Romerne 9
Dette er Biblen på dansk
9 Sandhed siger jeg i Kristus, jeg lyver ikke, min Samvittighed vidner med mig i den Helligånd, 2 at jeg har en stor Sorg og en uafladelig Kummer i mit Hjerte. 3 Thi jeg kunde ønske selv at være bandlyst fra Kristus til Bedste for mine Brødre, mine Frænder efter Kødet, 4 de, som jo ere Israeliter, hvem Sønneudkårelsen og Herligheden og Pagterne og Lovgivningen og Gudstjenesten og Forjættelserne tilhøre, 5 hvem Fædrene tilhøre, og af hvem Kristus er efter Kødet, han, som er Gud over alle Ting, højlovet i Evighed! Amen.
6 Ikke dog som om Guds Ord har glippet; thi ikke alle, som stamme fra Israel, ere Israel; 7 ej, heller ere alle Børn, fordi de ere Abrahams Sæd, men: "I Isak skal en Sæd få Navn efter dig." 8 Det vil sige: Ikke Kødets Børn ere Guds Børn, men Forjættelsens Børn regnes for Sæd. 9 Thi et Forjættelsesord er dette: "Ved denne Tid vil jeg komme, så skal Sara have en Søn." 10 Men således skete det ikke alene dengang, men også med Rebekka, da hun var frugtsommelig ved een, Isak, vor Fader. 11 Thi da de endnu ikke vare fødte og ikke havde gjort noget godt eller ondt, blev der, for at Guds Udvælgelses Beslutning skulde stå fast, ikke i Kraft af Gerninger, men i Kraft af ham, der kalder, 12 sagt til hende: ""Den ældste skal tjene den yngste,"" 13 som der er skrevet: ""Jakob elskede jeg, men Esau hadede jeg."
14 Hvad skulle vi da sige? mon der er Uretfærdighed hos Gud? Det være langt fra! 15 Thi han siger til Moses: "Jeg vil være barmhjertig imod den, hvem jeg er barmhjertig imod, og forbarme mig over den, hvem jeg forbarmer mig over." 16 Altså står det ikke til den, som vil, ej heller til den, som løber, men til Gud, som er barmhjertig. 17 Thi Skriften siger til Farao: "Netop derfor lod jeg dig fremstå, for at jeg kunde vise min Magt på dig, og for at mit Navn skulde forkyndes på hele Jorden." 18 Så forbarmer han sig da over den, som han vil, men forhærder den, som han vil.
19 Du vil nu sige til mig: Hvad klager han da over endnu? thi hvem står hans Villie imod? 20 Ja, men, hvem er dog du, o Menneske! som går i Rette med Gud? mon noget, som blev dannet, kan sige til den, som dannede det: Hvorfor gjorde du mig således? 21 Eller har Pottemageren ikke Rådighed over Leret til af den samme Masse at gøre et Kar til Ære, et andet til Vanære? 22 Men hvad om nu Gud, skønt han vilde vise sin Vrede og kundgøre sin Magt, dog med stor Langmodighed tålte Vredes-Kar, som vare beredte til Fortabelse, 23 også for at kundgøre sin Herligheds Rigdom over Barmhjertigheds-Kar, som han forud havde beredt til Herlighed? 24 Og hertil kaldte han også os, ikke alene af Jøder, men også af Hedninger, 25 som han også siger hos Hoseas: "Det, som ikke var mit Folk, vil jeg kalde mit Folk, og hende, som ikke var den elskede; den elskede; 26 og det skal ske, at på det Sted, hvor der blev sagt til dem: I ere ikke mit Folk, der skulle de kaldes den levende Guds Børn." 27 Men Esajas udråber over Israel: "Om end Israels Børns Tal var som Havets Sand, så skal kun Levningen frelses. 28 Thi idet Herren opgør Regnskab og afslutter det i Hast, vil han fuldbyrde det på Jorden." 29 Og som Esajas forud har sagt: "Dersom den Herre Zebaoth ikke havde levnet os en Sæd, da vare vi blevne som Sodoma og gjorte lige med Gomorra."
30 Hvad skulle vi da sige? At Hedninger, som ikke jagede efter Retfærdighed, fik Retfærdighed; nemlig Retfærdigheden af Tro; 31 men Israel, som jagede efter en Retfærdigheds Lov, nåede ikke til en sådan Lov. 32 Hvorfor? fordi de ikke søgte den af Tro, men som af Geringer. De stødte an på Anstødsstenen, 33 som der er skrevet: "Se, jeg sætter i Zion en Anstødssten og en Forargelses Klippe; og den, som tror på ham, skal ikke blive til Skamme."
Romans 9
The Message
God Is Calling His People
9 1-5 At the same time, you need to know that I carry with me at all times a huge sorrow. It’s an enormous pain deep within me, and I’m never free of it. I’m not exaggerating—Christ and the Holy Spirit are my witnesses. It’s the Israelites . . . If there were any way I could be cursed by the Messiah so they could be blessed by him, I’d do it in a minute. They’re my family. I grew up with them. They had everything going for them—family, glory, covenants, revelation, worship, promises, to say nothing of being the race that produced the Messiah, the Christ, who is God over everything, always. Oh, yes!
6-9 Don’t suppose for a moment, though, that God’s Word has malfunctioned in some way or other. The problem goes back a long way. From the outset, not all Israelites of the flesh were Israelites of the spirit. It wasn’t Abraham’s sperm that gave identity here, but God’s promise. Remember how it was put: “Your family will be defined by Isaac”? That means that Israelite identity was never racially determined by sexual transmission, but it was God-determined by promise. Remember that promise, “When I come back next year at this time, Sarah will have a son”?
10-13 And that’s not the only time. To Rebecca, also, a promise was made that took priority over genetics. When she became pregnant by our one-of-a-kind ancestor, Isaac, and her babies were still innocent in the womb—incapable of good or bad—she received a special assurance from God. What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don’t do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative. God told Rebecca, “The firstborn of your twins will take second place.” Later that was turned into a stark epigram: “I loved Jacob; I hated Esau.”
14-18 Is that grounds for complaining that God is unfair? Not so fast, please. God told Moses, “I’m in charge of mercy. I’m in charge of compassion.” Compassion doesn’t originate in our bleeding hearts or moral sweat, but in God’s mercy. The same point was made when God said to Pharaoh, “I picked you as a bit player in this drama of my salvation power.” All we’re saying is that God has the first word, initiating the action in which we play our part for better or worse.
19 Are you going to object, “So how can God blame us for anything since he’s in charge of everything? If the big decisions are already made, what say do we have in it?”
20-33 Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, “Why did you shape me like this?” Isn’t it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn’t that all right? Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people. Hosea put it well:
I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved.
In the place where they yelled out, “You’re nobody!”
they’re calling you “God’s living children.”
Isaiah maintained this same emphasis:
If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered
and the sum labeled “chosen of God,”
They’d be numbers still, not names;
salvation comes by personal selection.
God doesn’t count us; he calls us by name.
Arithmetic is not his focus.
Isaiah had looked ahead and spoken the truth:
If our powerful God
had not provided us a legacy of living children,
We would have ended up like ghost towns,
like Sodom and Gomorrah.
How can we sum this up? All those people who didn’t seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah (again!) gives us the metaphor for pulling this together:
Careful! I’ve put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion,
a stone you can’t get around.
But the stone is me! If you’re looking for me,
you’ll find me on the way, not in the way.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson