Don't Blame Me!

OPENING PRAYER:

Lord God, I cry out to you, I lean on you, I trust in you. What a faithful God you are.

READ: Romans 9:19-29

19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”[a] 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”[b]

26 and,

“In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”[c]

27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. 28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”[d]

29 It is just as Isaiah said previously:

“Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”[e] Romans 9:19-29

Footnotes

Romans 9:20 Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 45:9

Romans 9:25 Hosea 2:23

Romans 9:26 Hosea 1:10

Romans 9:28 Isaiah 10:22-23 (see Septuagint)

Romans 9:29 Isaiah 1:9

REFLECT:

Remind yourself today that God is in control of his world – and of your life. What a relief! Are you ready for the next question? ‘If God has a plan and is in control, how can I be blamed for the decisions I make?’ Well, it all depends on how you ask the question. If belligerently – ‘I’m just a puppet on a string’ – then we are simply left with how we feel. But asked with a genuine concern to understand what God is doing, the question immediately opens new horizons.

What we discover is that God has every right to take control. He is God! He is sovereign – the next piece in the jigsaw. But, like a potter, the control is gentle and purposeful, as in his hands the lump of clay is shaped into an object of beauty and usefulness (v 21). The divine potter is patient and full of compassion. He exercises patience when we rebel (v 22) and he is motivated by a deep longing that we should belong to him. Doesn’t that take your breath away? Ponder verses 25 and 26.

A puppet, a jigsaw, a potter. The multiple images are held together by the golden thread (another image!) of God’s sheer delight in drawing people to himself, even when – especially when – they feel they have no right to belong.

APPLY:

We don’t like the feeling of not being in control. But today, ask God to help you to trust his control, and relax in his care.

CLOSING PRAYER:

Sovereign God, I may not always understand your ways, but I believe you are always for me and not against me. I ask for insight into your will.

WORSHIP:

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