9:6
One of the questions that Paul is dealing with is “has God’s word failed?” He chose Israel, made many promises to them, yet they rejected the Messiah. They were not receiving the blessings. Paul starts off by saying that God’s word has not failed “for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel”. The Jews were very proud of their heritage, their ancestry, but this did not make them true Israel. Now Jesus said similar things, eg John 8:39-41, as did John the Baptist (Matt 3:9). The natural ancestry was far less important than people believed, see Matt 12:48-50.
9:7
Paul then applies this specifically to Abraham. Abraham was central to Jewish understanding of themselves, and was also central to Paul’s explanation of the gospel. Paul refers to Isaac, and God had declared that it was through Isaac that his offspring would be reckoned. Now Paul is starting his argument from a place that Jews would agree with, for they would all certainly agree that descendants of Ishmael would not inherit the promises. So what Paul is doing is getting them to realise the full implications of this. The Jews considered that God was somehow bound to Israel, obligated to bless them. Paul will go on to show that God is free and He is definitely not bound to bless the physical descendants of Abraham.
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