Romans 9

Paul starts this chapter with a pretty bold statement. He said if he thought he could help his fellow Jews by allowing himself to get banned from Jesus, he’d do it. His point seems to be that the Jews are misguided because they are trying to earn God’s acceptance by following rules when they need to be exercising faith. If you had to make the case that Paul wasn’t simply bragging about how far he would go to help the Jews, what would you say?

What do you think about Paul taking the Old Testament out of context to help those isolated passages make his point? In Romans 9:27-28, for example, Paul quotes two prophecies of Isaiah, who was writing about the Jewish nation some 500 years earlier. But Paul uses those words as though Isaiah was talking about Paul’s day. “Only some of the Jews will survive” (Romans 9:27) referred to Jews in Israel after Assyrians invaded and destroyed most of the cities. But Paul seems to use the phrase to refer to the few Jews who decide to put their faith in Jesus.

Paul says, “People don’t become children of God because they have Abraham’s blood in their veins” (Romans 9:8). Then he points out that Isaac’s twin sons Jacob and Esau were conceived at the same time. They not only shared the same blood but shared time in the same uterus. But the Jews considered Jacob their ancestor, not Esau (see Romans 9:13). How well do you think that helps Paul illustrate his point?

Paul quotes Genesis by saying God “loved Jacob” but he “hated Esau” (Romans 9:13). What best represents your reaction to that?

• God is love. He didn’t hate Esau. He more likely hated Esau’s behavior.
• God loved Isaac more than Esau.
• Whatever God felt toward Esau, the writer portrays it as the opposite of love.
• This isn’t about emotion. It’s about acceptance and rejection. It’s a way of saying God chose one and not the other to be in the favored family tree.

Paul argues that God can manipulate people to do something they would not otherwise do. He points to the story of God making the king of Egypt so stubborn that the king refused to let the Jewish slaves leave until God had unleashed 10 miraculous plagues so everyone would see how powerful God is. “But the LORD stiffened Pharaoh’s resistance. The king wouldn’t listen, just as the LORD had predicted to Moses” (Exodus 9:12). How do you react to God doing that?

LIFE APPLICATION. This is the kind of chapter that Bible scholars love to research, think about, and debate with their colleagues. It’s a bit tougher for folks who prefer to think in terms of word pictures instead of abstract ideas and allegory. But as you read through the chapter, where do you think you can hang your hat and hang out for a while because it’s something you understand and perhaps even apply to your life?