Romans 11:1, &c. I say then, &c.— This chapter is of the prophetic kind. It was by the spirit of prophesy that the Apostle foresaw the rejection of the Jews, which he supposes in the two foregoing Chapter s; for when he wrote this Epistle, they were not in fact rejected, seeing that their church and polity were then standing: but the event has proved that he was a true prophet; for we know that in about ten or eleven years after the writing of this letter, the temple was destroyed; the Jewish polity overthrown; and the Jews expelled the promised land, which they have never been able to recover to this day. This, first, confirms the arguments which the Apostle has advanced to establish the calling of the Gentiles; for the Jews are infact rejected; consequently our calling is in fact not invalidated by any thing which they have suggested, relating to the perpetuityoftheMosaical dispensation; but that dispensation being wholly subverted, our title to the privileges of God's church and people stands clear and strong. The Jewishconstitutionalonecouldfurnishobjectionsagainstourclaim; and the event has silenced every objection from that quarter. Secondly, The actual rejection of the Jews proves St. Paul to be a true Apostle of Jesus Christ, who spake by the Spirit of God; otherwise, he could not have argued so fully upon a case which was yet to come, and of which there was no appearance in the state of things, when he wrote this Epistle. This should dispose us to pay great regard to the present chapter, in which he discourses concerning the extent and duration of the rejection of his countrymen, to prevent their being insulted and despised by the Gentile Christians. First, As to the extent ofthis rejection: it is not absolutely universal; some of the Jews have embraced the Gospel, and are incorporated into the church of God with the believing Gentiles. Upon the case of those believing Jews he comments, ver. l-7. Secondly, As to the duration of it; it is not final and perpetual; for all Israel, or the nation of the Jews, who are now blinded, shall one day be saved, or brought again into the peculiar kingdom and covenant of God. Upon the state of those blinded Jews he comments, Romans 11:7 to the end of the chapter. His design in discoursing upon this subject was not only to make the thing itself known, but partly to engage the attention of the unbelieving Jew; to conciliate his favour; and, if possible, to induce him to come into the Gospel scheme; and partly to dispose the Gentile Christians not to treat the Jews with contempt;(consideringthattheyderivedalltheirpresentblessingsfromthepatriarchs, the ancestors of the Jewish nation, and were ingrafted into the good olive-tree, whence they were broken) and to admonish them to take warning by the fall of the Jews, that they improved their religious privileges, lest through unbelief any of them should relapse into heathenism, or perish finally at the last day. The thread of his discourse leads him into a general survey and comparison of the several dispensations of God towards the Gentiles and Jews; which he concludes with adoration of the depths of the divine knowledge and wisdom, exercised in the various constitutions erected in the world: Romans 11:30, &c.
This first verse is a question in the person of a Jew, who made the objections in the foregoing chapter, and continues to object here. The word 'Απωσατο, rendered cast away, is very strong and emphatical. "Hath God absolutely, universally, and for ever thrust his people away from him?" See Acts 27:31; Acts 13:46, 1 Timothy 1:19.
Instead of Wot,—Wot ye not,—and maketh intercession; some read, Know ye not—maketh complaint.