all, he was born in Israel, just a few months after the conclusion of the 1967 war. But, having a tour guide in Israel who is Christian is rare. In order to be a tour guide, a person has to go through a strenuous education program, where they learn all about Yeshua. However, most do not believe that He is the Mashiach. How can that be possible? The answer is here in Romans 11:7-8!
In Luke 19:41-44, Yeshua had a similar brokenness of heart over the Jewish people, just before He rode into Jerusalem on Nisan 10, Lamb Selection Day, at the beginning of His last Passion Week. Let’s look at those verses:
41 Then, when he had drawn near and saw the city, he wept over her.
42 And he said, “If you only, even in your day, had known those things that were for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes,
43 because to you will come the days when your enemies surround you and will oppress you from all sides
44 And they will overthrow you and your children within you, and they will not leave in you a stone upon another stone, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
About 40 years after this sad scene on the top of the Mount of Olives, verses 43 and 44 did indeed take place, come to pass. So, we see the blindness toward Yeshua which Paul is referring to starting during the time of Yeshua’s ministry and continuing on afterwards. It was so severe that Yeshua wept over the state of things. However, again, this had been prophesied by David, by Isaiah, hundreds of years earlier.
This was Elohim’s plan all along - - knowing in advance that Yeshua would be the stumbling stone the Jews would stumble over. Why would He allow His beloved people to experience this partial blindness, though? We find the answer in the next verses. Let’s read verses 11-16.
11 But I say: “Have they stumbled so much as to fall entirely?” May it never be! Rather, by their own stumbling, Life has come to the Gentiles for their jealousy.
12 And if their stumbling became riches to the world, and their loss riches to the Gentiles; how much more then will their perfection be?
13 But it is to you Gentiles, I am speaking: I honor my ministry as i am an Apostle to the Gentiles.
14 If, perhaps, I may provoke to jealousy my kinsmen and may give Life to some of them,
15 if the rejection was a reconciliation to the world, how much more will their conversion be but Life from the dead?
16 Now, if the first-fruits are Set-Apart, then also the things formed: and if the root is Set-apart, then also the branches.
I was thinking, as I wrote this teaching, that Romans could well be called “The May It Never Be!” book of the Bible. Here, in verse 11, we have another “heck no!” or “Perish the thought!”
Now would be a good time to talk a little bit about anti-Semitism and replacement theology. The latter derives from the first. In the second, third and fourth centuries, as people came to know Yeshua, mainly Gentiles, AND as corrupted doctrine began to be drawn in from pagan influences and added to the teachings of the Bible, the divide between Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua became greater. Jews, whether people of The Way or not, began to be viewed as “Jesus killers”, and disparaged, persecuted, shut out of “Christian” congregations. In fact, at the famous Council of Nicea, around 325 CE, Jews who believed in Yeshua and who kept the Sabbath and the feasts, were excluded. Constantine and his ilk wanted a new religion, one which kept the Messiah (or their version of Him) yet rejected His Jewishness. They replaced the Sabbath with Sunday worship and they replaced the Yahweh-ordained feasts/biblical calendar with a bunch of made-up holidays, taken from pagan worship, and a Western calendar that was commissioned by one of the Roman emperors. They went on further to declare that The Church had replaced the Jews as the chosen people of God. All of this is satanically inspired and demonic, in origin and nature.
The first major event was the attempt by an Egyptian pharaoh to wipe out the Hebrews by slaughtering all the male babies, from which Moses was spared. Then, in conjunction with the Exodus, at the Sea of Reeds another pharaoh tried to drown the entire nation. Still later in Jewish history, there was the plot by Haman to exterminate the Jews, as recorded in the book of Esther. Do I really need to mention Hitler and those who did nothing to stop him? “Mein Kampf” is German for “My Struggle”. In Arabic, “Jihad” means “struggle”. Different country, different flag, same demonic hate for Jews.
There is no greater evidence of the supernatural nature of anti-Semitism than what we are seeing today in the Middle East. Hamas, that evil terrorist organization, directed by the mullahs of Iran, murdered over 1200 Jews in the fall of 2023, kicking off the present war.
“For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore, you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” Mal. 3:6
Although the nation of Israel has “run” a very clean war, since October 7, 2023, keeping civilian casualties as low as humanly possible, Israel is still soundly condemned. False reports of “genocide” in Gaza are propagated without basis in truth, etc. There have been in recent years more condemnations of Israel in the United Nations than any other country. As Amir Tsarfati often says, “No Jews? No news.”
Allright, I’ve gotten a bit far afield here....let’s focus on the latter part of verse 11, as this is a very important point Paul is trying to make - - the motivation of Elohim in allowing the Jewish people to be partially blinded to the truth of Yeshua HaMashiach. He allowed Life/salvation to come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke the Jews to jealousy.
Have any of you ever been involved in a dating relationship where the other person took some actions that caused you to become jealous? I was thinking about this as pertaining to my own experiences, and don’t think I’ve ever experienced that, thankfully. But, it goes something like this. One in the relationship senses that the ardor of the other is cooling, and so he or she starts showing attention to someone else, hoping that the true love will come to his or her senses, realize what is in danger of being lost and renew his or her ardor toward the other.
Crazily enough, this is a plot twist in the greatest love story in history! And, it is because of this that we Gentiles were brought into the kingdom of Elohim in such a dramatic way!
We are “here” to make Jews jealous! Paul mentions this three times in Romans: in chapter 10:19, 11:11 and 11:14. However, I have to say to you, it does not seem to be working very well, at this present time. Why not? Well, mainly, because we people who bear the name of Yeshua HaMashiach do not follow Torah, as our Messiah did, nor do we live in a way that distinguishes us from the pagan world. And, that’s a fact, Jack. A sad fact.
Verse 15 gives us hope though. The Jews’ rejection brought about reconciliation with Elohim for every major people group in the earth, on every continent. How much greater will the Jews’ future reconciliation with the true Mashiach be, in the Days of Jacob’s Trouble? It is going to be magnificent!
Verse 16 hearkens back to something the apostle John wrote in John 15, one of my favorite passages. In fact, for years, my favorite password was “abiding 1”. Let’s take a quick look at those verses, as they form the backdrop for Paul’s comments here in chapter 11, verses 16 and forward. I’m reading from John 15:1-11
1 I, myself, am the Vine of Truth and my Father is the Cultivator.
2 Every branch that is on me that does not bear fruit, He takes it away. But, that which bears fruit, He prunes it, that it might produce more fruit.
3 You are already pruned because of the word which I have spoken with you.
4 Remain in me and I in you, as the branch is not able to produce fruit by itself, unless it should remain in the vine. Likewise, you are also not able, unless you remain in me.
5 I, myself, am the Vine and you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him, this man will produce abundant fruit because without me you are not able to do anything.
6 Now unless a man remains in me, he is cast aside like a withered branch, and they pluck it and place it into the fire that it might burn.
7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, anything that you want to ask of me will be given to you.
8 In this the Father is glorified that you bear abundant fruit and be my disciples.
9 As my Father has loved me, so too I have loved you. Remain in my mercies (rachamim).
10 If you keep my Commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept the Commandments of my Father, and I remain in His love.
11 I have spoken these things with you that my joy may be in you and that your joy might be complete.
I really want to comment on these verses, but will confine myself to Romans, as that is our current study. The temptation is real, however. AGR has a comment on Romans 11:16, if you’ll turn back to our main focus for today, chapter 11. Here is the comment, footnote 114.
“Yeshua, as he says in Yochanan 15:1-5, is the root and the vine, and his followers abide in him as the branches. It is from the Hebrew word for “branch” that we get both the name “Nazareth” and “Nazarene”.
Interesting, then, how the prophet Yeshiyahu (Isaiah) said in chapter 11, verse 1:
“But a branch will emerge from the trunk of Yishai,
a shoot will grow from his roots.”
Yishai in Hebrew is “Jesse” in English. Fascinating, isn’t it! Jesse was the father of King David, and Yeshua was descended from King David, through Mary, His mother. Let’s look at the next set of verses, 17-23
17 And if some of the branches were broken off; and you, a wild olive tree, were grafted into their place and became a sharer of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
18 do not pride yourselves over the branches. For, if you boast, you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 And if maybe you should say of the branches that were broken off “I will be grafted into their places”
20 These things are true. They were broken off because they did not believe; but you stand by faith. But do not be elevated in your mind but have reverence.
21 For if Elohim did not spare the natural branches, perhaps He will not spare you.
22 Behold now the goodness and the harshness of Elohim: harshness on them who fell, but on you goodness, if you remain in that goodness; and if not, you also will be broken off.
23 And those, if they do not remain in the lack of their faith, they will also be grafted in; for Elohim is able to graft them in again.
Back in the days of the prophet Ezra, when he left Babylon with a wave of disperse exiles, he found, to his surprise, that there were no Levites among the group of those returning. This story is in Ezra chapter 8, if you want to turn there. Bear with me. There is a strong precedent I want you to know about.
Chapter 8 begins by listing the names of the families who left Babylon with Ezra in this wave of dispersed exiles, to return to Jerusalem. To Ezra's surprise, he found no Levites among the group. So, he sent a group of trusted men to a place called Casiphia, where some Levites were living. It was important to take Levites (a branch of the Jewish "family"), because they were the only ones specified by God to be the ministers in the temple.
His emissaries gathered together from Casiphia (which no one seems to know the exact location of) 38 Levites and 220 temple-helpers (adopted Levites, you might say). This latter group was called the Nethinims, a group I'd never heard of. So, I did a little digging around.
The name "nithinim" is a derivative of the verb "nathan", which means to "set apart" or "consecrate". It is believed that these people were descendants of slave people, captured as the Jews conquered the promised land. See Numbers 31:47. We find in Ezra 8:20 that, during David's reign, he had commissioned a number of these foreign people to assist the Levitical priests in the service of the temple. Since Ezra could only come up with 38 "true Levites by birth" for the priesthood, his advisors also invited along 220 from the group with the general title of Nithinim. Ezra was perpetuating the example set by David, who had in turn perpetuated the example set by the “mixed multitude” that formed the people of the Exodus. That group of mostly Jews had a good number of Gentiles mixed in, Gentile Egyptians who converted to Judaism.
Bible scholars agree that King David was a picture (a "type") of the coming Messiah, who does the “grafting in” we see described here in Romans 11. David was called "a man after God's own heart" in 1 Samuel 13:14. It is interesting to me how these pagan slaves were more or less "adopted" in to the Levitical class and "grafted in" to serve in the temple. When we find them in Ezra 8, there is no indication that they are now slaves, but rather, treated as family members.
As in Romans 11, this too is a picture of the gentiles in the Bride of Messiah. The Nithinim were a foreshadowing of the gentile peoples who were invited into the ecclesia of Yeshua in the first century and following.
When I was visiting Israel back in 2018 I was fascinated by the olive trees on the Mount of Olives, and of course, they are found all over that beautiful country. One of the things I learned was that olive trees can live for hundreds of years! There are trees now living and thriving on the Mount of Olives that were there when Yeshua walked among them. Amazing! But, though the root and trunk of the tree can live for centuries, some of the individual branches will stop producing olives. When that happens, the gardener prunes them off. Just lops them off. Then, the master gardener takes branches from younger, healthier trees, bores a hole in the trunk of the old tree and grafts in the young olive branch. This action restores the old trunk. The new branch begins to thrive and produce olives in its new environment. We, the Gentiles, are represented by the branches from a wild olive tree. We get our sap, our nourishment, our vitality from the covenant promises that Father Yahweh gave to the nation of Israel. And, Father Yahweh intended that we not replace Israel, but that we be a witness to Israel.
So, who are the “broken off” branches, as well as the “natural branches” in these verses? The unbelieving Jewish people, those who had rejected the claims of Yeshua. Yet, as the “wild olive branches grafted in”, we who are Gentiles by natural birth, and who have become part of the Bride of the Messiah, are warned to walk in humility, reverence and obedience. Elohim, who does both the grafting in and the breaking off, has ample ability to do both with anyone He so chooses. We are expected to walk the Torah walk of faith demonstrated through obedience, as no one is above the need to observe Torah. Paul, here, is merely reminding both groups, Jew and Gentile, that the ultimate example and authority in doing so is Mashiyach, not the Pharisees.
Verses 25 and 26 refer to a period of time that we are living in currently, the Time of the Gentiles. And, we are told that when that time is completed, i.e., when the “fullness of the Gentiles has come in” then, “all Yisra’el will have Life.” As previously mentioned today, and also mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, this will occur during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, known also as The Tribulation Period. Then, Paul quotes Yeshiayahu (Isaiah) 59:20-21 and 27: 9 and then Yeremiyahu (Jeremiah) 31:33-34.
26b “A deliverer will come from Tsiyon and will turn away iniquity from Ya’akov.
27 And then they will have the covenant that proceeds from me when I forgive their sins.
28 Now, in the Good News, they are enemies because of you; but in the calling, they are beloved because of their forefathers.
In verse 28, we see a reference to the Good News. Keep in mind that what we call The Gospel, which means “good news” was barely in any written form at all at the time Paul was writing Romans. The term “evangelion” is a loan-word from the Greek into the Aramaic, and it usually refers to a written teaching, but not always. Was Paul consulting a written document when he made this statement? He might have been referring to the gospel of Matthew, which was completed in Aramaic by 45 CE. In it Matthew recorded how the Yehudeans who opposed Messiah were also opposed to the Gentile believers but were also beloved by Father Yahweh because of His promises to the patriarchs, their forefathers. Or, since Luke traveled much with Paul, Paul could have had an early copy, sort of a draft copy, of Luke’s gospel, since Romans was finished about 10 years before we believe the gospel of Luke was “published”.
On to the very powerful verse 29:
29 For Elohim does not withdraw His gift and His calling.
What does this mean?
One of the most humorous stories from my college days involves my roommate, Myra, the first time she tried Dannon yogurt. (Obviously, I have just dated myself in the extreme!) At her request, I had been to the snack bar and gotten a cup, of the peach variety, as I recall. Once I got back to the room Myra was fascinated by it and eager to try her first bite. It did not occur to me that she would not know to stir the yogurt up from the bottom before diving in. Accordingly, she took a bite of the plain yogurt, with none of the sweetened fruit preserve on the bottom mixed in. Her reaction was priceless. “Ewwwww! How can anybody eat this stuff! That’s the most awful thing I’ve ever tasted! It tastes like curdled milk! How can you eat that, Gena?? You can have it. I don’t want it.” And on and on she went, going over to the sink to rinse out her mouth, etc. Meanwhile, I began to stir the fruit up from the bottom and take several bites of the (now delicious) yogurt. She noticed what I was doing and how much I was enjoying it, and wanted her cup of yogurt back. “Unh-uh,” I said. “Don’t be an Indian giver!” If you are unfamiliar with that expression, it means to withdraw a gift you have given. This hilarious pretend-argument went on until our roommate got onto us for both being loud and using racial slurs.
But, one way to interpret verse 29 is that Elohim is not an “Indian giver.” He will not retract his gift or His calling.
Many Christian denominations use this verse as a proof text that once a person has experienced genuine conversion of the soul, that is, once the person has “passed from death into life”, genuinely and truly, it is impossible for him or her to do anything that would cause them to “lose” their salvation relationship with Elohim. But, AGR makes a counter argument, and here is what he says in footnote 119:
“...what Paul teaches is that once a believer has been proven worthy in righteousness by Father YAH - - and they may or may not know this to be the case - - their salvation cannot be taken from them. However, this is from Father YAH’s view, not ours, so yes of course he knows our own ultimate future and choices because He is already in our future.” AGR then refers to Hebrews 6:4-6 as a limiting principle. Here are those verses:
4 But they are not able, those who have once gone down into immersion
5 and have tasted the gift from heaven and have received the Ruach haKodesh and have tasted the good Word of Elohim and the power of the world to come,
6 for to sin again and a second time be renewed to repentance is to execute the Son of Elohim again on a stake and insult him.
This theological teaching of “eternal security” is too big of a topic to reach a conclusion on here, and there are godly believers who believe strongly in either position. We certainly are not going to solve the matter today. But, I will say this. In Romans 1:16, Paul reminds us that salvation is found in the power and righteousness of God, and not in my own strength or resolve. I’m so thankful that it’s not the strength of my grip that keeps me holding on to Elohim, but rather, the strength of His.
Let’s move on to the final verses of this chapter, verses 33-36, one of the earliest and most beautiful doxologies, a doxology being defined as “a liturgical formula of praise to God,” and a fitting close for this chapter. Paul brings to his doxology quotes from Isaiah 40:13 and Job 41:11.
33 O, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of Elohim! For man has not searched out His judgments, and His ways are unfathomable.
34 For who knows the mind of MarYAH? Or, who is a counselor to Him?
35 Or who first gives to Him and then receives from Him?
36 Because all is from Him, and all in Him, and all is by His hand: to whom be our praises and our blessings, forever and ever: Amen.
Keep in mind that MarYAH is the direct translation from the Aramaic and is the equivalent of YAHWEH, the tetragrammaton name for God, with vowel vocalisations added. Additionally, when the Aramaic is referring to Yeshua, the text will say Mari (my master) or Maran (our master). AGR goes on to add, in the section of TAW called “A Word on the Name of the Father (YHWH)” - -
“On the other hand, there are other times when the truth of Messiah being YHWH in the flesh is revealed by calling Yeshua MarYAH because, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12: 3, ‘no one can say that marYAH is Yeshua, except by the Holy Spirit.’ ”
Do you think you have God all figured out? I sure as heck don’t! And, I’ve found that when I think I do, I almost always land in trouble. The vastness of His ways exceed our limited context as earth-bound, finite creatures. He cannot be compressed into any box, including the bos of our human understanding. Just as the concept of Eternity can’t be interpreted through the lens of Time, Divinity can’t be fully understood by mere mortals. And, we are indebted to Him. He is not indebted to us. He owes us nothing, including the right to understand. Our response to these last verses should be to walk in faith and trust in His goodness and greatness.
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