There is a reason. You just don't like the reason, because it means that He, not you, determines the outcome.
Not at all. There are many things (like the situation I am going through) that I realize is God's will and plan for a greater purpose for good. I realize like with the life of Job, that we as believers can suffer. I realize there are things in this world that are temporary. But these things are to draw us closer to God. However, when we are talking about things that are eternal and beyond this physical world, we should be able to see God's love and goodness even brighter and even more clearer. You cannot explain how the morality I gave in a simple parable does not apply to God.
You said:
"For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (Romans 9:15)
God is not talking about being mercurial or fickle with His emotions here. God is love. God is longsuffering towards us and not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance; God does not change.
As for Romans 9:15:
Let's look at Romans 9 briefly to see what it is talking about.
When you read
Romans 9:1-13, you have to read it in terms of how Paul is talking to the Jews (
Romans 9:3-6) and not all individuals and how he is trying to tell them that the purpose of Election of the Promises is through the line of the Messiah with Jacob's line and not Esau's line.
Romans 9:13 is not saying God literally loved Jacob and literally hated Esau as individuals (cf.
Luke 14:26). Paul is using them as examples of how God was all powerful enough to know which family line to use so as to bring the Promised Messiah (i.e. Jesus). That is what "Election" here is talking about in
Romans 9. It is not talking about individual "Election" but it is talking about the "Election of the Promise" or the genealogical line that Jesus would come through. The Jews were claiming that they were saved based on being of the seed of Abraham and in keeping God's Laws. But they rejected their Messiah. God does not have to conform to old Jewish ways of thinking just because they rejected their Messiah. He will have mercy on whom He will's in the manner He will's with the Messiah that He has chosen (Which was Jesus Christ).
Now, when you read
Romans 9:14-16: Well, you have to realize that it is talking about God's plan of salvation with Jesus Christ being their Messiah of whom the Jews rejected. God is saying He will have mercy in the WAY God wants to do things and not according to Jewish thoughts or beliefs (Which one of their ways they considered a person to be right with God was through circumcision - See
Romans 3:1). Paul is talking about the salvation of the Jews here (see Romans 9:3-4). So Romans 9:15 has to be read from the perspective of this understanding.
Then, when you read
Romans 9:17-18: Well, you have to realize it is making a parallel. For there is a parallel being made of how God is Sovereign and just in setting up the Promised Line of the Messiah (i.e. by having mercy on whom He wills) versus raising up Pharaoh into power to show God's power. How was God's power shown in the life of the Pharoah? By God making the Pharoah wealthy? Not exactly. God allowed Pharoah to be raised up so that God's power was shown in the life of God's miracles being displayed such as the Ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. This is why Paraoah was raised up. It was so that God's power (or miracles) could be displayed (and proclaimed to all the Earth) to get people to be in fear of God (like Rahab). Just as God had chosen the line of the Messiah so as to display His power (and proclaim such a thing to all the Earth). So this was not some kind of point to prove individual election but to prove the Election of the Promised Line of the Messiah (Who is Jesus Christ). For Jesus is the greatest miracle (of the best form of Election) that there is.
Anyways, when you read on down to verse 24 (
Romans 9:24), the point is clear what Paul is really talking about.
You said:
Mercy is NOT obligatory, otherwise it would not be mercy.
This makes no sense in light of Christ's teaching of saying that we are to forgive 70 x 7 (Matthew 18:21-22). Jesus says, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." (Matthew 6:14). Jesus did not say, if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father may not forgive you because His under no obligation to do so that day.
22 "
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great
is thy faithfulness.." (Lamentations 3:22-23).
"But thou, O Lord,
art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth." (Psalms 86:15).
"For I
am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." (Malachi 3:6).
...