For they are Israelites, and to them belong Almighty Yahuwah’s adoption as a nation and the esteemed Presence. With them were the special covenants made, to them was the Law given. To them the temple worship was revealed and Almighty Yahuwah’s own promises announced. [Exod. 4:22; Hos. 11:1.]
To them belong the patriarchs, and as far as His natural descent was concerned, from them is the Messiah, Who is exalted and supreme over all, Almighty Yahuwah/Yahushua, blessed forever! Amen (so let it be).
However, it is not as though Almighty Yahuwah’s Word had failed—coming to nothing. For it is not everybody who is a descendant of Jacob (Israel) who belongs to the true Israel. And they are not all the children of Abraham because they are by blood his descendants. No, the promise was Your descendants will be called and counted through the line of Isaac though Abraham had an older son. [Gen. 21:9-12.]
That is to say, it is not the children of the body of Abraham who are made Almighty Yahuwah’s children, but it is the offspring to whom the promise applies that shall be counted as Abraham’s true descendants.
For this is what the promise said, About this time next year will I return and Sarah shall have a son. [Gen. 18:10.]
And not only that, but this too: Rebecca conceived two sons under exactly the same circumstances by our forefather Isaac, and the children were yet unborn and had so far done nothing either good or evil. Even so, in order further to carry out Almighty Yahuwah’s purpose of selection (election, choice), which depends not on works or what men can do, but on Him Who calls them, It was said to her that the elder son should serve the younger son. [Gen. 25:21-23.] As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated held in relative disregard in comparison with My feeling for Jacob. [Mal. 1:2, 3.]
What shall we conclude then? Is there injustice upon Almighty Yahuwah’s part? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion (pity) on whom I will have compassion. [Exod. 33:19.] So then Almighty Yahuwah’s gift is not a question of human will and human effort, but of Almighty Yahuwah’s mercy. It depends not on one’s own willingness nor on his strenuous exertion as in running a race, but on Almighty Yahuwah’s having mercy on him.
