It has already been determined that Romans 9:24 fulfills Ezekiel 37:21, Hosea 1:10 and 2:23. However, there is more. The two dead sticks of Ezekiel 37 that were brought back to life and reunited with each other and the two living branches brought back from the dead of Romans 11 are one and the same.
I say then, Hath God cast away his people [the whole nation of Israel]? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin [of the house of Judah]. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? ...I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant [from the house of Judah] according to the election of grace.... What then? Israel [the house of Judah] hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election [from the house of Judah] hath obtained it, and the rest [of Judah] were blinded.... I say then, Have they [the house of Judah] stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their [the house of Judah's] fall salvation is come unto the nations* [of the house of Israel], for to provoke them [the house of Judah] to jealousy.
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*Because people are likely to stumble over the phrase "the Gentiles" in Romans 11, I have taken the liberty to change it to "the nations," as it would have been better translated.
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This last phrase is a reference to Deuteronomy 32:21, a prophecy regarding the nation of Israel:
Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. And when Yahweh saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people [Hebrew - lo am]; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. - Deuteronomy 32:18-21
Deuteronomy 32:21 can be interpreted only for exactly what it says - that Israelites would be provoked by lo am or not a people. Who were these "not a people" people? The Prophet Hosea identified them as a people who were divorced by their Husband, who were no longer His people and who subsequently lost their identity as Isra El. Yahweh commanded the Prophet Hosea to name his second son Loammi for that reason:
Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye [the house of Israel] are not my people, and I will not be your God. - Hosea 1:9
Isaiah also identified the house of Israel as "not a people":
...within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. - Isaiah 7:8
Paul quoted Deuteronomy 32:21 in Romans 10:19-20, followed by a quotation from Isaiah written to Judah about Israel:
I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts. - Isaiah 65:1-2
Isaiah's prophecy to Judah is a second witness that the "not a people" people were those rebellious and dispersed Israelites who were to provoke the Judahites to jealousy at the time of the New Covenant. Romans 11:11 is not describing non-Israelites provoking Israelites, but rather the ten-tribed house of Israel provoking the house of Judah to jealousy.
Now if the fall of them [the Judahites] be the riches of the [non-Israelite] world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the nations [the Israelites]; how much more their [the Judahites'] fulness?
There are three groups listed in verse 12 - Judahites, the world and gentiles. If the Judahites represent all twelve tribes of Israel and the gentiles represent non-Israelites, there is no one left to represent the world. Instead, the Judahites represent descendants of the house of Judah, the gentiles or nations represent descendants of the house of Israel, and the world represents non-Israelites.
In the parable in Matthew 13:44 about the treasure hid in the field, the treasure represents Israel (Psalm 135:4), and the field represents the world (Matthew 13:39). The non-Israelite world benefited from the house of Israel being scattered among them because Yeshua (Jesus' given Hebrew name) purchased the world in order to redeem scattered Israel who had been sifted "among all nations" (Amos 9:9) and "removed into all the kingdoms of the earth" (Jeremiah 34:17). Both Judahites and non-Israelites benefited from the house of Israel's return to her God. The extent of Yeshua's sacrifice covered those in the world who would obey the gospel.* But, the intent of His mission and the primary emphasis of Romans 11 is the reunion of Israelites from the house of Israel with Judahites from the house of Judah through Yeshua's blood-atoning sacrifice as prophesied by the Old Testament prophets.
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*See Appendix 2 - Yahweh's Plan for Believing Non-Israelites.
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For I speak to you nations [Israelites], inasmuch as I am the apostle of the nations [Israelites].... If by any means I may provoke to emulation them [the Judahites] which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them [the Judahites] be the reconciling of the world [where the house of Israel had been scattered], what shall the receiving of them [the Judahites] be, but life from the dead
In fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy concerning the valley of dry bones, both the house of Judah and the house of Israel were given "life from the dead."
For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches
Yeshua is the root of Jesse, and without Him there can be no reunion or restored relationship with Yahweh for any Israelite of either house:
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles [goyim or nations] seek.... And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people.... And he shall set up an ensign for the nations [goyim], and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. - Isaiah 11:10-12For he [Yeshua] shall grow up before him [Yahweh] as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground.... But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we [Israelites] like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Yahweh hath laid on him the iniquity of us all ... for the transgression of my people was he stricken. - Isaiah 53:2-8
Hosea declared that Israelites cannot bear fruit when their root is dried up:
Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit.... My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations. - Hosea 9:16-17
Additionally. the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah identified Yeshua as a branch through whom Israelites from both houses of Israel and Judah would be saved:
In that day shall the branch of Yahweh be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. - Isaiah 4:2Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, Yahweh our righteousness. - Jeremiah 23:5-6
And if some of the branches [of the house of Judah] be broken off, and thou [from the house of Israel], being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree.
When referring to a specific nation, olive branches or olive trees always represent Israelites in the Bible. In Hosea 9:16-17, Hosea informs us that after Yahweh divorced the house of Israel their root was dried up and He had cast them away. This casting away did not change them from an olive tree to a cypress or some other kind of tree. They would have simply become a wild variety of olive tree.
Isaiah prophesied that the house of Israel would have its branch cut off:
...Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria ... turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek Yahweh of hosts. Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. - Isaiah 9:9-14
In Romans 11:17 Paul used the term "wild olive tree." Yahweh used similar language to describe the house of Israel after she had turned away from Him:
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? - Jeremiah 2:21
The Old Testament prophets never describe non-Israelites as a wild plant of any kind. Isaiah employed the word "wild" to describe the house of Israel when in rebellion to her God:
My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill ... and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.... And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns.... For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of [the house of] Judah his pleasant plant.... - Isaiah 5:2-7
Isaiah identified the wild grapes with the house of Israel. Verses 5-6 describe the house of Israel as an uncultivated vineyard. The house of Judah was depicted as Yahweh's pleasant or good plant. As we will see, these descriptions are nearly identical to Paul's portrayal of the gentiles and the Judahites in Romans 11:24.
Hosea prophesied that the house of Israel would be reunited with Yahweh, their Root, and that they would again become a fruit-bearing olive tree:
O Israel, return unto Yahweh thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.... I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree.... - Hosea 14:1-6
According to the Old Testament prophets, the wild olive tree or branches of Romans 11 represent the nations of the house of Israel who had been divorced by Yahweh and scattered throughout the world.
Boast not against the branches [of the house of Judah]. But if thou [the house of Israel] boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
Physical descent has very little significance without Yeshua's blood-atoning sacrifice and resurrection from the grave. There is no such thing as salvation by race even for the descendants of Jacob Israel.
Thou wilt say then, The [natural] branches [of the unbelieving house of Judah] were broken off, that I [the wild olive branches of the house of Israel] might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they [the house of Judah] were broken off, and thou [the house of Israel] standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches [of the unbelieving house of Judah], take heed lest he also spare not thee [the grafted wild olive branches of the house of Israel]. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them [unbelievers from the house of Judah] which fell, severity; but toward thee [believers from the house of Israel], goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
Paul warned the Roman Christians that branches from both houses could be broken off. This fulfills Jeremiah's prophecy in which he declared that both houses of Judah and Israel, as olive branches, would be broken off from the main tree of the nation of Israel:
They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah.... What hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness...? Yahweh called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. For Yahweh of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah.... - Jeremiah 11:10-17
When Yahweh divorced the ten-tribed house of Israel, they were broken or cut off from their relationship with Yahweh and consequently severed from the two-tribed house of Judah. Much later the house of Judah was also broken off when Yahweh divorced them as well (Matthew 21:43 and Romans 11).
And they [the house of Judah] also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou [the house of Israel] wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature [after being divorced by Yahweh], and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: How much more shall these [the house of Judah], which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel [the house of Judah], until the fulness of the nations [the house of Israel] be come in. And so all Israel [a remnant from all twelve tribes] shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from [the descendants of] Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
The Apostle Paul did not want the first-century Roman Christians ignorant of the mystery concerning Israel's blindness. Many twenty-first century Christians are still unaware that in this passage Israel represents the house of Judah and the gentiles represent the nations of the house of Israel. It was these gentilized Israelites from the house of Israel who were the goyim that Ezekiel prophesied would be reunited with their brethren of the house of Judah. These are the two sticks of Ezekiel 37 who were and are being brought back to life - born again to be fruit-bearing branches in Yeshua the Christ.
"All Israel shall be saved" and "out of Sion the Deliverer" shall come to "turn away ungodliness from Jacob" are the results of the house of Judah's eyes being opened and the return of the house of Israel to their God, described in Romans 11 as the "fullness of the gentiles." It takes both groups coming together for "all Israel" to be saved. This is the only interpretation that harmonizes the statements that a remnant from the house of Israel would be saved according to Romans 9:27, and that also a remnant from the house of Judah would be saved according to Romans 11:5, and that all Israel would be saved according to Romans 11:26. What appear to be conflicting statements cannot be reconciled if Paul's discussion of the two olive branches is about a union of Israelites and non-Israelites.
Once it is understood that the natural or cultivated olive branch represents the house of Judah and that the wild olive branch represents the gentilized house of Israel, Romans 9:27, 11:5 and 11:26 are relatively simple to reconcile. Indeed, a remnant from all Israel, or both houses of Israel, has been and is being saved. Rather than being a contradiction of terms, all three statements are harmonious and, therefore, factual.
This agrees with two of Jeremiah's prophecies:
At the same time, saith Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of [the nation of] Israel, and they shall be my people.... Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel.... Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria [capital of the house of Israel].... For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion [another name for Jerusalem, capital of the house of Judah] unto Yahweh our God. For thus saith Yahweh; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Yahweh, save thy people, the remnant of [all the families of] Israel. - Jeremiah 31:1-7
In those days, and in that time, saith Yahweh, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve [leave as a remnant NASV]. - Jeremiah 50:20
As prophesied in Jeremiah 31, 50 and as stated by Paul in Romans 11, Yahweh is saving a remnant out of all the families of both houses of Israel.
In Jeremiah 31, the house of Israel is equated with a flock of sheep who was to be re-gathered from its dispersion:
Hear the word of Yahweh, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. - Jeremiah 31:10
The high priest Caiaphas confirmed that this re-gathering of the house of Israel was to be accomplished through the death of Yeshua:
...Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, ... it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the [Judahite] people, and that the whole nation perish not. ...he prophesied that Yeshua should die for that nation [the house of Judah]; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God [the house of Israel] that were scattered abroad. - John 11:49-52.
Israelites are the only people identified in the Bible as sheep:
And he [the Prophet Micaiah] said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd.... - 1 Kings 22:17Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. - Jeremiah 50:17
...the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord Yahweh. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture.... - Ezekiel 34:30-31
But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. - Matthew 10:6
But he answered and said, I [Yeshua] am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. - Matthew 15:24
Both groups or flocks referred to by Caiaphas in John 11 represent Israelites. This is demonstrated in Caiaphas' use of the term "the children of God," which is nearly identical to the term Moses used in Deuteronomy 14:1 to describe the nation of Israel. Caiaphas' phrase "that were scattered abroad" specifies the second flock as descendants of the house of Israel.
In the following quotation, Adam Clark used "Jewish" where he should have used "Israelite." Nevertheless, his comments on Caiaphas' prophecy are worth noting, especially because he related them to Romans 11:
...he [Caiaphas] terms them here, the children of God, which was an ancient character of the Jewish people: see Deut. xxxii. 5; Isa. xliii. 6; xlv. 11; Jer. xxxii. 1. Taking his words in this sense, then his meaning is this: that Christ was to die, not only for the then inhabitants of Judea, but for all the Jewish race wheresoever scattered; and that the consequence would be, that they should be all collected from their various dispersions, and made one body. This comports with the predictions of St. Paul: Rom. xi. 1-32.77
Caiaphas' prophecy harmonizes with Yeshua's statement found one chapter earlier:
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. ...I lay down my life for the sheep [of the house of Judah]. And other sheep [the house of Israel] I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. - John 10:14-16.
This was to be in fulfillment of Yahweh's prophecy by Micah:
I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant [from both houses] of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold.... - Micah 2:12
Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah and Zechariah prophesied that this reuniting would begin to occur at the time of the New Covenant. Jeremiah prophesied that it was the house of Israel and the house of Judah with whom Yahweh would make His New Covenant:
Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah [in their respective dispersions] with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith Yahweh.... Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.... But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith Yahweh, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. ...for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. - Jeremiah 31:27-34
According to this promise, a remnant from both houses of the nation of Israel have responded over the last two thousand years to the gospel call of their Messiah, thereby embracing the New Covenant religion of Christianity by way of Yeshua's sacrifice.*
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*The New Covenant, at any given time, is only with those who have been called to Yahweh through the death, burial and resurrection of Yeshua the Christ. Therefore, although a remnant is not mentioned in Jeremiah 31:27-32 and other similar passages, it is apparent that when the sum of Yahweh's Word on this issue is considered (Psalm 119:160 NASV), that a remnant is nonetheless intended. Mark 16:15-16, Acts 2:36-41, 22:1-16, Romans 6:3-4, Galatians 3:26-27 and 1 Peter 3:21 should be studied when considering what our response should be to Yeshua's gospel call.78
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After declaring that all Israel would be saved, Paul quoted Isaiah 59:20-21 in part:
And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith Yahweh. As for me, this is my covenant with them [the nation of Israel], saith Yahweh; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith Yahweh, from henceforth and for ever. - Isaiah 59:20-21
The covenant to which Yahweh was referring was the New Covenant. Isaiah 59:20 prophesied about those who "turn from transgression in Jacob," or a remnant from all twelve tribes of the nation of Israel, who would find salvation in Yeshua as their Lord and Savior.
In Romans 4, the Apostle Paul declared that the promise was "to all the seed," providing a second New Testament witness that Israelites from both houses of the nation of Israel would find salvation in Yeshua the Christ:
Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed [descendants NASV]; not to that only which is of the law [the house of Judah], but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham [the house of Israel]; who is the father of us all [the entire nation of Israel]. - Romans 4:16
Many people misinterpret the word "seed" in this passage as representing a spiritual Israel, consisting of both Israelites and non-Israelites alike who have come to Yeshua for salvation.* However, Paul makes it clear that the seed to which he is referring in this passage is not a multi-racial spiritual Israel, but instead physical descendants of Abraham:
What shall we say then that Abraham our father, ,b>as pertaining to the flesh,** hath found?... (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed [descendants NASV] be. - Romans 4:1-18
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*See Appendix 1 - Spiritual Israel: Out of All Nations or Out of the Nation of Israel?)
**The phrase "as pertaining to the flesh" in Romans 4:1 is not found in the New International Version. The translators' reason for omitting this phrase should be challenged because the phrase is in the Greek text.
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This last phrase literally reads "So shall be the seed of thee." It was Abraham's physical seed who were to become many nations, not many nations who were to become Abraham's spiritual seed.
In addition to Paul's discussion concerning "all Israel," he wrote in Romans 11:25 about "the fullness of the Gentiles." In Genesis 48:19, Jacob blessed Ephraim, who represented the house of Israel, telling him that his descendants would become "a multitude of nations." James Strong defines the Hebrew word melo, translated multitude, as fullness:
...melo' (mel-o') ... fullness (literally or figuratively).79
The Concordant Version of Genesis 48:19, likewise, translates melo as fullness. The word "nations" in Genesis 48:19 is translated from the word "goyim." Therefore, Jacob's promise to Ephraim could have been translated his seed shall become "a fullness of gentiles" - the exact phrase found in Romans 11:25.
Consider also James Strong's definition for the Greek word pleroma, translated fullness in the King James Version:
...pleroma (play'-ro-mah); ... repletion or completion, i.e. (subjectively) what fills (as contents, supplement, copiousness, multitude), or (objectively) what is filled (as container, performance, period).80
The Greek word "ethnos" would have been better translated nations. Therefore, the phrase "the fulness of Gentiles" in Romans 11:25 could have been translated "a multitude of nations," which is a part of the benediction and prophecy with which Jacob blessed Joseph's younger son Ephraim:
...his seed shall become a multitude of nations. - Genesis 48:19
This translation is validated in the Greek Septuagint Version of Genesis 48:19 wherein is found the same Greek phrase pleérooma toón ethnoón that was used by Paul in Romans 11:25. Moreover, in Franz Delitzsch's Hebrew translation of the New Testament and in Ginsburg-Salkinson's Hebrew New Testament, Romans 11:25 is translated using the same Hebrew phrase mªlo'- hagowyim found in Genesis 48:19 in the Masoretic text. All of this further corroborates that the nations referred to by Paul in Romans 9-11 are Israelites from the ten tribes whom Yahweh divorced and who lost their name and identity. Consider carefully the following testimony concerning the house of Israel from the Speaker's Commentary:
Ephraim was to be cut off "from being a people" (Isa. 7:8). It should lose the name, and be scattered across the world; not, however, to perish, but, in accordance with that mysterious oracle, Gen. 48:16-19, to ... "become the fullness of nations."81
As concerning the gospel, they [the house of Judah] are enemies for your [the house of Israel's] sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye [the house of Israel] in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their [the house of Judah's] unbelief: Even so have these [the house of Judah] also now not believed, that through your [the house of Israel's] mercy they [the house of Judah] also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all [the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel] in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
The translators of the New American Standard Bible rendered verse 29, "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." Yahweh is fulfilling His promises in the law and the prophets not only to the house of Judah but also to the house of Israel. If Romans 11 is left to traditional interpretation - an interpretation not supported by the prophets - numerous prophecies and promises to both houses would be left unfulfilled. For example, Henry Morris recognized that the Apostle Paul quoted the Old Testament prophets numerous times in his epistle to the Romans. And yet because he did not understand the biblical use of the Greek word "ethne," he mistakenly applied these prophecies about Israelites to non-Israelites:
...in the longest and most doctrinal of all his [Paul's] epistles ... he actually quoted from the Old Testament no less than sixty times, even though the epistle had been specifically addressed to Gentiles....82
Praise Yahweh that His gifts and calling are not left up to finite interpretations, and that He has proven true to His promises concerning His people Israel.
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
As if Paul knew that the mystery of the gentiles would not be solved by everyone, he concluded this prophetically packed chapter of Romans by lauding Yahweh's infinite understanding.
From the testimony of the prophets it should now be apparent that the grafting of the wild olive branches into the cultivated olive tree in Romans 11 is not a uniting of non-Israelites and Israelites. It is the reuniting of gentilized Israelites with Judahite Israelites - the beginning of the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophesied reunion of the two sticks representing the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Ezekiel's prophecy about the two dead sticks is fulfilled by the two living branches of Romans 11.
77. Adam Clarke, Clarke's Commentary (New York, NY: Lane & Scott, 1850) Volume V, p. 605.
78. For more information concerning baptism as it relates to salvation, Baptism by the Scriptures may be read online, or it is available as a free tract from Mission to Israel, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363.
79. James Strong, "Dictionary of the Hebrew Bible," The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990) p. 66.
80. James Strong, " "Dictionary of the Greek Testament," The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990) p. 58.
81. Speaker's Commentary, Volume 5, p. 106, quoted in "The 'Gentiles' In God's Plan," 82. Henry M. Morris, "Written for Our Learning," Days of Praise (Santee, CA: Institute for Creation Research, 2004) March 31, 2004.