So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
This we established yesterday.
So part of God's plan is to use certain people to oppose His people, to bring glory to Himself.
You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"
So we might say, "I'm only attacking God's people because that's what God wants me to do, because He wants to destroy me." This is putting on God that He enjoys punishing people. But this is a lie, He only punishes the people who refuse to turn to Him, and are determined to fight against Him.
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?
And who do you think you are, anyway? Some superior to God who can call Him to account? You think You're smarter or more fair than God is?
The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?
Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
Doesn't the vessel-maker have the right to decide whether he'll make a fine wine goblet or a latrine pan out of the same lump of clay? And to take what he has made, and reshape it into something else? (See Jeremiah 18: 1-4.)
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
God patiently gives every chance for each person to repent and turn away from evil, because He is not willing for any to perish. But when they still persist in their destructive path, then God can use them as an example of what happens to rebels against themselves and against their Maker.
And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
And He did pour out His wrath on those who refused His goodness, and God used them to display His power and justice and authority over the Earth. And He also received those who were just as rebellious, but turned around away from the evil, to acknowledge God and His mercy upon us to allow us to be forgiven through the shedding of blood.
even us, whom He also called not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
And it is not only Jewish people, but also non-Jewish Gentiles who are offered the great gift of faith and salvation through His grace, the good He wants to give us that we don't deserve.
As He says also in Hosea,
I will call those who were not My people, 'My people,' and her who was not beloved, 'beloved.' (Hosea 2: 23). And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' there they shall be called sons of the living God (Hosea 1: 10).So people who were not Israelites, who never were called God's people, are now called God's people, and God's own children, from every Nation in the whole World.
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,
Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved (Isaiah 10: 22); For the Lord will execute His Word on the Earth, thoroughly and quickly (Isaiah 28: 22).And although there may be so many Israelites that we can't even count them, it's only a remnant, a small number of them who will turn to their Messiah and be saved.
And just as Isaiah foretold,
Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity, we would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah (Isaiah 1: 9).The Commander in Chief of Armies has made sure to leave a handful of Israelites to be saved in every era and time, even if it doesn't seem to be very many. Otherwise, they would have been totally destroyed and obliterated just like Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole valley where they were located (Genesis 19: 24-28).
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith;
Gentiles are not looking for righteousness; but are looking for other attributes of God. Some are looking for peace, others for wisdom. I was looking for Truth when God found me. But we who have attained God's righteousness have done so by believing God, and trusting that He is right and trustworthy.
but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.
Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works.
Israel was given the Law, so they got the idea that to just go through the motions of doing what the Law commanded would be enough. They worked really hard at doing all the things they thought were necessary to get God's attention, not realizing that God only wanted them to believe Him, and trust Him to take care of them. All the rules and regulations were only so they could know how to cooperate with how God designed creation to function, trusting Him, not the doing of the things.
They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
just as it is written,
Behold, I lay in Zion a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed (Isaiah 8: 14).Jesus is the Rock, and God only wanted His people to have faith in Him, but they tripped over the stumbling Stone by just trying to do the works. But those who do believe Him and trust Him, will not be disappointed.
Those who believe in Him are the ones who are saved.
O my Father, You are wise and clever and ingenious in all the machinations of Your great Plan of the Ages! You chose Mankind to be Your children, but You gave us a free will to decide, and You will not violate our choices.
We all have been born in sin, with that damaged DNA from Adam through our fathers down the ages, and that defect just gets worse through the generations. That is why we all choose to do what we know is wrong, and we do it anyway. And we are also vulnerable to be sucked into deception by the lies of the World, the devil, and our own hearts. So we are without hope without You.
So You have shown us Yourself, and Your ways, and how to do what pleases you by just believing You. And those who persist in refusing You, those are the ones You use to show Your glory and majesty in the overthrow of kingdoms.
And in Your great mercy upon those who choose to turn to You, You are re-making us from being vessels of dishonor into vessels of honor, just as the potter could remake that same lump of clay into whatever he wanted.
Father, You are that Potter, and we are Your clay. You have taken the dust of the Earth, the clay of the ground, and fashioned Adam's body, into which You breathed Your breath, making him a living soul. So we all, as children of Adam, have Your breath in our lungs.
And You, as our Maker, are making and fashioning and molding us, each of us, into the very image of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord. We are not vessels of wrath any more, since You poured out the wrath we deserve on Jesus on the Cross as the Lamb of God.
Now we are vessels of honor, to bring You honor. Strengthen us, Father, in the war we are fighting, trusting You and relying on You to fight our battles for us that we are unable to overcome. O Father, continue to prepare us for what You have told us is coming, before the return of our King.
Send out Your workers, Father, into all Your fields, and to gather all Your lost sheep. Send us into all the places where there are people who need to hear how much You Love them, so that every living person will hear with understanding to make an informed decision to accept or reject Your gracious offer.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Christ Jesus is our Lord God Almighty, King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
