9:8
Paul’s prime point is that it is God’s promise that counts, not natural birth. In his letter to the Galatians Paul talks about the promise (Gal 3 & 4). The Jews focused on the natural ancestry. With natural ancestry God could be viewed as having started things off but then let them go on their own way. With the promise God is intimately involved all through the process. Note also that Isaac is referred to as being the child of promise rather than a “natural” child. Now presumably Abraham and Sarah had sex and Isaac was born in the normal way, yet he is referred to as being special, a child of promise. This is because without divine intervention there would have been no Isaac. So miraculous interventions can sometimes work together with natural processes.
9:9
Paul quotes from Gen 18:10,14. God was the one who decreed the birth of Isaac. He brought Isaac into existence and decreed when he would be born. Moreover, God made the promise to Abraham about twenty five years before it happened. The mind of God is the source of all things and natural processes respond to the mind of God. We tend to look at natural processes first, but our focus should always be on the mind and heart of God. That is part of living by the Spirit, not the flesh.
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