“God’s Choice!”

“God’s Choice!”(Rom.9:14-24).
A friend told me this family story. With his permission I’m using it now.
He recounts: “I was a teenager. Myself and my sweet mother were coming back from the farm. I wouldn’t mention here what transpired, but it caused her to unburden her pain to me. [It is when I became a reasoning adult that it dawned on me that what she told me had caused her deep pain]. My mum told me she was dumbfounded the day one of my elderly sibling told her, ‘I know you do not love me as much as you love my other siblings. In the same way you love their children more than you love mine.’ These words devastated my mother because she did not love any of her offspring more than others.”
It may be true of some mothers/fathers that they love some of their children more, but such are exceptions to the rule.
Good mothers have unbounded, unconditional love for all their children, irrespective of whether the children are wayward or of good character.
And if human mothers can show such unbounded unconditional love, how much more will God demonstrate the same to all his children; be they Jews or Gentiles!
Isaac may have been the legitimate child of the covenant but that did not stop God from also blessing Ishmael and the sons of Keturah.
Isaac was the child of the promise which had to continue through Jacob – even though they were twins.
The question which we would have asked, if scriptures has not asked is, “Is God unjust?” Far from it! God is not unjust. God shows his mercy and compassion on whom he decides. This is not to say he shows partiality, but rather that “it does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”
Our times are in God’s hands and he charts our courses. In the same way that he shows mercy on some, so too he hardens the hearts of the Pharaohs. If this is so, then God should not blame us since we cannot resist his will.
Well, we are clay in the hands of the potter and we have no say in the object the potter wants to mould us into.
We should however know that “not all that glitters is gold.”
Things are not always as they seem at face value. God often bear with patience the objects of his wrath, so that when destruction comes it shows his wrath and make his power known.
We are all objects of God’s love in the same way we can be objects of his wrath.
We are God’s choice called according to his purpose. Let us live in such a way that in Christ we are chosen for his mercy and not for his wrath.
Weekend prayer: LORD, I am clay and you are the Potter. Mould me into the object of your choice. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.