I
have recently been pondering Romans 9 with the backdrop of 70AD in
mind, and a lot of what follows ties into the Revisiting Abraham's faith reckoned as righteousness series (here). If Paul has the destruction of the Temple and destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD in mind - which
signifies God formally rejecting the Jews as His chosen/elect people - then that would explain a lot of
the pain and concern Paul has in this and the following chapters. The
standard "Calvinist" reading of Romans 9 is that of emphasizing God's
sovereignty in choosing, but I think that misses the point and takes a
too shallow of reading of Paul here. Romans is not concerned about
defending God being all powerful, but rather about explaining why God
would elect someone just to reject them later on. Consider that 75% of
the Bible is focused on God electing the Israelites as His "chosen"
people (Deut 7:6), only to suddenly do a reversal in the "last days".
God graciously gave the Israelites divine gifts of adoption, covenants,
glory, promises, etc (9:1-5), most of which was unmerited by them.
Nobody denies that God could have made you born a different race, in a
different time, under different circumstances, etc, so it is kind of
pointless for Paul to make "unconditional sovereignty" the issue. Similarly, I don't
think Paul is suggesting God chooses for purely hidden reasons, but
rather that God chooses for very strategic reasons. In fact, I have come
to see the "thesis" verse of Romans 9 to be in verse 8, where Paul
says, "those who are the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the
children of the promise are reckoned as the seed," which I
believe means those who are born of purely natural or biological means
are secondary to those who are born of special or supernatural means.
With this in mind, let's take a look at Paul's actual examples.
First,
Paul brings up Isaac versus Ismael. We know that Ishmael was firstborn
and born by natural human relations, but God had Isaac in mind as the blessed chosen linage
which would bring about the "Seed" or Messiah. Paul emphasizes this
same lesson especially in Galatians 4:21-31, so it would be reasonable
to see the same lesson elsewhere in Paul's writings. I believe this is
also taught in Romans 4:1-4, where Paul begins by asking about Abraham
being father "according to the flesh" (4:1b), and "justified by works, but not before God" (4:2), because Ishmael was born "according to the
flesh" (i.e. Abraham's sleeping with Hagar),
making it seem like Abraham had achieved by human means the promised
heir of Genesis 15:5-6. This producing of Ishmael was thus a
"justification by works" in the sight of men (4:2a), because in the
human calculation they reckoned Ishmael to be the promised seed heir...but not in the
sight of God (4:2b), since God had in mind Isaac instead to be the promised heir or at least chosen lineage. Thus, Paul gives a human
analogy, whereby when a person works a job he is rightly entitled a wage
(4:4a), but how much more blessed is it to receive a gift beyond what
your job can get you? Abraham could produce a natural heir (working
wages), but trusting in God and receive a supernatural blessing, such as
Isaac coming from a barren Sarah, that's beyond natural or normal
transactions (4:4b). Similarly, the Mosaic Covenant promised health and
wealth for faithfulness to it, but these were earthly wages, whereby
being a Believer in the higher things of life comes with the promise of
forgiveness of sins and heaven. Thus, Paul is trying to condition us to
start thinking in a spiritual way rather than the long time "fleshy" way
of earthly blessings.
Second, this sets up Paul for a second example, noting the first few words he uses:
10 And not only this, but also when Rebecca had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac 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), 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
