Section 8
away means to be given up, while to be cast aside means to be put aside for a period of time. There fore, Paul's thought was that God had cast aside Israel, not that He had cast them away.
Let us read verses 16 through 18. "Now if the dough offered as the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a fellow-partaker of the root of the fatness of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches; but if you boast, remember that you do not bear the root, but the root you." Who is the root of the olive tree, and who is the dough offered as the firstfruit? I believe that the correct answer is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In 11:28 Paul says that Israel is "beloved for the fathers' sake." The "fathers" refers to the patri archs, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These three patriarchs were the root of the olive tree and the dough offered as the firstfruit.
We need to be clear regarding the difference between the dough offered as the firstfruit and the lump. Suppose you have a lump of dough for baking cakes and you take a piece of dough out of that lump. That piece of dough may be called the firstfruit. In the Bible the dough offered as