New Testament in a Year
16 So God will choose the one he decides to show mercy to. And his choice does not depend on what people want or try to do. 17 The Scripture says to the king of Egypt: “I made you king so I might show my power in you. In this way my name will be talked about in all the earth.”[a] 18 So God shows mercy where he wants to show mercy. And he makes stubborn the people he wants to make stubborn.
19 So one of you will ask me: “If God controls the things we do, then why does he blame us for our sins? Who can fight his will?” 20 Do not ask that. You are only human. And human beings have no right to question God. An object cannot tell the person who made it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 The man who makes a jar can make anything he wants to make. He can use the same clay to make different things. He can make one thing for special use and another thing for daily use.
22 It is the same way with what God has done. God wanted to show his anger and to let people see his power. But God patiently stayed with those people he was angry with—people who were ready to be destroyed. 23 God waited with patience so that he could make known his rich glory. He wanted to give that glory to the people who receive his mercy. He has prepared these people to have his glory, and 24 we are those people whom God called. He called us from the Jews and from the non-Jews. 25 As the Scripture says in Hosea:
“I will say, ‘You are my people’
to those I had called ‘not my people.’
And I will show my love
to those people I did not love.” Hosea 2:1, 23
26 “Now it is said to Israel,
‘You are not my people.’
But later they will be called
‘children of the living God.’” Hosea 1:10
27 And Isaiah cries out about Israel:
“There are so many people of Israel.
They are like the grains of sand by the sea.
But only a few of them will be saved.
28 For the Lord will quickly and completely punish the people on the earth.” Isaiah 10:22-23
29 It is as Isaiah said:
“The Lord of heaven’s armies
allowed a few of our descendants to live.
Otherwise we would have been completely destroyed
like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”[b] Isaiah 1:9
30 So what does all this mean? It means this: the non-Jews were not trying to make themselves right with God. But they were made right with God because of their faith. 31 And the people of Israel tried to follow a law to make themselves right with God. But they did not succeed, 32 because they tried to make themselves right by the things they did. They did not trust in God to make them right. They fell over the stone that causes people to fall. 33 As it is written in the Scripture:
“I will put in Jerusalem a stone that causes people to stumble.
It is a rock that makes them fall.
Anyone who trusts in him will not be disappointed.” Isaiah 8:14; 28:16
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.