Romans chapter 9

vs 22

If you are prepared to consider some of the objects of God's wrath in the Old Testament, I think yo will see this idea illustrated. God gave Pharoah 10 plagues to make up his mind. God gave the Canaanites 400 odd years before an army of Israelites came and owned them. And how long did God suffer the indignities of his treasured possession Israel?

vs 23

The idea that God might flex his muscles and cause chaos and bedlam to rain down on evil-doers is a little distasteful. However, Paul is making an opposing claim - that rather than God crushing his enemies in a display of power, he shows patience to his enemies in order that his glory will be seen all the more strongly by those on whom he shows mercy.

Yes, he still smashes his enemies though.

vs 24

Paul wants to make it clear that these objects of mercy are indeed Christians - called from Jewish and non-Jewish stock.

vs 25

Of course, reading this from our perspective, we instantly see this as referring to gentiles. But when Hosea wrote this, or when God spoke it through him to Israel at the time, what did it mean to them? I wonder if they even thought of it including gentiles? I actually wrote an essay on this last year, and came to the conclusion that this was one of the primary meanings at the time for some passages. I'd have to look more closely at Hosea to make a decision I guess.

But regardless of what it meant specifically at the time, the overall meaning would have been obvious - that God was seeking to open his arms to people who had not accepted him.

vs 26

This is more obviously written to Israel, because it references a time in Israel's history (I'm guessing there, to be honest).

But those who are out of God's family are brought in. That's the point.

vs 27-28

Ok, that one's a little painful. Soteriologically, I would say that this can indeed be seen by the "remnant" of Jews who have claimed Christ as their Lord. This verse actually stretches forward into the eschatological too, because it talks about God's sentence on the earth too. Remnant theology is a tricky one though - because some people attempt to then bring it into the modern fold of Christendom, and that's a whole new barrel of fish.

vs 29

Paul is dealing with the fact that Israel seems to have been left behind by the movement of the Spirit of God - that a bunch of gentiles seems to now be in the majority in the church global (perhaps even the roman church locally) and this causes people to question why the Jews aren't more properly represented, if God is the same God of the Jews? He's using verses like this one from Isaiah to show that while yes, God seems to be working in a different direction, the fact is that he has both shown justice and mercy to the Jews. While only a remnant may hold to the new covenant, this is a show of God's mercy, as he could just as easily stripped them of descendants entirely and ended the story of Israel forever.