Before you read this article, if you read Romans: 9: 14 - 33, you will benefit more from these reflections.  Paul begins with a question, “What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part?” (Rom: 14: 9). He stressed the fact that God chose Israelites not based on any merit of the persons elected but only on His will. What caused in to ask that question? God went against all the laws of people in the ancient world, the laws governing the inheritance left to children. According to man’s law, the eldest son was to receive the inheritance; however, in dealing with Isaac’s children, God announced that the eldest son Esau would serve the younger son Jacob. Jacob was God’s choice to inherit the promise made to Abraham and Isaac. 

St. Paul says, God chose Jacob even before the children were born – “Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad, she was told, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, I have loved Jacob but I have hated Esau” (Rom: 9: 11 – 13).  The question is: Can God elect men, favour and disfavour men, and still be righteous and just? God has the right to be merciful and just. “For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who shows mercy. 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” (Rom: 9: 15 – 18). 

God has mercy and compassion upon whom He wills even when people do not deserve it. When Israelites had been worshipping the golden calf, committing the most serious offence of idolatry, Moses had interceded God for them to forgive their sins. “But now, if you will only forgive their sin – but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written” (Ex: 32: 32). God answered him, “And He said, ‘I will make my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy’” (Ex: 33: 19). The people did not deserve God’s forgiveness. If you read Exodus: 32: 1 – 6, you will understand how depraved the heart of man can be. God answered Moses by saying, He would not destroy the people, but He would have mercy and compassion. “For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and have compassion on whom I have compassion’” (Rom: 9: 15).

Israel received the forgiveness and mercy of God because God willed to be merciful to them. People did not deserve mercy; they deserved judgement. God is not unjust if He has mercy upon people. God shows justice as He wills. The historical event of Pharaoh is an example. Scripture says (Rom: 9: 17 – 18) that God ‘raised up’ Pharaoh for the very purpose of showing His power. Pharaoh was evil, unbeliever, harsh and stubborn. God does not tempt people with evil. “No one, when tempted should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and He Himself tempts no one” (James: 1: 13). Pharaoh would have been evil and sinful wherever he had lived. Pharaoh had an opportunity to change when he heard the truth from one of God’s greatest servants, Moses. Scripture says time and again that Pharaoh himself hardened his heart (Ex: 8: 15, 32, 9: 34).

Scripture also says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Ex: 4: 21; 7: 3; 9: 12; 10: 20, 27; 11: 10). What does this mean? It does not mean that God caused him to sin. He never tempted people to sin. It means that God judged him the way He judged all others. Pharaoh hardened his heart; therefore, he was judged and condemned to have a hardened heart. He ‘sowed’ a hardened heart; therefore, he ‘reaped’ a hardened heart. St. Paul says, “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow from the spirit, you will reap eternal life from the spirit” (Gal: 6: 7 – 8). “For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get” (Mt: 7: 2). “With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says, ‘You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull and the ears are hard of hearing and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears and understand with their heart and turn - and I will heal them’”(Mt: 13: 14 – 15). Why do people reject Christ? Why do they harden their hearts, deafen their ears and close their eyes? “I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He” (Jn: 13: 19). God used Pharaoh’s evil to demonstrate His sovereign power and to declare the name of God throughout the world. God acted righteously toward Pharaoh. To experience God’s righteousness and mercy we need to seek the face of God – “Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that He may have mercy on them, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah: 55: 7). We have to guard ourselves diligently against becoming hard toward God. “One who is often reproached, yet remains stubborn, will suddenly be broken beyond healing” (Prov: 29: 1). “But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed” (Rom: 2: 5).

God has the right to do as He wills. People object God’s sovereignty because they want the right to determine their own fate, to live as they wish on earth and still want to be assured of a good life in the next world. It is this spirit of self-centredness and pride that causes people to object God’s sovereignty. The whole world is sinful and depraved, “As it is written: ‘there is no one who is righteous, not even one’” (Rom: 3:10); “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom: 3:23). Why God does not end the world and keep evil people from being doomed? God is willing to put up with evil people in order to show the riches of His glory upon those who believe in His son – “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 before hand for glory” (Rom: 9: 23). God’s right over the people is as the potter’s right over the clay. Clay already exists. God is taking it and using it for His purpose. He wants all people to be saved. “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah: 55: 1). God wills no one to perish; He longs for everyone to be saved. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some think of slowness, but He is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Pet: 3: 9). God knows the heart of every person. He knows if the heart is tender, loving and responsive to Him. If the heart is responsive to the things of God, then God gets the gospel to that person and gives life to the person’s heart, saving and beginning the process of making him a vessel of honour.

When we truly realise that God has had mercy upon us, it causes us to fall upon our face before Him. He has loved us, truly loved us to the point of forgiving our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ. “For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them” (2 Cor 5: 14 – 15).