Thread: Why are the Israelites God's chosen people?
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Why are the Israelites God's chosen people?
Posted : 25 Dec, 2010 07:04 AM
Why are the Israelites God's chosen people?
God does not play favorites among His people, however, the Bible does tell us that God's chosen people are the Jewish race because they were the ONLY ones to obey Him in lieu of other gods.
Deuteronomy 7:6 says, "For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession." This does not mean they are automatically "saved" and will go to Heaven. In order to assurance of eternal life in heaven, one must believe in God's Son, Jesus. Because of God's Promise to redeem the Jews in the end times, Israel will turn to her Messiah and be saved. So, in the meantime, any believers in Jesus are "grafted in" and may partake of the Tree of Life.
What are the factors that were involved in God's selection of Israel?
His instructions to mankind, as a whole, had been challenged by a united rebellion of the people against Him at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), and He then forcibly confounded their languages and divided them into distinct nations.
His promise of a coming Redeemer to reconcile a lost world to Himself required that God should become man some day and He would thus have to be born into a particular nation and people.
Such a nation would have to be prepared, both by divine revelation and national experience, to be the nation through which the Savior would come.
All of the nations formed as a result of the judgment at Babel were already in rebellion against God and unsuitable for this purpose.
God, therefore, chose one man, Abraham, to establish a new nation through which "all families of the earth would be blessed."
Not only are the people of Israel special and God's chosen people, but the land is also special. In Deuteronomy 11:12, we read, "It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end." God is working out Israel's salvation from the time of the Old Testament. He desired the Messiah to appear there, and that the church would be formed there.
He has a sound plan for His people and His land. In the next few years, most of the Jewish people in the world will actually live in the land of Israel, and today, we have seen much of that happening. Over a million new immigrants have returned home, and they have come from the north (former USSR) and south (Ethiopia) just as Isaiah from the Bible said they would. God is bringing about a profound spiritual change to the people, so God's eternal plan will then be worked out for Israel, for the Church, and for the world. It will be worked out in the physical land of Israel and with the people who have returned from all the nations of the earth. The end results will be an eternal age of peace and blessing for all mankind. Watch for the 3rd Temple to be built in the near future, this will confirm to us The Great Tribulation has started and the year of our Lord is coming at the end of this period.
Yes Israel has been the people the Father had chosen for Himself,through whom He would reveal Himself to the world.
Israel is the apple of the Fathers eye.
Zec 2:7 Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.
Zec 2:8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
Zec 2:9 For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me.
Isreal is a cup of trembling:
Zec 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
Zec 12:2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
Zec 12:3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
Isreal will see their Meshiach-Messiah-Redeemer:
This has not happened yet.
Zec 12:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Zec 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Zec 12:11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
Though anyone could have become a Jew in the Old Covenant.
Exo 12:41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
Exo 12:42 It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.
Exo 12:43 And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof:
Exo 12:44 But every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.
Exo 12:45 A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.
Exo 12:46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof.
Exo 12:47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
Exo 12:48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.
Exo 12:49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
Israel are the chosen people of the Father.
These chosen people were to be looking towards the day when the Father would fulfill His promise of sending His Meshiach to redeem Israel.
Christians are the chosen of GOD in Yeshua/Jesus,Yet both Jew and Gentiles.
We look forward to the return of Yeshua/Jesus according to His Word.
Yet now both Jew and Gentile are to be trusting Yeshua to be saving them fromthe wrath of GOD,both now and when we will be seeing Him.
Here is the total Old Covenant Scriptural promise of the Father to His chosen people Israel concerning Meshiach-Messiah.
Zec 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
Zec 12:2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
Zec 12:3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
Zec 12:4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
Zec 12:5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
Zec 12:6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
Zec 12:7 The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.
Zec 12:8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
Zec 12:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Zec 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Zec 12:11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
Zec 12:12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
Zec 12:13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;
Zec 12:14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
Zec 13:1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
This day is still future for both Israel and the Gentiles.
Fellas, I'm going to take a different slant on this.
If I take two horses I like and breed them to get a foal and raise it, that is alot different than going to a auction and choosing one to buy.
If I buy a bicycle frame and all the components and build my own bicycle that is a lot different than going to the bike shops and choosing one out of many.
God did not look around the world and decide to choose the Jews, rather He chose to make a people for Himself to reveal Himself to the world. However he did choose Abraham and Sarah to start with.
Though YHWH had chosen Abe and Sarah,He also chose Israel to be His own.
Deu 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
Deu 7:7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
Deu 7:8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deu 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Deu 7:10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
Deu 7:11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.
Deu 7:12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:
This sure looks as though the LORD chose Israel for His own.
Yes, Israel are God's chosen people. Why? Because He chose them. Many things have come as a result of that - the Messiah, redemption of mankind, etc., but that's not *why* they are God's chosen people. And it certainly isn't through any merit of their own.
YHWH made a covenant with Abram; his descendants are His people. We have been grafted into that family, as the Bride of Yeshua Hamashiach, but the fact is the only reason Israel are God's chosen people are that He chose them.
Through that chosen-ness, the entire cosmos is blessed. But there's a common misunderstanding regarding the why and the because.
Trucker please pay special attention to the capitalized words in the scriptures you posted:
Deu 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee TO BE a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. Deu 7:7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: Deu 7:8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would KERP THE OATH which he had SWORN unto your FATHERS, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Deu 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which KEEPETH COVENANT and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; Deu 7:10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. Deu 7:11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them. Deu 7:12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he SWARE unto thy FATHERS.
