God’s Sovereign Choice

(Genesis 25:19–28, Malachi 1:1–5)

[It is] not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who [are] descended from Israel [are] Israel. 7 Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants [are] they all [his] children. On the contrary,“Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”[fn] 8 So it is not the children of the flesh [who are] God’s children, but [it is] the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring. 9 For this [is] what [the] promise stated:“At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”[fn]

10 

Not only that, but Rebecca’s [children] were conceived by one [man], our father Isaac. 11 Yet before [the twins] were born [or] had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand, 12 not by works but by Him who calls, she was told“The older will serve the younger.”[fn] 13 So it is written:“Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[fn]

14 

What then shall we say? [Is] God unjust? vvv Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses:

“I will have mercy on whom vvv I have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom vvv I have compassion.”[fn]

16 

So then, [it does] not [depend] on man’s desire [or] effort, but on God’s mercy. 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.”[fn] 18 Therefore [God] has mercy on whom He wants [to have mercy ], and He hardens whom He wants [ to harden ].

19 

One of you will say to me,“Then why vvv does [God] still find fault? For who can resist His will?” 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?”[fn] 21 {Does} not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and [another] for common use?

22 

What if God, intending to show [His] wrath and make His power {known}, bore with great patience [the] vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? 23 [What if He did this] to make the riches of His glory {known} to [the] vessels of [His] mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory — 24 including us, whom He has called not only from [the] Jews, but also from [the] Gentiles? 25 As He says in Hosea:

“I will call [them]‘My People’ who [are] not My people,

and [I will call her]‘[My] Beloved’ who [is] not [My] beloved,”[fn]

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.’ ”[fn]

27 

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the vvv Israelites is like the sand of the sea,

[only] the remnant will be saved.

28 

For [the] Lord will carry out [His] sentence on the earth

thoroughly and decisively.”[fn]

29 

[It is] just as Isaiah foretold:

“Unless [the] Lord of Hosts had left us descendants,

vvv we would have become like Sodom,

vvv we would have resembled Gomorrah.”[fn]

30