Grafted In

Reading through Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus, we see several themes developing. One theme is God’s desire for obedience among His people. God was so careful to present specific guidelines for His people to follow, and those guidelines were to protect and preserve the holiness of the Israelites in their devotion toward God. He certainly did not want to share their devotion with any other god. Over and over again, God warned the Israelites not to worship pagan idols or make sacrifices to them. If they worshipped other gods, they were put to death! God is a jealous God and will not share His glory with another!

Unfortunately, the appeal of idol worship lured the Israelites away from God’s commands. They grieved the heart of God and He burned with anger toward them. If I were God, I would be thinking, “How could you do this to me, after all I have done for you?” In Romans 10, Paul quotes Isaiah who reveals the grieved heart of God: “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” Because of this, God gave them a “spirit of stupor” and blinded their eyes. (Romans 11:8) Not only had the Jews worshipped other gods, but they also manipulated the laws of God and created them to be “stumbling blocks” to the truth of the coming Messiah. Their eyes were indeed blinded! Later on, God would show mercy upon His people, but in the meantime, something wonderful happened for those of us who were not Jews. We were “grafted in” to the Living Vine!

In Romans 11, Paul used powerful imagery to demonstrate God’s love and mercy toward the Gentiles—those outside of Abraham’s Covenant to the Jewish nation. In verse 17 Paul wrote, “You, though a wild olive shoot have been grafted in among the others and now share the nourishing sap from the olive root.” Richard Foster, in his book Learning from Jesus describes the grafting process: “The graft shoots its little roots and fibers down into the stem and the stem grows up into the graft, and what has been called structural union is effected.” A graft is intentionally placed by the vinedresser into the vine. Once the graft has been placed into the vine, it then begins to draw nourishment from the vine and then becomes part of the vine.”

Because of the Jews’ disobedience and unbelief, they were branches who were “cut off”, which consequently made room for those of us who are Gentiles. Our provision to be grafted into the Vine is through our faith in Christ. All of this was part of God’s plan! He used the disobedience of the Jews to make a way for the Gentiles (you and me!) to become a part of God’s eternal kingdom. I am so thankful that God showed His mercy upon us and adopted us as His children—the “little olive shoots” that can draw nourishment from the Living Vine. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1) This is a profound mystery that only comes from the heart of One who is much greater than we are. It is only appropriate that Paul would close is discourse on the “grafting in” process in Romans 11 with this glorious doxology: “Oh the depth and the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him? For from Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”