One Qualification: Israel of Promise
Excerpt
Being recipients of the promise involves God’s selective will. The “true” Israelhad received all God’s promises so far. See 9:13 regarding the continual conflict between the true and false people of God. Romans 9:6 gives the thesis of Romans 9–11. The promise of 9:8 relates to the Abrahamic covenant (cf.4:13). The Israel spoken of in the Old Testament promises is not identical with the natural and physical descendants of Jacob. In Romans 9:7 Paul quoted Genesis 21:12 to prove the point of 9:6 that physical descent does not in and of itself make one a child of God and a recipient of the promise. Both Isaac and Ishmael were physical sons of Abraham, but Isaac was designated Abraham’s heir. In Romans 9:9 Paul quoted Genesis 18:10, a prophecy of Isaac’s birth. In Romans 9:12–13 Paul quoted from Genesis 25:23 and Malachi 1:2–3 to illustrate that God’s elective purposes are often contrary to human expectation.
Hughes, Robert B., and J. Carl Laney. Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001. Print. The Tyndale Reference Library.
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