You know, in English class, you had to learn the concept of the “main idea”. Do you remember that from your elementary school days? The exercises would be a passage you’d have to read; then, you’d have to condense down to a sentence or two the “main idea” of the passage. It was a very difficult skill for some students to master. I thought about that as I began to study Romans 9, in preparation for being with you today. I read the chapter and asked myself, “What is the main idea here?” This is what I came up with.
In chapter 9 Paul is contrasting how the Jews related to God, versus how the Gentiles did, before Yeshua came on the scene. Ok, so, why is he doing this?
Again, as is always the case in the Brit Chadasha, New Testament, we must try to put ourselves into the midst of 1st century culture, particularly Jewish culture. Most of you who are watching this video identify as either Christians or Messianics, and most of you came to your faith via an established set of religious rules, practices, whatever. That was not the entire case for the earliest followers of The Way (what the first believers in Yeshua called themselves). Some of them were Jewish, and were very steeped in rabbinical Judaism. Others were Gentiles, who came to faith out of paganism, despite perhaps some of them being “moral” people. The Jews did not know what to make of embracing Gentiles into this sect of Judaism called The Way, and the Gentiles had no idea what Judaism was about. In chapter 9, Paul is trying to disabuse both groups of some pre-conceived and erroneous notions about what it means to follow Yeshua, as well as teach them The Way, as Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) had intended it to be walked out.
I was born into a Baptist family and was soon thoroughly steeped in the Baptist faith, but about halfway through my life, I began to study Judaism, as far as it being the historical and theological roots of my faith. As such, I got a taste of what I just described and to some extent still experience. The world of Messianic Judaism has its own vocabulary, its own language (Hebrew), its own songs, a day of worship different from most Christians, etc. As someone who considers herself a life-long learner, this was distressing, the “not knowing” how to operate in such new faith-based settings.
I think it is important to understand this over-arching theme and this context, because otherwise we run the danger of getting “lost in the weeds” of all this.
As we go along, make yourself a mental (or physical) T-chart, with the Jewish believers on one side of the T and Gentile believers on the other side. Or, make any other type of graphic organizer you prefer, to help you assimilate the content of this chapter. Let’s go! Open your Bibles to Romans 9, and let’s read the first five verses.
1 I say the truth in Mashiyach, and do not report falsely; and my conscience bears me witness in the Ruach haKodesh;
2 That I have great sorrow, and the sadness of my heart does not cease.
3 For I have prayed that I myself would be cursed from Mashiyach for my brothers and my kinsmen in the flesh:
4 Who are sons of Yisra’el to whom belonged the adoption of sons, and the glory, and the covenants, and Torah, and the service that is in it, and the promises (molkana).
5 And the fathers, from whom was seen Mashiyach in the flesh, He who is Elohim who is over all, to Him be our praises and our blessings, forever and ever; Amen.
Don’t you just love it when a fellow human says, “I’m telling you the truth!” As though, what do they tell you the rest of the time? Sort of makes me wonder when someone says that. But, Paul is trying to be emphatic here about how sorrowful he is over the state of rabbinical Judaism, that is the Judaism laid down in the Torah, but massaged and interpreted (sometimes wrongly) by rabbis over the preceding 400 or so years. He feels so aggrieved over this, since his eyes were opened to the true state of things by Yeshua since Paul’s Damascus Road conversion, that he would have willingly sacrificed himself to have changed the situation.
Then, he proceeds with a short history lesson of Judaism. First, he lists the wonderful gifts Father Yahweh gave to the children of Israel who came out of Egypt to become the people of God in the wilderness. Father Yahweh gave them sonship, glory, eternal covenants, the Torah (instruction), the service for the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle, the Temple, warnings and promises. Furthermore, He gave them role models, the patriarchs, the prophets, including some who saw and interacted with Mashiyach in pre-incarnate forms. That’s quite a lot of love He showered upon His chosen people, the 12 tribes of Israel. And, that is why at the end of verse 5, Paul lavishes praise on Elohim “who is over all”.
On to verse 6:
It is not that the Word of Elohim has actually failed. For all are not Yisra’el who are of Yisra’el.
Now, this is a very interesting verse. In the first part of the verse, Paul is re-echoing the sentiment he spoke of in earlier chapters, (such as in Romans 7:12) where he affirms that the Torah is not at fault, because it is set-apart, righteous and good. The second half of this verse (9:6) can be interpreted two different ways.
For all are not of spiritual Israel who are of physical Israel. That is, being a Jew does not automatically make one part of spiritual Israel.
Another way to read it is: the Word of Elohim was never meant to only be the exclusive property of the Hebrews. It was never meant to stay only in the land of Israel. It was meant to spread out to all humanity. In other words, you can be part of spiritual Israel and not even be Jewish, because the Jews were directed from early on to be a light to the nations. Unfortunately, that dispersion of Torah to other nations happened in a very limited fashion. We see a few instances where pagans attached themselves to spiritual Israel and converted. Jewish sources say that a sizeable percentage of the people who left Egypt were not Jewish. They were Egyptions who saw all those flies, frogs, rivers of blood, etc., and said, “Let us grab onto your tzittzit; we’re outta here too!” Ruth is another example of a convert. The city of Nineveh, for a time, repented of its sin and turned to God. But, it never happened on a large scale, as God had intended. Verses 7 & 8:
7 Neither are they all sons because they are of the seed of Abraham: for it was said, “In Yitz’chak will your seed be called.
8 Now this is the truth. It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of Elohim; but the children of the promise who are counted for the seed.
The Jews of the first century (and before that) made a big deal out of how they were “children of Abraham”. But, Abraham had 8 sons! Ishmael by Hagar, Isaac (Yitz’chak) by Sarah and then six more by Keturah (whom some of the Jewish sages say was really Hagar, who got brought back to Abraham after Sarah died, by Isaac, no less) and by a concubine.
Yet, it was only Isaac’s offspring who were designated by God to be “children of the promise”. This chafed at Abraham, because he loved Ishmael too; but like all of us Abraham was subject to God’s sovereignty.
Paul recounts additional examples of God’s sovereignty in the next verses:
9 For the promise is this Word: “In this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.”
10 And not this only; but also Rebecca, when she had intimate relations with just one man, our father Yitz’chak,
11 before her children were born and they had not done good or evil, the calling of Elohim was proclaimed in advance; that it might remain, not by works, but by way of Him who called it.
12 For it was said: “The elder will be a servant to the younger.”
13 As it is written: “Ya’akov I have loved, and Esau I have hated.”
Father Yahweh had years before promised Abraham and Sarah that she would have a son, and that he would be the promised heir, the one through whom God would fulfill the covenant He made with Abraham. But, years and years passed, with no son being conceived. Sarah far passed the age of child-bearing, and still no child. Why did God choose to wait so long before opening Sarah’s womb? Perhaps to show that He is the Elohim of miracles. Perhaps to test their faith? While both of these would make sense, who can know the mind of God? Then, we have these verses Paul quotes, Genesis 18:10, 14. These words were spoken by Elohim, as a pre-incarnate appearance of Mashiach/Messiah, which took place under the oak trees of Mamre. This was when the three “men” supernaturally appeared to Abraham, and he shared a meal with them under the oak trees. Two of them went on to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, mentioned in verse 29 of this very chapter.
The second example Paul gives, occurs in the very next generation, with the twin sons of Jacob (Ya’akov) and Esau (Asav). In Genesis 25:23, Rebecca heard from the Lord, who told her that her elder son would serve the younger. Of course, Esau was firstborn of the twins, and if you know the story, the younger, Jacob/Ya’akov did get the birthright and his father’s blessing as patriarch of his generation in their larger clan.
Verse 13 is a quote of Malachi 1:2-3, and it sounds disturbing, doesn’t it?
Paul then goes on to ask the obvious questions. Vs. 14 and following:
14 What then should we say? Is there iniquity with Elohim? May it never be!
15 Behold, to Moshe also he said: “I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion; and I will have pity to whom I will have pity.”
16 Therefore, it is not by the hands of him who wills, nor by the hands of him who strives, but by the hands of the merciful Elohim.
Or, as Isaiah 55:8-9 puts it, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways.”
Before we begin to criticize the Almighty for His decisions, callings, choices, we’d best go back and re-read certain chapters of the book of Job.
Do you find the adjective Paul used at the end of verse 16 interesting? Merciful. How can it be “merciful” to hate a person in his mother’s womb, you might ask?
If you want to relate to Elohim on the basis of meritocracy, go right ahead. I have no desire to do so. My understanding of Scripture is that we are all deserving, in a meritocracy, of nothing more than eternal damnation. It is only by His mercy He offers salvation...to any of us. And, at the same time, He is the ultimate fair Judge, dealing with all of us according to our knowledge received and our free will actions which play a role in whether we throw our hand in with Him or not. So, again, it is a great paradox of Scripture, one which I with my limited brain am not able to full reconcile. But, I do know both tenets of Scripture are true (free will and God’s sovereignty). And, I know that He can never commit evil or iniquity. The Judge of all the Earth will do right (Genesis 18:25).
And finally, the word “hated” as it is used here does not have the same connotations we put upon it in modern English. The words “loved” and “hated” were employed to show a stark contrast of feeling. We see something similar in Luke 14:26, where Jesus talks about the necessity of “hating” father, mother, children, brothers, sisters, even one’s own life, if it is desired to become His disciple. Obviously, Jesus would not want his followers to hate their family members. Again, a comparison is being drawn. I think of a Facebook acquaintance who I referenced a couple of weeks ago. She just turned 47, has never married, travels all over the world witnessing to people, sharing the gospel. By comparison, the life she has chosen, might look like she has forsaken her family, her dreams of being a wife and mother....but what she has done is that she has gone “all in” for the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is what He has called her to. Do you understand that she could not fulfill he calling had she not made these choices to “hate” the traditional path of a woman?
Allright, I’m sure you get it. Let’s look at Paul’s next example, that of the Pharaoh of Egypt.
17 For in the Scripture, he said to Pharaoh: “For this very thing I have appointed you; that I might show My Power in you, and that My Name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
Of all the examples of the sovereignty of God in the Bible, this and the “Esau have I hated” example may be two of the hardest to understand. In the case of the Pharaoh, it’s the whole business of Pharaoh hardening his heart and Father Yahweh aiding him in that endeavor. In other words, God never hardened Pharaoh’s heart against Pharaoh’s will. Father Yahweh just enhanced the direction Pharaoh was already going. And, He did this that His own power and glory might be shown as superior to that of the Pharaoh, who thought of himself as a god. He represented the worldly power of Satan, and so therefore this “showdown” between Father Yahweh, our Elohim, and the Pharaoh was a sort of “clash of the Titans”, with there really being no contest, of course.
Here is part of AGR’s footnote, #90, on verse 17.
“The term we generally ascribe as god in English derives from a Hebrew root that means “power.” ... it is also important to note that Father YAH is speaking directly to Pharaoh and his sensibilities through Moshe, andin his culture Pharaoh is literally said to be a “mighty one.” Since then the idea of “god” is too generic, Pharaoh wants to know what the True Name of his Opponent is, and when he says he doesn’t know it, i.e. it is not an Egyptian god with a rank higher than Horus, whom he is said to be the reincarnation of, he reflects the command entirely with:”I do not know YHWH, nor will I let the Hebrews go.”
We’ll read more of this footnote in a few moments, but first, let’s read verses 18 through 24.
18 Then, with whom he wills, He has compassion; and with whom He wills He deals harshly.
19 But, perhaps you will say: “Why does he complain, for who can resist His will?”
20 Who are you, O man, that you are giving a reply against Elohim? Will the potter’s vessel say to the craftsman of it, “Why have you formed me this way?”
21 Has not the potter dominion over his clay out of the same mass to make vessels, one for honor, and another for dishonor?
22 Now, if Elohim, being inclined to display His anger and to make known His power, He would have, in the abundance of His long-suffering, brought on wrath on the vessels of wrath which were made for destruction;
23 And He poured out His mercy on the vessels of mercy, which were prepared by Elohim for glory;
24 Namely, upon us who are the called ones, which is not only from the Yehudeans, but also from the Gentiles:
Isaiah 29:16 and 45:9 are quoted in these verses. All this about honor and dishonor refers to purpose, such as the potter making a chamber pot for human waste or a beautiful vase to hold the finest and most valuable oil or ointment. Different purposes, both necessary and good. All from the same clay out of which Elohim formed the first man, Adam.
I don’t know if you have ever worked in clay before. But, I have. My maternal grandmother was a newly-married young woman when the Great Depression of 1929 hit. She worked hard her whole life, raising four children and then also working outside the home in factory jobs, manual labor, long hours. She lived well into her 90s and in the latter half of her life, after her children were grown and gone, she made a portion of her basement into a ceramics studio. She bought molds and the liquid clay called “slip”, which she would pour into molds to form “greenware”, the resulting product after she removed the item from its mold. There were all kinds of unfinished “vessels” that lined her shelves. Several nights a week, after a full day of work and after dinner, she would gather in her basement with lady friends, and they would take those pieces of formed clay, paint them, fire them in kilns, and end up creating beautiful art. I have several of her pieces in my home. I also have pieces I made under her tutelage. For example, when I was around 19 or 20, I painted a nativity set that I treasure greatly. You know what? When I was working on it diligently, none of the pieces ever talked back to me. The figure of the shepherd boy did not ask me, “Why did you not make me one of the Magi?” The donkey never asked me, “Why did you not make me a camel?”
Unfortunately, we as children of God can be found guilty of doing this, can’t we? God, why is my nose so large, and why are my legs so short? Why did you give me this (fill-in-the-blank) chronic condition? Or, we question His choice of other gifts to us. “Lord, why did you make me so shy?” “Lord, my sister can fix anything. Why did you make me such a klutz?” This is the sin of blasphemy, according to Saint Ephrem the Syrian, because it is akin to the vessel trying to teach its Maker. At the very least, it is the sin of envy/covetousness. Do you ever find yourself doing that, asking God those types of questions? I have, especially as I have gotten older. It’s not pretty.
In verse 24, Paul unites the Yehudeans, the Jews, and the Gentiles as one body following Messiah, referring to them as “the called ones”. This is a springboard to the next set of verses. He begins by quoting Hosea, an Old Testament figure who might have felt at times he had reason to question Yahweh about his life. His wife became a whore, and he was so distraught by the state of his people that he named his children these dire, horrible names. One of them he named “not my people”, for instance. Yahweh chose Hosea’s whole life to be an object lesson for the people of Israel. Verses 25 and 26 now, which are from Hosea 1:10 and 2:23:
25 As also he said to Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people ‘My own people’; and to whom I have not shown compassion, I will show compassion.
26 For it will be that in the place where they were called, ‘Not my people,’ there they will be called, ‘The sons of the living Elohim’ “.
What people is Paul talking about here? The Gentiles who will come to faith through Mashiach. This was God’s plan from the beginning of the Hebrew nation, that they would lead the rest of the world to a living, vibrant relationship with God. However, this did not occur, for several reasons. They were an island of monotheism in a vast sea of polytheists. And, while they as a people at times did keep the Torah as it was given and intended, over the centuries, various additions, fences to protect the commandments began to be added on, making the keeping of the Law so very burdensome no one could successfully keep it. Verses at the end of chapter 9 detail this somewhat. The situation was so broken, as Elohim knew it would become, that the only begotten, the one unique Son, the Mashiach, was sent, to make things right, so that the Gentiles could be brought into the kingdom, throwing the doors wide open so that “whosoever will” may come. I’m so glad He did, aren’t you? Let’s read on. Verses 27 through 29, where Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah/Yesha’yahu in the Hebrew.
27 And Yesha’yahu proclaimed concerning the sons of Yisra’el: “Though the number of the sons of Yisra’el should be as the sand on the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved.
28 He has decided the matter and determined that He, MarYAH, will accomplish it on the earth.”
29 And according to what Yesha’yahu had said before: “If MarYAH of Hosts had not left us with a remnant, we should have been like Sadom and we would have resembled Ammorah.”
Verse 27 comes from Isaiah 10:22-23 and verse 29 comes from Isaiah 1:9. I told you we’d circle back to Sodom and Gomorrah earlier, didn’t I? The point is that what we see happening in these last days, which started after Jesus’ ascension to Heaven is that many Gentiles are coming into the kingdom through the merits of and faith in Yeshua, Son of God, King Eternal. And, not many Jews are coming at the moment. Only a remnant. One of my dearly-beloved matriarch mentors in the Messianic movement (don’t say that too fast) used to say, “God will always preserve a faithful remnant.”
Today, it is very hard for a Jewish person to hear and embrace the gospel message of Yeshua. However, keep in mind that it will not always be this way. At the end of the earth age, during the 7 years of the so-called Tribulation Period, “all Israel will be saved”, to quote Romans 11, where we will be studying, Lord willing, a couple of weeks from now.
Hear the rest of footnote #90 now: “Paul’s overriding point here, which he greatly expands on in Romans 11, is that the Gentiles who are coming to faith now are no different in terms of the ignorance they had before hearing His call, while at the same time the Yehudeans, who acted disgracefully and rebelliously to those same commands cannot rejoice over their enemies either. For both groups then, the Name and Power of Elohim is a call to accept the sovereignty of YHWH of Hosts.”
Now for the remaining verses of this chapter, verses 30 through 33:
30 What then will we say? That the Gentiles who did not run after uprightness, have obtained uprightness, even the uprightness which is from faith,
31 but Yisra’el who ran after the Torah of uprightness, did not obtain the Torah of uprightness?
32 And why? Because they went after it, not by faith, but from the works of Torah. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone:
33 As it is written, “Behold, I have set in Tsiyon a stumbling stone and a stone of offense: and he who believes in it will not be ashamed.”
These verses affirm that a right relationship with God has always been about faith, a faith that is evidenced by an inner heart of repentance, obedience and resulting in the keeping of God’s commandments. It is so important that we keep faith at the center of our relationship with our Heavenly Elohim.
Verses 31 and 32 had to be a hammer-slam to the Jewish believers in Yeshua - - to hear that Israel had righteousness but had ot found it because they had cluttered it up with their own man-made traditions, which got in the way of their obeying the Written Word. Yeshua HaMashiach mentioned this often - - that they nullified the Word of God so that they might establish their traditions. Let’s look at a couple of places in Scripture where He pointed this out. Turn to Matthew 15, verse 3.
From TAW, it says: “Then Yeshua answered and said to them, “Why also do you transgress against the Commandments of Elohim because of your traditions?
The Aramaic phrase “Meshelmanota d’qashisha” means “traditions of the elders”. Another name for this is the Oral Law, which Yeshua at least in part rejected. The Oral Law is a rabbinical structure that claims authority over written Scripture, as an “interpreter” of it. However, there are places where the Oral Law contradicts or nulllifies Scripture directly. Yeshua gave as an example of this the commandment to honor one’s father and mother, in Matthew 15:4, and then went on to state how the Oral Law nullified that commandment because of a rabbinical ruling. So, as one who considers herself Messianic, let me warn my brothers and sisters - - we need to be careful how we study the Oral Law. The written commandments of Torah, in their plainest, simplest meanings should always trump the Oral Law. That’s not going to sit well with some of you, but again, listen to what Mashiyach had to say about this.
Here’s another example. Look at Mark 7:9. We are not going to read it together, because it is this same incident, just recorded by another of the Synoptic gospel writers. So, Matthew’s version was not a “one-off”.
For both Israel AND the gentile nations, the answer is to live sanctified lives to honor and keep Torah through the power of the Holy Spirit, who resides in every believer. Listen to AGR’s footnote #97, on verse 32 here:
“Paul’s point here is that true Torah observance is based on faith that the person knows these instructions come from Elohim and are given by Him for our good. If we dimpl do a ritual in Torah for the sake of performing it only, it will not count. As such, Israel ran after the outward procedures of Torah but did not do so with faith, that is, with the inner heart of repentance and obedience. As a result, just like Cain’s sacrifice in Genesis 4, externals alone were not enough to justify the effort. Romans 10: 3 is a perfect description of the entire problem.”
Because Israel did not in faith keep the Torah as Father Yahweh had delivered it, but had instead tried to “improve it”, this created the very conditions required to bring Yeshua to earth and to bring about the Renewed Covenant, the gospel.
Speaking of the gospel, the message of Yeshua for our salvation, Paul says in verse 33, quoting the prophet Yeshiyahu/Isaiah, that the renewed covenant will be a stumbling stone or in some versions a stumbling block and a stone of offense to many. Paul is speaking of the Jews stumbling over it, certainly, and we see that widespread today, as I’ve already mentioned. But, many Gentiles as well stumble over it, because of its simplicity, because of the rebellious and prideful hearts of mankind which say, “You’ll not be the boss of me”, and for other reasons which I’m sure you could name.
However, the chapter ends with the beautiful promise that the person who believes in Yeshua’s gospel will never be ashamed that he did. Oh, we might be and likely will be ostracized, marginalized, sidelined or even persecuted to the point of death. But, in the end, when this life is over, we will not be found ashamed of the gospel of Yeshua. As Paul stated so boldly and confidently in the first chapter of this great book of Romans, verse 16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation, to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
We are at the end of chapter 9, but next week we will see that Paul will continue this theme of the misguided, misdirected rabbinical Jews, as we move into chapter 10. Chapter 10 is a shorter chapter, only 21 verses. So, we will likely delve into chapter 11 next week as well. We’ll just have to see how things go as I study this coming week.
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