Has Israel Been Rejected

Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD of hosts is his name: "If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever." Thus says the LORD: "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the LORD." (Jeremiah 31:35-37)

Does the sun still give light by day? The moon and stars light by night? Can the heavens be measured or the earth’s core explored?

Then neither have the seed of Israel been rejected. As Paul pointed out, gentile believers in Yeshua are grafted into the tree of Israel, not the other way around.

Certainly, many branches of the original tree have been cut off. (Though they can be easily restored.) Many other branches have not. This is because it has always been true that, "he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, whose circumcision is that of the flesh, he is a Jew who is one inwardly, whose circumcision is of the heart". Paul’s words were not a new revelation, merely a summary of one of the central messages of the Torah and the Prophets and of the greatest command: Love YHWH with all your being.

What is a Yehudi but one who praises God? Yehudim who do not acknowledge their God and his role as their only savior will be rejected individually for that failure, as revealed in the Torah. Again, this is not a new revelation or a unique feature of the new covenant. It is a fact common to all relationships with the Creator.

This does not mean that the nation of Israel has been rejected. On the contrary, God repeatedly promised that such would never happen!

(By "nation of Israel" I do not mean the political entity consisting of the Knesset, prime minister, etc. I mean the people of Israel. A nation does not consist of its governors, ideology, or political forms. It is a people.)

And if that's not enough, here's more from Jeremiah...