Shmuel Suran, Israel
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved.
Romans 11:25–26a
For the Apostolic Church of the first century, one of the great mysteries revealed by the Holy Spirit was the incorporation of the Gentiles as fellow citizens of the commonwealth of Israel (Ephesians 2:11–15). That God had saved Gentiles was revolutionary to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem and Judea.
The Gentiles were not asked to be circumcised or to keep the Torah of Moses, nor were they asked to convert to Judaism (become Jews). But “by faith alone” in Israel’s Jewish Messiah Yeshua, they became fellow citizens with the Jewish believers.
Each age has its hidden mystery reserved by God for His people. The inclusion of Gentiles into God’s salvation plan of history was reserved by God until the first century of this era. As we approach the close of the age before the glorious return, or Second Coming, of Yeshua the Messiah, the mystery of Romans 11 is unfolding before our eyes! God’s salvation plan for both Jew and Gentile is coming to its completion.
The hardening of Israel is slowly transitioning to an end, and the full number of Gentiles is to come in, until finally “All Israel will be saved. As it is written: the deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins” (Romans 11:26–27).
The Apostle Paul said, “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25). The word “until” implies a time limit. The truth is that at some predetermined time there will be an end to Israel’s blindness and hardening.
God is dealing with Israel as a nation in a way He has not done since the rejection of our Messiah. Hundreds of thousands of Jews have come to recognize Yeshua since the 1970s. The Holy Spirit sovereignly was poured out and revealed Yeshua to many from my generation and each following generation. God had mercy upon me—blessed be the Lord! These were the beginnings of a spiritual awakening among ordinary people and a greater consciousness that we are living in the time preceding the Messianic Era. Each year, more Israelis are coming to know Yeshua as their Messiah too.
As the Jewish people find Yeshua as our Messiah, and as believing Christians find their relationship to Messianic Jews and congregations, the Messianic blessing of Romans 11 will come to that part of the Body of Messiah. There will be a final redemption or national salvation of Israel and the Jewish people. God will melt the hardening, remove the blindness, and the remnant of the Jewish people will come to a saving knowledge of the Messiah, Yeshua!
May God use you as watchmen on the walls who never give Him rest “until the full number of the Gentiles has come in” and He establishes Jerusalem as a praise in all the earth. Until then, reach the lost!