Romans 9:10-29

Romans 9:10
Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac.
9:11
Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand:
9:12
not by works but by him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the    younger."

The question Paul is answering has to do with Israel being rejected.
Paul’s point through Romans 1:1-10 is that Israel can not be rejected because of their failure     
because Israel was not chosen because of anything they had done.
Israel was chosen by God for a purpose.  God then formed Israel even deciding who the promise would go to.
The “promise” included the blessing of Abraham but also the purpose for Abraham.
God choose Isaac and God choose Jacob to be the line that would produce the natural race of Israel.
God did not choose:
a)  Ishmael
b) Keturah’s sons
c) Esau

Since God choose Israel and had a purpose for them God will complete it.
The choosing of Israel had nothing to do with anything they did, so the failure of individuals or entire generations of Israel can not stop the plan or change the choosing.

9:13
Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

Jacob was choosen.  Esau was not choosen.
”Hatred” means  “not choosen” as the promise nation.  Because Esau was blessed, given a land, sent prophets and cared for by God.  God loved Esau but not like he “loved” Israel.
When Jesus  tells believers to “hate” their own families he means for them to love God more. (Luke 14:26)

This verse is from Malachi 1:1-5 and the whole point of the verse is to distinguish rebellious Israel in 450 BC from rebellious Edom (Esau) at the same time.
God said, “Jacob I loved.”  Israel asks, “How have you loved us?”
God’s answer is to remind them that He has a reason for creating the nation of Israel and that nation is always under his divine care.  A generation may be destroyed but not the plan.
Esau (Edom) on the other hand has no purpose beyond their time in history.  If they become wicked they will be destroyed as wicked and be eliminated from history.

Read Deut. 7:6-11

KEY:  Purpose and Salvation are two different things.
Israel was chosen for a purpose.  People are offered salvation and respond.
The discussion of Chapter 9 is not how do we get saved, but Israel’s place in God’s plan.

9:14
What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!

Some one might read this and understand God to be unjust because he chooses some and others he does not. 
If he does choose some and reject others before they have a chance to do anything then God is unjust.
Some would describe God as “unjust” but then say it is not “unjust” because it is God.
Wrong is wrong every time.  Right is what is right at all times in all places for all people.
But, some would say, this doesn’t apply to God.
Paul does not say this. 
In fact he is going to reject the accusation that God is unjust.
This may have been Satan’s original claim.  Satan means “accuser”. “Diablos” (devil) means “slander”.

9:15
For he says to Moses,
   "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
      and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

Why does Paul go here?
To respond to 9:14 – “Is God unjust?”

When did God say this?
Exodus 33:19 after the golden calf of Exodus 32 and Moses conversation of 33:12-18
God has just spared a nation that deserved to be destroyed.
God says he will have mercy on the nation of Israel because it is his plan to use the nation.
Other nations fall and never recover.  Israel has fallen several times and will always return.

9:16
It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.
POINT:  Israel does not depend on man but on God’s plan and his mercy in the face of their rebellion.

9:17
For 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."

Now Paul goes from Israel’s leader to Israel’s oppressor.
”raised you up” means “to rise out, to rise up.”  It is used to refer to calling upon the actors onto the stage.”
Pharaoh was not only raised up, but also spared through the first few plagues as he hardened his heart.

9:18
Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

When Israel rebels he will punish them but have mercy.
When nations rebel he will punish to destroy.
But notice – They both had a response.

9:19
One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?"

9:20
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?' "

First of all, just like Job, you are not even qualified to question God.

9:21
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?

2 Timothy 2:20-21

9:22
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?

“Prepared” means to make ready, to prepare. The Prefect tense emphasizes the state of condition.

How where they prepare?
It clearly does not say “God prepared” them, but they were prepared through a process into a condition of judgment.  But How?  They did it by hardening their hearts.

Romans 1:18-26

 

 

 

 

 

9:23
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—

9:24
even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

9:25
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,"

9:26
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.' "

9:27
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
   "Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
      only the remnant will be saved.
 

9:28
For the Lord will carry out
      his sentence on earth with speed and finality."

 9:29
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."