In this session we step into what may be the hardest and most searching chapter in all of Paul's letters, Romans 9, and we find that the apostle himself teaches it not with cold logic but with great sorrow and unceasing anguish for his own people. Working carefully through the account of Israel within Israel, we see from Ishmael and Isaac, and then decisively from Jacob and Esau, that God's choice was made before the twins were born and before either had done anything good or bad, resting not on works but on him who calls. If you have ever wrestled with the fairness of God's sovereign choice, or wondered how election and the tears of a shepherd's heart can belong together, this teaching is for you.