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AUGUST 9
Holiness adorns Your house,
O LORD, forever.
Proverbs 22:22–23 9:20,21 Using the familiar Old Testament
22 Do not rob the poor because he is poor, analogy of the potter (Is. 64:6–8; Jer. 18:3–16),
Nor oppress the afflicted at the gate; Paul argues that it is as irrational,and far more
23 For the LORD will plead their cause, arrogant, for men to question God’s choice of
And plunder the soul of those who certain sinners for salvation as for a piece of
plunder them. pottery to question the purposes of the potter.
Romans 9:16–33 9:22,23 These verses are not intended to iden-
tify the origin of evil or explain fully why God
16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him has allowed it,but they do provide 3 reasons He
who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For has permitted its presence and contamination:
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the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this 1) to demonstrate His wrath; 2) to make His
very purpose I have raised you up, that I may power known; and 3) to put the riches of His
show My power in you, and that My name may glorious mercy on display. No one is treated
be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He unfairly:Some receive the justice they earn and
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has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He deserve (6:23); others graciously receive mercy.
wills He hardens.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still
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find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But Israel be as the sand of the sea,
indeed, O man, who are you to reply against The remnant will be saved.
God? Will the thing formed say to him who 28 For He will finish the work and cut it
formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” short in righteousness,
21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, Because the LORD will make a short
from the same lump to make one vessel for work upon the earth.”
honor and another for dishonor?
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What if God, wanting to show His wrath
22 And as Isaiah said before:
and to make His power known, endured with “Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath pre- a seed,
pared for destruction, and that He might We would have become like Sodom,
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make known the riches of His glory on the ves- And we would have been made like
sels of mercy, which He had prepared before- Gomorrah.”
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hand for glory, even us whom He called, not
of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who
25 As He says also in Hosea: did not pursue righteousness, have attained to
righteousness, even the righteousness of
“I will call them My people, who were faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righ-
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not My people, teousness, has not attained to the law of righ-
And her beloved, who was not beloved.” teousness. Why? Because they did not seek it
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“And it shall come to pass in the place by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.
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where it was said to them, For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.
‘You are not My people,’ 33 As it is written:
There they shall be called sons of the
living God.” “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone
and rock of offense,
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:
And whoever believes on Him will not
“Though the number of the children of be put to shame.”
DAY 9:Why do righteous and innocent people suffer?
Of course, no human being is truly righteous or innocent.The Bible clearly states that all have
sinned (Rom.3:23).And all sinners deserve to be punished,eternally.That’s what makes God’s grace
so amazing!
In understanding that truth, however, it must be admitted that on a relative human scale,
righteous and innocent people exist.That is,some people are more moral and virtuous than others
and some are more innocent. Consider, for example, a person who strives to live out the Golden
Rule, or another who gives generously to the poor. And certainly most consider small children to

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