roots at the end of the Acts, then believer and unbeliever are treated alike.

Yet the believing remnant constitute a firstfruit, and are holy.  We must be

very certain of all our terms here.  If the olive tree represents the nation

and its national standing, then whatever the problem may be, it is clear

that, as Israel as a nation before God does not exist, the olive tree has

been cut down.  The believing branches, therefore, must have some other

ground of blessing.  If we change the figure from the olive tree to that of a

divorced wife, as in Jeremiah 3:1 and 11:15,16, we may perhaps see more

clearly that the believing remnant lost nothing when the national position of

Israel was altered at Acts 28.  Israel as a restored nation is represented as

a divorced wife received back by the Lord (Jer. 3:1), but the believing

remnant is spoken of as the `bride of the Lamb' (Rev. 21:9).  The `divorced

wife' is restored to the land, but the `bride' is associated with the

heavenly Jerusalem.  There is, therefore, a great difference between the

destinies of the believing and the unbelieving branches.  In some cases the

change was even greater.

Paul himself lost his national association with Israel when the nation

was set aside, but he entered into a sphere of blessing so great as to enable

him to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of

Christ.  Others would find their sphere of blessing set forth in John 14 to

17, and learn that though they were no longer branches in the olive tree of

Israel, they were branches in Christ as the True Vine, and so had lost

nothing.  If we recognize that dispensational standing may change to our

advantage, as it manifestly did in the case of Timothy, Luke and Paul, our

difficulty about the believing branches of the olive tree will be resolved.

Doctrinal standing is not in view in Romans 11.  The grafting in of the

unbelieving branches into their own olive tree at the end, represents the

restoration of Israel's national position `in that day'.  Neither in Paul's

epistles of the Mystery, nor in John's gospel for the `world', can the olive

tree be discovered.  The New Covenant, and the hope of Israel, are in

abeyance, and not until God's good time will they be put into operation.

Hosea, speaking of the day of Israel's restoration, uses the same

figures as we have been considering -- the restoration of the separated wife

(Hos. 3:3-5), and the spreading branches of the olive (Hos. 14:6).

We have seen that the grafting in of the wild olive was with the

intention of provoking the flagging tree to new fruitfulness.  The salvation

and blessing of the Gentiles during the Acts, before the nation of Israel

were saved and ready for their great mission to the families of the earth,

were `contrary to nature', and intended to `provoke Israel to jealousy'.  We

must now return to the opening verses of this section to give a little closer

attention to the blessings that accrued to the Gentiles as a result of

Israel's lapse.

The apostle here uses an argument which may be described as a minori ad

majus (from the smaller to the greater):

`If their fall has brought about so much, what must we not expect as a

result of their restoration?' (Rom. 11:12).

The failure of Israel is expressed in the following terms:

the `fall'

(paraptoma: verse 11);