The preceding verses have explained that God’s promises to His people were largely despised, leading to God’s stern response in excluding them from His blessing.  The picture has been of an olive tree (Israel) from which unfruitful branches were cut off, but wild shoots who believed in Jesus (Gentiles) were grafted in (Romans 11:17-24).  So what will happen to Israel who had been God’s chosen people?

Today's passage contains a puzzle, because Paul writes that "…all Israel will be saved".  Clearly, God's ancient people had become hard against Jesus.  As they continued in their resistance against the gospel, God allowed their hardness of heart; but He also extended His promises so that Gentiles might believe and inherit eternal life.  At the same time, God had pledged Himself to fulfil His covenant to Jews and purge their sins. How can this be?

In the same way that ancient Israel could not understand how God could welcome Gentiles, some Gentile believers in Rome did not think that He would be gracious to Jews again. They could not see the end of the story or how God would fulfil His covenant to His people.  But we cannot apply human reason in order to predict God's activity.  Neither can we exclude what we think is impossible, because God's ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:7-9).  One thing we do know: only Jesus is the great deliverer, as Isaiah 59:20 says, “‘The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,’ declares the Lord.”

The wonder of the gospel is that God welcomes everybody who puts their trust in Jesus (John 3:16).  The Lord, and not us, is responsible for the content of the message, sending out messengers, softening people's hearts, giving them faith to believe, and filling them with His Holy Spirit.  It is not for us to determine whose hearts God will soften.  Neither is it for us to predict the people God will not save and transform by His power.  Our task is simply to make the Good News about Jesus available wherever God sends us, doing all in our power to communicate the message (1 Corinthians 9:22), trusting the Lord to bring His Word to life in people's hearts.  It does not matter who they are: Jews or Gentiles, educated or illiterate, travellers or settled people, young or old, healthy or sick, whatever their ethnic or religious background ... all who believe in Jesus will be saved (Romans 10:13).  Are we doing that; do we want to do that?  May the Lord soften our hearts to work with Him.