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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
March 22
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Today's Pathway:
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In today's passage Paul continues his discourse on God's right to make choices based exclusively on His will. We discussed verse 13 yesterday, but I want to point out one more important detail. The verse says that God "hated" Esau. The word "hated" is the same word that is used in Luke 14:26 where Jesus said,
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
We know that God does not want us to hate our parents, because in Matthew 15:4 Jesus said that parents were to be honored. We know that we are not to hate our wives because Paul wrote that husbands were to love their wives (Ephesians 5:25). Therefore, in this passage, the word "hate" carries with it the idea of "love less". God didn't hate Esau or the Edomites. Salvation was available to them just like it was to anyone else. Bruce Hurt put it this way,
"God did not 'hate' Esau in the conventional sense of the word. In fact, He greatly prospered and favored him (Genesis 27:38-40). Esau did receive earthly blessings, as he himself testified (Genesis 33:9). However, God's favor and blessing upon Jacob was so extensive that by comparison Esau would appear to be hated."
In verse 14 Paul asks if God is unrighteous because He makes choices. Of course the answer must be "God forbid". In verse 15 he references Exodus 33:19 where God said that He chooses who receives His mercy and compassion. In Exodus 33 God was angered by Israel's rebellion and was going to abandon them (Exodus 33:3). Moses interceded for Israel, and God agreed to continue to go with them (Exodus 33:17). Moses then asked if he could see God's glory, and at that point God made the statement quoted by Paul, and revealed Himself in part to Moses. As was the case yesterday in Romans 9:11-13, these verses quoting from Exodus have nothing to do with eternal salvation. They are simply stating that God can choose who to bless and who not to bless. According to Romans 9:15-16, God's blessing is not necessarily based upon what a man may or may not do, but is based upon His own mercy and compassion. He is God, and He can do as He pleases. He has that right, and what He does is always right because He is a holy God and makes no mistakes.
In verses 17-18 Paul gives the illustration of God's dealings with Pharaoh. Moses was instructed to tell the Egyptian monarch that God had raised Pharaoh up to power so that He could show His great power to the world by releasing Israel from it's bondage in Egypt. Some have taught that this means that God forced Pharaoh to be the rebel that he was. Albert Barnes replies this way:
"It does not mean that God had infused into his mind any positive evil, or that by any direct influence he had excited any evil feelings, but that he had kept him in circumstances which were fitted to develop his true character."
Much has been made of Paul's declaration in verse 18 that God "hardeneth who He will". Did God harden Pharaoh's heart? Yes He did. But we know that Pharaoh was already antagonistic towards both God and Israel. When Moses first approached Pharoah, the king's response was
"Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go." (Exodus 5:2).
It is not until Exodus 7:13 that God hardens his heart. God did harden Pharaoh's heart, but Pharaoh's heart was already hardened towards God. As in the preceding verses, this passage also has nothing to do with eternal salvation. The point of the passage is to show that God raises up who He wants to when He wants to. This principle will become very important when we get to Romans 9:24.
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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