111 So I say, Has God put his people on one side? Let there be no such thought. For I am of Israel, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not put away the people of his selection. Or have you no knowledge of what is said about Elijah in the holy Writings? how he says words to God against Israel, 3 Lord, they have put your prophets to death, and made waste your altars, and now I am the last, and they are searching for me to take away my life. 4 But what answer does God make to him? I have still seven thousand men whose knees have not been bent to Baal. 5 In the same way, there are at this present time some who are marked out by the selection of grace. 6 But if it is of grace, then it is no longer of works: or grace would not be grace. 7 What then? That which Israel was searching for he did not get, but those of the selection got it and the rest were made hard. 8 As it was said in the holy Writings, God gave them a spirit of sleep, eyes which might not see, and ears which have no hearing, to this day. 9 And David says, Let their table be made a net for taking them, and a stone in their way, and a punishment: 10 Let their eyes be made dark so that they may not see, and let their back be bent down at all times.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Romans 11:1-10
Commentary on Romans 11:1-10
(Read Romans 11:1-10)
There was a chosen remnant of believing Jews, who had righteousness and life by faith in Jesus Christ. These were kept according to the election of grace. If then this election was of grace, it could not be of works, either performed or foreseen. Every truly good disposition in a fallen creature must be the effect, therefore it cannot be the cause, of the grace of God bestowed on him. Salvation from the first to the last must be either of grace or of debt. These things are so directly contrary to each other that they cannot be blended together. God glorifies his grace by changing the hearts and tempers of the rebellious. How then should they wonder and praise him! The Jewish nation were as in a deep sleep, without knowledge of their danger, or concern about it; having no sense of their need of the Saviour, or of their being upon the borders of eternal ruin. David, having by the Spirit foretold the sufferings of Christ from his own people, the Jews, foretells the dreadful judgments of God upon them for it, Psalm 69. This teaches us how to understand other prayers of David against his enemies; they are prophecies of the judgments of God, not expressions of his own anger. Divine curses will work long; and we have our eyes darkened, if we are bowed down in worldly-mindedness.