3. “Lord, they have killed your prophets and destroyed your altars. I am the only prophet still living, and they are trying to kill me now.”
4. But what answer did God give to Elijah? God said, “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have never given worship to Baal.”
5. It is the same now. God has chosen a few people by his grace.
6. And if he chose them by grace, then it is not what they have done that made them his people. If they could be made his people by what they did, his gift of grace would not really be a gift.
7. So this is what has happened: The people of Israel wanted God’s blessing, but they did not all get it. The people he chose did get his blessing, but the others became hard and refused to listen to him.
8. As the Scriptures say, “God caused the people to fall asleep.” Isaiah 29:10 “God closed their eyes so that they could not see, and he closed their ears so that they could not hear. This continues until now.” Deuteronomy 29:4
9. And David says, “Let those people be caught and trapped at their own feasts. Let them fall and be punished.
10. Let their eyes be closed so that they cannot see. And let them be troubled forever.” Psalm 69:22-23
11. So I ask: When the Jews fell, did that fall destroy them? No! But their mistake brought salvation to those who are not Jews. The purpose of this was to make the Jews jealous.
12. Their mistake brought rich blessings to the world. And what they lost brought rich blessings to the non-Jewish people. So surely the world will get much richer blessings when enough Jews become the kind of people God wants.
13. Now I am speaking to you people who are not Jews. I am an apostle to the non-Jewish people. So while I have that work, I will do the best I can.
14. I hope I can make my own people jealous. That way, maybe I can help some of them to be saved.
15. God turned away from the Jews. When that happened, he became friends with the other people in the world. So when he accepts the Jews, it will be like bringing people to life after death.
16. If the first piece of bread is offered to God, then the whole loaf is made holy. If the roots of a tree are holy, the tree’s branches are holy too.
17. It is as if some of the branches from an olive tree have been broken off, and the branch of a wild olive tree has been joined to that first tree. If you are not a Jew, you are the same as that wild branch, and you now share the strength and life of the first tree.
18. But don’t act as if you are better than those branches that were broken off. You have no reason to be proud of yourself, because you don’t give life to the root. The root gives life to you.