During the Isaiah62 fast I joined a group on facebook to stay connected with others who had also joined the fast. I found some of the post educational… like this one that put things into perspective regarding Israel and the Church, and how they are viewed Biblically. The person said that Jesus is the Sheppard of 2 flocks….and loves and leads each of them. When the time is right, both of the flocks will come together as one. I added this information to what I also learned from other teachers about how God is dealing with Israel in one way and the Church another way…. like, they are two different relationships. With Israel, who is the child of promise, God is fulfilling every promise he has made to them and will continue to because God is faithful and the same today, yesterday and forever…and once God promises something… it’s as good as done. If God was going to have any other type of relationship with Israel, then he would have said so. No matter what….. Jesus came from Israel… and through Jesus all nations are blessed. In rejecting Jesus as the savior, Israel did not lose their position, and they were not abandoned by God…. the Christians did not REPLACE them. In the rejection, which God, who knows everything ever, already knew would happen, the door was opened for the world to be blessed by God with the possibility of having a relationship with him now through his son Jesus. This did not mean that God was done with Israel or that he was not going to complete the work he began with them and fulfill his promises. The promises of God are Yes and AMEN (2 Corinthians 1:20). So God is still honoring every promise he has with Israel and has a relationship with them that is apart from the relationship he has with us, who are saved by grace through faith in the blood of Jesus. We are grafted in and made a part of the promises of God… we did not replace the Jewish people in God’s eyes, we are in addition to them.
Paul’s wording is strong, his desire to set the record straight is intense, and it would be wise to look at the intense way he is addressing this issue as a stern warning about the error of replacement theology or supersessionism. My thoughts are that perhaps it is a lot to wrap our heads around that God is able to do two separate works at the same time that he will later join together.

Romans Chaper 9

¹ I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

² That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

³ For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

⁴ Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

⁵ Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

⁶ Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:

⁷ Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

******Genesis 22:2 “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” But Isaac was not Abrahams only son, he also had an older son with Hagar name Ismael….but Isaac was the only son of promise. It is through Isaac that all nations are blessed….and through Isaac that Jesus came. So, the nation of Israel consisted of the sons of Isaac and the sons of Ismael, but the one God promised is Isaac.

⁸ That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

It’s not enough to just be from Abraham, you also have to be the one God promised to be a part of the family of God.

⁹ For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.

This is the promise God gave to Abraham and Sarah.

¹⁰ And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;

When Rebecca could not conceive, Isaac prayed, and she conceived….and then the Lord promised her that there were 2 nations in her womb and that the older would serve the younger, so Jacob was also the child of promise.

¹¹ (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

Jacob was God’s choice.

¹² It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

¹³ As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

¹⁴ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

God knows the hearts even before the heart is formed.

¹⁵ For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

¹⁶ So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

You can’t force God to pick you, and you can’t earn it either, it’s God’s choice.

¹⁷ For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

¹⁸ Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

¹⁹ Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

²⁰ Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

We have no right to ever question God’s choices…or even to scrutinize how he makes his choice. We are mankind, capable of messing up even the simplest task and sinners through and through…. so we are in no position to ever question God.

²¹ Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

²² What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

²³ And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

²⁴ Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

When a vessel is fired, it sometimes cracks and becomes a vessel of dishonor. The potter will go out into his herd and look at his sheep to find a tiny bug called a fasuka. These bugs are like a tick that would feed off of the blood of sheep and other animals. The potter would crush these bugs and mix them with clay to make a kind of patching clay to repair the vessel with. He’s fill the crack with this clay and refire it and when it was done, the vessel was now a vessel of honor having no cracks.

We are the clay in the hands of God, and he forms us the way he decides to form us. Some of us will repent and be repaired and some of us won’t, we will remain a vessel of dishonor. No matter what, though, whether we are a vessel of honor or dishonor, God will be glorified. With Pharaoh who refused to repent, the Lord revealed himself with judgment and for the repentant, the Lord reveals himself with mercy and grace.

²⁵ As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

God shows mercy even to people who are not Jews.

²⁶ And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

²⁷ Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

²⁸ For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

The commentary I read on this (link- https://www.bibleref.com/Romans/9/Romans-9-28.html) said that many Jews are surprised by this. They expected to be saved because they are Jews… and here we see only a remnant will be saved.

²⁹ And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.

³⁰ What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

The Gentiles who are not Jews and are not part of the Law are considered righteous because of their faith in the blood of Jesus.

³¹ But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

³² Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;

They followed the Law but weren’t saved because they didn’t have faith. The Law was a foreshadowing of Jesus, who would come here once and for all and die for the sins of mankind. Man had to be committed to their relationship with God by keeping the Law of God and offering sacrifices for their sin to stay in right standing with God. This wasn’t a complete plan…. the plan was that Jesus would come and fulfill the Law when he laid down his life for the sins of mankind once and for all. No longer would the Jews need to sacrifice animals to have their sins paid for. If you look at the law you will see how God outlined each thing the Jews had to do to keep the Law…. one of those things was to present the sacrificial Lamb to the High Priest at the door of the temple. We see in John 8-10 that Jesus went to the Temple and presented himself. This caused outrage because they were blinded to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God….and they sought to kill him over it. So, even the way Jesus was presented here as the blameless , spotless Lamb of God was in keeping with the Law…to fulfill it. The Jews missed this because they didn’t understand it and were walking by works and legalism… they had given no space for faith to grow and exist. They stumbled and the stumblingstone.

³³ As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.