Bound to Envy

God has a Grand Plan, and His work is coming together nicely, right on schedule. It’s so exciting to catch even a glimpse of His grand scheme.

“Did God reject his people?
By no means!
Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?
Not at all!
Rather, because of their transgression,
salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.
Israel has experienced a hardening in part
until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
And so all Israel will be saved.

How much more readily will these,
the natural branches,
be grafted into their own olive tree!
As far as election is concerned,
they are loved on account of the patriarchs,
for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.

God has bound all men over to disobedience
so that he may have mercy on them all.
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom
of God!”
From Romans 11 (NIV)