Chapter 11 Part 4   Graffed in For Service Part 1        April 4 , 2021

**Verses 17- 24 are about service not salvation.

Exodus 23:25 God would have blessed Israel if they had served Him.

Deuteronomy 6:13, 10:12-13;  Ecclesiastes 12:13 Whole duty of man: Fear God, and keep his commandments

Hebrews 9:14 & 12:28  with Romans 12:1 We have been saved from dead works to serve the living God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:  Our reasonable service

Isaiah 43:10-11 The purpose of Israel's witness and service was to show "before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me."

·        Isaiah 43:12 Israel was a witness to this only  when there was no strange god among them.  Deuteronomy 6:14

·        Deuteronomy 6:14  Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;

Compare Deuteronomy 6:14 with Jeremiah 7:17-18 with Micah 2:9

Jeremiah in 7:16, 11:14, 14:11 The time of healing had passed

Romans 11:17a with Jeremiah 11:16 The branches that were broken in Jeremiah are see as broken off. Broken branches can be healed. The branches remained broken so long they had died on the tree and had to be broken off for the benefit of the tree. The tribes and people of Israel had become a dead to God and He broke them off. Except for his remnant, the saved Jews; they were left on or graffed back on as part of the body of Christ, the church (same as Gentile Christians) for service.

17b Thou, the wild olive tree (Gentile nations as a whole), were graffed in among the branches. This had to happen before the branched were broken off or they would not have been among them.

From Webster 1828 Dictionary

GRAFF, noun [See Grave.] A ditch or moat.

GRAVE noun  1. The ditch, pit or excavated place in which a dead human body is deposited; a place for the corpse of a human being; a sepulcher. 2. A tomb.

verb 1. To carve or cut letters or figures on stone or other hard substance, with a chisel or edged tool; to engrave. [The latter word is now more generally used.]

 Graffed would be close to graven . Think of a graven imaged chiseled out of a rock.

Grafting is cutting a branch off one tree  and connecting it to a branch of another tree. The grafted branch gets it life through the branch of the tree.

In V17c, 24  The wild olive tree (Gentile nations) and grafted or chiseled into the good olive tree among not onto the broken off branches. The graffed in branches get their life directly from the root  ant not through the stubs of the broken off branches.

17d Fatness Of the Olive Tree: the blessing and goodness of God was offered to the Gentile nations as a whole

·        2Corinthians 4:6-7, Ephesians 1:17  the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

·        John14:17 The indwelling of the Holy Spirit of truth

Gentile nation (wild olive tree) had the opportunity to serve the living God and partake of Jesus Christ and His goodness and blessings. But, No Gentile nation ever truly feared, loved, obeyed, or served the LORD. One by one they have been cut back off.  (V22) Why?

·        V18a boast not against the broken off branches.

·        V19 boasting God has broken off Israel and replaced him with Gentile nations. [The heresy of replacement theology.] 

·        V20a The branches were broken of because of their unbelief not so they could be replaced by the local church or Gentile nations.

·        V18b & 20b It is not about the those who have been graffed in; It is about the Root. (Galatians 6:3) Don't be so highminded to think the Lord must depend on you or He will fail or we must prop Jesus preserve His word or demand He must respond to our prayers.

V20a  O.T. and N.T. Jews have been broken off because they refused to believe God. Notice broken off not cut off. There was a rough place where the broken off branch used to be. So God could graff them back into their rightful place. (V23). If a branch is cleanly cut off a branch can not be attached to the stub.

V20b But thou that stand by faith; the individual Christians and also the local church in which this letter has been read. (V24) Have been graffed in out of the wild olive tree (gentile nations) and by faith (Ephesians 2:8) graffed into the good olive tree to fulfill our reasonable and acceptable duty.  (Have you red this letter?  (Has it been read in your church?)

V20c Christian Gentiles should not boast against the Jews and think of ourselves to be better or above them (Galatians 6:3) (20b) The root (Jesus Christ) does not depend on you who boast, you depend on Him. (20c) So Christian Gentile fear the God that cut off the natural branches because if you do not remain in goodness and you too can be cut back out of the good olive tree (V21-22) and loose the blessing of serving the living God. This is not saying God will cut them off from being saved; THAT CAN NEVER HAPPEN! But you can, as David, loose the joy of being saved.

Ephesians 5:8-10 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.