God’s Sovereign Choice
God’s word has not failed. Not all descendants of Israel are Israel, nor are all of Abraham’s children his children in the covenant sense. The line of promise runs through Isaac, the child of promise.
I6t is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” 8So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring. 9For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”
The case grows sharper with Rebecca’s twins. Before Jacob and Esau had done anything good or bad, God’s electing purpose was declared — the older will serve the younger — a love and distinction set before action.
10Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac. 11Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand, 12not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Is God unjust? No. To Moses, God declares his mercy upon whom he will have mercy; to Pharaoh he says he was raised up for this very purpose. So mercy and hardening rest on God’s will, not on human desire or effort.
14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! 15For He says to Moses: 16So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.
If someone objects — then why does God still find fault? — Paul answers with the potter. The clay does not question the one who shapes it; the potter has the right to make one vessel for honor and another for common use.
19One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?” 20But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?” 21Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?
Paul suggests what God may have been doing: bearing patiently with vessels of wrath in order to make the riches of his glory known to vessels of mercy — a mercy that now gathers Jews and Gentiles together.
22What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? 23What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory — 24including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?
Paul closes with Hosea and Isaiah: those once called ‘not my people’ are now called children of the living God, and a remnant of Israel will be saved — as scripture has already said.
25As He says in Hosea: 26and, 27Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: 28For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth 29It is just as Isaiah foretold: