D9-4: Out Of All The Nations In The World, Why Did God Choose Israel To Be His Special Elect?

In yesterday’s post, I made a statement that I’m sure ticked off quite a few people…especially the liberal politically correct types.

What did I say that probably caused a few folks to become hot and heavy and filled with righteous indignation?

I said that…

…”it is God’s righteous plan that the Canaanites are to be ejected from the land and His people installed in their place”.

When you say things like that, people will protest with statements like…

“Why would a loving God choose to disinherit an indigenous people from their own land?“

Or…

“We’re all equal as human beings.  Israel isn’t inherently more righteous than anyone else and the Canaanites aren’t inherently evil.  It’s not their fault that they were born as Canaanites.”

Well, you know what?

There’s actually some truth to that last statement.

Israel was NOT a “righteous people” by their own nature and merit.

And the same goes for the Canaanites.

They were NOT inherently an evil race.

But here’s the thing a lot of folks overlook.

The Holy War to take the Land of Canaan had nothing to do with whether Israel was righteous or not.

That wasn’t even an issue.

The Holy War was all about God working out His own righteousness for His own purposes.

That’s an important distinction to make folks.

As I mentioned yesterday, Israel was simply a tool in God’s hand so he could implement His divine plan and exercise judgement against a people who had behaved wickedly for centuries.

To use a phrase that you’ll probably only hear in a seminary, “Israel was IMPUTED with God’s righteousness”.

And this is also what happens to us when we are born again.

We are NOT righteous by our own nature or merit.

We only become righteous once the Creator of the Universe has declared us righteous.

Let’s go a little deeper with this thought.

There is NOT one human being or family or tribe or nation that is inherently righteous in God’s eyes including Israel.

You don’t win some kind of salvation lottery by being born a Hebrew and lose by being born a gentile.

Heck from the Lord’s perspective, there are no accidents of birth anyway.

The only reason Israel was saved is because they were elected by God to be His special agent to work out His righteousness on this planet.

Now this leads us to another challenging question.

Why did God choose Israel to be his special elect and not choose the Chinese or any other people group for that matter?

Sorry to disappoint you but the only answer I have to that question is…

…”I don’t know“.

One thing I do know is that Israel’s election was not something that happened by cosmic chance.

For His own good reasons, God made a deliberate decision to make Israel His special elect.

Israel certainly didn’t appoint themselves. 

And the same applies to us and our salvation.

Our being “chosen” for salvation has absolutely nothing to do with the color of our skin, what language we speak, our social status, or whether we’re short or tall etcetera.

This is one of the mysteries of God.

In fact, the more I observe the world around me and the older I get, the more baffled I am at the mysteries of life and why some things turn out the way they do.

You may have experienced this if you ever went to your high school reunion for example.

Classmates who you were convinced would turn out to be great successes in life turned out to be quite the opposite and vice versa.

God chooses both the weak and the strong.

He chooses the popular and attractive people right along with those who are despised.

He chooses both the wise and the not so wise.

There seems to be no discernible pattern behind why God chooses some and rejects others.

Heck, Paul had no clue as to why Israel was chosen.

Even the writings of the ancient Rabbis on this topic are hazy and convoluted as all heck.

The best answer that anyone can seem to come up with is that Israel was chosen for the sake of His promises to Abraham and the patriarchs but even that answer is uncertain.

However, there are two things we can know with 100% certainty.

FIRST, as I already mentioned, there is no merit involved.

Israel being chosen was 100% grace.

Remember He saved Israel first and then afterwards gave them the Law.

SECOND, whether you like it or not, God did choose Israel and Israel will remain chosen for all eternity.

Whether you agree or disagree with that decision won’t change anything.

God will work out His Righteousness through His chosen vessel Israel and there is no force on earth or in the heavens that can do anything about it.

CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT