Romans 9:17-24 "For the scripture says to Pharoah, 'I have raised you up for the very purpose..."

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses. You will say to me then, “When then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:17-24)

Question:

The chapter seems to make God into a horrid despot who sadistically plays with most humans, who hates some of us before we were even born.
 

Comment:

This is, indeed, Paul at his most abstruse and confusing. And it’s easy to see your sense that God is a take-it-or-leave-it despot over our lives. Indeed, Paul himself recognizes the problem that if God is so all-controlling, human endeavor might seen to be totally pointless.

Paul’s purpose here is to address the question of Jewish vs. Gentile that was causing great controversy in the new church. His point is that we cannot, from our human perspective, ever presume to know who is, or is not, in God’s favor. God may be easily seen in our individual and collective impetus to move forward in spiritual expression. But God may also be seen in the resistance to that impetus. We need to make choices, and choices require alternatives. The Pharaoh’s resistance to the freedom of the Hebrews allowed for the great demonstration of the Exodus, for example. We can’t assume that all Jews are in favor with God just because they’re Jews, or that Gentiles are not. It’s a matter of faith and works, not inherited identities.

From our Unity perspective, the important step here is to see in Paul’s description of God not a being somewhere outside space and time dictating to us from on high, but the Christ Presence of God within each and all of us—the Lord of our beings. If we follow the example of Jesus Christ and place our personal faith in our unbreakable Oneness with the divine, we will be able to understand everything we experience as an opportunity to make the choices that will bring the new consciousness of the kingdom of heaven into expression.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed