Prophet Hosea; Holy Martyrs Cosmas and Damian, the Unmercenaries of Cilicia (4th c.); Monastic Martyr Andrew of Crete

So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

¹⁹You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?” ²⁰But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” ²¹Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? ²²What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, ²³and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.” ²⁶“It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

²⁷Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved; ²⁸for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”

²⁹As Isaiah has said before, “Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.”

³⁰What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; ³¹but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. ³²Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³³even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”

John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he doesn’t follow with us.”

⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Don’t forbid him, for he who is not against us is for us.”

⁵¹It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem ⁵²and sent messengers before his face. They went and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for him. ⁵³They didn’t receive him, because he was traveling with his face set toward Jerusalem. ⁵⁴When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky and destroy them, just as Elijah did?”

⁵⁵But he turned and rebuked them, “You don’t know of what kind of spirit you are.

⁵⁶For the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” They went to another village.