Romans - Chapter 9
9:1-13 The rejection of Christ by Israel.
Paul was filled to the fullest with his joyful love for Jesus and what the Lord had revealed to him as the plan for those who come to be His. The only love Paul had that even came close to his love for Christ was his love for his own people. They were not able to have the same joy because they rejected the gospel of Christ and thereby placed a cloud over the mind of Paul when he considered this rejection.
Paul was proud of his Greek culture and of his Roman citizenship but it was his Jewish heritage and great education at the knee of Gamiliel, a great teaching Rabbi, that was dear to his heart. The privilege of being a member of God's chosen people was an honor he held above all others before his conversion. Only with these people had God shared His desire to create a special people in a special promised place on earth and to sustain them by His power and mercy. From Abraham to David and from the tabernacle to the temple had God expressed His special love for these difficult and stiff necked people. The rejection of the Lord's Messiah by these chosen ones affected Paul deeply and Paul needed to address it in his letter to the Romans.
Paul takes his readers through some ancient history in the first verses, showing how God decided to make Abraham the father of blessing. God had decided that only Isaac was to be the son of promise. The Lord chose Isaac over Ishmael. When Isaac's wife, Rebecca, became pregnant with twins, the Lord had to make a choice again as to which one would continue the line of promise, and he chose Jacob over Esau. This choosing was made before the twins left the womb, even though Esau was firstborn.
This type of choosing has troubled believers for at least 3,000 years. It completely fulfilled the Lord's conversation with Moses in Exodus 33:19:
“... I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.”
9:14-19 God's sovereignty is shown.
Moses had asked God to show him His glory. Here God answers with the reply that stretches all the way to the writing of Paul. God answered Moses in His own way, and expressed that there are no demands upon God or His choices. He alone decides who will be chosen in what way and lives of those yet unborn are to be guided by Him.
In order to make the point more boldly, Paul now reflects on the darker side of the will of God. He explains that in His dealings with Pharaoh he chose to “harden” the heart of this ruler. God raised up this ruler specifically so that His power might be made known.
9:20-21 God's consistency is shown.
The objective of this area of writing was to teach that there exists no balance in the relationship of man and God. Man can ask, but there is no responsibility that leans upon God to reply. Now Paul uses the analogy of the potter and the clay to make his point strongly. God, as the potter, has in His glorious power the total freedom to create or dictate the affairs of man. Notice that Paul is not saying man has no responsibility to live as the Lord has directed, but rather that ultimately God has the final say in our lives, which we call His sovereignty.
God took a rebellious Egyptian and made him Pharaoh and to let him live with the consequence of his own arrogance and thereby be an example to all mankind for all time of the majesty of the plan of God, which no man can delay or change.
9:22-33 Israel's rejection.
The same thought as examined in Pharaoh applied to Israel herself. They had the truth and rejected it. They live with the consequences and they cannot fault God for His recognition of their failure. If Israel continued to behave toward the gospel in much the same way Pharaoh behaved toward the people of Israel, then they must be prepared to accept the fact that what was right for Pharaoh was right for them as well. God is free to take those who respond well and make them “vessels of mercy” and His choice may well come from the Gentile peoples.
Paul quotes at length here from the prophet Hosea, showing God's ancient plan to make those who were “not My people” to be accepted. He quotes Isaiah to show that while God has previously turned away from His people because of their worship of false gods, He always retains a remnant to Himself to continue the existence of His chosen people in brighter days ahead.
God is explained to be perfectly sovereign in His dealings with man in wonderful ways that preserve His control and retain the dignity with which God made man when He created him in His own image.
