Romans 11

There is no better time to be preaching through Romans 11 than during a Middle East crisis - NOT! There are always Christians whose focus is too much on the 1948 state when you say "Israel", although they to my mind often merely balance the outrageous bias the other way of others. Neither those in Hamas who happily force children into martyrdom (what can a seven year old do with 72 virgins anyway?) nor those in Israel who accept the temptation to cause such (oh hateful phrase) "collateral damage" are to be condoned, nor can we sympathise greatly with anyone except the suffering, although empathy (which is different - check your dictionary) with tiny Israel surrounded by hostile powers does not seem unreasonable to my mind.
But the great thing about Romans 11 is that is simply off topic. I don't need to preach Israel next Sunday. Here's something that got my spiritual juices flowing as I prepared the text using e-sword (which explains some font failure for Greek and Hebrew quotes.) Feel free to correct errors - you have until Friday, when I write the sermon!

For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, that you might not be understanding to yourselves, that hardening in part has come to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved, as is written,
Out of Zion comes the Deliverer,
He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob
And this to them the covenant I have made,
When I forgive their sins.
These three theologically packed verses hang on the correct interpretation of the word "Israel". A quick search on the use of "Israel" in Romans shows that it is used frequently in opposition to the elect or to the Gentiles in Romans 9-11 and only in Rom_9:6 is it used in any other sense, being used here to distinguish Israel, the descendants of the patriarchs from Israel from Israel the elect line counted descendants of Abraham and so receivers of the promise (note the parallelism in Rom_9:6-7).
Therefore the bringing in of the Gentiles serves the purpose of bringing in Israel! All Israel will be saved because in fact the mission to the Gentiles will make the Jews jealous of the nations who serve their Messiah (Rom_11:13-14).
Paul does not want the Romans to be ignorant of the mystery he is about to reveal because the alternative to revelation is παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῖς φρόνιμοι, that is, speculation, literally, being insightful or understanding to or for ourselves, rather than turning to God for insight and understanding. These words stand out as a clear call to revelation based theology. Where we speculate, we are being exactly that which the NIV and ESV accuse us of being - conceited. For the danger with speculation is that as soon as we arrogate to ourselves the right to do theology rather than listen to it, we then end up with a theology that glorifies us rather than glorifying God.
Israel's hardening is to be put in the context of a plan, a plan conceived in heaven, in which the bringing in of the fullness of the Gentiles not only works out God's purpose to save from among the nations, it being too little for Messiah only to save Israel (Isa_49:6), but in which His very calling the Gentiles serves His Israel plan. In this sense, the Gentile plan serves the Israel plan: Gentiles are brought to God in order to bring in Israel.
That naturally has implications for mission to the Jews: firstly, the clear teaching here that God's plan has two distinctive parts tells us that Jewish mission must be part of the ministry of God's people, yet secondly all mission serves the aim of Jewish evangelism, for whatever we do to bring in the fullness of the Gentiles serves the purpose of bringing in Israel.
The Isaiah quote underlines the Jewishness of the saving work of God: from Zion, to turn ungodliness from Jacob, according to the covenant. Romans has unpacked the gospel of the forgiveness of sins by way of the justification of the ungodly by Jesus Christ. To expect this gospel not to be fully effective for the ancient covenant purposes of God would be most strange. This new David, from David's city, must surely not just rule the nations but save Israel and bring them to godliness.
The phrase ἡ παρ᾿ ἐμοῦ διαθήκη is quite striking, as Paul has not chosen the simpler ἡ διαθήκη ἐμοῦ. The genitive attribute παρ᾿ ἐμοῦ underlines the active nature of God in this covenant (see Bauer on παρά I4a). It accurately reflects the LXX of Isa 59:20-21, which translates presumably the extra emphasis of אני in the Hebrew. The passage is insistent on the activeness of God: He is the saving covenant actor.
Hence overall in these verses we here the voice of the Sovereign God challenging us: who gets to decide our theology? Who gets to decide who gets saved how (one thinks further of Isa_45:1-13 and particularly God's response to those who challenge the use of a pagan king to save; but we could also consider the Gentiles who don't like seeing their salvation as in any sense secondary)? The answer is found in the answer to this question: who is the author and executor of the covenant? He decides.