There is a tree in our garden that bears four different types of apples: Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Fuji and MacIntosh. I am not an orchardist and I don’t know the first thing about grafting trees, but I know this is the technique used to produce the unique apple tree growing in my yard. Moreover, grafting is how most of the fruit trees found in nurseries are created; very few start out as seedlings.
The rootstock will always match type for type with the scion, in other words, apple rootstock with apple graft. But in this way, the orchardist is ensured of getting the exact variety of apple desired (Fuji, for example), instead of something wild that might grow out of the rootstock, which often occurs, depending on conditions. From aboutfruittrees.com:
The process of grafting a fruit tree entails taking the scion, or above ground, part of a tree and attaching it to a rootstock. The rootstock will then become the roots of the tree and provide the required nutrients through the graft.
We know this technique has been around for a couple thousand years at least, since Paul used it in his letter to the Christians in Rome (chapter 11) to illustrate how a Gentile can become a child of God…a spiritual son or daughter of Abraham.
But back up the horses a moment, and read through chapter 10, which is the backdrop to chapter 11 and begins with a heart cry for Israel: “Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved!” (vs. 1).
Chapter 10 ends with a cry from God’s own heart, quoted from the prophet Isaiah: “All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations” (from Isaiah 65:2).
From Genesis 1:1 to the last word of Malachi, we learn of God’s persistent love for the Jewish people, despite their persistent betrayal of His goodness toward them. However, His sorrow and frustration over their behavior did not negate the Covenant. The promise made to Abraham that he would father a great nation, and through his seed all the nations of the world would be blessed, stood the test of time and was fulfilled in Yeshua, the Messiah, Jesus. Fulfilled, yet the promise did not end there. Most of the Jews of Jesus’ day rejected Him as the Christ, yet God still did not reject them. His plan of salvation for the Jews continues to this day.
Think about it. More to come.