It is sometimes easy to forget that, despite being a New Testament church, there is a distinct and undeniable link between Judaism and our Christian faith. It is our heritage. Jesus’ earthly family was Jewish; Paul was Jewish, as were likely most of the apostles and first Christians. Even though as Christians, Praise God, we are not bound by Old Testament laws, the New Covenant was born out of, and influenced by, the Old. The Old Testament–its laws, stories and characters–are referenced countless times in the New.
Rather than think God “got fed up with the way the first law turned out,” and “tore up the blueprint, to start over with a totally blank page,” I think it might be more accurate to conceive of the Old Law more as a beginning point, that would eventually be fulfilled and replaced with a better, more perfect plan– perfection sealed with the blood of His unflawed Son, and once for all extending the inheritance of salvation to all people.
I think Paul addresses that here. Clearly, he says the Israelites mishandled God’s plan. In fact, the end of Ch. 10 quotes Isaiah’s passage about Israel: “All day long I have held out my hands, to a disobedient and obstinate people.” But it was because of this wholesale inability and unwillingness to accept God’s direction that the rest of us were given a seat at the table.
There was no “joy” at Israel’s failure, but out of their rejection, came hope for everyone else. As part of that “everyone else” crowd, today’s Gentile Christians must also be aware that we will share the same fate as anyone who rejects Christ’s lordship; we, too, will be cut off if we make unwise, unfaithful choices.
Bottom line: we all have an opportunity, and we all will be held accountable for how we respond to it.
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What most of us don’t realize is that a large majority of the New Testament Jewish Christians continued to worship in the synagogues for about 3 centuries.