_The Sorrowful Problem: Jewish Unbelief; Divine Sovereignty_

[Sidenote: Ver. 18.] =It appears then that whom He pleases, He pities, and whom He pleases, He hardens,= in that sense in which He "hardened Pharaoh's heart," "made it stiff" (חזק), "made it heavy" (כבד), "made it harsh" (קשׁה)--by sentencing it to have its own way. Yes,[155] thus "_it appears_." And beyond that inference we can take no step of thought but this--that the Subject of that mysterious "_will_," HE who thus "_pleases_," and "_pities_," and "_hardens_," is no other than the God of Jesus Christ. HE may be, not only submitted to, but trusted, in that unknowable sovereignty of His will. Yet listen to the question which speaks out the problem of all hearts: [Sidenote: Ver. 19.] =You will say to me therefore, Why does He still,= after such an avowal of His sovereignty, softening this heart, hardening that, why does He still =find fault?= Ah why? =For His act of will who has withstood?= (Nay, you have withstood His will, and so have I. Not one word of the argument has contradicted the primary fact of our will, nor therefore our responsibility. But this he does not bring in here.) Nay rather, rather than take such an attitude of narrow and helpless logic, think deeper; [Sidenote: Ver. 20.] =Nay rather, O man,= O mere human being (ὦ ἄνθρωπε), =you--who are you, who are answering back to your (τῷ) God? Shall the thing formed say to its Former, Why did you make me like this?= [Sidenote: Ver. 21.] =Has not the potter authority over his (τοῦ) clay, out of the same kneaded mass to make this vessel for honour but that for dishonour?= [Sidenote: Ver. 22.] =But if God, being pleased to demonstrate His (τὴν) wrath, and to evidence what He can do=--_what_ will St Paul go on to say? That the Eternal, being thus "pleased," created responsible beings on purpose to destroy them, gave them personality, and then compelled them to transgress? No, he does not say so. The sternly simple illustration, in itself one of the least relieved utterances in the whole Scripture--that dread Potter and his kneaded Clay!--gives way, in its application, to a statement of the work of God on man full of significance in its variation. Here are indeed the "_vessels_" still; and the vessels "_for honour_" are such because of "_mercy_," and His own hand has "_prepared them for glory_." And there are the vessels "_for dishonour_," and in a sense of awful mystery they are such because of "_wrath_." But the "_wrath_" of the Holy One can fall only upon demerit; so these "_vessels_" have merited His displeasure of themselves. And they are "_prepared for ruin_"; but where is any mention of _His_ hand preparing them? And meanwhile He "_bears them in much longsuffering_." The mystery is there, impenetrable as ever, when we try to pierce behind "His will." But on every side it is limited and qualified by facts which witness to the compassions of the Infinite Sovereign even in His judgments, and remind us that sin is altogether "of" the creature. So we take up the words where we dropped them above: =What if He bore,= (the tense throws us forward into eternity, to look back thence on His ways in time,) =in much longsuffering, vessels of wrath, adjusted for ruin?= And acted otherwise with others, [Sidenote: Ver. 23.] =that He might evidence the wealth of His glory,= the resources of His inmost Character, poured =upon vessels of pity, which He prepared in advance for glory,= by the processes of justifying and hallowing grace-- [Sidenote: Ver. 24.] =whom in fact (καὶ) He called,= effectually, in their conversion, =even us, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?= For while the lineal Israel, with its privilege and its apparent failure, is here first in view, there lies behind it the phenomenon of "the Israel of God," the heaven-born heirs of the Fathers, a race not of blood but of the Spirit. The great Promise, all the while, had set towards _that_ Israel as its final scope; and now he gives proof from the Prophets that this intention was at least half revealed all along the line of revelation.