What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses,In the immediately preceding context Paul raised the question of the Jews' history and experience, which they had misread. They misunderstood the riches of their heritage. They assumed that God was very predictable, that he in fact was like them, that he would always act as they would if they were God. This is a very dangerous assumption. It is really the lie of the serpent in the garden of Eden when he said to the woman, "You can be like God." We experience the desire in our hearts over and over again to be so much like God that he becomes unnecessary.
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. 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." Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,That quotation is taken from one of the high points in Moses' life in Exodus 33. There we see Moses entering the tent of God with people standing outside slack-jawed at Moses' holiness and moral beauty. They watched as Moses worshiped before them and the Shekinah of God dropped down into their midst. God spoke to Moses as a man would speak to his friend. Later, in the context of God's uttering this very sentence, he prayed to know God's will and to be accompanied by God through his life. It was a moment in the life of a very godly and remarkable man.
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
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?The question of verse 19 has taken things a step farther than the question of verse 14. It is inevitable that we are going to ask questions of God. Things seem unjust to us, so there will be times when these questions of the Lord burst from our lips: "Why this pain? Why this longing? Why this closed door? Why this person instead of that person? Why is blessing obvious here and not obvious there?" It is almost impossible not to have those questions occur to us. And it is legitimate to ask them if we let God answer on his terms. But by the time we get to verse 19, this is no longer legitimate questioning but petulance. "Who does this God think he is, anyway, that we should still be responsible when he is running around choosing this and choosing that and doing whatever he wants without consulting us?"
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."
What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written:God embraces unsuspecting Gentiles and gives them the gift of righteousness when they weren't looking for it. Israel, on the other hand, did not receive righteousness because of their pride. They wanted a righteous standing that was built on their own efforts. They didn't want righteousness as a free gift; they wanted it as a reward they had earned or deserved. And for that reason they did not achieve it.
"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
"I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
But now my eye sees Thee;
Therefore I retract,
And I repent in dust and ashes."
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