Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Romans 9

Israel’s Rejection of Christ

Romans 9:¹ I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,

Romans 9:² that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.

Romans 9:³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen (Or relatives) according to the flesh,

Romans 9:⁴ who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;

Romans 9:⁵ of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

• This is the banquet table of the Rich Man in the parable of Rich Man and Lazarus:
  
  • The Adoption of God, His Glory, the Covenants, the Giving of the Law, The Service of God in the Temple, His protection, all the promises, and the Messiah.

Israel’s Rejection and God’s Purpose

Romans 9:⁶ But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,

Romans 9:⁷ nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”

Romans 9:⁸ That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

Romans 9:⁹ For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”

Romans 9:¹⁰ And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac

Romans 9:¹¹ (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls),

• When someone is “chosen” according to election, it means they are chosen to serve ,,, First God, then others.

Romans 9:¹² it was said to her, “The older (Esau) shall serve the younger (Jacob).”

• In Jewish thought; it would say “The younger swallowed up the elder”.

Romans 9:¹³ As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

• Malachi 1:1,3 “Yet Jacob I have loved; ³ But Esau I have hated,

Israel’s Rejection and God’s Justice

Romans 9:¹⁴ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!

Romans 9:¹⁵ For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”

Romans 9:¹⁶ So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

Romans 9:¹⁷ For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”

Romans 9:¹⁸ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

Romans 9:¹⁹ You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?”

Romans 9:²⁰ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”

• See Topic: Pottery and its association with clay, red, Leviathan, Esau/Edom, Seir, Demonic, ten horns, water, sea, and mire (foul).

Romans 9:²¹ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

Romans 9:²² What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels (people) of wrath prepared for destruction,

Romans 9:²³ and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels (people) of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,

Romans 9:²⁴ even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Romans 9:²⁵ As He says also in Hosea:

“I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.” (Gentiles)

• Hosea 2:23 Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”

Romans 9:²⁶ “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

Romans 9:²⁷ Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.

• Jeremiah 31:1 – The Remnant of Israel Saved – “At the same time,” says the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”

Romans 9:²⁸ For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness
(Or: the Lord will finish the work and cut it short upon the earth),
Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”

• Matthew 24:22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.

Romans 9:²⁹ And as Isaiah said before:

“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth (Lit., in Hebrew: Hosts) had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”

• God is not only leaving the Jews a seed, a remnant, but a “Holy” Seed (Jesus).
  
• The Terebinth tree in scripture means a “holy seed” as well as a “tree of learning”.
  
  • Isaiah 6:13 But yet a tenth (tithe) will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump.”
    
  • Abraham was by a Terebinth tree when he received news from the Angel of the Lord that Sarah, who was barren, would bear a child at 90 years of age.
    
  • Genesis 18:1 The Son of Promise – Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.

Present Condition of Israel

Romans 9:³⁰ What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;

Romans 9:³¹ but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.

Romans 9:³² Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.

Romans 9:³³ As it is written:

“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

• Isaiah 8:14 He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
  
• I Peter 2:8 and “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

• See: Topic: Jesus as a Stone and a Rock

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