The Israel Question

God has been opening my eyes to His people Israel the last few months.  I’m not sure when or how it started, maybe just from being in the Thursday 10:00 AM intercession sets for Israel.  All I know is that I’m seeing some Scriptures that are so plain on the subject, I wonder at how I never realized this before.  Two of them are Romans 11, where it is abundantly clear that we are now one “tree” with them and Ephesians 2.  The Romans 11 passage makes it clear that they were God’s original olive tree in the earth and we gentiles have been grafted into their “trunk”, much like a fruit tree can have different branches grafted into it to allow for various fruits to come from one tree.  Also, in the Ephesians 2 passage, Paul clearly says God has made  ”one new man” from the two of us, with the barrier between us having been removed in Christ.  Wow.  So what does mean about the present day nation of Israel?  Surely that isn’t the same group, is it?  I’ll save that for another post, but for now, check out these two passages and see what you think.