Now it is not as though God’s word has failed. Clearly, not everyone descended from Israel is part of Israel or a descendant of Abraham. However, ⌊as Scripture says,⌋ “Through Isaac your descendants will carry on your name.”
This means that children born by natural descent ⌊from Abraham⌋ are not necessarily God’s children. Instead, children born by the promise are considered Abraham’s descendants.
For example, this is what the promise said, “I will come back at the right time, and Sarah will have a son.” The same thing happened to Rebekah. Rebekah became pregnant by our ancestor Isaac. Before the children had been born or had done anything good or bad, Rebekah was told that the older child would serve the younger one.
This was said to Rebekah so that God’s plan would remain a matter of his choice, a choice based on God’s call and not on anything people do. The Scriptures say, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”
What can we say—that God is unfair? That’s unthinkable! For example, God said to Moses, “I will be kind to anyone I want to. I will be merciful to anyone I want to.” Therefore, God’s choice does not depend on a person’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. (Romans 9:6-16 (GW)
"Who says life is fair?" That's the response a parent might say when a child complains about something. Of course, it doesn't set well with the child and it's not a helpful answer.
Fairness is something we all tend to expect, but it's not a realistic expectation. Too many variables exist in everyday life, especially when it comes to the collision of free wills of billions of humans in the world.
Still, when things seem unfair we often wonder why it's so. Then, God becomes an easy target for blame. I think this is not only because of our selfish free will, but our penchant for reducing relationship with God to a set of laws.
When people construct clever legal reasoning to explain what God does and why He does it, they've reduced God to a set of rules and expectations. But God cannot and will not fit into any box of laws, rules, or expectations we might construct.
God is far more merciful than we can comprehend, and far more just than we like to accept. God is not unfair, but our expectations of Him and others often are. ©Word-Strong_2016