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Romans 9:1-4 KJV I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, (2) That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. (3) For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: (4) Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
From The Message Of Romans;
“To modern readers, this portion of Romans is a parenthesis; it does not appear to be directly connected to the book’s central proposition. For the people of Paul’s day, however this section was of immediate relevance, for it answered then-current objections to the gospel. These objections stemmed from Israel’s relationship to the gospel, particularly the apparent elimination of all distinctions between Jew and Gentile under the gospel as well as the near-universal Jewish rejection of the gospel.” (The Message Of Romans Pg 201)
Most of Israel did indeed reject the gospel. If you read the history of the Jews at this point what was left of pretty much their entire nation was engaged in a type of civil war.
I’ve heard it said that Flavius Josephus never let the facts get in the way of a good story, so taking that into account we can wonder about the accuracy of “The Wars of the Jews”, but there is no doubt that Vespasian invaded Judea and Titus conquered Jerusalem and the Temple that was the forefront of the Jews religion was destroyed. There’s no doubt about the basic facts of all of this.
But what we have 10 years or so before the troubles getting out of hand is a report of the apostles in Jerusalem being encouraged.
Acts 21:17-22 KJV And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. (18) And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present. (19) And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. (20) And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law: (21) And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs. (22) What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.
One thing we must remember when dealing with not the bible, but the history of the bible is that it is very tainted. Again, not speaking of the Bible, but speaking of the historical context.
Much of what we know about this era comes from what would become the Roman Catholic Church. I don’t care to throw an over generalization at the topic of the early church, but we read what the apostles taught and called themselves and they called themselves “followers of the Way”. In Acts we get; (Act 24:5)KJV “For we have found this man a public menace and one who stirs up dissensions among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. Sect, being a sect meant that they were still considered a sect of the Jewish religion.
Just to give some idea, Paul possibly mentions something in the letter to the Thessalonians; (1Th 2:13) For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of mere men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 KJV For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: (15) Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: (16) Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
This wasn’t speaking of Vespasian coming into Judea yet, but it was clear that the inhabitants were quickly falling out of favor with Rome. We also need to remember the words of Jesus were still fairly fresh;
Matthew 24:15-18 NASB “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand— (16) then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. (17) “Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house. (18) “And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.
All of this going on and then Bar Kokebah revolt a generation later and we find many of the Ante Nicene Fathers trying to distance themselves further and further from anything Jewish. This lead up until the council of Laodecea in 364 AD forbidding believers from keeping what they considered the “Jewish Sabbath”.
Now, to pull ourselves back out of the weeds, I said all of that to say this, I have read some reports that stated the messianic, the Jewish believers were still a major part of the church up into the early 7th century. That is important and needs to be stated because it shines a little different light on the early church doctrine, including how the early church viewed the godhead.
Romans 9:4 KJV Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
Moses told the children of Israel;
Deuteronomy 7:6-8 NASB “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. (7) “The LORD did not make you His beloved nor choose you because you were greater in number than any of the peoples, since you were the fewest of all peoples, (8) but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Romans 9:5 KJV Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Hebrews 2:16 KJV For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Romans 9:6-8 KJV Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: (7) Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. (8) That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
Matthew 3:7-10 NASB But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (8) “Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance; (9) and do not assume that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you that God is able, from these stones, to raise up children for Abraham. (10) “And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is being cut down and thrown into the fire.
Colossians 3:11 NASB a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free, but Christ is all, and in all.
We have read several times so I will spare you reading it again, but reference Galatians 3:29. Through the Messiah, Yahweh didn’t take away the promise from the seed of Abraham. The Messiah has expanded the family!
Genesis 13:16 NASB “I will make your descendants as plentiful as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, then your descendants could also be counted.
But then another promise is made to Abraham;
Genesis 22:17 NASB indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand, which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.
I suppose there’s an algorithm in our computer saturated society that could possibly come up with the amount of dust on this earth, that’s Israel in the natural, but the Messiah, as we will see in coming chapters, has graft us into Israel, making the seed of Abraham as numerous as the stars!
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Colossians 2:9 KJV For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.