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 evil,[fn] 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,“Why[fn] 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

thoroughly and decisively in righteousness,

because He will cut short [the] matter on the earth.”[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