Romans 9
“They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”
Paul is telling the people of Israel that the promises come to those and through those who choose to keep the covenants made by and with God. They are not blindly and unerringly for those who are the physical offspring of Abraham.
Paul points out that before Jacob or Esau had done any good or evil the Lord told Rebecca that the elder would serve the younger. Some would argue (as Paul seems to be doing here) that this shows that God makes his choices through foreknowledge and thus those who are not called have no chance because of the foreknowledge of God. I would argue that Esau could have chosen to be righteous and God could still have made this decision. The difference would be that if Esau had been righteous he would have patiently and faithfully fulfilled the role to which he was called rather than striving with his brother.
Leave a Reply