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God's Choice of Israel
1I am a follower of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is a witness to my conscience. So I tell the truth and I am not lying when I say 2my heart is broken and I am in great sorrow. 3I would gladly be placed under God's curse and be separated from Christ for the good of my own people. 4 They are the descendants of Israel, and they are also God's chosen people. God showed them his glory. He made agreements with them and gave them his Law. The temple is theirs and so are the promises that God made to them. 5They have those famous ancestors, who were also the ancestors of the Christ. I pray that God, who rules over all, will be praised forever! Amen.
6It cannot be said that God broke his promise. After all, not all of the people of Israel are the true people of God. 7-8 In fact, when God made the promise to Abraham, he meant only Abraham's descendants by his son Isaac. God was talking only about Isaac when he promised 9 Sarah, “At this time next year I will return, and you will already have a son.”
10Don't forget what happened to the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. 11-12 Even before they were born or had done anything good or bad, the Lord told Rebekah that her older son would serve the younger one. The Lord said this to show he makes his own choices and it wasn't because of anything either of them had done. 13 That's why the Scriptures say that the Lord liked Jacob more than Esau.
14Are we saying God is unfair? Certainly not! 15 The Lord told Moses that he has pity and mercy on anyone he wants to. 16Everything then depends on God's mercy and not on what people want or do. 17 In the Scriptures the Lord says to the king of Egypt, “I let you become king, so that I could show you my power and be praised by all people on earth.” 18Everything depends on what God decides to do, and he can either have pity on people or make them stubborn.
Reflect
Have you ever sought God for something and he refused to give it to you? A job? A house? A spouse? When I sensed God calling me to full-time ministry, I went to seminary. After I graduated, a local church in my home town invited me to serve as a pastor. It was there that God gave me clarity to the nature of his call on my life: it was to teach in the Christian academy. So, I followed that call, which involved going back to school for a Ph.D. and then finding a fulltime teaching post; a seemingly simple task, but one that took 17 years to complete. I knew what God’s plan was for me, yet year after year I “failed” to attain it.
In Romans 9 Paul begins discussing Israel’s dilemma with a predominantly Gentile church (in Rome) with a large Jewish constituency. He lists the blessings that God has given to Jews to know him (vv. 4-5). Israel was in the perfect position to reap the indescribable blessings that flow from a personal relationship with Jesus the Messiah.
Yet most failed to attain these blessings because the nation en masse had rejected Jesus. It would be easy to assume that God’s promises had failed, but Paul says otherwise (v 6). He declares that God has indeed faithfully kept his promises to Israel – but only to true Israelites, that is, Jews (like Paul) who have placed their faith in Jesus the Messiah. He tells them that this turn of events was by God’s sovereign, specific will (vv 16-18).
Paul is grief-stricken about Israel’s dilemma (vv 1-3), and, as far as he’s concerned, God has not done what he wants for his Jewish brothers and sisters. Nevertheless, he knows that, ultimately, things have gone exactly according to God’s plan. And this truth leads Paul to offer praise to God (see 11:33-36).
Respond
Heavenly Father, Thank you that you are sovereign over all the details of my life and in the lives of those around me. I praise you that you are ultimately in control. While I don’t know all that you are doing, I choose to trust you to accomplish your plan for my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Wayne Baxter
Wayne Baxter is Associate Professor of New Testament and Greek at Heritage College & Seminary in Cambridge. He earned his Ph.D. in Religious Studies (specializing in Early Christianity) at McMaster University and his Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He is the author of three books as well as numerous scholarly articles. Wayne is ordained with the Christian & Missionary Alliance and has pastored churches in Windsor, Ottawa, and Toronto. Books: Road to Renewal: Seven Prayers That Will Change You (Eugene: Resource Publications, 2017 forthcoming) Growing Up to Get Along: Conflict and Unity in Philippians (Castle Rock: CrossLinks, 2016) We’ve Lost. What Now? Practical Counsel from the Book of Daniel (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2015) Israel’s Only Shepherd: Matthew’s Shepherd Motif and His Social Setting, Library of New Testament Studies 457 (London: T & T Clark, 2012)