Study Desk

It may be that God wants to show His power and His anger against sin. He waits a long time on some men who are ready to be destroyed.

God also wanted to show His shining-greatness to those He has given His loving-kindness. He made them ready for His shining-greatness from the beginning.

"And where it said, ‘You are not my people,' they will be called sons of the living God."

Isaiah said also, "If God had not left some of the Jews, we would have all been destroyed like the people who lived in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah."

What are we to say about these things? The people who are not Jews were not made right with God by the Law. They were made right with God because they put their trust in Him.

The Jews tried to be right with God by obeying the Law, but they did not become right with God.

Why? Because they did not put their trust in God. They tried to be right with God by working for it. They tripped over the most important Stone (Christ).

Christian brothers, the desire of my heart and my prayer to God is that the Jews might be saved from the punishment of sin.

I know about them. They have a strong desire for God, but they do not know what they should about Him.

They have not known how God makes men right with Himself. Instead, they have tried to make their own way. They have not become right with God because they have not done what God said to do.

For Christ has put an end to the Law, so everyone who has put his trust in Christ is made right with God.

But when a man puts his trust in Christ, he is made right with God. You do not need to ask yourself, "Who will go up to heaven to bring Christ down?"

If you say with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved from the punishment of sin.

When we believe in our hearts, we are made right with God. We tell with our mouth how we were saved from the punishment of sin.

This is what God says about the Jews, "All day long I held out my hand to a people who would not obey Me and who worked against Me."

I ask then, "Has God put His people, the Jews, aside?" No, not at all! I myself am a Jew. Abraham was my early father. I am from the family group of Benjamin.

God has not put His people aside. He chose them from the beginning. Do you know what the Holy Writings say about Elijah? Do you know what Elijah said to God against the Jews?

But what did God say to him? God said, "I still have 7,000 men. None of them have worshiped the false god Baal."

This is the way it was. Many Jews did not get what they were looking for. Only those God chose received it. The hearts of the others were made hard. They could not understand it.

The Holy Writings say this about them, "God gave them hearts and minds that want to sleep. He gave them eyes that could not see. To this very day He gave them ears that could not hear."