“For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” (ESV)
Paul’s argument here is that while the Jewish people were striving to be in a right relationship with God (that is, to obtain righteousness), they were going about it as if that relationship depended on them, not God. Read the rest…
“I shall random them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.” (ESV)
This prophecy, quoted by Paul in the magnificent conclusion to 1 Corinthians 15, was fulfilled in Christ who provided the ransom God promised here. Here once again, though, we see God’s heart. He will punish the people for their embrace of injustice and idolatry (and idolatry in whatever form it happens to take always leads to injustice), but He will not leave them there. He will redeem them. That redemption was fulfilled in Christ. And, it is a redemption made available to all who would receive it. We have all walked the path of Israel, the path of sin and rebellion. In His justice, God allows us to taste the consequences of our choices, but in His love He has provided a way out through Christ. We need only take it.
“Ephraim has said, ‘Ah, but I am rich; I have found wealth for myself; in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity of sin.'” (ESV)
There is a great temptation in being wealthy (and if you are reading this on a computer or smart device you are fabulously wealthy compared to the rest of the world) to place our trust in our wealth instead of in God. There is a great temptation to believe that if we have enough money, we can generally be protected from whatever life may throw at us. This is a false belief. It will invariably lead to a great fall. Our only real hope is to trust in God. Everything else is transitory and will eventually fail us. He alone will stand firm.
“What shall we say them? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” (ESV)
This is tough stuff for modern ears. After explaining that the designation “Israel” was always intended to be one about God’s choosing folks to be a part of His promise to bless the world rather than simply a genetic line, Paul anticipates a challenge: It’s unjust of God to choose some and not others; to invest all this time in our descendants and then open the doors to just anybody. Read the rest…
“As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'” (ESV)
This verse has given interpreters and readers a lot of trouble over the centuries. The biggest reason for this is that somewhere along the line the basic understanding of the ideas of love and hate changed to be in line with how we think about them today. We most often think of love and hate as emotions. In the Scriptures, though, they are both decisions of the will that have less to do with how someone is feeling about the object of the decision than about their intentions toward them. More specifically, to love someone throughout the Scriptures is to choose them. To hate someone is to not choose them. The reasons for these choices may be many, but it is choice, not emotion, that is the basic idea. Read the rest…
The Nexus 