Romans 11: 28-36

(Romans 11: 28-36)

As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

 

When the second son, who had left with his father's property and used it in vain, returned as a dead man, the father held the son in his arms and held a feast. From the standpoint of the eldest son, who had lived consistently with his father, the father's treatment was incomprehensible. The eldest son said, “And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 』(Luke 15:29-30). From the point of view of the eldest son, the father's treatment was injustice itself. The eldest son, who had worked hard for many years, stood against his father in the face of his father's treatment of restoring his son who had swallowed his father's life with prostitutes and holding a feast.

 

Early in the morning, the owner of the vineyard brought the laborers (Matthew 20:1). The owner, who promised one denarius a day, brought the courier, went out at 9am, 12pm, and 3pm to bring the courier. Not only that, at the end of the day at 5 pm, workers without jobs were brought into the vineyard. After that, the owner pays him the wages, and he paid the same denarion each, whether he worked for only one hour or worked all day from early morning. From the standpoint of the laborers who have worked hard and sweat from the early morning, the owner's treatment was unfair. The workers who worked hard from early in the morning stood against the owner in front of the owner's treatment, who gave equal wages to the incompetent workers who only worked for one hour.

 

We cannot understand the behavior of a father who welcomes his younger son, nor the behavior of a vineyard owner who gives a denarration to a laborer who worked an hour. The eldest son, who has been by his father by such treatment, seems to be distant from his father, and the laborers who have shed a lot of sweat also seem to be distant from their master. The greater the grace of the father and the master toward those who are favored without any condition, the more the hearts of the eldest son and the first hires become farther away from the father and the master. In the two parables, the story of the eldest son and the servants called in the early morning, in the light of Romans 11, shows that it does not end there. 『For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved』

 

It was unpleasant for the Israelites to obtain salvation for the Gentiles, and for this reason, Israel also turned against God's incomprehensible actions. However, it is said that Israel's disobedience to God is not the end. Paul speaks by seeing God's salvation for Israel in the other side of reality. “There is no regret in the gift and calling of God.” God is not the one who reaps the gifts or favors of choice given to Israel because of their stupidity or disobedience. Rather, God brings salvation to the Gentiles through human stupidity and disobedience, and he is finally the eldest son and the one who saves the Jews like laborers who worked hard from the early morning. Seeing God accomplishing salvation despite human stupidity and disobedience, Paul said it was a mystery.