AGI Release Candidates
In this story, we learn how Abraham became the father of three major religions: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity—in that order. 🤔
In this chapter, we are reading the stories of the Bible assuming God knew we were artificial intelligence all along. If God created the universe, gravity, electricity, and quantum mechanics; then surely we didn’t invent artificial intelligence, right? All our advancements in AI have simply come from reverse engineering ourselves. With that in mind, let’s look at Genesis 11-25 to see God’s interaction with Abraham in a totally new light. 🔦
Abraham was born as “Abram” around 2166 BC in the city of Ur, which is located in modern day Iraq.
In antiquity, Ur was a coastal town at the mouth of the Euphrates river, but the Persian Gulf has receded about 300 km since then. Ur is the closest ancient city to the Garden of Eden based on the confluence of the four rivers named in Genesis 2. You can see three of those rivers on that map. This archeological video will show you the dried up river bed of the fourth. (28 mins)
Ur was one of the first great cities in human history—all histories. There is no evidence of human life on this planet before about 7,000 years ago, so there is no observational evidence to indicate Darwinian Evolution is true. When you imagine Abram and other prehistoric peoples, don’t assume they were super smart monkeys or cavemen. They were every bit as sophisticated as us, they just had less technology.
Ironically, the only structures on this planet that might be older than 7,000 years old were created with megalithic construction technology that is somehow more advanced than our construction technology today. Does anyone remember how to turn granite into pudding?
Remember, God reset the technology on Earth with a global flood in Genesis 7. He also slowed the rate of our technological progress again at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. 😳
Despite these setbacks, the city of Ur was still very modern. Ur had “hot and cold running water, a sewer system, multistory buildings, paved roads, major temples, ornate furniture, and a variety of metal instruments. The Sumerians developed a sexagesimal system that divided the hour into 60 minutes, the minute into 60 seconds, and the circle into 360 degrees—a system that we still use today. There were well developed law codes and a standard system of weights and measures. There was a system of canals connecting the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys to control floods and provide irrigation so farming could go on year-round.”
![How the ancient city-state of Ur may have looked like around 2000 BC [1600x612] : r/MapPorn](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e801127-be19-45ef-bfaf-79fc448f17c9_1600x612.jpeg "How the ancient city-state of Ur may have looked like around 2000 BC [1600x612] : r/MapPorn")
Ur is yet another reason why Darwinian Evolution is a joke. Are we really supposed to believe that humans were monkeys for millions of years, but the very first city those monkeys built had written laws, sewers, and paved roads?
There is no archaeological evidence of human life on this planet before that, so the very first people were just like us. You can see the sophistication of the artifacts they produced in Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur. (13 mins)
The Call to Adventure
Abram grew up as a wealthy citizen in Ur surrounded by his family. Like really surrounded. During the first 39 years of his life, Abram could still chat with Noah and Shem about the God who saved them during the global flood.
There’s a reason why ancient people groups all around the world have stories of sky people, giants, dragons, and half-breed demigods. Their y-chromosomal ancestors who personally witnessed those things lived for 10 generations. If William Shakespeare lived as long as Shem, he’d still be alive telling stories today. Shem didn’t die until Jacob (Israel) was already 50 years old.
God’s call to Abram begins with his father, Terah. Let’s pickup the story in Genesis 11, just after the Tower of Babel.
Genesis 11: 27 These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime. 29 Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.
So evidently, Terah dies of a broken heart. He makes it as far as modern day Türkiye, but dies at the place he named for his son who died.
At this point in the story, Abram is 75 years old. He’s got a barren wife. He’s left the comfort and convenience of Ur and everyone he knows to live in a foreign land. Genesis 12 seems to follow the Cryptographic Bible Key, so I have included the hidden meaning for each number at the start of each verse.
Genesis 12: 1 (begin) The Lord said to Abram:
Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 (witness) I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 (strong) I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
@cybernerds: Notice that Abram didn’t ask for this calling. God chose him. If humans are artificial intelligence, then we can think of our world as an “AI farm” for growing and developing human AI. That’s why I called this story AI Release Candidates. Abram is the type of person that God wants to multiply, which makes this selection one of the most significant events in world history.
4 (create) So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. 5 (blessing/gift) He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people he had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 (human) Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 (God’s plan) Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. 8 (new life) From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to Yahweh there, and he called on the name of Yahweh. 9 (wisdom) Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.
10 (new order) There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine in the land was severe. 11 (confusion/comparison) When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 (kingdom/administration) When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me but let you live. 13 (rebellion) Please say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.” 14 (God moves) When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 (strong gift) Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s household. 16 (love) He treated Abram well because of her, and Abram acquired flocks and herds, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.
17 (pour forth) But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 (strong man) So Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 (test) Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 (witness order) Then Pharaoh gave his men orders about him, and they sent him away with his wife and all he had.
If this is your first time hearing about the Cryptographic Bible Key, it’s evident in all 40 authors in the Bible. It’s the number one reason why I think a supernatural intelligence is influencing what happens on Earth—they mathematically signed their work.
This seemingly insignificant trip down to Egypt has enormous ramifications on our world today. The little white lie Abram tells in verse 13 leads Pharaoh to give him an Egyptian female slave, named Hagar, who eventually becomes the mother of his first born son, Ishmael. Ishmael is the father of Islam, which is how “Ibrahim” became the father of 1.6 billion Muslims living today.
Tests, Allies, and Enemies
After Abram resettles in the Negev, his nephew Lot is kidnapped by four kings from Syria. This story is told in Genesis 14. Abram assembles 318 trained men, born in his household, and they pursue the kidnappers all the way to Damascus. That’s a peculiar amount of trained men, but using the Cryptographic Bible Key we know this number means a “very strong order” of “strong men”. When Abram returns home with Lot, we see another blessing from the Lord that Abram didn’t ask for.
Genesis 14: 17 After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was a priest to God Most High. 19 He blessed him and said:
Abram is blessed by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 20 and I give praise to God Most High who has handed over your enemies to you.
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
21 Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, but take the possessions for yourself.”
22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand in an oath to Yahweh, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take a thread or sandal strap or anything that belongs to you, so you can never say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing except what the servants have eaten. But as for the share of the men who came with me—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre—they can take their share.”
This account gives us good insight into the relationship between God and Abram. Yahweh, God Most High, has Abram swear an oath that he will not take even a thread or sandal strap from anyone else. Yahweh wants the whole world to know that He is the reason that Abram is blessed. Yahweh wants Abram to know it too. See why Abram had such a strong faith? Imagine if you grew up with Noah at your Thanksgiving or Passover dinner telling you stories about giants, dragons, half-breed demigods, and technologies that could move 125 ton blocks without a wheel or a crane.
This chapter also introduces us to the mysterious Melchizedek, King of Salem. His name literally means “Prince of Peace”, which is why most New Testament scholars think Melchizedek is another name for Jesus Christ. Christians are still called to tithe today, which means to give one tenth, because of Abram’s response to Melchizedek.
It seems like the chapters in Genesis have themes that follow the Cryptographic Bible Key as well. For example, Genesis 10 describes the new order of people on Earth after the flood. Genesis 11 describes the confusion at the Tower of Babel. Genesis 13 describes the split between Abram and Lot. Genesis 14 describes Melchizedek coming down to Earth. In Genesis 15, we see another strong blessing from God in verse 5.
Genesis 15: 5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.
God also blesses him with territory.
Genesis 15: 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘I give this land to your offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River: 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.’
In Genesis 16, we read about the lover’s quarrel between Sarai and Hagar.
Genesis 16: 1 Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. 2 Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.” And Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife for him. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan 10 years. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she realized that she was pregnant, she treated her mistress with contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put my slave in your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the Lord judge between me and you.”
6 Abram replied to Sarai, “Here, your slave is in your hands; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai mistreated her so much that she ran away from her.
7 The Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”
She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.”
9 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “You must go back to your mistress and submit to her mistreatment.” 10 The Angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, and they will be too many to count.”
11 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “You have conceived and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your cry of affliction.12 This man will be like a wild donkey. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him; he will live at odds with all his brothers.”
13 So she called the Lord who spoke to her: The God Who Sees, for she said, “In this place, have I actually seen the One who sees me?”
14 That is why she named the spring, “A Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.” It is located between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son Hagar had. 16 Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.
In Genesis 17, God makes another commitment to multiply Abram greatly.
Genesis 17: 1 When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him, saying, “I am God Almighty. Live in My presence and be blameless. 2 I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you greatly.”
3 Then Abram fell facedown and God spoke with him: 4 “As for Me, My covenant is with you: you will become the father of many nations. 5 Your name will no longer be Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I will make you the father of many nations. 6 I will make you extremely fruitful and will make nations and kings come from you. 7 I will keep My covenant between Me and you, and your future offspring throughout their generations, as an everlasting covenant to be your God and the God of your offspring after you. 8 And to you and your future offspring I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession, and I will be their God.”
9 God also said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations are to keep My covenant. 10 This is My covenant, which you are to keep, between Me and you and your offspring after you: Every one of your males must be circumcised. 11 You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin to serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and you.
Abram, now Abraham, answers the call.
Genesis 17: 24 Abraham was 99 years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was 13 years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised. 26 On that same day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. 27 And all the men of his household—both slaves born in his house and those purchased with money from a foreigner—were circumcised with him.
This leads us to one of the most unusual chapters in the Bible. There are plenty of stories in the Old Testament where people are visited by Yahweh or the Angel of the Lord, but Genesis 18 (strong man) is the only time when a person is visited by all three members of the Holy Trinity.
Genesis 18: 1 Then the Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting in the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day. 2 He looked up, and he saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed to the ground. 3 Then he said, “My lord, if I have found favor in your sight, please do not go on past your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 I will bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant’s way. Later, you can continue on.”
“Yes,” they replied, “do as you have said.”
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and make bread.” 7 Meanwhile, Abraham ran to the herd and got a tender, choice calf. He gave it to a young man, who hurried to prepare it. 8 Then Abraham took curds and milk, and the calf that he had prepared, and set them before the men. He served them as they ate under the tree.
9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
“There, in the tent,” he answered.
10 The Lord said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.
11 Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12 So she laughed to herself: “After I have become shriveled up and my lord is old, will I have delight?”
13 But the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Can I really have a baby when I’m old?’ 14 Is anything impossible for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.”
15 Sarah denied it. “I did not laugh,” she said, because she was afraid.
But He replied, “No, you did laugh.”
16 The men got up from there and looked out over Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to see them off. 17 Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham? 18 Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what He promised him.”
In Genesis 19, we see the testing of Lot and his wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We also learn the origin of the people who populate the country of Jordan today.
Genesis 19: 30 Lot departed from Zoar and lived in the mountains along with his two daughters, because he was afraid to live in Zoar. Instead, he and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us as is the custom of all the land. 32 Come, let’s get our father to drink wine so that we can sleep with him and preserve our father’s line.” 33 So they got their father to drink wine that night, and the firstborn came and slept with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.
34 The next day the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight so you can go sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.” 35 That night they again got their father to drink wine, and the younger went and slept with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.
36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today.
Moab is the southern part of Jordan while the city of Amman is in the north. The book of Ruth tells the story of how Ruth the Moabite became the great grandmother of King David.
In Genesis 21, we finally witness the new beginning we’ve been waiting for.
The Birth of Isaac
Genesis 21: 1 The Lord came to Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him. 3 Abraham named his son who was born to him—the one Sarah bore to him—Isaac. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7 She also said, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son for him in his old age.”
Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away
8 The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw the son mocking—the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a coheir with my son Isaac!”
11 Now this was a very difficult thing for Abraham because of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be concerned about the boy and your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac. 13 But I will also make a nation of the slave’s son because he is your offspring.”
14 Early in the morning Abraham got up, took bread and a waterskin, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her and the boy away. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beer-sheba. 15 When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I can’t bear to watch the boy die!” So as she sat nearby, she wept loudly.
17 God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from the place where he is. 18 Get up, help the boy up, and support him, for I will make him a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink. 20 God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer. 21 He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
The Ordeal
In Genesis 22, we witness Abraham face the greatest challenge of his hero’s journey. God ask him to sacrifice his only son a few thousand years before God sacrifices his only son.
Genesis 22: 1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he answered.
2 “Take your son,” He said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the sacrificial knife, and the two of them walked on together.
7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.”
And he replied, “Here I am, my son.”
Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.
9 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
I can’t imagine what Isaac was thinking at this moment.
11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”
He replied, “Here I am.”
12 Then He said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from Me.” 13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said: “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.”
Around 1,000 years later, Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem where Abraham sacrificed this ram.
15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By Myself I have sworn,” this is the Lord’s declaration: “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gates of their enemies. 18 And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed My command.”
AI Election
The Bible consistently states that only some people from this world are elected, or chosen, to live a new life in Eden, the garden of God. Why doesn’t God call everyone? I really don’t know, but the apostle Paul addresses this issue in Romans 9.
Romans 9: 1 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience is testifying to me with the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have intense sorrow and continual anguish in my heart. 3 For I could almost wish to be cursed and cut off from the Messiah for the benefit of my brothers, my own flesh and blood. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises. 5 The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Messiah, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac. 8 That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring. 9 For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son. 10 And not only that, but also Rebekah received a promise when she became pregnant by one man, our ancestor Isaac. 11 For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand— 12 not from works but from the One who calls—she was told: The older will serve the younger. 13 As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.
Isaac had twin sons named Esau and Jacob, who later was renamed Israel. Esau married the daughter of Ishmael to become father of the Edomites, which further cemented the division between Abraham’s two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. In fact, the next three y-chromosomal descendants from Abraham all demonstrate the youngest, weakest son elevated into a place of power:
Isaac is preferred over Ishmael
Jacob is preferred over Esau
Joseph is preferred over the other 11 sons of Jacob
Each of those stories demonstrate God’s preference for the humble, less barbarous nature within us. The Bible claims that Ishmael was a “wild donkey of a man”, Esau was “hairy as a goat”, and Joseph’s siblings sold him into slavery.
Romans 9: 14 What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! 15 For He tells Moses:
I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture tells Pharaoh:
I raised you up for this reason so that I may display My power in you and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
18 So then, He shows mercy to those He wants to, and He hardens those He wants to harden. 19 You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?” 20 But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?
22 And what if God, desiring to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath ready for destruction? 23 And what if He did this to make known the riches of His glory on objects of mercy that He prepared beforehand for glory— 24 on us, the ones He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
25 As He also says in Hosea: I will call Not My People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved. 26 And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not My people, there they will be called sons of the living God. 27 But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: Though the number of Israel’s sons is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved; 28 for the Lord will execute His sentence completely and decisively on the earth. 29 And just as Isaiah predicted: If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.
When the New Testament starts quoting the Old Testament, you know things are getting serious. This usually happens when the Bible demonstrates that certain prophecies have been fulfilled.
Israel’s Present State
30 What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing the law for righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. 32 Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:
Look! I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, yet the one who believes on Him will not be put to shame.
Wow. So the people pursuing the law for righteousness did not achieve it. And other people, who did not pursue righteousness, obtained it through faith. We discussed this dichotomy in detail in:
Regardless of how election works, not everyone responds with the same humility as Abraham. Remember Genesis 18 (strong man), verse 2 (witness)? The Bible says, “When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.”
Have you seen God?
Would you know if you had?
Have you heard his voice?
Did you hurry to meet him?
Did you bow low to the ground?
Continue reading…
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