Study Desk

For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,

It is not as though God's word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

For this is what the promise stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son."

For He says to Moses: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

One of you will say to me, "Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?"

Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?

What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction?

What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory-

For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth thoroughly and decisively."

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is for their salvation.

For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge.

For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: "The man who does these things will live by them."

For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.

For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him,

for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"

And Isaiah boldly says: "I was found by those who did not seek Me; I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me."

But as for Israel he says: "All day long I have held out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people."

And what was the divine reply to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal."