I have to tell you there is a strong case to be made that insofar as calling and election are concerned, the ation of Israel is in a sense a microcosm of the elect Christians as it pertains to the entire world Jew and gentile.
"Yet every time that phrase occurs its an expanding of mercy, with God expressing His desire to show mercy"
Expanding of mercy? Not hardly. In fact it is the compression/limitation/narrowing of mercy that Paul is speaking to in Romans 9. What Paul is saying is that for whatever reasons God is withdrawing mercy upon some (and not others!) according to His ineffable will. And then Paul has to go on to defend God's sovereign decision in doing so!
How anyone can ignore this notion that these decisions occurred (In the case of Isaac and Jacob here noted) before their birth simply beggars the imagination.
Consider what I've posted in the past:
[quoting my past posts on this]
I'm looking for a different quote by George V Wigram... but (in the meantime) in its place, I'll just post this brief portion also by him (note the phrase
"God's governmental ways on earth," which is what I believe
Roman's 11's "olive tree" represents):
[quoting Wigram]
"Gen. 27:29 [Isaac blessing Jacob]. Let peoples (
gamnzim, pl.), serve thee and [manners or sorts of ] nations (
l'ummim, pl.) bow down to thee: be lord [a mighty man] over thy brethren.
"
Observe, this would not run the source of the division of people back to Shem, Ham and Japhet, so as to make the word to be equivalent to what we call the races of people, in connection with the Noahic earth, who constitute the whole human family.
The subdivision here alluded to took place in the family of Isaac, type of the heir of promise, not earlier;
and the heads of this subdivision are brought before us in Rom. 9 All God's ways and subdivisions are to be noted."
[also]
"f Israel is the
goh'y of experience, promise, blessing on the earth; the center of all
God's governmental ways on earth; but in saying that, I look at them from outside and as one whole. When they are owned as
gammi, my people, their detailed state and associations within is the aspect in which they are considered."
--George V Wigram
http://bibletruthpublishers.com/heb...t-testimony-psalms-article/g-v-wigram/la61041
____________
[quoting that other article by Wigram]
"
[re: Romans 11] In Jesus Christ, if the question be about Christian position, eternal life, or the Church considered in her essential relationship to Christ, there was neither Jew nor Gentile; the thoughts found in this chapter [Romans 11] can THERE have no place. If the question be about the cutting off of an individual for sinful conduct, little matters it whether he be Jew or Gentile; that has nothing to do with it, and on the other hand, there would be no question about grafting in again of the Jews more than of any others, and neither Jews nor others could be grafted in, if God had cut them off in such a manner.
And if it were a question about a warning from the Apostle to Christians at Rome, and so to others elsewhere, as being brethren, it would be almost nonsense to say, " And thou, O Gentile, take heed!" Why, thou, O Gentile? Had not Christians, Jews by birth, as much need to take heed? Or could the Spirit of God, in such a warning, have made the distinction, and thus denied the principle of, the Church of God in which there is neither Jew nor Gentile?
If the question is about a divine administration upon earth, then God can well make the distinction and develop his ways towards the one and the other; and it is plain that from the commencement of the ninth chapter the Apostle is occupied with and pointedly contrasts the Jews and the Gentiles, presenting us with the administration of the divine ways upon the earth. First declaring his attachment to Israel, he points out an election in the election for the earth, and further, that if God according to his sovereignty had chosen Israel (and such was Israel's boast), He had not renounced His sovereignty; and consequently, He could call the Gentiles if he would. [And this, He indeed "willed" to do!] Then he recalls to mind that the prophets had shown that a little remnant only, of Israel, at such an epoch, would be saved, and that a stone of stumbling would be laid in Zion."
-- Thoughts on Romans 11 and the Responsibility of the Church, Present Testimony: Volume 4 George V. Wigram
http://bibletruthpublishers.com/tho...the-church/present-testimony-volume-4/la85282
[
end quoting; bold and underline mine, parenthesis original]
The case of pharaoh is equally compelling. Gods will for pharaoh was destruction, if for no other reason than His Namesake.
10And not only
this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man,
even by our father Isaac
11(for
the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls),
12it was said to her,“The older shall serve the younger.”
13As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
14What shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!
15For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”
16So then
it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
17For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”
18Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
Here's how I see the phrase (in Rom9:17)
"[I have] raised you up"... this means, "[raised up(/out)]
to a position of prominence" [i.e.
as a pharaoh / into a leadership position--
and for the "purpose" stated] (in a
not-too-different-way from that of which we see in the
Acts 7:18 verse where it says, "another king
AROSE which knew not Joseph"--yes, a different Greek word, but not entirely out of the realm of similar meaning, here).
Just my two cents. = )