Paul is trying to make sense of history, a very personal history. Sometimes his passion interrupts: “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.” He plows over the same ground, looking for something he may have missed. And he concludes that God hasn’t rejected the Jews; to the contrary, they have the same opportunity as Gentiles. God has widened, not closed, the embrace of humanity.
