5. Mercy on whom He desires Lead The matter is set before birth and before works. Of Jacob and Esau Paul writes: "For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, it was said to her, 'The elder will serve the younger.' Even as it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated'" (Rom 9:11-13). The ground is then stated in God's own words to Moses: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion" (Rom 9:15). The text draws its own conclusion: "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy" (Rom 9:16). Pharaoh stands on the other side of the same freedom: "For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth" (Rom 9:17). Both directions are summed in one sentence: "So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires" (Rom 9:18). In each clause the verb is God's, the object is man, and the determining word is his desire. Confirm The given ones come, and none of the given is lost. "All those whom the Father gives me will come to me. He who comes to me I will in no way throw out" (John 6:37). "This is the will of my Father who sent me, that of all he has given to me I should lose nothing, but should raise him up at the last day" (John 6:39). The chain of Romans 8 runs without a broken link, and the same persons stand at every link: "For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified" (Rom 8:29-30). At Pisidian Antioch the order in the sentence is appointment first, believing after: "As many as were appointed to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48). And the adoption is located in the same place Romans 9 locates the mercy: God stands "having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire" (Eph 1:5). Vessels of mercy and of wrath The text does not hide the second column. "What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory" (Rom 9:22-23). The two preparations are not stated in the same grammar. Of the vessels of mercy the text says God prepared them beforehand; of the vessels of wrath it says only that they stand prepared for destruction, and names no hand in that clause. Both columns stand in the same sentence, and both end in a display: wrath and power on one side, the riches of glory on the other. Peter writes of those who reject the stone: "For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed" (1 Pet 2:8). Jude writes of the ungodly who crept in as "those who were long ago written about for this condemnation" (Jude 4). Disobedience is named as theirs; appointment is named with it. Tension, heard in context Ezekiel's oath is heard only when its speakers are heard first. The word of Yahweh names them: "You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: 'You say this, "Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them. How then can we live?"'" (Ezek 33:10). The oath of the next verse is spoken to that house — the house that says its transgressions and its sins are upon it, and that it pines away in them — and it is addressed to the house by name inside the oath itself: "Tell them, '"As I live," says the Lord Yahweh, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, house of Israel?"'" (Ezek 33:11). Naming the audience does not soften the verse; it sharpens it. The oath is God's sworn word to his own despairing people, and it stands as written, beside Romans 9, with neither text editing the other. Peter's sentence stands the same way. "The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but he is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet 3:9). The letter itself marks its company: it is written "to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ" (2 Pet 1:1); it calls its readers "beloved" (2 Pet 3:1); and it bids that same company, "Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation" (2 Pet 3:15). To read the "anyone" and the "all" of 3:9 within the company the letter addresses is an inference drawn from those addresses, and it stands here labeled as inference. What is written is the patience of the Lord toward the addressed, and the wish as stated. It is set beside Romans 9:18 without either sentence being withdrawn or reconciled beyond what is written. Close The objection is raised inside the text itself: "You will say then to me, 'Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?'" (Rom 9:19). The answer given is a rebuke, not an explanation: "But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" (Rom 9:20). Moses had already drawn the boundary line: "The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deut 29:29). The long argument of Romans 9–11 therefore ends not in a resolution but in doxology: "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?' 'Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?' For of him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen" (Rom 11:33-36).