In The Word
Read: Romans 9:14-29
14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For 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.” 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 does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 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— 24 even us, whom he also 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 loved one’ who is not my loved one,”
26 and,
“In the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”
27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
28 For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”
29 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.”
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
If God is love but does not save everyone, He must be unjust! Paul rebuked this philosophy: “May it never be!” Or may it never be mentioned! Instead, mercy and compassion are in the hand of God not man. Even as it was with Pharaoh who was given many opportunities to show mercy, he was shown no mercy. But in the end, God used Pharaoh to glorify His name.
This can be a hard concept to understand. Romans 9:18 says, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” Like those that Paul was writing to, the question exists, why? Is God unjust? May that never be mentioned among us! Who are we that we can talk back to God? God is always just, and His favor is not fair. But it is at the discretion of God to whom He will show mercy and favor. God alone knows what is in the heart of man. Jeremiah 17:10 says, “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.”
The world wants a god that looks over their sins and will not punish the sinner. But that would be an unjust god. When we question the motives of God, He confounds us with compassion. When we think He is unjust, He lavishes us with mercy.