⁷ “The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations!

²² When your ancestors went down into Egypt, there were only seventy of them. But now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky!

⁶ And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.

²¹ When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?

¹¹ But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; ¹² he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”^{[a] 13} In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”^[b]

¹⁴ Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! ¹⁵ For God said to Moses,

¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

²⁷ And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,

²⁹ And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:

¹⁸ So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

³² “So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.