Så älskade Gud och Jesus Israel (inte hela världen)

Ha det

Rom 2:29

Jude är man i sitt inre, och omskuren är den som är det i sitt hjärta, i ande och inte efter bokstaven. Han får sitt beröm av Gud, inte av människor.

...in Romans 9:25-26, the Apostle Paul quoted from chapters 1 and 2 of the Prophet Hosea. Everything in these two chapters pertains to Israelites and only Israelites. These chapters describe Yahweh’s divorce of the house of Israel and prophesy His remarriage to those same people and their reunion with the house of Judah. In Romans 9:24-26, Paul quoted and applied Hosea 1:10 and 2:23 to the scattered Israelites simply known then as ethne. Romans 9:24 is the beginning of the fulfillment of both Ezekiel 37:21 and Hosea’s corresponding prophecies concerning the reunion of the house of Israel with the house of Judah. The Hosea prophecies were made about the nations of the house of Israel and can be applied to only the nations of the house of Israel.

God is not a man, that he should lie … hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? - Numbers 23:19

The authors of The Pulpit Commentary misidentified the Judahites in Romans 9:24 as being all twelve tribes of Israel and the gentiles as being non-Israelites. Nevertheless, in attempting to explain how these prophecies from Hosea could somehow be applied to non-Israelites gentiles, they admitted that these prophecies pertained to the ten-tribed house of Israel:

It might seem that these quotations are not apposite [applicable], since they referred originally, not to the Gentiles, but to the ten tribes of Israel.74

The Pulpit Commentary’s use of the word “originally” implies that at some point in time Yahweh changed His mind. But nothing in the Old Testament indicates that someone else was ever substituted for the Israelites. There is no biblical justification for applying these prophecies to anyone other than to whom they were originally directed. These prophecies refer to the ten tribes of Israel, and no one has the authority to apply them to non-Israelites. Had ethnos been translated nations in Romans 9:24 and had the connection between the ten tribes or nations of Israel and the goyim and the ethne been made, most of the confusion over this passage would have never existed.

Immediately following his quotations from Hosea about the house of Israel, Paul quoted the Prophet Isaiah in verse 27. He introduced the quotation by declaring that “Esaias also crieth concerning Israel.” The context of Isaiah 10:22 from which Paul quoted is about the gentilized Israelites from the nations of the house of Israel. By quoting from Hosea 1 and 2 and Isaiah 10, Paul confirmed that the nations to whom he was referring were Israelites rather than non-Israelites. Therefore, in Romans 9 and other New Testament passages, the ethne are the same Israelite goyim found in the Old Testament who were divorced by Yahweh and who were prophesied to be reunited with the house of Judah beginning at the First Advent of the Messiah.

In spite of the prophetic and textual evidence demonstrating that in Romans 9:24 the Jews are Judahites and the gentiles are Israelites, verses 30-31 raises a question that begs an answer:

What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. - Romans 9:30-31

In these two verses, Paul contrasts the gentiles with Israel; therefore, how can those gentiles be Israelites? Remember Yahweh initially chose to conceal the identity of the house of Israel by divorcing and scattering her among the nations of the world. According to Hosea 1:4-6, they lost the right to be called by the name “Israel.” Although undeserved, the house of Judah remained in a marriage relationship with Yahweh right up to the New Covenant dispensation, presumably so that Yahweh’s Son would not be born out of wedlock:

And Yahweh said unto … [Hosea] …I will … cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel…. I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel…. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah…. - Hosea 1:4-7

Therefore, the house of Judah continued in her kingdom relationship with Yahweh and retained the right to be called by the marital name Isra El. Although representing only the two southern tribes and principally known as Judahites, they were nonetheless Israelites and occasionally called Israel because they still reigned with El in His kingdom:

Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah…. - Isaiah 48:1

Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God [Elohiym]…. - Hosea 11:12

Under the subheading “Rebellion of the Northern Tribes,” Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary declares that the reason why the term “Israel” in the Bible is sometimes confusing is because it is occasionally used for both the northern tribes of the house of Israel and for the covenant people of the house of Judah:

The northern tribes declared independence and formed a separate kingdom with Jeroboam as head. They named their kingdom “Israel” (this sometimes causes confusion because the name is also used for the remnant of the Covenant People at a later time).75

The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary also comments concerning the use of the name “Israel” as a designation for the descendants of the house of Judah:

After the Babylonian captivity the returned exiles, though mainly of Judah, resumed the name of Israel as the designation of their nation, but as individuals they are called Jews….76

The Israel in Romans 9:31 attempted to follow “after the law of righteousness.” This descriptive phrase fits only the house of Judah. The house of Israel never had such aspirations, which was one of the reasons why Yahweh divorced her. Therefore, the Israelites referred to in verse 31 are Judahite Israelites who were still known by the name “Israel” and who believed that the only path to righteousness was by way of Yahweh’s law. Paul contrasted them with the descendants of the house of Israel who had earlier lost the right to bear that name and who were, therefore, simply known as the nations.

Verses 25-27 of Romans 9 contain prophecies from Hosea 1:10, 2:23 and Isaiah 10:22-23, regarding the ten tribes, that explain verse 24. It is for this reason that the term “Israel” in these verses is used in reference to the house of Israel. However, in Romans 9:30 through 11:25, Paul contrasts the divorced and gentilized nations of the house of Israel with the house of Judah. Therefore, in this and other Roman passages, Paul uses the term “gentiles” to signify the scattered house of Israel and the term “Israel” to signify the house of Judah.

Having determined that the term “Israel,” when contrasted with gentiles, represents the house of Judah and that the term “gentiles” represents the house of Israel, it should be apparent that Romans 11 is the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy about the two sticks depicting the two houses of Israel.

The first half of Ezekiel 37 begins by describing the valley of the dry bones representing both houses of Israel. One house, the house of Israel, was spiritually dead and already divorced. The other house, the house of Judah, was also spiritually dead and would be divorced later.* However, it was also prophesied that these “dead” Israelites would have the breath of life breathed back into them. What was dead would be made alive.


... A corresponding prophecy is found in the latter half of Ezekiel 37:

The word of Yahweh came again unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For [the tribe of] Judah, and for the children of Israel [of the house of Judah] his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For [the tribe of] Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions. And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. - Ezekiel 37:15-17...


...By combining both prophecies in Ezekiel 37, it can be seen that the two sticks, representing the house of Judah and the house of Israel, were to be brought back from the dead and reunited with each other. Ezekiel, Isaiah, Micah and Zechariah prophesied that this reuniting was to begin at the First Advent of the Messiah. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that the fulfillment of such a momentous prophecy would be mentioned in the New Testament.