Romans 9:13-16 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

We Must Stay Within The Context
To Understand The Bible

We are coming through one of the most hotly debated Chapters of the Bible as we study Romans Chapter 9. A lot of “isms” were formed in the Christian Church because Bible Scholars practiced eisegesis instead of exegesis.

Eisegesis BAD, Exegesis GOOD

I just used two words you probably don’t understand, but you will. Eisegesis starts with what sounds like the pronoun “I”. Eisegesis is when you look at a text of Scripture and think, “How can I make this text satisfy my wants and desires? How can I make this text about ME?” The other word, Exegesis, comes from the Greek word exēgéomai (Strongs 1834), which means “to lead out or draw out of a narrative, to unfold a teaching, in particular the things related to God”. The word was used in Luke when the disciples from Emmaus met Jesus on the road home right after the Passover. They had seen Jesus die a horrid death on the Cross. Jesus met with them, and they didn’t know Who He was. They invited Him to supper, and as Jesus broke bread with them their eyes were opened … and He vanished out of their sight! (Luke 24:31). They immediately headed back to Jerusalem, and the Bible says:

Luke 24:35 (KJV) and they TOLD {exēgeomai} what things [were done] in the Way, and how {Jesus} was known of them in breaking of bread …

They SAW Jesus, and added nothing to or took nothing from that encounter. They EXEGETED the experience. The same word is used to describe the ministry of Christ:

John 1:18 (KJV) No man hath seen God at any time; the only Begotten Son {Jesus}, which is in the bosom of the Father {He is loved of the Father}, He hath DECLARED exēgeomai Him.

Jesus added nothing to or took nothing away from the Word of the Father. He said, “If you have seen ME, you have seen the FATHER” (John 14:19). Jesus said, “I came not to do My will, but the will of Him Who sent Me” (John 5:30; 6:38). Jesus added nothing, but spoke “it is written”, declaring the Word and Will of God without modification.

This is what we are supposed to do when we EXEGETE the text. We draw from the text, we do not impose our will on it. We ask the Father, “What would YOU want me to learn?”, then apply it to our lives.

This chapter is not about God programming some to salvation and some to damnation. In the first five verses we see the chapter is about ISRAEL:

Romans 9:2-4 (KJV) I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4 Who are Israelites …

As I said when we started this text, this Chapter is not about individuals, but about the nation Israel.

Paul laments how the Messiah came to Israel, but Israel as a nation rejected Him. The Apostle told us:

John 1:11 (KJV) “Jesus came unto HIS OWN (the Jews, Israel), and HIS OWN RECEIVED HIM NOT”

Jesus was a Jew. He came to the Jews first as Messiah. Jesus came to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham:

Genesis 18:18 … (NKJV) Abraham SHALL SURELY BECOME A GREAT AND MIGHTY NATION {this will be Israel}, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in Him {this is the promise of the Messiah through Israel}?

God didn’t say that Abraham might become a great nation that would bless all the other nations. God said, “Abraham SHALL SURELY BECOME A GREAT AND MIGHTY NATION”. Why “SURELY”? Because God is in control. God is sovereign. The Messiah will come into human history through Israel.

God sent the lineage of Christ from Abraham, to Isaac, and at Isaac’s twins the lineage of Christ branched off. The physically superior and first born Esau would have been the expected line of the Messiah. Instead, God chose a broken branch called Jacob. God decreed that “The Elder (Esau) shall serve the Younger (Jacob). Esau thought this was unfair. People have accused God of being unfair or unjust since the formation of Adam.

Is God Unrighteous Or Mean Spirited?

Romans 9:12-14 (KJV) It was said unto {Rebekah, Isaac’s wife}, The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

When God told Rebekah “The Elder twin Esau shall serve the Younger twin Jacob” (Genesis 25:22-23). Around 430-480 years would pass from Jacob’s birth to the rise of Moses. When God called Moses to write the Book of Genesis, it would be another 1000 years before Malachi would write “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated”.

Esau & Edom Hated God: God sent the line of the Messiah through Jacob, who would become Israel. The line of Esau, though blessed of God, would become thoroughly pagan, rejecting God. The national God of Edom was QOS, along with Baal and Asherah.

Esau & the Edomites Hated Israel: When Israel left Egypt under God’s leadership – the Exodus – they were led by God through the King’s Highway. Israel asked Edom:

Numbers 20:17 (ESV) Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from a well. We will go along the King ‘s Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.

Edom refused their request. “You shall NOT PASS THROUGH MY LAND, or I will COME OUT WITH A SWORD” (Numbers 20:18). Edom not only stood against the will of God in sending the Messiah through Jacob, but did what she could do to destroy Israel. God told Israel:

Deuteronomy 23:7 You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother.

“Is your life miserable because misery is baked into the structure of the world, or is your life miserable because you do stupid things and refuse to learn and bring endless misery on yourself in your presumption?”Jordan Peterson

The Edomites did stupid things, but blamed God. The Edomites believed that the God of the Jews was unrighteous, mean spirited. Yet this is not true. God gave Edom a land of their own, and blessed that nation richly though they would not acknowledge Him, but only idols. God determined that the line of the Messiah would go through Jacob, or Israel – not Esau. God knows best. And God is GOOD!

Why did God choose Jacob over Esau?

Joseph over his other brothers?
David over his other brothers?
Israel over the other nations?
Peter to lead the Apostles?
Paul to be Judas Iscariot’s replacement?

Romans 9:15 For {God} saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (a quote from Exodus 33:19)

Because God is God.

God showed Canaan to Abraham.
God gifted Canaan to Abraham.
God told Israel to go into Canaan, casting them out.

God told Israel in Exodus 33:2 (NKJV) … I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

How dare God do this? Beloved, God is God. He owns it all. God owns the earth and all that is in it. God gives us life, light, loot, love. God chooses what is right and wrong. He will not give up His GODNESS in order to please you or me. He said “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy”.

This is my Father’s world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas–
His hand the wonders wrought.

God made it. God made us. Are you afflicted. Seek Him in humility. Pray! Focus on His glory. Trust in His mercy and love. We are not God. We cannot choose our sex. We cannot choose our pronouns. We cannot make anything that He will not allow us to make.

To Our Merciful God Be The Glory

Romans 9:16 So then it is not of him that WILLETH, nor of him that RUNNETH, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Some of you still think you are gods. You are not. Some of you are like Pharaoh, trying to stand against God. How many Pharaohs do we have here today? God laughs!

Romans 9:17-18 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth. {quoted from Exodus 9:16-17} 18 Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.

If you are Pharaoh, it is because God raised you up. If you are Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, it is because God raised you up. Whether you be Taylor Swift or Joel Osteen, God raised you up.

God raised up Pharaoh. He raised up Egypt. Egypt could have died out during the Great Famine, but God sent Joseph to Egypt to guide them through the years of want. God used Egypt to shelter and grow Israel, from a small family, to a great nation. God demanded that Pharaoh “Let My people go”, but Pharaoh refused, believing himself to be a god. He was not a god, and neither are we.

Illustrate: Everyone knows the name Billy Graham, but few today know the name of Charles Templeton. Before Billy became a household name, Templeton preached nightly revivals to stadium crowds of up to 30,000 people. Templeton in 1957 renounced his faith in God, and wrote a memoir “Farewell to God: My Reasons For Rejecting The Christian Faith”. I’ve never read it, and never will. When Templeton asked Billy Graham why he believed in God with all the bad in the world, Billy said:

“I believe the Genesis account of creation because it’s in the Bible. I’ve discovered something in my ministry: When I take the Bible literally, when I proclaim it as the word of God, my preaching has power. When I stand on the platform and say, ‘God says,’ or ‘The Bible says,’ the Holy Spirit uses me. There are results. Wiser men than you or I have been arguing questions like this for centuries. I don’t have the time or the intellect to examine all sides of the theological dispute, so I’ve decided once for all to stop questioning and accept the Bible as God’s word.”

God raises up, and puts down. God was going to bring the Messiah into the world through Israel – and did. God wants whosoever will to be informed of the Gospel, to know that salvation will only come through faith in the Messiah – not in our good works or powers.

God Is The Potter, We The Clay
God’s aim is His Glory & His Mercy

Romans 9:19-21 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will? 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto HONOR, and another unto DISHONOR?

God made both Jacob and Esau, Israel and Edom. God has control over the nations that He has made. God has control over America, and the Church. God controls your life, and mine.
His will WILL be DONE!

God raised up Israel, and raised up Edom and Egypt to build up His nation Israel. God cast out the Canaanites so that Israel could have the Promised Land. God endures a lot from humanity. Now Paul asks us a question:

Romans 9:22-24 What if God, willing to shew His wrath, and to make His power known, ENDURED with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 23 And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory

24 Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Israel was God’s Chosen that would bring forth the Messiah. But Israel was not chosen to be the only ones saved. By the time Christ came through Israel, that chosen Nation had forgotten that God told them that He wanted to REACH THE WHOLE WORLD THROUGH ISRAEL. It was never God’s intention to just share the Gospel to the Jews only …. but also to the Gentiles.

God’s goal was always two-fold: Bring a nation out of Abraham, and a Messiah out of that nation for the WHOLE WORLD.

When the Messiah came, He initially told His disciples:

Matthew 10:5-6 (ESV) … Go NOWHERE among the Gentiles and enter NO TOWN of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

The Messiah came through Israel, and His initial ministry was to Israel. This would not last His whole ministry. About the middle of His ministry Jesus would send His disciples to the Gentiles as well. The Gospel of Christ …

Romans 1:16 … the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

While ministering in Tyre and Sidon, a Canaanite woman – a Gentile – came begging Jesus. She had a demon possessed daughter, and wanted Jesus to heal her. Jesus said:

Matthew 15:24 … I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Jesus was not rejecting the Gentiles, but to fulfill God’s Promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Israel was to be saved first. Israel suffered under godless leadership for many years, and godless preachers. The Lord said:

Jeremiah 50:6 (ESV) My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains {where the idols were, the high places}. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold.

Israel repeatedly wandered from God, but God endured their wandering in order to keep His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God endured their idolatry so that – at the right time – the Messiah, Jesus Christ, could come. The Messiah would gather the lost sheep of Israel (Ezekiel 34:23-24; Micah 5:4-5). Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the Savior of Israel, the Savior of the world (John 10:11-16).

When the Canaanite woman persisted, Jesus said:

Matthew 15:26 (ESV) … It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.

The woman, humbling herself, replied:

Matthew 15:27 (ESV) … Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.

Jesus declared, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour (Matthew 15:28). Humility and submission to the Messiah brings saving Grace. It was always God’s intention to save the world through Christ, through Israel.

God Is Not Done With Israel

Paul is now going to go to Old Testament Scripture to explain that Israel’s rejection of Christ is not a horrible failure, but something that God planned for. He quotes first the Book of Hosea:

Romans 9:24-26 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 25 As he saith also in Osee {Hosea 1:10}, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. 26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

Our God is in the SAVING business. When the Jews as a nation rejected Christ, this became the opportunity for the Gospel of Christ to go out to the Gentiles. But God is not done with Israel. Though Israel today rejects the Messiah, there is coming a day when that nation will come to God.

Romans 9:27-29 Esaias {Isaiah} also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: 28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. {quoting Isaiah 10:20-23; 11:11} 29 And as {Isaiah} said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrha. {quoting Isaiah 1:9}

God will not abandon His people. God has a remnant. Israel shall be saved. In the future Christ will rule and reign on this earth from Jerusalem. Israel shall be saved.

What can we who are Gentiles
learn from Israel?

When the Messiah came through Israel and to Israel, Israel wanted a Messiah Who would conquer Rome and restore their national power. Israel wanted God on their own terms, not on His. Many today who call themselves “Christian” are not Christ followers, but people who follow an idol tacked to a gold cross. When you kneel to kiss the ring of a man called “Pope”, or “Cardinal”, or “Father”, or kneel to worship at a statue or the “Queen of Heaven”, you are worshiping a golden calf. When you do religious things to please God rather than worship and follow Jesus, you are not saved. You can call yourself “Israel”, or “Baptist”, or “Non-Denominational”, or “Pentecostal”, or “Methodist”, or “Presbyterian”, or “Church of Christ”, or “Christian Church”, or “Episcopal”, or “Lutheran”, or “Wesleyan”, or “Nazarene”, or …. you get the point?

Romans 9:30-32 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. 31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.

Salvation does not come about by your works, but by CHRIST’S WORK. What must you do to be saved? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you SHALL BE SAVED”. What did Jesus tell us?

Matthew 16:24-26 (NKJV) If anyone desires to come after Me, let him DENY himself, and TAKE UP HIS CROSS, and FOLLOW Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Do you want to come after Jesus? To live the life God wants you to live? To inherit eternal life? DENY yourself. Take up the Cross as YOURS – Jesus died for ME! And FOLLOW Jesus. Salvation is all about Jesus, all about the Messiah, all about God’s Word and Promise. To those who refuse to follow Jesus, we read:

Romans 9:33 … As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of offense (quotation of Isaiah 8:14-15): and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. (quotation of Isaiah 28:16)

Jesus is the solid ground Rock on which you can stand – or a Rock that you will stumble over and fall. Will you follow Him? Will you give your life to Him? May God the Holy Spirit move in your hearts this very day. Amen.