We begin studying a new section in the apostle Paul's letter to the Romans (Rom 9-11), in which he begins to address Israel's overwhelming unbelief and rejection of the Gospel in light of Scripture's teaching on God's purposes, promises, and calling of the nation. This study is two parts and concludes in Romans 9.Note: The subtitle is an (overly-)wooden translation of Romans 9:18. In English, we would typically say that God has mercy on someone, not that he mercies them. The wooden translation is intended to draw extra attention to the strong parallelism in Paul's argument.