Romans 9:²⁴ “And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.” (emphasis added).

In Christ, the Bible says that we are among those whom God has chosen, both from the Jews and the Gentiles. It means that He has already accepted us. He has already chosen us. He has already decided to have mercy on us. So, you are already a part of the mercy gang, the people whom God has chosen to have mercy on. Do not second guess whether you are a part of the mercy gang because you are a part of it. God has chosen you, and He has chosen to have mercy on you. And this is big! God says in Romans 9:^13, “…I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.” That is strong, and you may struggle with this thought. I will just explain this to help someone because I struggled with it myself. I was like, “Hated Esau?”

The question is, how did God demonstrate His love for Jacob? Think about it beyond the blessing; those were the dynamics of their choices, and God did not intervene. It is not the blessing that demonstrated how God loved Jacob. And it was not losing the blessing that demonstrated how God hated Esau. Those were the dynamics of their choices. The gain of the birth right and the loss of the birth right was simply choice dynamics period. It had nothing to do with God. However, God had already seen it, and those were the things that repelled Him. That Esau did not even appreciate what he had. So, how did God show His love to Jacob and His displeasure to Esau? Let me explain it.

Think about the life of Jacob. Jacob’s life was a bed of roses because there were a lot of thorns underneath the beautiful rose petals. Jacob’s life was not necessarily a smooth path because God loved him. Jacob’s life was filled with God’s disciplines. God disciplined Jacob. My grandma would say, “I will collect this behaviour from your hand.” If you are Nigerian and from the Yoruba tribe, particularly, you understand what that means. God collected Jacob’s bad behaviour from his hand. God broke him and dealt with him. God probably looked at Jacob and said, “You think you are smart and cunning? I will introduce you to your senior, the one who will show you what being cunning really means.” God dealt with Jacob in His blessing him.

On the other hand, how did God demonstrate His hatred for Esau? God did nothing about everything Esau did. It is scary! God did not correct Esau once; check the scriptures. Even when Esau was taking wives to spite his father and doing all sorts of crazy things, God left him.

Prayer: Father, I surrender to Your discipline because scriptures say that whoever the Father loves and accepts, He disciplines. Do not stay silent on my errors, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!

Romans 9:¹⁹ “Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

Why, then, do Heaven and hell exist? Why does God punish people? Is He not the one who determines things? To answer this question and to help us really understand it, we will start with what Paul stated here in the Book of Romans and then explain further. I am not saying Paul didn’t understand it, I am just saying he did not put it in the book of Romans. But my explanation is consistent with scriptures so that we do not stumble at this Rock of offense.

So, why blame Pharaoh when You are the One who hardened his heart to destroy him? Romans 9:^20-21 “No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?” (emphasis added). So, the first thing is to Submit To The Sovereignty Of God. Otherwise, you can’t even begin to understand these things. You are just a mere human being. Acknowledge that God is God, and He knows more than you. There is an ultimate counsel of God that by the time you understand it, you will exclaim and say, “Now I get it”. However, you may never get it on this side of eternity. So, first and foremost, you must understand that God is God, and He is just in all His ways.

The second thing is that you need to see and appreciate what is known as The Foreknowledge of God. God knows you even before you were born, and He knows the choices you will make even before you make them. So, if God wants to hypothetically move a person or a nation from point A to point B, and God knows that accomplishing this requires someone who is brutal, hard-hearted, prideful, and a cheat, but such a person is more likely to succeed than anyone else in moving that nation or person from point A to B God knows the person, so He will choose the person and empower the person to do it. When the person or nation gets to point B, God will remove the person He used and then punish the person for the bad things the person did.

The foreknowledge of God, as seen in Esau and Jacob, is that God already knew the choices Esau would make. And God said, I don’t like this guy, even before he was born or made those choices. God already knew the choices Isaac would make, and God said, I like this guy, before he was born and made those choices. David says in Psalm 51:⁴, “…That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.” (NKJV).

Prayer: Father, I submit completely to Your sovereignty, help me, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!