The vast majority of the people of Israel rejected Jesus but there was still a remnant that believed (v1). God has not finished with the Jewish people yet (v2). Paul takes us back to the days of Elijah when he in despair thought that all of Israel had turned away from the Lord to worship Baal (v2-4). The situation was not as bad as it first looked, a remnant of 7,000 were still faithful.

Down through the history of Israel and the church, even in the darkest of days, God by His grace has ensured there has always been a remnant of faithful people (v5-6). Let us therefore never lose heart when we see only a faithful remnant following Christ.

Israel was blind for a while (v8-10), but Paul shows that the purpose of this is God’s plan to bring in the Gentiles (v11 & 17). If Israel’s falling away has brought so much blessing to the world, Paul argues that their return to the Lord will bring greater blessing to the world (v12-15).

God has not finished with the Jews yet, He will bring them back in his time. Paul is keen for gentiles not to despise the Jews but to realise that their own Christian roots come from people of Israel (v16-18).

In the light of all this, we need to pray for Israel so that the Jews will return to God through faith in Christ as God has planned to happen.