Why are the Jews God’s chosen people?
There are two main answers to this question. God chose the Jews (the nation of Israel) to be His people; 1) Because He LOVES THEM; and 2) Because He HAS A SPECIAL PLAN FOR THEM. Both of these are brought out in Deuteronomy 7:6-8, “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but BECAUSE THE LORD LOVES YOU, and BECAUSE HE WOULD KEEP THE OATH WHICH HE SWORE TO YOUR FATHERS” (NKJV).
He chose them BECAUSE HE LOVES THEM! Why did He love them? We just read that His love for them was not based on anything special in and of themselves. They were not a GREAT people when He set His love on them; in fact, they were “the LEAST of all peoples.” So we conclude that “He loves them because He loves them!” That is, His love for them is rooted in Himself and not in them. We know from 1st John 4:8 that “God is love,” which means His very nature if one of LOVE. This means He can love the Jews because it’s His very nature to love, even though they are not deserving of His love. We call this GRACE, for “grace” is “unmerited favor.” The Jewish people had done nothing to “earn God’s love,” but in God’s amazing grace He loved them and chose them “to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.”
He chose them BECAUSE HE WOULD KEEP THE OATH WHICH HE SWORE TO THEIR FATHERS. What “oath” is this referring to and who are “the fathers?” The “oath” speaks of the PROMISE God had made to their forefathers…Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This promise began with Abraham as recorded in Genesis 12:1-2, “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing.” By an act of love and sovereign grace God chose Abram and called him out of an idolatrous country and led him into the Promised Land. He then promised him (by an OATH) He would “make him a great nation.” This was God’s SPECIAL PLAN; He would multiply Abraham’s seed and the Jewish people would become a great nation.
Included in this promise was another promise, which is the real key to understanding God’s SPECIAL PLAN for His chosen people. We will now quote and compare Genesis 22:17-18 and Galatians 3:16. Genesis 22:17-18 says, “Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your SEED shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Galatians 3:16 reads, “Now to Abraham and His Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to SEEDS,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your SEED,’ who is Christ.” One might have thought that the word “seed” in Genesis 22:18 referred to all of Abraham’s descendants, but the verse in Galatians 3:16 makes it clear that it refers to CHRIST! Abraham had MANY descendants but all the promises of God would actually be fulfilled in ONE of his descendants, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, we can say that God chose the Jews so that through them CHRIST would be born, and through Him all the nations of the world will be blessed.
Surely the Jews are a blessed people! As we have seen, it was because of God’s LOVE and God’s PLAN that they were chosen. It seems fitting to close with a passage that highlights this precious truth. “Who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons…the covenants….the promises….whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 9:4-5) (296.9) (DO)