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The adage that the Jews are God’s chosen people is taken from the book of Deuteronomy. It is the last book of the Jewish Torah and the fifth book of the Christian Bible.
Deuteronomy
7:6-8 [6] For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. [7] "The Lord did not choose you and lavish his love on you because you were larger or greater than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! [8] It was simply because the Lord loves you, and because he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors...
Why the Jews
From all the nations and people on the earth, why exactly did God choose the Jews? Joh Gill, in his Exposition of the Entire Bible says the Jews were "chosen for special service and worship, and to enjoy special privileges and benefits, civil and religious; though they were not chosen to special grace…or eternal glory." The latter portion of the quote indicates that the Jews do not inherit eternal life solely on the basis of their ethnicity. They must be bornagain through faith in Jesus.
The sense in which Jews can be called chosen has perimeters, but nonetheless is justifiable. God assigned the Jews aspects of uniqueness that are distinctive from all other ethnic groups. God chose them to give us the prophets and Apostles who penned all but two books of the Bible. He chose that the Messiah, the Savior of the World, Jesus, would be born of the Jewish race. It is through Jesus that God fulfills His promise that all of the nations of the earth would be blessed through the Jewish descendants of Abraham (Gen 12:3). The blessings that have come to the world via the descendants of Abraham are not limited to the spiritual dimension. The measure to which they have contributed to the arts, medicine, the sciences and business are incalculable.
A light to the Gentiles
The Jews were chosen to be a light to the Gentiles in numerous ways. (Act 13:46-47) I will offer two of them. Idolatrous Gentile nations surrounded ancient Israel. It could be said that it served as an evangelistic nation. The standard of divine favor that Israel and its inhabitants experienced, when obedient to God, signaled to other nations the value of worshipping the One True God. Its prosperity, blessed crops, absence of sickness, prophets’ healing power and the supernatural victories that God gave Israel in battle were impressive to neighboring nations (Deu 28:1-14, Jos 21:44-45). In addition, any heathen who listened to their prophets understood that at an appointed time the Messiah would come to extend grace to the inhabitants of every country.
Even in periods when they were in captivity, if they maintained their allegiance to the Covenant, God promised to favor them in the midst of their enemies (Jer 29:4-14). The biblical accounts of the lives of Esther, Daniel, Nehemiah and Ezra confirm God’s faithfulness to the Jews. The fact that the Jews have prospered under adverse circumstances in every nation that they have inhabited also confirms the continuance of Divine favor.
A second way in which the Jews bring light to the Gentiles reaches into the life of every believer. Many are oblivious to the extent to which the spiritual values that we cherish are rooted in the religious observances of the Jews and God’s covenant with Abraham. The Apostle Paul said that the following concepts pertained to them: the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the service (worship) of God, and the promises (Rom 9:4-5). He made an astounding statement concerning the Jews (Rom 9:1-3, 10:1). Paul volunteered that if it were possible to exchange his own salvation for his kinsmen coming to Christ, he would willingly make the exchange.
Chosen to Help us Understand Mercy
Here are some of the things that contemporary Christians derive directly, wittingly and unwittingly, from that which God originally imparted to the Jews. We can understand more about God’s grace in choosing us to be saved because of His purposed adoption of the insignificant Jews, whose insignificance we share. We can have confidence about God’s covenantal faithfulness to us even when we blunder, because of His patient mercies towards the Jews in the midst of all of their failures. Reading about the Jews sacrificing animals to atone for sins imprints a greater appreciation for the value of the atoning blood of Jesus on our hearts. With finality the single sacrifice of the blood of Jesus accomplished what could not be done through the millions of gallons of innocent animal’s blood that was shed during the first 1,500 years of Judaism.
Moses’ face shined with God’s glory and caused others to revere him. It eventually faded. Christians have a glory that increases as we flow in Spirit of the Lord (2Co 3:13-18). The practice of singing songs of worship that are based upon God’s attributes and mercies is taken directly from the Psalms of David. The Jews read the Torah and the prophets in religious services. We do the same with the entire Bible. The sermons that we most respect are punctuated with biblical proof texts. That practice was also handed down to us through the Jews. All of the promises of God for us are yes and amen (2Co 1:20). This includes the promises for divine healing and reasonable prosperity that He gave to the Jews (Exo 23:25, Deu 8:18, Mat 8:16-17, 3Jo 1:2).
Chosen to Enrich the Scriptures
Sunday school would be a boring place were it not for the Bible stories of Jewish heroes. Our New Testament would be a pamphlet rather than a book were it not for the Old Testament references that fill its pages. If the Messianic passages of the Old Testament that foretold Jesus’ virgin birth and His atoning sacrifice were absent from the New Testament, it could prompt many to write Him off as simply another mythological figure. Many cultures have heroes who allegedly performed mighty exploits because they were supposedly born of the gods. Unlike the Jewish Messiah, none of those supposed god-man figures had the backing of 2,000 years of recorded predictions relating to their births, lives, deeds and eternal dominion.
Types and Shadows
Nearly everything that happened to Israel was a type and a shadow of God’s future dealings with the Church (1Co 10:6, Heb 10:1). God’s admonishments that Israel stay purely devoted to Him are now applicable to the entire Church that is comprised of bornagain Jews and Gentiles. Israel was once His only holy nation. The word holy denotes being set apart by God for His purposes. Biblically the word nation infers ethnicity as well as it does a country with defined borders. Christians are described as members of God’s holy nation. However, anyone who reads the Bible with an open mind can easily conclude that a Jewish remnant will come to salvation and that they and the nation of Israel are partners in the holy nation status. (1Pe 2:9, Rom 9:27, 11:5). The word remnant does not necessarily denote that only a small number of Jews will be part of His Body as this age draws to a close. It is relative to the numerical quantity of Jews who have lived since the days of antiquity.
The membership of Jews in the Church will dramatically increase before the Second Advent. In regard to the holy nation status, Gentile and Jewish believers and the nation of Israel are inextricably interrelated. During the millennial reign of Jesus redeemed Jews and Gentiles will serve as Christ’s co-rulers over this planet. Jerusalem will be the capital city of the Lord’s government (Rev 5:10, 20:6, Isa 66:18-23, Zec 14:16-21).
A Holy Nation
The awareness that the Church is now God’s holy nation should not nullify our perceptions about the chosen status of the Jews and the nation of Israel. The Old Testament is resplendent with prophecies about the restoration of Israel and a future massive ingathering of Jews to the Body of Christ (Eze 20:33-37). If those many prophecies go unfulfilled, we have no reason to perceive the prophecies concerning the glorious future of the Church as reliable. The Bible warns us not to be boastfully conceited about the fact that the Jews have been temporarily blinded about the Messiah-ship of Jesus. It is apparent that He regards the composition of His Body as incomplete until they are engrafted (Rom 11:11-12, 15, 23-29). It is interesting to note that the gifts and callings of God were not conditional loans to the Jews. Verses 28 and 29 of Romans the eleventh chapter make it emphatically clear that the Jew’s status of being the elect/chosen/selected of God is a gift to them that is irrevocable. In other words, once chosen always chosen.
It is also good to keep in mind that there were two Gentile military officers whom God rewarded in unique ways. Both had exemplified love for the Jews and their homeland. When the Jewish elders of Jesus' day wanted Him to come and heal the Gentile centurion's servant they offered Him a good reason to do so. When Jesus heard that the man loved the Jewish people and had built them a synagogue, He sent the Spirit of Faith for healing to the man's home and the servant was healed (Luk 7:2-10). The first occurrence of Gentiles experiencing the joys of salvation and the baptism in the Holy Spirit was prompted by the righteous acts of one Gentile toward the Jewish people. The angel of the Lord clearly told Cornelius that his gifts to the Jews had come before God as a memorial of his kindness. As a result God graced all of his friends and relatives with the gift of eternal life (Act 10:1-5, 24, 34-48)..
Anti-Semitism
Some anti-Semitic groups erroneously assert that the Jews, the Hebrews, and the Israelites are separate, distinctive people groups. They try to persuade their adherents that Christians are the true Hebrews and that the Church, independent of a future ingathering of Jews, is the sole true Israel of God. They regard the Jews as despicable enemies of God. The words of the Apostle Paul undermine such assertions. Most should be willing to admit that Paul had a correct understanding of the terms Jews, Israelites, and Hebrews. He claimed to be all three. Though he was born of the tribe of Benjamin he proclaimed that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, an Israelite and a Jew (Rom 11:1, Phi 3:5, Act 21:39). The terms might be defined in the following manner. The words Jew and Jewish refer to religion and culture. Hebrew and Hebrews refer to a language and a genealogy that can be traced back to Abraham and Isaac. Israelites are those born within Israel’s borders to citizens of Israel. Israel is a synonym for two things. Israel was the new name that God gave to Jacob when He wrestled with him throughout the night (Gen 32:25-28). It is also God’s appointed homeland of the Jews. He gave it to them and the entire borders of the nation will eventually be restored to them as their everlasting possession (Gen 13:14-17, 15:8, Jos 1:2-5, Psa 105:7-11, Isa 11:11, Jer 16:15-18). Most Christians are unaware of a strategic fact relating to the Jew’s right to Israel. Between 1933-35, 164,000 Jewish immigrants from Europe paid the Arab landowners of the region $20,000,000 for the area that is known as Israel.
Risky Business
God watches over the destinies of all nations. Israel is unique in that it is the only land on earth that God has promised to a people of a specific ethnicity. God says that judgments are impending for those who divide/partition the land that He calls His heritage (Joe 3:2, Lev 25:23). Therefore, it is unwise for Christians to hold politically correct attitudes that minimize the Jew’s right to Israel as their homeland. We are not obligated to endorse every policy of Israel’s present-day government. Christians do, however, carry a measure of responsibility to intercede for Israel until it is esteemed as praiseworthy in the earth. There are the reasons that this is so.
The Lord says that He has appointed watchmen to intercede for the future of Jerusalem and Israel (Isa 62:1-12). It is unlikely that this assignment is solely allocated to the Jews who pray daily at the remaining portion of the Western Wall of Herod’s Temple. It is Christians who have the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith to inspire them to believe that all of God’s promises are sure. These include God’s promise that as long as there is day and night and as long as the heavenly bodies continue to orbit, His plans for the Jews and Israel remain intact (Jer 33:19-26).
Two Folds – One Flock
Jesus said that His earthly ministry’s primary focus was the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He also said that He had sheep that were of another fold. Unquestionably, He was speaking of the Gentiles who would accept Him as their Shepherd through the evangelistic efforts of His ministers. The gist is that the Lord perceives Himself as the Shepherd of two folds of whom He will create one flock, the Church (Mat 15:24, Joh 10:16).
Chosen to be Fellowcitizens in the Kingdom
The Bible teaches that through salvation Gentile believers are no longer aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Commonwealth is a civil/governmental term. The Greek word for it means citizenship. The blood of Jesus broke down the wall of enmity between Jews and Gentiles. It is God’s intention that both have access to Him through faith in Jesus. He incorporates both to create one New Man who is designed to be the habitation of the Godhead through the Holy Spirit. Salvation makes Gentiles and Jews fellowcitizens of Israel (Eph 2:11-22). Most Christians acknowledge that citizenship infers responsibilities. Personally, I do not want to stand before the Lord on Judgment Day with a history of uncharitable attitudes about His kinsmen and their nation on my conscience (Mat 25:31-46).
Chosen to Need Jesus
The New Testament teaches that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, have "missed the mark" (Rom 3:23). All of us are under the consequences of sin, and "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). We are all in need of salvation from our sin; we are all in need of a Savior. The New Testament teaches that Jesus the Messiah is "the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father", but through Him (Joh 14:6). And most importantly, "there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which it is necessary for us to be saved" (Act 4:12).
For the Jews, Jesus the Messiah has come as High Priest, and through His once-for-all sacrifice for sin offers complete atonement to all people. In regards to the need for personal salvation there is "no distinction" between Jews and Gentiles. (Rom 10:12) Yes, the Jews are God’s chosen people, and through them came the Jewish Messiah to bless all the nations of the earth. Chosen they are, but it does not exempt them from the necessity of receiving God’s complete atonement and forgiveness through faith that Jesus is God’s Son whom the Holy Spirit raised from the dead. Christians who pray for the end-time ingathering of the Jews into the flock of the Lord make a strategic contribution to hastening His Coming.
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