Romans 11

God’s promise for Israel has not—and will not—fail

(11:1) “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.”

“God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!” This comes on the heels of Paul writing that God had outstretched arms to a “disobedient and obstinate people” (Rom. 10:21). It wasn’t that God rejected his people, but that they had rejected him.

“For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” To prove that God is still working with a remnant of believing Jews, Paul writes that he himself is “living evidence that God has not abandoned his people Israel.”[] Yet the question remains, “Why haven’t more Jews come to faith in Jesus? Why so comparatively few?”

(11:2) “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?”

Why does Paul bring up God’s foreknowledge here? It seems that he is reemphasizing the fact that God knew the Jewish people would rebel, and God’s plan hasn’t fallen off the tracks. He cites Elijah to drive home this point. Elijah thought that he was the only true follower of God, but he was massively mistaken! In the same way, many Jewish people could feel like they are all alone in their faith, but how do they know that they are not in the same situation as Elijah? They might think that they are the only one of the few Jewish followers of God, but they cannot grasp the bigger picture of all that God is doing around them. They are too fixated on their own unique situation.

Does foreknowledge imply choosing? Reformed scholar Douglas Moo writes, “The temporal prefix, ‘fore-’ (pro-), indicates further that God’s choosing of Israel took place before any action or status on the part of Israel that might have qualified her for God’s choice.”[] Once again, Calvinistic commentators make the illogical leap from knowing to actively choosing. This is unwarranted from the language of the text. He needs to pull the language of “God’s gracious choice” from later in the text (v.5). Yet, God’s choice is based on his foreknowledge—not the other way around (see Romans 8:29-30). Furthermore, Paul is referring to the nation of Israel—the majority of whom (according to Paul’s argument) were not saved.

(11:3-4) “‘Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.’ ⁴ But what is the divine response to him? ‘I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’”

To support his case, Paul quotes from the story of Elijah (1 Kin. 19:10, 14, 18). By drawing from this story, Paul is arguing that God has always worked through a minority of his people. In this sense, nothing changed after the coming of Christ. God is working through a minority of believing Jews now—just as he did in the past. If we consider our context, we see that in Romans 10, Paul demonstrates that Moses and Isaiah also described the same difficulties in their time, as well (Deut. 32:21; Isa. 65:1-2).

(11:5) “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant.”

While it would seem bizarre to see so many Jews rejecting Jesus (their promised King), Paul argues that this was not a NT pattern, but an OT one. In the Hebrew Scriptures, we repeatedly see that the majority of the Jews were unfaithful, while there was a “remnant” (or minority) of believing Jews within the nation.

The word “remnant” (leimma) is used in the LXX in Genesis 7:23, where the “remnant” is only Noah and his family. This same word appears in 1 Kings 19:18, which refers to the 7,000 man “remnant” that would not bend their knees to Baal.[] This is the only use of the term in the NT. Earlier, Paul cited the OT Scriptures to demonstrate this point: “Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved’” (Rom. 9:27).

“According to God’s gracious choice.” The term “choice” is a noun—not a verb (eklogen). It can be rendered “choice of grace” (see NASB footnote).

(11:6) “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.”

God’s choice of the remnant (v.5) is based on grace—not works (v.6; cf. Rom. 9). Paul is still referring to groups—not individuals here. Moo writes, “If God’s election were based on what human beings do, his freedom would be violated and he would no longer be acting in grace.”[] This allegedly supports the notion that God’s calling is unconditional and his grace is irresistible. But not so fast! Our text is saying that God created a world where he freely chose to save people according to his foreknowledge. If God chose this, then how does this hinder his freedom in any way? After all, this would be his sovereign choice. Similarly, if God chose to give us eternal security (which we affirm), then does this sovereign choice limit his freedom. Not at all. This was his choice in the first place, knowing all future contingencies.

(11:7) “What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it.”

The term “chosen” (eklogen) is a noun—not a verb. It can be rendered “the election” (see NASB footnote). Why were some Jews part of the elect, and others were not? Calvinists appeal to a mystery here. But look at the text: Israel was seeking legalistic righteousness, rather than God’s righteousness through Christ. Earlier Paul writes, “Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law” (Rom. 9:31). Later he writes, “Not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3).

“And the rest were hardened.” A number of observations can be made about this hardening:

1. Like Pharaoh, this hardening occurred only after the Jewish people hardened themselves first by rejecting Christ (vv.8-11). Likewise, the Jewish population in Ephesus “were becoming hardened and disobedient,” when Paul spoke about Christ to them (Acts 19:9; cf. Acts 28:23-28).

2. God is using this hardening to bring a maximum number of Gentiles to Christ (v.25).

3. God is using this hardening to help the non-Christian Jews to become “jealous,” and thereby come to faith (v.11, “to make them jealous”).

4. The purpose of this hardening was not to send the Jews to hell (v.11, “they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be!”), but instead, to send the gospel to the Gentiles (v.11, “by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles”). We see this in a parallel passage in Acts. There, Luke writes, “When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. ⁴⁶ Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles’” (Acts 13:45-46). This ties in with Paul’s thesis statement earlier in Romans, where the gospel is “to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).

5. This hardening can be taken away, if individual Jewish people turn to Christ (2 Cor. 3:14-16).

(11:8) “Just as it is written, ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day.”

To defend this point, Paul quotes Isaiah 29:10, which demonstrates how many Jewish people in the OT were hardened toward God. Isaiah himself is quoting Moses in this section (Deut. 29:4). Paul is pointing out that the hardening continued from Moses to Isaiah’s day. “In reality,” writes Paul, “that hardening is still continuing today.”

(11:9-11) “And David says, ‘Let their table become a snare and a trap, and a stumbling block and a retribution to them. ¹⁰ Let their eyes be darkened to see not, and bend their backs forever.’ ¹¹ I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.”

Paul cites Psalm 69:22-23 to connect the Jewish hardening with the crucifixion of Jesus. Verse 21 is quoted in all four gospels as fulfilled in the Cross (Mt. 27:34, 48; Mk. 15:23, 36; Lk. 23:36; John 19:28-30). During his crucifixion, Jesus was given gall and vinegar to drink, as Psalm 69 predicts. In Romans 11, Paul quotes from the two verses immediately after Psalms 69:21. These two verses predict the hardening of the Jews after they crucify their Messiah. The logical ordering is that they crucified Jesus and then they were hardened as a consequence. It was their “transgression” that led to their hardening (11:11), not the other way around.

Paul argues that God is bringing salvation to the Gentiles for the purpose of reaching the Jews. This is an interesting point: In the OT, God chose the Jews to reach the Gentiles (Gen. 12:2-3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14). Now, writes Paul, God is choosing the Gentiles to reach the Jews. Paul’s focus is on the nations: He is thinking “mainly in terms of corporate bodies, not in terms of individuals within those bodies.”[] Paul’s hope was that the Jews would become “jealous” of the Gentiles (11:11, 14), and thus, they would come to faith in Jesus. Unfortunately, the Jewish and Gentile Christians only hated one another more in the following centuries. And yet, Paul held out the hope that the Gentiles could be used to reach the Jews.

Keller points to a possible example of this principle in Acts 6.[] There, the Christian community took care of the needs of the poor widows. This was what the Jewish people were supposed to do for their people (see Deut. 15:4-5). As a consequence of the seven servants (many of whom had Gentile names), many Jewish priests came to faith in Jesus, because they may have been “jealous” of what they saw happening in the Christian community. The difficulty with this example is that the text of Acts doesn’t explicitly say that this was the reason for the priests’ conversion. However, it is an interesting parallel nonetheless.

(11:12) “Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!”

Was it wrong of God to harden many Jewish people to reach the Gentiles? No way! This is exactly what God did with Pharaoh: God hardened one Gentile to reach many Jews, and now, God is hardening some Jews to reach many Gentiles.

“How much more will their fulfillment be!” Paul states that “all Israel will be saved” at the end of history (v.25). A similar thought is made in verse 15. Moo states that this refers to a quantitative fulfillment—not a qualitative fulfillment. Paul is stating that “the present “defeat” of Israel, in which Israel is numerically reduced to a small remnant, will be reversed by the addition of far greater numbers of true believers: this will be Israel’s destined ‘fullness.’”[] This fits with the context of the chapter which refers to the numbers of Gentiles coming to faith.

Paul turns to the Gentiles

(11:13-14) “But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, ¹⁴ if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.”

The Gentile Christians might have thought that Paul (a Jewish man) was abandoning his own people to reach the Gentiles. After all, Paul repeatedly states that he is an apostle primarily to the Gentiles. This could’ve caused arrogance on behalf of the Gentile Christian.

However, Paul argues that he was reaching Gentiles in order to “indirectly serve to bring Jewish people into the kingdom of God.”[] Likewise, Paul tells his Gentile readers that the goal is to go out and reach the Jewish people. By seeing God’s movement in the Gentile community, the Jewish people could become “jealous” and they could “save some of them.” Imagine what it would feel like to be a Jewish person who had perpetual sin problems, only to see God transforming, healing, and growing Gentiles to become good, godly, and loving people!

(11:15) “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”

This sounds similar to Paul’s reasoning in verse 12.

The branches

(11:16) “If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too.”

This metaphor is difficult to understand. Paul doesn’t stick with the metaphor or explain it, but he does stick with the root and branches metaphor, so we will spend more time looking at that one. In short, Paul seems to be saying that the believing remnant of Jews has a “sanctifying effect”[] on the nation as a whole.

 “If the root is holy, the branches are too.” The “root” could refer to Christ, Jewish believers, the patriarchs, or the covenants. We understand the root to refer to the patriarchs and the covenants given to the Jewish people (Rom. 9:5; 11:28). Though, this is certainly debated.

The “branches” refer to ethnically Jewish people.

(11:17) “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree.”

“And you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree.” The “you” refers to Gentiles. In verse 13, Paul writes, “I am speaking to you who are Gentiles.” Paul is saying that the Gentiles came to receive the blessings of the new covenant. God is now working through the Gentiles—just as he formerly worked through the Jews. This refers to ethnic Israel losing its standing and utility in the church age.

Was this a common arboricultural practice? We’re not sure. Moo[] thinks that this was not common; however, this shouldn’t be pressed hard for the sake of a metaphor.

(11:18) “Do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.”

The reasoning here is that God can break off branches (i.e. Jews) and graft in others (i.e. Gentiles). This should cause Gentile believers to be humble, rather than arrogant. Paul opened the letter speaking to the arrogance of the non-Christian Jewish person who relies on the law and circumcision (Rom. 2:17-20). Paul doesn’t want the Gentiles to make the same prideful error.

(11:19) “You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’”

The Gentiles had an arrogant attitude toward the Jews. But why were the Jewish people “broken off”? Paul says that this was because of their “unbelief” (v.20).

(11:20) “Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear.”

Instead of being prideful that God is using them (much like the Jewish attitude in Romans 2), the Gentiles should take a humble posture, realizing that none of us deserve to be used by God.

(11:21) “For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.”

God could go back to working through the “natural branches” (i.e. the Jewish people) if they changed on their unbelief (see verse 23), and he could remove the Gentiles for their unbelief too.

(11:22) “Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.”

This refers to being used by God in his global mission—not to individual salvation—as the context makes clear.

(11:23) “And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”

The term “continue” is in the subjunctive mood, which holds open the possibility that this might occur in the future. We learn in verses 25-29 that God will eventually return to the nation of Israel at the end of history.

(11:24) “For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?”

To describe God’s method of using the Gentiles, Paul uses the term “grafting” (Rom. 11:17). The Greek word for “graft” (egkentrizo) means “to cut into for the sake of inserting a scion” or “to inoculate, ingraft, graft in”[] or “to insert a slip of a cultivated tree into a wild one.”[] This Greek word is used a total of five times in the NT, but all five occurrences are here in Romans 11. Paul uses this illustration to explain how God chooses to use whomever he wants for his plan of salvation. Currently, God is using the Gentiles, but he could pull them out of the equation if he desired to. In fact, he is arguing that believing Jews would do a much better job than the Gentiles, if they would only believe!

God is not done with the nation of Israel

(11:25) “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel.”

Who is Israel? Both Augustine and John Calvin believed that Israel referred to the Christian community—both Jewish and Gentile Christians.[] However, even modern-day Covenantalists (who reject the return of national Israel) believe that Israel refers to ethnic Israel.[] For one, out of the 148 times the OT uses the expression “all Israel,” it always refers to ethnic Israel. Second, in Romans 11:1, Paul uses the term “Israel” to refer to his own ethnic identity (“I too am an Israelite”). Third, Paul calls unbelieving Israel “enemies” of the gospel (v.28), which can hardly be used to describe Christians! In fact, “throughout Romans ‘Israel’ means ethnic or national Israel, in contrast to the Gentile nations.”[]

(11:25b-26) “Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.’”

How long will the hardening last? The term “and so” (houtōs) in the phrase “and so all Israel will be saved” can be rendered “in this way” (ESV), as Hoekma contends.[] However, in context, “and so” makes for a better translation. Paul’s use of the word “until” in verse 25 refers to a sequential event—not an overlapping process.[] Moo sees this language as a “temporal reference.”[] Thus the NEB (“when that has happened”) and the JB (“then after this”) translate this passage correctly. After the Gentiles come to faith, the hardening will be lifted. This will occur after all nations hear about Christ (Mt. 24:14); otherwise, the “fullness of the Gentiles” would not yet have been completed.

The “mystery” revealed here is the timing of Israel’s mass salvation as a nation. Paul’s Jewish readers assumed that the nation would accept Jesus en masse at the First Coming, but as it turns out, they wouldn’t largely accept him in this way until his Second Coming.

When Paul writes that “all Israel will be saved,” does this refer to the nation of Israel or simply a large number of Jewish people? Covenantalists typically interpret “all Israel” to refer to a large number of Jewish people meeting Christ before the Second Coming.[] However, even Amillennialist Kim Riddlebarger writes, “If all Paul wanted to tell us here was that God was going to save the sum total of elect Jews throughout the ages, then ‘the salvation of Jewish Israel will be limited forever to a remnant.’”[] He’s right. Additionally, Paul is referring to the nation of Israel—not just dispersed Jewish people. “All Israel” stands in opposition to the small remnant mentioned earlier in the chapter (Rom. 11:5). So, whatever Paul is describing, it isn’t a small part of the nation, but the nation as a whole. Paul described, “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” (Rom. 9:6). Whatever Paul means by “all Israel,” it is in contrast to the small and partial rescuing of the Jews mentioned earlier.

Unless we believe that every Israelite on Earth will come to Christ during this time, then we must concede Paul is thinking in terms of the nation—not just another remnant. Since Paul has been thinking in terms of nations throughout Romans 9-11, the expression “all Israel” must refer to the nation of Israel.[]

When will Israel be saved? Paul quotes from Isaiah 59:20-21 in verse 27. He writes, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” Covenantalists argue that this refers to the First Coming of Christ.[] For example, Riddlebarger writes, “Paul, therefore, probably understands the future tense of the Isaiah prophecy as fulfilled in the first coming of Christ, which set in motion the apostolic mission of the Church.”[] This would fit their view, because it wouldn’t place the salvation of Israel alongside the return of Christ at the end of history.

However, Paul consistently uses the future tense to describe this event—not the past tense. Moreover, read the context of Isaiah 59 for yourself: Isaiah states that the Redeemer will come with “vengeance” (Isa. 59:17) and “will repay his enemies for their evil deeds” (Isa. 59:18 NLT). Does this sound like the First Coming or the Second? Surely the Second Coming!

Zechariah predicts that the people of Jerusalem will mourn over crucifying Jesus (Zech. 12:10-12), and “in that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity” (Zech. 13:1). Paul could be reflecting on his own conversion to Christ: When Jesus appeared to him on the Damascus road, he came to faith. Similarly, at Jesus’ Second Coming, the nation of Israel will have a chance to come to faith in Jesus—or more likely, they will have already come to faith in him during the great and terrible Tribulation.

(11:27) “This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”

What covenant is this referring to? Paul could be thinking of the covenant made through the work of the Suffering Servant (Isa. 42:6), the promise to “restore the land” (Isa. 49:8), or the Davidic covenant (Isa. 55:3). In our estimation, Paul is most likely referring to the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31. God promised to make this covenant with Israel despite “all that they [had] done” (Jer. 31:17). Clearly, Paul believes that these OT covenants were still in effect.

(11:28) “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.”

These people are non-believers (“they are enemies [of the gospel]”), and yet, they are still God’s chosen people (“from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved”). How can this be? Clearly, God’s “choice” means more than salvation, because these people are chosen, but not saved.

(11:29) “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

Paul quotes multiple OT passages to make his case for Israel’s salvation: He gets his concept of a remnant from 1 Kings 19:18 (v.4); he gets the concept of Israel’s blindness from Isaiah 29:10 and Psalm 69:22 (vv.8-10); finally, he gets the concept of the holy root from Leviticus 23:10 and Numbers 15:17-21 (v.16). Thus, when Paul writes that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (v.29), he must have the covenants to Israel in mind from the OT.

In Greek, the order of words shows us emphasis. In verse 29, the word “irrevocable” (ametamelatos) starts Paul’s sentence, showing emphasis. “In other words,” Paul writes, “Do not ever say that God will revoke his promises to Israel!”

Why isn’t the regathering and return of national Israel written about more often in the NT? Covenantalists argue that the NT authors should have written more on this topic if they truly believed in a restoration of the nation of Israel at the end of history. However, arguments from silence are only compelling if we would expect to read more on the topic. The NT authors were first century Jewish men who assumed that the restoration of Israel was on its way (Acts 1:6). They felt no need to write more on the topic. As Jewish believers, they simply assumed it. Moreover, when the NT authors were writing their letters, the Jewish people were still in their land, and they were still a nation. Therefore, we shouldn’t expect the NT to say more about a topic that wasn’t even an issue when they were writing.

(11:30-31) “For just as you [Gentiles] once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience [the Jews], so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.”

This is a major role reversal. In the OT, the Jews were supposed to be lights to the Gentiles (Rom. 2:19-20). Now, in the new covenant, the Gentiles are supposed to be lights to the Jews. God is working through the unbelief of one group to reach others with the gospel message.

(11:32) “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”

God’s plan in human history is so brilliant that he is even able to use the unbelief of people to bring about the spread of the gospel. The goal of his plan is not to favor one group or another, but to “show mercy to all.” This does not imply universalism (i.e. all will be saved). To be blunt, a person who interprets Paul this way simply hasn’t come to terms with Romans 1-11! Paul simply means that God will show “mercy” to all kinds of people, particularly the groups of Jews and Gentiles to whom he has been recently referring.[] He is extending his invitation to all people through his magnificent plan in human history.

(11:33-36) “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! ³⁴ For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? ³⁵ Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? ³⁶ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen”

Paul quotes from Isaiah 40:13, Isaiah 41:11, and Job 35:7. Paul began his discussion of the nation of Israel with a broken heart (Rom. 9:1-5). However, now he has come full circle, marveling at the brilliance and complexity of God’s plan in human history. No one would’ve predicted that God would use the Jews to reach Gentiles, only to have the Gentiles reach Jews.

In chapter 11, Paul asserts that God has not abandoned the Jewish people. What arguments does he give to support this claim?

• Paul himself is Jewish. So, at least one Jew had come to faith (v.1).

• Paul cites OT precedent in Elijah for the fact that we often feel like very few people are following God (vv.2-4). Now, just like then, we only have a remnant of believing Jews in Jesus (v.5).

• The Jewish people were seeking God through works—not grace (vv.6-7). Consequently, they were hardened for this decision (vv.8-10).

• God wants to use the Gentiles to make the Jewish people jealous of how they are changing, growing, and experiencing the love of God.

• God is still supporting the Gentiles through their Jewish roots (v.18).

• Paul rebukes the pride and arrogance of the Gentiles, just as he rebuked the pride and arrogance of the Jews (vv.19-24).

• God will return to the nation of Israel in the future (vv.25-29).

Conclusions

Anti-Semitism is a serious sin. Paul’s indictment of anti-Semitism is clear throughout Romans 11. Gentiles are supposed to be examples to Jewish people—not haters of them. Sadly, the history of Christianity has seen more hatred, than love, of Jewish people.

Do you notice the difference between how this section starts and how it ends? Paul begins with deep emotional sorrow for the Jewish people (Rom. 9:1-3). Paul probably had family in Jerusalem—at least a nephew (Acts 23:16), and it tore him up to see so many Jewish people rejecting Christ. Also, at the beginning, Paul wants to trade his own salvation for the Jewish people. His focus is on himself—not on God.

However, by the end of the discourse, Paul focuses upward toward God’s inexpressible nature—specifically God’s riches, wisdom, power, and glory (Rom. 11:32-36).

Paul’s heart changed because he turned his focus onto God. Paul may have been writing Romans 9-11 to himself, as much as he was writing to us. He worked out his feelings of grief by focusing on God’s incredible plan for all people on Earth. By the time he is finished, Paul’s spirit was lifted, and he is praising God. Do you work out your “bitter sorrow” and “unending grief” by meditating on God’s word and his brilliant will? Have you ever found consolation from the fact that God has predicted and revealed the future, and you can know that he will get the final word in the end? Are you trusting that God’s plan is not only wise, but also good?