The Calvinist interpretation of this chapter is so loaded with assumptions that it's hard to know where to start pointing them out.
Let's start with v. 12, "The elder shall serve the younger." How does the Calvinist doctrine of reprobation follow from this verse? How does a man in hell serve a man in heaven?
And after answering that, we can go ahead and ask the same question of the next OT verses that Paul uses to make his point (whatever that point may be). In fact, let's list them all here for perspective:
- "The elder shall serve the younger." (v. 12)
- "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." (v. 13)
- "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." (v. 15)
- "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth." (v. 17)
- “I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.
And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.” (v. 25-26)
- "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.
For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.” (v. 27-28)
- “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.” (v. 29)
- "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” (v. 33)
Of all those OT quotes, the most favorite of Calvinists is v. 13. But it has already been pointed out on here before that Jesus says in 14:26 that we have to "hate" our relatives in order to be His disciples; and whatever Jesus means by the word "hate" in that verse, it's safe to assume it doesn't mean that we should desire for our father, mothers, children, etc. to burn in hell. Furthermore, the word "hate" is used in the Bible to refer to being disfavored, such as when it says that Leah was "hated" by Jacob (Gen. 29:31). No sensible commentator would suggest that Jacob must have hated Leah in the sense of desiring her destruction, which is what Calvinists insist it must mean in Romans 9:13.
So what else have the Calvinists got?
As we look over those other OT quotes from that chapter, how can the Calvinist doctrine of reprobation be inferred at all? Moreover, on what textual basis could we rule out an eschatological fulfillment of these verses? Doesn't it fit the flow of things so much better to assume Paul is talking about the eschaton, and that Jacob, Esau, and many of their descendants will be resurrected, and that Esau and his descendants will be pressed into servitude for Jacob and his descendants during the millennial reign of Christ? And that the land of Edom will be cursed during the millennium whereas the land of Israel will be blessed? And that the Gentiles among the nations who are raised will also be given places of honor in their respective lands so as to provoke the unrighteous among the Jews to jealousy?
If we read chapter 9 in the context of chapters 10-11 (especially 11), then doesn't this scenario fit the data so much better?
