Lent '08 - Day 27: Mercy or hardness - which are you going to get?

Paul's statement that "God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" (Romans 9:18) is wake-up statement. It makes God sound so arbitrary. Am I going to be on the mercy or hardness end? When thinking through Scripture, there are time where God does seem arbitrary. Paul even brings some of those up (e.g., Isaac over Esau, Pharaoh). That said, his times of showing mercy far outweigh these incidents. The overwhelming majority is that he does want us to come to him and that he wants to show us his kindness. I think Paul brings up these counter-examples to drive home and remind us that what we have, we have been given. Even our wise decisions or seeking God are a result of the capacities he has given us. As for the counter-examples, I trust that when you can see without being bound by time, they are fair and just.