Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶ Not all the people in Abraham's family are his children. But the holy writings say, `It is Isaac's family who will be called your family.'

⁷ This means that not all who were born in Abraham's family are God's children. God promised Abraham a son [Isaac]. His children [the Jews] are the ones that God called Abraham's true family.

⁸ For this is what God promised, `About this time next year I will come and Sarah shall have a son.'

⁹ And that is not all. Rebecca also had children. Their father was Isaac, our father.

¹¹ When the children were not yet born, they had done nothing good or bad. God chooses the people he wants. He does not choose people because of what they have done. He chooses people who will answer his call. So he said to Rebecca, `The older one will be a slave of the younger one.'

¹² The holy writings also say, `I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.'

¹³ So what shall we say? Does God do what is not right? No, never!

¹⁴ He says to Moses, `I will be kind to a person if I choose to be kind to him. I will share in the suffering of others if I choose to be sorry for them.'

¹⁵ God is not kind to a person because the person wants God to be kind to him. God is not kind to him because the person runs to him to ask him for help. God is kind because he chooses to be kind.

¹⁶ In the holy writings it says to Pharaoh, `That is why I made you live. I wanted to show my power through you. I wanted people to know about me all over the earth.'

¹⁷ So God is kind to any person if he wants to be kind to him. And God makes a man's heart hard if he wants to do that.

¹⁸ So you will ask me, `Why does God still blame us? Who can fight against what God has planned?'