And I will sow her for myself in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them who were not my people, you are my people; and they shall say, you are my God.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
And not only is the operation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit everywhere one, but also there is one and the same will, calling and giving of commands, which one may see in the great and saving mystery of the church. For as the Father called the Gentiles to the church, saying, “I will call her my people which was Not my people, and her beloved who was not beloved;” and elsewhere, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations,” so too the Lord Jesus to Ananias: “Go, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before all nations.” .
And the holy people inherited an eternal kingdom; the holy people who were chosen instead of the people. For “he provoked them to jealousy with a people that was not a people. And with a foolish people he angered them.” For even if one has served the heathen, as soon as ever he draws near to the covenant of God, he is set free. The Gentiles are the new people chosen by God to replace the people of the old covenant as foretold by the prophet.
“You who were once not a people but now are the people of God, who did not seek after mercy but now have received mercy.” By these verses he indicates clearly that he has written this letter to those who had come from the Gentiles to the faith, who were once separated from the way of life of the people of God but then through the grace of faith were joined to his people and obtained the mercy that they did not know how to hope for. He takes them, however, from the prophet Hosea, who predicted the calling of the Gentiles and said, “I shall call [those who were] not my people my people and [those who did] not receive mercy [a people] having received mercy. And it will be in the place where it was said, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called sons of the living God.” :.
Here to prevent their saying that you are deceiving us here with specious reasoning, he calls Hosea to witness, who cries and says, “I will call them my people, who were not my people.” Who then are the notpeople? Plainly, the Gentiles. And who are the notbeloved? The same again. However, he says, they shall become at once people, and beloved, and children of God. “For even they shall be called,” he says, “the children of the living God.” But if they should assert that this was said of those of the Jews who believed, even then the argument stands. For if with those who after so many benefits were hardhearted and estranged and had lost their being as a people, so great a change was wrought, what is there to prevent even those who were not estranged after being taken to him but were originally aliens, from being called, and, provided they obey, from being counted worthy of the same blessings? Having then done with Hosea, he does not content himself with him only, but also brings Isaiah i...
