For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry.  (14) if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.  (15) For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

(29) For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.  (30) For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, (31)  even so these also have now ben disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy.  (32) For God has committed them all to disobedience  that He might have mercy on all.

The letter to the Romans was written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians in Rome to prepare them for his eventual visit to that city.   Paul, a Jew and a rabbi, is God’s chosen vessel to spread the gospel to the Gentiles and Paul’s letter to the Romans is not an occasional letter – written to correct or attend to a particular problem/situation – but this letter is a summary of Paul’s theology.

In Romans, chapters 9 through 11, Paul has written of Israel’s sovereign election in the past, her rejection in the present and her future reconciliation/salvation.  In this context, the verses today remind us that God has a plan – a sovereign plan.  In the early church there were relatively few Jewish believers  that Christ is Messiah.   But Gentiles – with their pagan background – were believers.  The problem Paul is addressing is the future of the Jews in the light of God’s promises to them.  Paul is telling us that the Jewish rejection of Christ is temporary and that God is using this temporary rejection to spread Christianity among the Gentiles.  Further, Paul is telling his readers that jealousy will move the Jews to accept  the gospel and Christ and that this will be a blessing  to the whole world.

God has a purpose for history and it cannot fail.  Romans chapter 11 is prophecy – Paul is not guessing, he is telling us of God’s redemptive plan.  Israel is still beloved by God because God chose her – Israel will experience final adoption.  God’s plan to salvation and  the history of Israel point to the fact that there is nothing man can do to change his condition.  All comes from God; His mercy and His blessings