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I suggest you are misinterpreting the "what if" here. You read it a statement of what God might have done, but did not do.
Besides, note how the NASB renders this text:
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles
If the NASB is correct here, your interpretation fails since clearly the "what if" must have actually happened precisely because this "made known" God's riches to the vessels of mercy. In any event, I think you are not reading the sentence properly - the "what if" covers both the "vessels of destruction" and the "vessels of mercy".
Let's look at Mounce Reverse-Interlinear New Testament translation from the Greek:
Romans 9:20-24
But who are you, a mere mortal, to criticize God? Certainly the thing that is molded may not say to the one who molded it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay some pottery for a special occasion and other for common use? 22 What if God, willing to display his wrath and make known his power, has endured with great patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And what if he did so in order to make known the riches of his glory to the objects of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory—24 even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles.
But who are you, a mere mortal, to criticize God? Certainly the thing that is molded may not say to the one who molded it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay some pottery for a special occasion and other for common use? 22 What if God, willing to display his wrath and make known his power, has endured with great patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And what if he did so in order to make known the riches of his glory to the objects of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory—24 even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles.
Some Jewish converts thought that only the Jews should be able to inherit eternal life through Jesus Christ. Paul is telling them that they are mistaken.
God has chosen to grant the believing Gentiles mercy in addition to granting mercy to the believing Jews. Paul is teaching the convert Roman Jews this fact in a long, drawn-out Semitic manner of speaking.
Paul is teaching these Jewish converts that God's ways are not they think God's ways should be and that His thoughts are not what they think God's thoughts should be. Paul is telling them that they should not question God's granting of His mercy to the Gentiles and that they should also not question His reasons for granting His mercy to the Gentiles.
But forget all that - it's clear that God has hardened Israel!:
For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery-so that you will not be wise in your own estimation-that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in
And, again, there is the stuff about God sending Israel a stupor. Your position on all this requires that you claim that such statements mean something other than what they say on a literal reading. I do not deny this possibility, but you need to provide independent evidence to support such a dramatically non-literal reading. ........
Back to the 'what if': This is a perfectly legitimate form of speech to characterize something that actually happened. Example: Imagine a mother tells a child this: "What if your father is coming home early and will see your room is a mess". Does this mean the father is not coming home early? Maybe, maybe not.
Isaiah 55:6-9
“Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. rsv
“Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. rsv
Bottom Line:
The Jewish converts are questioning why God is permitting the Gentiles to be saved. Paul is telling them that God has His own reasons for saving the Gentiles and that the Jewish converts shouldn't be spending their time fruitlessly questioning God's thoughts, motives, and actions.
We will agree to disagree.
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