9:1–4  In his great paean of praise of the love of God in Christ Jesus, Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” and he assures us that nothing in all creation can separate us from that love—neither “famine” (cf. Amos 8:11–12) nor “sword” (cf. Amos 9:1, 4), “neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth . . .” (Rom. 8:31, 35, 38–39). But what Israel learns in this vision and its oracle is that none of those things can separate it from God’s wrath. When trust and obedience are missing, when the name of the Lord has been profaned by empty worship and oppression of the poor and helpless, when human pride has thought to form its own means of security, when responsibility within the covenant with God has been totally ignored, then the divine love ta…