Romans 9, Why is God at work among the Gentiles, not the Jews?

In the previous chapter, Paul eagerly described the freedom and peace that comes to the Christian. Now he changes the subject and expresses his concern and grief for the people of Israel.  Deep inside his concern is a question: Why is God doing this?  He does not have a good answer....

Romans 9: 1-2
I speak the truth in Christ--I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit-- I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 

Paul changes the subject.  He is deeply grieved about something...

Romans 9: 3-5
For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. 

Paul is in anguish over the rift his ministry has revealed, that while the Gentiles are embracing Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, many Jews are not!  Paul summarizes, in a torrent, the many advantages that the Jews have.

Romans 9: 6-13
It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. For this was how the promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son." Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad--in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls--she was told, "The older will serve the younger." Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

Paul argues that God had a higher plan, not just working through the children of Jacob, but "children of the promise".  It is a divine plan, independent of individual right (or wrong) actions.

Paul makes his arguments with a string of Old Testament quotations.  The Old Testament passage quoted in verse 7 is Gen. 21:12; the quote in verse 9 is from Gen. 18:10,14; the quote in verse 12 is from Gen. 25:23 and the quote in verse 13 is from Malachi 1:2-3.

Romans 9: 14-24

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. 

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. 

One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, `Why did you make me like this?'"  Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? 

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory-- even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 

This passage is similar to a discussion on the existence of evil and has the flavor of the book of Job.  "Why is God allowing this bad thing to happen?" Paul asks.  The answer, roughly, is that we don't really understand God, that God has a plan but has no obligation to tell us its purpose.

The Old Testament passage quoted in verse 15 is Exodus 33:19, the quote in verse 17 is from Exodus 9:16  and that in verse 20 is from Isaiah 29:16 and Isaiah 45:9.

Romans 9: 25-29
As he says in Hosea: "I will call them `my people' who are not my people; and I will call her `my loved one' who is not my loved one," and, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, `You are not my people,' they will be called `sons of the living God.'" 

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality." It is just as Isaiah said previously: "Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah."

Paul cites Old Testament passages to show that the move to working among the Gentiles has been part of God's plan all along and that the plan also includes a portion of the Jewish people.

The Old Testament passage quoted in verse 25 is from Hosea 2:23; the quote in verse 26 is from Hosea 1:10; the quote in verse 28 is from Isaiah 10:22-23 and that in verse 29 is from Isaiah 1:9.

Romans 9: 30-32
What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 

Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

Because the Jews have the advantage of the Law, Paul argues, they have been blind to the need to step past the Law to the Messiah.

The Old Testament passage quoted in verse 33 is portions of Isaiah 8:14 and Isaiah 28:16.