In our study on God’s dealings with the children of Abraham and his sovereignty over them, we primarily addressed the lineage of the Promise. We looked at how God chose Isaac over the firstborn Ishmael to be the bearer of the Promise and how God chose Jacob over the firstborn Esau, before either of them were born and had done nothing good or evil, to demonstrate his purpose of election (cf. Rom. 9:11). We saw also that God’s choice brought with it eternal blessing to one and eternal ruin to the other (cf. Mal. 1:2, etc., Rom. 9:13).
It is at this point that many interpreters of Romans 9 who do not like the doctrine of Divine Election point out that vv. 1-13 have dealt solely with God and the people of Israel. In spite of Paul’s design in using the examples of Isaac and Jacob to explain God’s Purpose in Election and thereby explain why God has not broken his promise to Israel though they were not believing in Jesus Christ and are therefore condemned, many interpreters see, “God’s dealing with Israel” stamped over the text and skip ahead to Romans 12. They argue, “This text does not deal with the Church, so let us move on.”