“Be not highminded, but fear” (Rom 11:20 KJV). That’s the verse I think of as I anticipate posting the following little thought that came to me as I studied Genesis for Bible Truths B, the 8th grade Bible textbook I’m now rewriting:
If you think about it, God could have easily given Abraham lots of sons. Seven would not be impossible. Seventy would not even be impossible for the God who gave a child to a woman past childbearing age. Instead, He gives both Abraham and Isaac two sons each. And in each set of two brothers, only one gets picked. It’s really as if God organized the family tree of the patriarchs to make a point: I choose Abraham, and no one else in the world. And even within Abraham’s line of descendants, I choose some and not others.
This is not going beyond the Scripture; this is exactly what Paul concludes in Romans 9. Neither Isaac nor Jacob earned their election by good works—Jacob wasn’t even born when he was elected.
Be not highminded, but fear.
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