Romans 9:19-29 (NIV)
One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But 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?'” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath–prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory–even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea:
“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”
and,
“It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
they will be called ‘sons of the living God.'”
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”
It is just as Isaiah said previously:
“Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.”
Paul’s last argument addresses the issue of God’s selecting people in the past and calling them, and in the process rejecting others, even though those others are of the same bloodline. He then uses that as a template to demonstrate God’s right to choose those who chose Him at the present time, and to reject those who reject Him, even though they are of the bloodline of the “chosen people”.
But some still raised objections. If God’s will is sovereign, then it seems like there is no hope for those who are on the outside of the kingdom looking in, which doesn’t seem fair, especially to those outside. But Paul has a bigger picture in view.
Looking back at Jacob and Esau, a choice had to be made, and God made it on the basis of knowledge that He alone possessed. Esau could have railed against God for not choosing Him, especially since He was the eldest, and accuse God of excluding him from His presence and His blessing. But that railing would be as illogical as a pot railing against its maker because the potter made it a water jug instead of a wine jar. The point is, all pots are useful, and any pot can be beautiful, but, ultimately, the Maker gets to make the choice as to what kind of pot to make out of a specific lump of clay.
The fact is, even though Esau wasn’t chosen to inherit the covenant, he could still have chosen to worship God, to serve Him, and to live under His blessing. But instead, out of his hurt ego, he ultimately chose to reject God. He and his descendants after him were given every chance to turn to God, even though God knew the path that they would choose, until He let them be repeatedly conquered, first by Israel, and then by a succession of conquering kingdoms, until they finally ceased to exist as a nation.
This stands in stark contrast to the mercy that God showed to the Judeans, whom He did not completely destroy, but exiled into Babylon despite their repeated failings, their repeated rebellions, their repeated disgrace, because they had been specifically chosen to be the people through whom the Messiah would come into the world. So, God preserved them.
The Scriptures that Paul cites from Hosea 2:23 and 1:10 and Isaiah 10:22-23 and 1:9, show that even centuries before Paul’s day, God had predicted that there would be gentiles that would choose Him and who would thus be counted among His chosen people, “children of the living God”. At the same time, He saw the time when the majority of those descended from Israel would refuse to believe in Jesus, and thus be rejected by Him, leaving only a remnant who would remain as part of His people.
Father, the big issues here are: Do You have the right to exclude from Your people those who are in the bloodline of Israel, but who reject you by rejecting Jesus? Do You have the right to bring people into Your chosen people who are not of that bloodline simply because they have faith in Jesus? And Paul’s answer to both of those is a resounding “YES”. You are the sovereign Lord, and it is Your right to decide who You will consider to be Your people, not ours. The beautiful thing about this is that You have clearly proclaimed that You want everyone to repent, to be saved, to become one of Your chosen people (2 Peter 2:8-9), and that whoever chooses to believe in Jesus will be chosen by You and be saved (John 3:16-17). So, we each have a significant choice to make. We can opt in to Your people by choosing Jesus, or we can opt out by rejecting Him. But if we opt out, we can’t blame You for exercising Your prerogative to choose our destiny, our status with You, based on that choice. Thank You for Your love and grace that allowed me to choose You, and for the destiny that You have in store for me as one of Your child, a part of Your chosen people. Amen.