The Gentiles are new, and…they have to be given time to experience Christ. Paul said that the same thing in the Epistle to the Romans: the Jews failed everything despite the prophets, and the Christians have to be careful not to do the same thing. What is the Holocaust if not that terrifying failure?
Rene Girard, Battling to the End, p.112
Look at the adulterous wife of Hosea. He loves her even though he knows from the get-go that she will cheat on him constantly. This is a picture of God’s relationship with the Jews. But isn’t Jesus’ relationship with the Church the same deal? We don’t have the prophets to warn us now that he has sent the Holy Spirit. That’s an improvement. He wants to present us as a spotless bride, but what in fact are we? Dirty and full of violence. Yet he loves us still.
“The church will succeed where Israel has failed” is an idea I seem to hear implied sometimes, but one that I really don’t think you’ll find anywhere in the Bible.
I think what you really find is “God will remain faithful, even though _____ (Abraham, Israel, Peter, the Church, fails).”