Study Desk

Paul's Anguish Over Israel

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying,^(a) my conscience confirms^(b) it through the Holy Spirit—

I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

For I could wish that I myself^(c) were cursed^(d) and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people,^(e) those of my own race,^(f)

the people of Israel.^(g) Theirs is the adoption to sonship;^(h) theirs the divine glory,⁽ⁱ⁾ the covenants,^(j) the receiving of the law,^(k) the temple worship^(l) and the promises.^(m)

Theirs are the patriarchs,⁽ⁿ⁾ and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah,^(o) who is God over all,^(p) forever praised!^[a](q) Amen.

It is not as though God's word^(r) had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.^(s)

Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."^[b](t)

In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God's children,^(u) but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.^(v)

For this was how the promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son."^[c](w)

Not only that, but Rebekah's children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.^(x)

Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad^(y)—in order that God's purpose^(z) in election might stand:

not by works but by him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the younger."^[d](aa)

Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."^[e](ab)

What then shall we say?^(ac) Is God unjust? Not at all!^(ad)

For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."^[f](ae)

It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy.^(af)

For Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."^[g](ag)

Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^(ah)

One of you will say to me:^(ai) "Then why does God still blame us?^(aj) For who is able to resist his will?"^(ak)

But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(al) "Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(am) ‘Why did you make me like this?'"^[h](an)

Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?^(ao)

What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience^(ap) the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?^(aq)

What if he did this to make the riches of his glory^(ar) known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory^(as)—

even us, whom he also called,^(at) not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?^(au)

As he says in Hosea: "I will call them ‘my people' who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one' who is not my loved one,"^[i](av)

and, "In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,' there they will be called ‘children of the living God.'"^[j](aw)

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,^(ax) only the remnant will be saved.^(ay)

For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality."^[k](az)

It is just as Isaiah said previously: "Unless the Lord Almighty^(ba) had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah."^[l](bb)