The question concerning “Israel Chosen by God”.

There seemed to be a lot of debate concerning whether it is right to refer to Israel as chosen by God. If we focus on the mentioned question we miss the point. If, however we focus on Jesus as our redeemer whom God sent in His love to redeem us to Himself, we see that God did choose Israel to reveal Himself and His salvation to the World.  Isaiah 62:2 said “The nations will see your vindication and all kings your glory. Then you will be called by a new name which ADONAI himself will pronounce.”

• God chose the nation of Israel for a specific mission whom He foreordained. The mission to reveal Himself to the world and to facilitate the plan of salvation. This culminates in the Messiah, Jesus’s death on the Cross and His resurrection. Being chosen was mission based, not superiority. Israel was chosen for a special purpose, to display God’s grace and righteous judgment.
• God used Israel to demonstrate His faithfulness to the covenant He made to Abraham. The mentioned is demonstrated through the history of Israel, that serves as a shadow of the things to come. God used Israel to further demonstrate His ability to fulfil His covenant promise, and that He is not reliant upon our own inability. The history of Israel demonstrates God’s ability and faithfulness, so that we can believe and trust in Him to do just as He said He will do.
• God intended for Israel to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” as in Exodus 19:5-6), to mediating God’s presence and righteousness to surrounding nations.  “Now if you will pay careful attention to what I say and keep my covenant, then you will be my own treasure from among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you will be a kingdom of cohanim for me, a nation set apart.’ These are the words you are to speak to the people of Isra’el.” The mentioned was part of the plan to position Israel to fulfil it’s purpose of ushering in Salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. Jesus confirmed this unique role, stating in John 4:22 that “You people don’t know what you are worshipping; we worship what we do know, because salvation comes from the Jews.”

The above mentioned was the stage set by God to perform His plan of Salvation, the crucifixion of Jesus the Messiah as the Lamb of God. For this final plan to come in fulfilment the below mentioned had to happen :

• According to Paul, in Romans 11: 11-12 “In that case, I say, isn’t it that they have stumbled with the result that they have permanently fallen away?” Heaven forbid! Quite the contrary, it is by means of their stumbling that the deliverance has come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy. Moreover, if their stumbling is bringing riches to the world—that is, if Isra’el’s being placed temporarily in a condition less favored than that of the Gentiles, in bringing riches to the latter—how much greater riches will Isra’el in its fullness bring them! Paul is saying that Salvation only came to the gentiles because of Israel, as the high priest who rejected Jesus as the Messiah and subsequently crucified Him for our Salvation.

Through their stumbling we have been blessed with the following :

• We the Gentiles have been grafted into the Olive Tree (Israel) as we became, through Jesus, part of Israel as in Ephesians 2:11-16 “Therefore, remember your former state: you Gentiles by birth—called the Uncircumcised by those who, merely because of an operation on their flesh, are called the Circumcised— at that time had no Messiah. You were estranged from the national life of Isra’el. You were foreigners to the covenants embodying God’s promise. You were in this world without hope and without God. But now, you who were once far off have been brought near through the shedding of the Messiah’s blood. For He Himself is our shalom—he has made us both one and has broken down the m’chitzah (the partition) which divided us by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances. He did this in order to create in union with himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom, ¹and in order to reconcile to God both in a single body by being executed on a stake as a criminal and thus in himself killing that enmity.
• Paul states that the rejection was part of God’s plan to incorporate the gentiles into His plan, in order to reconcile us Jew and gentile to Himself as one single body. God did it through Israel who had to suffer their rejection of the Messiah so that we can be saved. We as gentiles have been blessed with a new God-given destiny as in Romans 11:30-32 “Just as you yourselves were disobedient to God before but have received mercy now because of Isra’el’s disobedience; so also Isra’el has been disobedient now, so that by your showing them the same mercy that God has shown you, they too may now receive God’s mercy. For God has shut up all mankind together in disobedience, in order that he might show mercy to all.

We only received God’s love through their stumbling by rejecting the Messiah through the crucifixion of Jesus. What would have happened if they, the Jews, did not come into their God given purpose? We as gentiles will be without a Savior. God foreordained us as gentiles to provoke them to jealousy as we share with them the same love we received in Christ Jesus. We are not called to condemn, but to draw them through love out of thankfulness for their “obedience” to the call. We as gentiles have received the opportunity to step into our God-given purpose to draw them into the fulness of God’s plan as we show them love. Remember if Jesus had not been crucified there would be no atonement for our sin through His blood.

Consider God’s Word spoken through Zechariah 8:20-23 “ADONAI-Tzva’ot says, ‘In the future, peoples and inhabitants of many cities will come; the inhabitants of one city will travel to another and say, “We must go to ask ADONAI’s favor and consult ADONAI-Tzva’ot. I’ll go too.”Yes, many peoples and powerful nations will come to consult ADONAI-Tzva’ot in Yerushalayim and to ask ADONAI’s favor.’ ADONAI-Tzva’ot says, ‘When that time comes, ten men will take hold—speaking all the languages of the nations—will grab hold of the cloak of a Jew and say, “We want to go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.”‘”