https://youtu.be/MnhneAL7oyg
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans last time we started on Rom 9:15; where Paul makes a turn to sanctified sarcasm. He compares the best of self-righteous Jews, like the rich young ruler, to a Gentile who the Jews completely detested.
That Gentile is the Pharaoh of the Exodus generation. We will see here that Paul has used his final and last appeal to his countrymen. He realizes that the Jews are racially smart, that they are very quick to pick up on sarcasm.
As one of them, Paul knows that hey have used their sarcasm on others because of their great mentality.
Now the greatest genius of history other than Jesus Christ who is also a Jew absolutely floors and shocks the entire Jewish nation by his comment that the unbelieving Jew is no better than the Pharaoh who hardened his heart and then became a target for one of the most unusual experiments in history when "God hardened his heart."
The verse begins with Moses who other than Jesus was is the greatest genius in history. In the Old Testament Moses is the greatest and in the New Testament Paul is the greatest. The Lord Jesus Christ who as the God-Man is absolutely unique is the absolute greatest of all.
Verse 15 starts with a dissertation on the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. But we do not start with Pharaoh; we start with the greatest man of his own generation and one of the two greatest men of history.
"Gar" (For or because) is the explanatory use of a postpositive conjunctive particle that starts his explanation of the problem the Jews had at the time when the Jewish nation being formed in Egypt.
Next comes the present active indicative from the verb "lego" (to speak, to say, or to communicate with) in the aoristic present tense it describes periodic momentary action in present time.
The aorist tense usually presents momentary action in past time but sometimes it is necessary to demonstrate it in the present so we have the aoristic present tense. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb in His dialogue with Moses.
Rom 9:15; The indicative mood is declarative describing the historical reality of this dialogue and its quotation here as introducing the principle and the problem that "All Israel is not true Israel."
Next we have the dative singular indirect object from the proper noun "Moses" (Moses) transliterated from the Hebrew in to the Greek and again into the English.
Because of the golden calf incident God had threatened to destroy Israel. But Moses interceded for them then asked to know God's plan. Exod 33:12-13; God's response starts in Exod 33:19; All of my good (attributes revealed) I will cause to pass before your face, and I will proclaim the person of Jehovah before you."
How is God going to do this? By letting him see some form? No, finite man cannot visibly see infinite God and live. Next He adds how it is all going to be done: "and I will be gracious."
That is the way you see the glory of God. God's glory is revealed to man through grace. But this grace is not the grace that we have normally understood in the past, as God giving something we do not earn or deserve.
This is that same doctrine of grace but it is from the doctrine of the divine decree because the divine decree contains all the facts of history including every thought, every decision, and every action of every person who ever lives.
That includes every category of every individual who has believed in the Lord. God's revelation to Moses is that God's policy is grace.
The part quoted begins with the word "chanan" (I will be gracious). In the Hebrew this is in the qal perfect tense, that means, "I was always gracious."
He demonstrated His grace in the divine decree. He always provided for Israel in spite of knowing that Israel would become reversionistic rebellious people who will reject Him. Then He adds another verb: "and I will have compassion," the piel perfect tense of "racham" (compassion) that describes the application of grace.
He is saying not only is He (the divine decree gracious but in addition He will have compassion. In the qual stem "racham" means to love but in the piel stem it means to have compassion or mercy. "On whom I will have compassion."
The second instance is in the piel stem of "racham" but this time it is in the imperfect tense that describes intensified love because compassion is an intensive application of love.
The first use of this word here is in the piel perfect; that is describing the divine decree. The second use it is the piel imperfect that is for the actual process of the decree printing out human history. "I have been gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
In other words, in eternity past in the divine decree God demonstrated His grace. That is His glory but its only part of His glory. Perfect God provides a perfect plan for imperfect people and until we get to heaven that is the glory of God that is demonstrated to us.
Translation of Exod 33:19: "And he (God) said, all of my good (tob) I will cause to pass in front of you (the divine decree is history), therefore I will proclaim the name of Jehovah before you (you never learn the glory of God until you learn about the person of God); furthermore, I have been gracious (qal perfect of chanan; the divine decree) to whom I will be gracious (qal imperfect of chanan), and I have had compassion (piel perfect of racham) on whom I will have compassion (piel imperfect of racham)."
This tells us that in eternity past God fed all of this into His decree; He has been gracious. It is going to come out of the decree via the print out as human history that is God's application of grace to life as compassion or mercy that is grace in action.
Exod 33:20; "But he said, You cannot see my face, for man cannot see me and live." In other words, 'You can see me but you can't see me and if you do see me will die.
You can't see me while you have a human body.' To visibly see God is beyond the possibility of finite man, but believers see God with their soul every time they learn God's Word of Truth.
Paul quotes this verse because Paul is one of the few men of genius in history who understood the real implications of the verse. It was never understood by the Jewish people and still isn't.
What this is saying is that grace is God's policy not merit. Most believers don't get this because they are focused on the temporal instead of the eternal and the physical instead of the spiritual.
By quoting it he is saying in effect that what was in the decree has become history. When this was written the golden calf incident was in past history but God knew in eternity past before it occurred that it was going to happen.
Moses wanted to see His glory because he was one of the few who did understood the decree and how God's attributes related to the decree. He saw the glory of God every day with the doctrinal information that was in his soul.
That was the glory of God for this life. So God answers Moses' request on the basis of who and what God is and not on the basis of what Moses is.
We have the opportunity of seeing that same glory of God, but it requires learning Bible doctrine. The secret to life is the content of the soul, not the shape of the body or the pleasantness of the personality, or the various functions of biological life.
The secret is in what you think in the soul and why you think it. The soul contains thought; thought is life because a person is what they think.
Exod 33:18; - "And Moses said, please show me your glory." This is toward the end of the dialogue between the Lord and Moses after the golden calf incident, after the administration of divine discipline, and after our Lord had threatened to remove Israel entirely and leave only Moses, and to start all over again with Moses.
But Moses interceded on behalf of Israel and won his point. Having done so asks the Lord to show him His glory. The qal imperfect from "amar" indicates Moses as the speaker. Then we have the hiphil imperative from the verb "ra'ah" that means to see. In the hiphil stem it means to cause to see. The first person singular suffix referring to Moses' request is "show me" or "cause me to see."
Next is a masculine singular noun from "kabod" (glory) a reference to the Shekinah glory. With the noun we have the second masculine singular suffix, referring to God.
Translation: "And he (Moses) said, Please cause me to see your glory." God answers in letting Moses see His glory in the only way the finite mind can possibly perceive it, and that is through Bible doctrine.
For us Bible doctrine must be transferred from the page of the Word to our souls, and for Moses from the transfer of the verbal words of God into his soul.
In Rom 9:15 Paul does not quote The first part of God's response to Moses is in Gen 33:19; where it says, "Therefore he (God) replied, I will cause all my good (the divine decree) to pass before you, and I will proclaim by the name of Jehovah to your face."
This means that to understand God's glory you must first understand God's plan. In other words, "Before you are through you will learn all about my plan." And Moses did.
Moses would get his doctrine face to face with God. In the future others to come would hear the voice of God, others would see a vision, and in some cases by angelic teaching; but no one had direct face-to-face teaching from God except Moses.
Moses is therefore the unique prophet. So "to your face" is a compliment given to one man and never repeated to anyone else. Exod 33: 20; "But you cannot see my face; for man cannot see my face and live." In other words, finite mankind cannot use their finite biological eyes to see infinite God.
Biological human can only see God by means of maximum doctrine resident in the soul. God permitted Moses to see His glory through Bible doctrine resident in the soul that was the same way that Paul saw God's glory,
By understanding that God's omniscience of God feeds God's decree only with facts and the printouts are in categories including election, foreknowledge and predestination.
In addition we as believers in Jesus Christ can only see and understand God's glory through perception of pertinent doctrine and our daily function under God's GASP system.
Mankind could no more see the face of God than our physical eyes could stare directly into the sun and see the sun. And just as looking directly into the sun would destroy our vision, so man in his physical body would die by looking directly into the face of God.
This is why we can only see Him through doctrine and we see only His glory through doctrine.
Rom 9:15; "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." This is the future active indicative of "eleeo" (mercy) but here it is used for the Hebrew word "chanan " (grace) that we saw in Gen 33 also means to have mercy or to show mercy.
The future tense is a predictive future and it is used to predict an event in future time. It is the imputation of God's direct blessing to the mature believer who has maximum doctrine residing and circulating in the soul in the future.
Paul now shows us something. He is not going to go back and teach what Moses has already taught. He is going to pick up where Moses left off. Therefore he starts right out with a future tense "I will show mercy."
In other words, Moses taught the divine decree in perfect tense and the printout in human history in the imperfect tense. Moses starts out with the printout in history and shows that one act of mercy leads to another act of mercy.
God was gracious to the Jews in the days of Moses in the same way God will be gracious to us, His royal family, in the time in which we live. The active voice: God's justice is gracious by imputing blessing to anyone who attains spiritual maturity.
The printout of the decree is in view here. In the decree you have the failure of the majority of the Jews in the Exodus generation, but that does not stop God's justice from imputing blessing throughout history in the time of Paul or in the present time in which we live.
Next we have the accusative singular from the relative pronoun "hos" (whom) that refers specifically to mature believers with the unusual indefinite particle "an" that causes "hos" (whom) to become an indefinite relative pronoun.
An indefinite pronoun is very specific. In this case it refers to a specific category in the printout of the decree. In this case it refers exclusively to spiritually mature believers.
With it is the present active subjunctive of "eleeo" (compassion or mercy). Paul is picking up where Moses left off with "on whom I have mercy." But this time he uses the customary present tense for what habitually occurs to the mature believer. The active voice: God's justice produces the action of being merciful.
The subjunctive mood is potential so it implies a future event that is qualified by the element of contingency. It all depends on whether you see God's glory through Bible doctrine and if you do you will be directly blessed by God.
God's glory is seen from maximum doctrine that is resident and circulating in the believer's soul just like it was In the case of Moses when he saw God's glory.
So we have the future active indicative for the fact that Moses saw it in his day, Paul saw it in his day, and we can see it in our day in the exact same way.