Cr – The Objections to Isra’el’s Past Paradox 9: 14-33

The Objections to Isra’el’s Past Paradox
9: 14-33

The objections to Isra’el’s past paradox DIG: What would be “fair” for each of us to receive from God (3:9-20)? On what basis does ADONAI relate to us (9:14-15 and 5:9-10). How does Paul respond to further questions about God’s fairness in choosing some but not others (see 9:19)? What is God’s overriding purpose? How do the quotes from the TaNaKh in verses 25-29 relate to Paul’s argument here? How could this help Jewish-Gentile relations?

REFLECT: How can we answer the objection that it isn’t just for God to choose some and not others? How can you reconcile divine sovereignty and human responsibility in salvation? What is an antimony? Have you ever wondered why ADONAI chose you to be a part of His plan for the universe? What have you concluded?

ADONAI has mercy on whom He wants, and He hardens whom He wants; however, everyone who calls on the name of ADONAI will be saved.

Paul asks two rhetorical questions. First, is God unfair by choosing one person over another (9:14-18): That a loving God can hate (Psalm 139:21-22), and that His hate can seem arbitrary, might tempt one to ask: It is unjust for God to do this? Paul, concentrating both on God’s sovereignty and His justice, replies: Heaven forbid (Hebrew: chalilah, meaning that’s a contradiction, it makes no sense) (9:14). He is the Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just. A trustworthy God who does no wrong, He is righteous and straight (Deuteronomy 32:4).

Dear Holy Heavenly Father, Praise You that You have a huge loving heart and are willing to love everyone who turns from his selfish living to love You as Savior and Lord. For if you confess with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart it is believed for righteousness, and with the mouth it is confessed for salvation (Romans 10:9-10). Thank You that entrance into Your holy heaven does not depend on a person’s color of skin, whether they are male or female, nor is young or old a criteria for entrance. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female – for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua (Galatians 3:28).

You have said that what is important is the color of the heart which must be washed clean by Yeshua’s blood. “Wash and make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your deeds from before My eyes. Cease to do evil.” . . . “Come now, let us reason together,” says ADONAI. “Though your sins be like scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will become like wool (Isaiah 1:16 and 18). Praise You that Your love and Your hate are not arbitrary feelings. They are based on people’s heart attitude. You hate evil and all who love You are to also hate evil. You who love ADONAI, hate evil (Psalms 97:10)! The holiness of Your character cannot tolerate any sin. When someone joins themselves to partner with sin by letting sin rule their lives, they are joining themselves to what You hate and thereby blocking the love You desire to shower on them.

How gracious and merciful You are to forgive sins when someone has a holy fear of You and repents of their sin. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His mercy for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us (Psalms 103:11-12). Please help me to see if there is any sinful way in me as David also prayed: Search me, O God, and know my heart. Examine me, and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there be any offensive way within me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalms 139:11-12). May you also open the eyes of those in my family and friends who do not take sin seriously. Please show them that to come to live in Your holy heaven and to have You live within them (John 14:16 and 23), they must desire to die to sin. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we, removed from sins, might live for righteousness. “By His wounds you were healed” (First Peter 2:24). They cannot live in sin any longer. Do you not know that to whatever you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to what you obey – whether to sin resulting in death, or to obedience resulting in righteousness (Romans 6:16)? I love you and delight in pleasing/obeying You. Praise You for giving Yeshua’s righteousness to all who love You (Second Corinthians 5:21). You are Awesome! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen

In quoting Exodus 33:19, Paul brings into focus God’s mercy along with His sovereignty and justice. For to Moshe, he says: I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will pity whom I pity. Though YHVH is within His rights to hate whom He will, so that standing with Him doesn’t depend on human desires or efforts, nevertheless, God does have mercy and show pity (9:15-16).

Non-Messianic Judaism understands God’s attribute of mercy as being even greater than His attribute of justice. Although it seems like a very beautiful idea, it can lead to the false hope that Ha’Shem, in His mercy, will somehow overlook the just punishment for sins. It is easy to see why such a hope is sought – people who don’t have Yeshua to satisfy God’s demand for justice by being the atonement for their sins, know that they need God’s mercy desperately. The wish, then, is hope that ADONAI is more merciful than judgmental.

Messianic Judaism, however, does not have to elevate mercy over justice because Yeshua Messiah combines in Himself God’s perfect justice with His perfect mercy, and thus demonstrates how they dovetail together (3:25-26). This is why Paul can quote Exodus 33:19 in answer to the question about YHVH’s justice, thereby placing God’s mercy alongside His justice and not above it.

For the TaNaKh says to Pharaoh, “It is for this very reason that I raised you up, so that in connection with you I might demonstrate my power, so that My Name might be known throughout the world” (Exodus 9:16). Paul see’s history repeating itself. Isra’el’s rejection of Yeshua, like Pharaoh’s rejection of Moshe, provides the circumstances for God to demonstrate His power through an act of deliverance from the “Egypt” and “bondage” of sin and death. Further, knowledge of this deliverance continues to be publicized: just as the Exodus became known through the TaNaKh and the annual reading of the Haggadah at Pesach, so Messiah’s atoning death and resurrection are being made known through evangelism (and now, after Paul’s day, through the B’rit Chadashah). All this is a direct result of Isra’el’s apostasy (a point reiterated in 11:11-12, 15, 19, 25, 30-32) – for Isra’el’s self-will, like Pharaoh’s, serves God’s merciful ends.²⁵⁰

So then, in conclusion, ADONAI has mercy on whom he wants, as seen in Moshe, and He hardens whom He wants, as seen in Pharaoh (9:17-18). Paul’s point is that no one should complain that God’s elective purposes are unjust. Election is consistent with God’s work in history, with His sovereignty, and with the teaching of the TaNaKh. Election may seem unjust from a limited, human perspective, but when we have questions about the justice of Ha’Shem, we must remember that He is holy, righteous, and just. He will do nothing contrary to His basic attributes.²⁵¹

Secondly, if God hardens hearts, how can He hold people accountable if they don’t have a choice (9:19-21): That is a good question, but Paul doesn’t answer it here, he deals with the attitude of one who would ask such a question.

The illustration: Like a good rabbi, Paul answers this question with an illustration that says, “You have no right to ask this kind of a question!” But you will say to me, “Then why does he still find fault with us? After all, who resists his will?” Who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God? Lest one think Paul is being arrogant, he lets God Himself be the One whom any objection must be made by quoting Isaiah, “Will what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you shape me this way’ (Isaiah 29:16 and 45:9).” And by using the image of the potter and the clay from Jeremiah 18:6, “Or has the potter no right to make from a given lump of clay this pot for honorable use and that one for dishonorable (9:19-21)? The point of this illustration is to put mankind in a proper relationship with the Creator. The potter has sovereignty over the clay, so God is sovereign over His creation.

Since ADONAI knows what’s best for you, you should gratefully accept the way He has fashioned you. Your shape was sovereignly determined by God for His purpose, so you shouldn’t resent it or reject it. Instead of trying to reshape yourself to be like someone else, you should celebrate the shape the LORD has given only you. Christ has given each of us special abilities – whatever He wants us to have out of His rich storehouse of gifts (Ephesians 4:7 LB).

Part of accepting your shape is recognizing your limitations. Nobody is good at everything, and no one is called to be everything. We all have defined roles. Paul understood that his calling was not to accomplish everything or please everyone but to focus only on the particular ministry God had shaped him for (Galatians 2:7-8). He said: Our goal is to stay within the boundaries of God’s plan for us (Second Corinthians 10:13 NLT).

The word boundaries refers to the fact that ADONAI assigns each of us a field, or sphere of service, along with our spiritual gift(s) (to see link click Dc – Responding to the Mercies of ADONAI). Your shape determines your giftedness. When we try to overextend our ministry reach beyond what God shaped us for, we experience stress and failure. Just as each runner in a race is given a different lane to run in, we must individually run with patience the particular race that God has set before us (Hebrews 12:1 LB). Don’t be envious of the runner in the lane next to you; just focus on finishing your race.²⁵²

However, against Paul’s refusal to budge on the matter of God’s sovereignty, must be placed his insistence that: Everyone who calls on the name of ADONAI will be saved (10:13). This is an antimony, meaning two things that seem to be mutually exclusive, but both are true. Paul does not let go of either side of the apparent paradox of our predestination verses or freedom to choose. Rather, he is action orientated, steering us away from idle and destructive questioning of God’s governance, toward the practical solution, which is coming humbly to YHVH through Yeshua Messiah – this path is closed to no one. Rashi notes that Pharaoh was given five chances to repent (in connection with the first five plagues) but hardened his own heart, and only after that did God confirm Pharaoh’s decision by hardening his heart (Exodus 7:3). God does not harden the heart of anyone but a confirmed rebel (John 12:39); He wants all to turn from sin to Him (Second Peter 3:9).²⁵³

The application (9:22-23): Paul uses the actions of the potter to provide a direct application for God’s dealing with people: there are objects of His wrath and objects of His mercy. Paul declares: What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath – prepared (Greek: katartizo) for destruction? What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared (Greek: proetoimazo) in advance for glory (9:22-23 NIV)? The Bible clearly teaches that YHVH is ultimately behind every action (Ephesians 1:11). But while the LORD stands behind the destiny of both those prepared for His mercy and those prepared for destruction, He may not do so in exactly the same way. It is significant that when Paul used the verb katartizo to speak of those prepared for destruction in verse 22, he does not specifically state God as the subject, as he does when he speaks of those prepared for mercy in verse 23. The difference is subtle but significant. While ADONAI is sovereign over the destinies of both the saved and the lost, He is not behind the destiny of the lost in the same way as He is the saved. The problem with “double predestination” is that it gives the idea that the two predestinations are of equal character, when they are not. No one is predestined to hell. The crucial difference is supported in Romans 6:23, where eternal death is considered as what one earns, while eternal life is considered as a free gift.²⁵⁴

The principle (9:24): Up to this point, Paul had been speaking conditionally and objectively but now he became more direct – to us – because he and his readers were some of the objects of mercy sovereignly chosen by ADONAI. That is, to us, whom He called not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles (9:24)?

The conclusion (9:25-33): To back up his claim, Paul quotes two verses from Hosea. As indeed God says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call my people; her who was not loved I will call loved; and in the very place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called sons of the living God” (Romans 9:25 and 26; Hosea 2:23b and 1:10b). Paul uses these verses from Hosea as a midrash, or application. Hosea was not referring to Gentiles, but to Isra’el herself. He meant that one day Isra’el (who was in rebellion when he wrote) would be called God’s people. Paul’s meaning neither conflicts with what Hosea wrote, nor has any necessary inference from it. His meaning is that God’s people now includes believing Gentiles.²⁵⁵ How this has come about, and for what purpose, is examined further in 9:30-10:4 and 11:17-32, as well as the book of Ephesians.

Paul now quotes Hosea 1:10a, which includes God’s promise to Abraham (Genesis 22:17) and Jacob (Genesis 32:17). But, Isaiah, referring to Isra’el, cries out, “Even if the number of people in Isra’el is as large as the number of grains of sand by the sea.” The rabbis teach that “All Isra’el has a share in the world to come” (Tractate Sanhedrin 10:1). However, turning on this part of Hosea’s prophecy, that one day Isra’el would be called God’s people (Hosea 2:23b), Paul quotes Isaiah to show that its fulfillment doesn’t imply the salvation of every single Jew, for, in reality, “only a remnant will be saved.” For ADONAI will fulfill His word on the earth with certainty and without delay” (Romans 9:27-28; Isaiah 10:22-23).²⁵⁶

Also, as Isaiah said nine chapters earlier, “If ADONAI-Tzva’ot had not left us a seed, the remnant of Isra’el, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah” (Romans 9:29; Isaiah 1:9). It is through the believing remnant of Isra’el that YHVH will fulfill His desires, and not through the entire nation. This has been true all throughout Jewish history. So rather than believing the rabbis who say the believing remnant (Messianic Jews) is destroying the people of Isra’el, on the contrary, we need to understand that the believing remnant is preserving the nation, and the people, of Isra’el.²⁵⁷ Indeed, YHVH must be thanked for showing enough mercy to preserve a seed, or a remnant of Messianic Jews who numbered in the tens of thousands early in the Messianic Community: You see, brother, how many tens-of-thousands (or a minimum of twenty-thousand Jewish believers in Jerusalem alone not counting the rest of the country) there are among the Jewish people who have believed – and they are zealous for the Torah. They saw no contradiction in their faith in Yeshua and their zealousness for the Torah (Acts 21:20b).

So, what are we to say? What are we to conclude? This is the monumental paradox: that Gentiles, even though they were not striving for righteousness, have obtained righteousness; but it is a righteousness grounded in trusting! However, Isra’el, even though they kept pursuing a Torah that offers righteousness, did not reach what the Torah offers. These people have the right goal, but have pursued it in the wrong way. Why trusting? Because they did not pursue righteousness as being grounded in trusting but as if it were grounded in doing legalistic works (9:30-32a). Many in Isra’el missed the Messiah because they didn’t grasp that the first requirement of the Torah is trusting ADONAI, not good works.²⁵⁸

Many Jews and some Gentiles claim to “trust in God,” but don’t define “God” as the One who sent His Son Yeshua to atone for their sins by His death. Thus, they trust in a god of their own imaginations instead of the God who exists. The trust of which Paul speaks is always in the God who was, is, and will always be, the God of the Bible, and the God who created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). Trust is never in a god that one shapes for oneself.²⁵⁹

This monumental paradox cries out for an explanation, and here, Paul gives it to us: They stumbled over the stone that makes people stumble (9:32b). The stone that makes people stumble was proclaimed by Isaiah to be Immanuel, or God with us (Isaiah 7:14, 8:8 and 10), or Yeshua Messiah. The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call Him Immanuel (Matthew 1:23). As the TaNaKh puts it, “Look, I am laying in Tziyon a stone that will make people stumble, a Rock that will trip them up. But he who rests his trust on [that Rock] will not be humiliated” (Romans 9:33; Isaiah 28:16).

Luke quotes Psalm 118:22, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the Chief Cornerstone, and then he adds, “Whoever falls on that Stone will be broken in pieces; but if it falls on him, he will be crushed to powder (Luke 20:17b-18). Yeshua is a stumbling stone to the Jews who pursue a relationship with ADONAI by works, rather than by faith (Genesis 49:24; Exodus 17:6; First Corinthians 1:23 and 10:4; First Peter 2:6-8).²⁶⁰