Daily Bible Reading

² God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? ³ “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.” ⁴ But what is the divine reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵ So, too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ⁶ But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

‍⁷ What then? Israel has not achieved what it was pursuing. The elect have achieved it, but the rest were hardened, ⁸ as it is written,
 “God gave them a sluggish spirit,
  eyes that would not see
  and ears that would not hear,
 down to this very day.”
‍⁹ And David says,
 “Let their table become a snare and a trap,
  a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
 ¹⁰ let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
  and keep their backs forever bent.”