Read: Romans 9:18-29 - STEP Bible, Bible Gateway
St Paul’s Jewish readers must have been hopping mad by now. God’s relationship with his people isn’t related to bloodline? His choices are arbitrary? That wasn’t the deal with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob! God was always supposed to prefer Israel over every other people, every time – that was the deal!
Paul says: no, actually, it wasn’t. In fact, the deal was that God had a purpose to save the whole world, and he was going to discharge that purpose through Israel. Israel’s side of the bargain was always to be God’s sidekick in the great project of cosmic redemption, not to adopt airs and graces and a sense of entitlement to preferential treatment. Indeed, Paul argues, the fact that Israel in the end did adopt airs and graces and feel entitled to preferential treatment actually invalidated Israel’s usefulness as God’s helper-nation altogether. Ironically, it got to the point where Israel was so useless as God’s sidekick in his project of cosmic redemption that it actually became useful again, in that it could serve as an example of how not to be.
But look how Paul makes that case: over the course of Romans chapter 9 he has argued extensively from Genesis, and now he relies on texts from the prophet Hosea and the prophet Isaiah. The ancient Jews were very good at reading the bible in such a way that they felt comforted that they were God’s chosen people and everything was hunky-dory for them. But here, Paul deploys the scripture to prove them wrong, to challenge them, to correct them.
It can be very tempting for us to read scripture primarily as a means of comforting ourselves, too – to read it in such a way that it validates everything we would like to think about ourselves. Now, it is good to take comfort from the scriptures. But the bible is also supposed to challenge us aggressively, to make us realize our sinfulness, and to call us to constant repentance and renewal of life. So let us this Lent ask God to confront us in scripture, and, as we read his word, to show up where our lives need to change.
These devotions were originally written for the parish of All Saints, Ascot and we are grateful for permission to republish them on Fulcrum.
Patrick is curate of All Saints’, Ascot in Berkshire. A musicologist by training, he is married to Lydia, a university lecturer, and dad to Madeleine. He writes (sporadically) at benedixisti.wordpress.com and tweets (even more sporadically) as @patrickgilday.