God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I choose to have mercy, I will have compassion on whom I choose to have compassion. You see, it is not a question of human will or effort but of the divine mercy. read more. Why, scripture says to Pharaoh, It was for this that I raised you up, to display my power in you, and to spread news of my name over all the earth. Thus God has mercy on anyone just as he pleases, and he makes anyone stubborn just as he pleases. "Then," you will retort, "why does he go on finding fault? Who can oppose his will?" But who are you, my man, to speak back to God? Is something a man has moulded to ask him who has moulded it, "Why did you make me like this?" What! has the potter no right over the clay? Has he no right to make out of the same lump one vessel for a noble purpose and another for a menial? What if God, though desirous to display his anger and show his might, has tolerated most patiently the objects of his anger, ripe and ready to be destroyed? What if he means to show the wealth that lies in his glory for the objects of his mercy, whom he has made ready beforehand to receive glory ??24 that is, for us whom he has called from among the Gentiles as well as the Jews?

"Thou deservest, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for it was thou who didst create all things: they existed and were created by thy will."