92 | தேவனின் வாக்குத்தத்தமும் இஸ்ரவேலின் நிராகரிப்பும் | Romans 9:6-13 | #GodsPower #WCFLondon

Romans 9:6-13

God’s promise & Israel rejection!

Romans 9:6-13, But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, ⁷ nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” 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. ⁹ For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.” ¹⁰ And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, 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.” How can the gospel, the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, be God's message if the Jews never believed it and still don't believe it?

How could God give a message that His own people would reject? The leading Jews of the time of Christ didn't believe He was the Messiah. Jews dominantly throughout all of history don't believe He is the Messiah. Jews are the chosen people of God who have the revelation of God, then He couldn't be the Messiah.

In their minds Jesus can't be the Messiah, or the religious leaders of His time never would have rejected Him. The people never would have rejected Him. The Jews throughout history wouldn't reject Him. If they didn't recognize Jesus as the Messiah, then He isn't the Messiah.

Exactly the way they felt in Paul's day. Could God be sending a message that His own people wouldn't accept? Could God be giving a gospel that His own leaders would deny and consider to be a heresy and a blasphemy? The New Covenant is directed seemingly to the Gentiles and that God should turn His back on Israel to call out a Gentile

church. Impossible. That God should reject His covenant people? God should set aside His promise to them, that God should say to the Jew who was identified as a chosen race, "You are no longer My people, I am now calling a Gentile church."

It's impossible for them to accept that rationally.

Romans 9:6-33, Paul gives four reasons why Israel's unbelief doesn't violate God's character.

The unbelief of Israel is consistent with ✓ God's promise, ✓ God's person, ✓ God's prophets and ✓ God's prerequisite. V 6-13, Israel doesn't believe doesn't mean God has violated His promise. V 14-24, doesn't mean God has violated.

V 25-29, doesn't mean God has violated His prophets’ word. V 30-33, doesn't mean God has violated His prerequisite. Because Israel does not believe doesn't mean God has cancelled His promises.

God, You didn't keep Your promise. You didn't keep Your covenant.

Has God cancelled His promises? The Holy Spirit answers any accusation that might be levelled at God. If Israel rejected and was out of the covenant then God's word would be broken, His promises useless, His character untrustworthy because He changed His mind. He had overturned everything He said.

Israel would have been able to say God is not a covenant keeping God, you can't trust Him. It is important for Paul to deal with this here. Paul has been presenting justification by grace through faith. He has been presenting the means of salvation.

Having presented that he stops, and he answers the question about where does the Jew fit in. The question comes up in the mind of Jew is that, If I can trust Jesus Christ with my life how come He didn't keep His word to the Jews?

Romans chapter 9, 10 and 11 Paul develops this whole theology of how the Jew fits in to God's redemptive plan. Most Jews believe, and believed then, that all Israel is saved by birth. You are born into the covenant because of Jewishness.

You are born as Abraham's seed so you are automatically a part of the kingdom. That is common Jewish belief. Paul wants to help us to understand how the gospel can be true and at the same time be rejected by the people of the covenant.

V 1-5, Paul sort of sets up the chapter by telling us how much he cares for Israel. How could Israel reject, and God's promises still be valid? V 6 -13, the unbelief of Israel is consistent with God's promise. V 6, But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect.

For they are not all Israel who are of Israel Implies that the Word of God is failed, or literally has fallen. When I say Israel has been set aside and Israel is no longer blessed.

The nation to whom God gave the ➢ Covenants, ➢ Promises, ➢ Laws, ➢ Ceremonies, ➢ Fathers, ➢ Messiah, etc. The Word of God has not failed. God's promises have not been violated or broken or cancelled.

Jeremiah 32:42, “For thus says the Lord: ‘Just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them.

Isaiah 55:11, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

What Paul wants to say here is that Israel's rejection somehow some way is still consistent with God's promise. What appears as a breach of promise is only an apparent breach, not a real one. V 6, the Word of God,

Refers not so much to the Old Testament but to the covenants and promises of verse 4. When God gave covenants and promises to His people Israel to save them, to give them a kingdom, glory, to bless them, to give them a King.

These have not been cancelled. We must understand that. That's why the nation Israel still exists. Of all the people of that part of the world who existed when Israel existed, there are none left but the Israelites. God has preserved them because He has yet to fulfil those promises and yet to fulfil those covenants. Their unbelief in no way violates those.

How do you explain it then? V 6, For they are not all Israel who are of Israel What does he mean by that? Paul means that God never promises unconditionally to each offspring of Abraham covenant blessing just because he is an offspring of Abraham.

The Jew believes that because he is fleshly descending from Abraham he therefore is included in the covenant.

Because he is a Jew by birth.

• He is therefore a child of promise.
• He is therefore redeemed.
• He is therefore saved.
• He is therefore going to go to heaven.

But God never intended that all Israel would be redeemed Israel, for they are not all the true Israel who are of the fleshly Israel.

• The real Israel is contained within the natural Israel.
• Spiritual Israel is contained within physical Israel.

The nation was chosen as a nation,

• to be a vehicle to transmit the Scriptures,
• to be a vehicle to propagate the one God,
• to be a witness nation.

The choosing of the nation as an entity does not mean that every individual within that nation was also chosen to salvation. So, the fact that Israel does not believe, that many individuals don't believe doesn't cancel the promises because God never intended in His sovereignty that every Jew would believe.

But that within the physical Israel there would be a believing remnant. The nation was elected to privilege but only individuals are elected to salvation. The real Israel is the Israel of faith and throughout all the history of Israel there have been faithless Jews. It isn't anything just common to the time of Christ.

Romans 11:4, But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

What about the multiplied tens of thousands of others? They had bowed the knee to Baal. They had entered paganism. Even in Elijah's time all Israel was not true Israel. The nation was chosen to privilege but individuals are chosen to salvation.

Hebrews 11:4, By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. ➢ Righteousness didn't come because he was born of Adam.

➢ Righteousness didn't come because he offered a sacrifice. ➢ Righteousness came because he offered an excellent sacrifice that was born of his righteousness. Difference between religion and righteousness. The true Israel is the Israel of righteousness, the Israel of faith.

John 1:47, Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” Nathaniel was not only an outward Jew, but he was also an inward one. Jesus is confronted by the religious leaders and their hope was in their Abrahamic descent. They believed that they were part of the kingdom because they were born of the seed of Abraham.

John 8:33, They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”

John 8:39, They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.

They were Abraham's children physically, but he says if you were really Abraham's children spiritually you would do the things that he did.

What did he do? He did righteous things. So, the fleshly Israel, the nation of privilege, is not necessarily the same as the redeemed Israel, the nation of righteousness, the individuals who obey God.

Galatians 3:6-7, just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” ⁷ Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

Galatians 3:9, So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. So, when we go back to Romans chapter ⁹ we really are hearing an echo of what Paul had said earlier in Romans.

Romans 2:28-29, For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; ²⁹ but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

• Not all Israel is really Israel.
• Not all Jews are really saved.

But the ones who have faith in God as God has prescribed it in the Word, they are the true Israel. If we believed like the Jews that the whole nation is saved, then we would have a problem understanding how they could reject the true Word of God.

But if we realize that there are only select ones in the nation who are saved then we could understand the rest could reject the truth and it could still be the truth. The reason why the rejection of the Jews involved no failure on the part of the divine promise is that the promise was never addressed merely to the natural descendants of Abraham.

The true Jew and the blessed Jew is the believing Jew, and it's always been that way. When a Jew receives Jesus Christ as Saviour and Messiah, all the promises are fulfilled. When a Jew comes to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then that Jew enters into covenant blessing, the fulfilment of the promises.

Galatians 3:29, And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. If you are Christ's then you are really Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Will God keep His promise with Israel? He will.

But His promise to Israel is not just to fleshly Israel. God’s promise to Israel has always been to spiritual Israel. The whole nation rejects doesn't mean that He has changed His promise. Why there are a lot of times in its history when the nation on the widest margin rejected and it was only a remnant that believed. God kept His covenant promise with the ones who believed, as He always will and always has.

Romans 9:29, And as Isaiah said before: “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah.” Israel as a nation would have been wiped out just like the rest except that God preserved a righteous seed.

So, the doctrine of the remnant is very important for a contemporary Jew to understand as it was for a Jew in Paul's day, that the national unbelief and rejection of Israel doesn't mean God's promises are not true. The major portion of the nation rejected the truth of God, and it was always a remnant that believed it. In the time of Christ, a redeemed remnant of Jews.

So, the Word of God has not been violated at all, not at all. V 7 Paul supports this in a most fascinating way by carrying us all the way back to Abraham. V 7, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”

Paul distinguishes between the seed of Abraham and children. Children here refers to those who enter into salvation, those who enter into covenant blessing, those who enter into the promise, life eternal. He says just because you are the seed of Abraham doesn't mean you are a child of salvation.

• Doesn't mean you are a child of blessing.
• Doesn't mean you are a child of promise.
• Doesn't mean you are a child of God.

No. “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” Because we know that everybody who descended from the loins of Abraham is not automatically in the covenant, promise, and in salvation blessing.

How many children Abraham had? Abraham’s first son was Ishmael through Hagar, his wife’s Egyptian maid (Genesis 16:1–4). Abraham’s second son was Isaac through Sarah, his wife (Genesis 21:1–3). Isaac was the son God had promised Abraham (Genesis 15:4–5).

After Sarah died, Abraham had six sons through Keturah, another concubine: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah (Genesis 25:1, 6). Keturah’s sons became the fathers of Arabian tribes living east of Israel.

Who was the first son born of Abraham? Ishmael. But Ishmael was excluded from the promise and covenant.

The second son and the first legitimate son born of Sarah was Isaac. Isaac was included.

Was Isaac better?

Did he earn it? No! It all happened before Isaac was ever born or Ishmael. It was the calling of God, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” You remember the story. God came to Abraham and Sarah and said, even though you were barren these many years. They were between 90 and 100 years old, never had a son I am going to give you a son. He is going to be a child of promise and through him is going to come a nation.

They didn't believe it was possible at first and so Sarah felt maybe if they were going to have a child it would have to be with somebody other than her. So, Abraham went unto his handmaiden by the name of Hagar, Abraham impregnated Hagar. She gave birth to a child by the name of Ishmael.

Genesis 21:13, Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed.” Ishmael is your descendant. So, he was definitely a descendant of Abraham. Abraham was his father and that gave him rights of descendancy. But Ishmael was rejected, he was outcast, he was put apart from the line of promise.

God gave to Abraham and Sarah in spite of their sinfulness the child of promise who was Isaac. V 7, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” It is obvious that God chooses some of the sons of Abraham to blessing, not all of them.

➢ He rejected Ishmael. ➢ He accepted the line to come through Isaac. Abraham had another wife by the name of Keturah. They too were rejected. So just being a child of Abraham doesn't put you in the place of blessing.

It is verified by the very illustration of the case of Isaac. The chosen nation was to come through the loins of Isaac. Paul's argument is very simple. Ishmael and Isaac demonstrate that God never intended all those naturally descending from Abraham to receive covenant blessing.

God is selective. God is elective. The key word is "called,"chosen by sovereign will. Did God say that every Jew descended from Abraham was a child of promise? Answer is no. Only one of Abraham's sons was chosen to be the child of promise.

It has been that way all through the history of Israel, God has selected out specific individuals to specific individuals a remnant to redeem. The fact that most of Israel doesn't believe. We don't say God has cancelled His covenant and God has cancelled His

promises. No, because He was always elective when He gave those promises. History shows us they were always meant for the few and not the many. Mere natural descent lays no claim to the promise. V 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.

Those who are physically descending from Abraham, these are not the children of God, that's equal to the children of verse 7. Just being physically from the loins of Abraham doesn't mean you are a child of God. but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

Another way to say the children of God, or the children of verse 7 “are counted as the seed."

Who are the true children of God? It's the children of promise. They are called that because they were called by God to receive the promise of salvation. They are considered the true seed. They are regarded as the recipients of promise.

Isaac is a perfect illustration of a believer because he was born by a special act of God, he was born by supernatural power.

• He was born according to a divine promise.
• He is a picture of anyone who is redeemed.

V 8 makes it clear. Isaac is that those who are the children of the flesh of Abraham are not necessarily the children of God. But the children of the promise of God are counted as the true seed. The true seed then are the ones God elects out of the children of the flesh.

V 9, For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.” The word of promise was given in Genesis 18.

Genesis 18:10, And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.)

Genesis 18:14, Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

The word of promise is repeated, verse 10. It's repeated in verse 14. V 9, For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.” Quoted from Genesis 18:14. That's the promise.

• Sarah shall have a son.
• Not Hagar shall have a son.
• Not Keturah shall have a son.

Sarah shall have a son. God is elective. Isaac was born at a special time, born by the special power of God., Born by the promise of God. He is the child of divine choice as God acts in human history. Just as it is said of Ruth that she was uniquely set by God in a special place.

Esther had come to the kingdom for just such a time as that.

Bible tells us God acts through various human beings at special times in history.

Galatians 4:4, But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

The right moment in the right time by the right choice God chose to give a child of promise, Isaac. God is elective. It's very difficult for the Jews to accept this because within the Jewish race there are some that are chosen to be the children of the promise, not all.

So, wholesale Jewish unbelief doesn't make us panic like God has overturned His promises. Paul's statement not all Israel is Israel, it's a remnant. The unbelief of Israel doesn't mean that this message can't be true. Israel has been unbelieving in all the messages God has sent.

Abraham had several sons, only one was chosen by God. Only one was a child of promise, only one. God has always worked through an elect remnant, a saved minority.

V 10, And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac Not only the illustration of Abraham and Isaac, but the illustration of Isaac and Rebecca. Not only did Sarah receive along with Abraham a promise of a son, but so did Isaac's wife, Rebecca.

Rebecca was the daughter of Bethuel, from Padan-Aram, chosen as a wife, as a bride for Isaac. The servant went to find a bride for Isaac. Genesis 24. She was to be the bride. According to Genesis 25 she gave birth. She gave birth to twins.

Genesis 25:19-24, This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham begot Isaac. ²⁰ Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. ²¹ Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. ²² But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body;

One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.” ²⁴ So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. Their names were Jacob and Esau. From those two God chose Jacob through whom would come the line of promise.

God's unconditional election finds its most unequivocal expression in the choice of the younger twin born to Rebecca. Esau was first born, and he should have had the right of primogenitor, which meant a double blessing and double respect.

But God chose Jacob, and what it means is God is selective. God not only selective but sometimes He chooses what doesn't seem to be the way you should choose. God has that sovereign right. Not all the natural children are the children of promise. They weren't in the case of Abraham, and they weren't in the case of Isaac.

When Rebecca had conceived by our father Isaac.

Genesis 25:12, Now this is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham.

God says I choose Jacob. I choose the younger to be set over the elder. This was against the normal course of life. But that was God's choice. Genesis 25. The elder son, the first born of the twins was Esau. Esau was a hairy man.

He was sort of viral outdoor hunter, and he was his father's favourite. He should have had the special blessing. He should have had the double inheritance.

1 Chronicles 5:1, Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel—he was indeed the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that the genealogy is not listed according to the birthright; He was a wild man of the desert though. As he grew and developed, he definitely was not concerned with things of God.

In fact, he married one of the Canaanites. Then again, he married another Canaanite wife. He brought nothing but grief to his parents. So, he was wild, son of the desert, indifferent to the things of God, married pagan, forbidden wives out of the Canaanites. Then to make matters worse, he married his cousin.

His cousin was Ishmael's daughter.

Genesis 28:6, Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”

Genesis 28:9, So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had. So, he is pagan. He is incestuous. To make things worse he sold his birth right. It didn't even mean anything to him to be the first-born, so he sold it for a meal. He distained it. ➢ He was indifferent to the things of God. ➢ He was indifferent to the Covenant.

➢ He was indifferent to being a child of promise.

Hebrews 12:16-17, lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. ¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. He was a fornicator and a profane person who for one morsel of food sold his birth right. For you know how afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected and then it says he found no place of repentance though he sought it with tears. He was so corrupt and so evil, so profane that even when he intellectually wanted to repent, he couldn't find a place for repentance. He couldn't even bring himself to repent he was so evil. So, he was the one who was first born. He was not chosen of God. His life confirmed that.

When God chooses that's only part of it. God rejected Esau as the line of promise. Esau also rejected God.

God only rejects those who reject Him and only chooses those who choose Him. It is the divine mystery. Jacob, he was the younger. The elder shall serve the younger.

Genesis 25:23, And the older shall serve the younger.

God said that elder will serve the younger.

• He bought the birth right from Esau.
• He received the blessing.
• He received it by deception.
• He pretended to be Esau.
• His mother put him up to it.

What would Rebecca do that for? She knew God said the elder will serve the younger. She knew God said Jacob is the one I choose.

Why do you do that? Why don't you trust God if He says it's going to be that way that He will make it happen without being a deceiver? His mother put him up to it in spite of the Word of the Lord. All they had to do was wait and God would have worked it out that

he receives the blessing. But they tried to deceive and get it on their own. Consequently, poor Jacob had a life of pain and sorrow and trouble. Jacob did seek God. He was the one who wrestled with an angel and out of that wrestling God changed his name from Jacob to Israel.

• He had a heart for God. But he suffered because of his sin.
• He was chastened by the Lord.
• He was hated by his brother.
• His life was full of pain and sorrow.

But he did seek God and there was a righteousness in him. He was God's chosen child. Paul is using a different illustration for the same point. When it came to Jacob and Esau, God made a choice, too. It shouldn't be surprising to us that all the Jews don't believe.

Why all of Abraham's sons weren't chosen as children of promise nor all of Isaac's either. When it says the elder shall serve the younger, I don't think it's talking simply about Jacob and Esau.

Out of the loins of Jacob came the nation of Israel. Out of Esau came Edom.

Genesis 25:23, “Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; Two nations.

We know of no account in the life of Jacob and Esau where Esau actually served Jacob. We don't know of any incident. But it's two nations that are in view. Esau never personally served Jacob. But Edom was the nation that came from Esau and Edom was put in servitude under Israel.

Edom means red. Jacob gave him in chapter 25 of Genesis. Esau lived in Mount Seir. Mount Seir is east of the Dead Sea.

Genesis 36:8, So Esau dwelt in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom. Esau went to Mount Seir and gave birth to the Edomites, later known as the Idumaeans.

The people were idol worshipers.

Numbers 20:18, Then Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you with the sword.”

They were the enemies of Israel. So, Esau went down to Mount Seir, out of the promised land, and produced a race of Edomites, who were pagan, idolatrous anti- Israelites. God gave some very strong messages to those people.

Amos 1:11-12, Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, Because he pursued his brother with the sword, And cast off all pity; His anger tore perpetually, And he kept his wrath forever. ¹² But I will send a fire upon Teman, Which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.” Bozrah is the ancient name of the capital of Edom. So, Edom had set itself against Israel. But God moved in judgment.

The book of Obadiah pictures the God's judgment on Edom. Edom and how God is going to judge them “for violence.”

Obadiah 1:10, “For violence against your brother Jacob, Shame shall cover you, And you shall be cut off forever.

Edom was made a vassal in servitude to Israel by the judgment of God. Israel, coming from the loins of Jacob, was the chosen nation. Edom, from the loins of Esau, the object of wrath. Two sons born of Isaac, and Isaac was the child of promise, but even again God chose.

V 13, As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” A direct quote from

Malachi 1:2-3, “I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved; ³ But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage For the jackals of the wilderness.” I do not believe that this is a primary reference to the individual Jacob and the individual Esau. Because that's never said in the Old Testament. That is never uttered in the book of Genesis.

God never says when those young men are born, "I hate Esau." He never says it during the life of Jacob and He never says it during the life of Esau. There's no such statement made.

Nearly a thousand years later when the prophet says, "Esau have I hated." Esau of His hatred is the idolatrous, pagan kingdom of Edom that's come from the loins of Esau. Jacob, He loves the Israel of God, His people, His nation, the people of blessing.

Let God hate if He wants to hate, and He hates evil and He hates idolatry and He hates paganism and so He hates Esau. God's hate in Psalm 5:5, Psalm 11:5, Psalm 26:5,

Proverbs 6:16 where it says six things the Lord hates, yea seven are an abomination to Him.

Jeremiah 44:4, However I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!”

Hosea 9:15, Amos 5:21, Zechariah 8:17 and Malachi 2:16 and many other places. God hates. ✓ He hates evil, ✓ He hates wickedness, ✓ He hates idolatry.

God hated what He saw in the seed of Esau.

Malachi 1:4, Even though Edom has said, “We have been impoverished, But we will return and build the desolate places,” Thus says the Lord of hosts: “They may build, but I will throw down; They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, And the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. So, the Lord's selective, and out of the birth of twins Esau chose against God, God chose against Esau. Jacob chose even in spite of his sin for God, God chose Jacob. Both were born of Abraham, Both were born of Isaac, Both were not children of promise. Out of their loins came two nations, one the people of promise, one the people of eternal indignation, judgment and wrath. V 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), ✓ God chose between Jacob and Esau before they were ever born.

✓ God chose them before they ever did any good or any evil. It's election. God chose. It is hard thing for me to understand. Of course, it is! But does it help you to see that when they lived their life the one that God had chosen demonstrated that he too chose God.

The one that God had rejected demonstrated that he too rejected God.

Does that bring some balance? It does! Before either one of them were born God chose and He did it before they were born in order that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not through their works but of Him that calls.

If God chose you because of what you did, then who gets the glory? You! But the purpose of God is to glorify Himself.

The purpose of God is to glorify Himself. The way that He glorifies Himself is to be the sovereign who chooses, not because of what you do but because of His own sovereign calling. The purpose of God is to exalt His sovereign purpose.

God chooses before we have done anything good or bad. Before they were born, He chose. Before they had done anything good or evil, He chose. That is the choice might redound to His glory. Every person chosen to salvation whether in Israel or in the church is chosen by God before the person is born.

The Bible says your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world. You will in life confirm that choice by believing. That's a mystery. It doesn't start with us. We can't understand it. We are introduced to the fact that God chooses between Jacob and Esau before they were born, and we think that's unfair.

Why? Because we are so proud.

We are so self-centred. We are so man-centred even in our theology. If it doesn't start with our choice, we can't handle it. We want to start with us and try to work our way back to God and hope He makes sense from our view. God does the choosing.

✓ God does the choosing. ✓ God does the calling. It's an effectual, saving call. So, Paul is affirming the electing purpose of God who distinguishes by His own sovereign will. We aren't surprised when the nation Israel doesn't believe because not all Israel is Israel.

God has His people. They boast in their Abrahamic ancestry. Paul tears that down. Abraham had two sons, only one was a child of promise. Isaac had two sons, only one was a child of promise. So, God's Word stands, as it always will stand, and the unbelief of Israel consistency with God's promise.