Romans 9:19-26 (NIV)

Are you ready for a little more of Rome? Here we go!

Romans 9:19-26 (NIV)
19 One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists 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?'"
21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
22 What if God, 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, "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.'"


Let us review the context of chapter nine. I believe verse 25 helps us to see that Paul is addressing the issue of Israel being set aside in God's grander scheme of things. He is showing that even in the prophets it was predicted that a people would come along that had not been part of God's plan. If God wants the Gentiles to now have a prominent place in His plan then God can do that if He so wishes. In verses 20-21 Paul goes back to Jeremiah to help him frame his argument in the attribute of God's sovereignty. It is ironic that the Jews or anyone would question the plans of God, since it was His to begin with. In our lives we must always understand who we serve and why it is we serve Him. The Jews were really struggling with this thing called the church. They were really struggling that Gentiles could really know God and be used by God. Christ had come and turned the Jewish world upside down. In turning their world upside down, God had in turn, turned the Gentiles world upside right?!?! Amen! Rejoice in God's plan and purposes and remember to let God be God in your life today.