A taster article from this month’s magazine:
The chosen people
SOMETIMES we are confused by the idea of God choosing people. It leads to the thought that if someone is not interested or if there is no response to our preaching efforts, it is because the person or people have not been chosen. This may be true in one sense, but not in a way that takes away an individual’s responsibility or freedom of choice.
It helps, when we consider the people of Israel, to understand the basis of God’s choice. We can see it operating in the person of Abram. Why was he chosen? The answer must be, because God saw his faith. God understood that Abram’s heart was not in Ur of the Chaldees, with its sophisticated worldliness. He longed for a “city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10, NKJV). He wanted a society governed by those values that derive from the very character of God – eternal values.
In being prepared to leave country and kinsmen, he demonstrated the strength of his faith. “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God” (Romans 4:20 – Quotations from ESV, unless otherwise stated) – a promise that concerned a people, a land and a seed to bring blessings to all nations. In his life in Canaan, despite some moments of weakness, he never lost his conviction that God’s purpose would triumph, even beyond the grave.
So God’s choice of Abram was based on Abram’s choice of God. God called Abram in response to Abram’s desire. God gives us our heart’s desire, for good or for ill. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). His choice of people relates to their desire to serve Him or otherwise; it is not an arbitrary or inexplicable matter. Paul wrote that “the promise to Abraham and his offspring” came about “through the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4:13). Abram became Abraham because of that faith.
God with us – in weakness and in strength
Abraham’s outstanding faith, then, was the basis of God’s covenant relationship with him and his seed. The promises were repeated to Isaac and Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. As we read the Bible narrative of the lives of the patriarchs, we realise how imperfect is the material that God works with. But in their very weaknesses, as well as in their strengths, these families were witnessing to God’s ways. They illustrate so well that He is calling sinners to repentance and that His purpose can find a way through failure as much as through success.
God assured Jacob: “Behold I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:15). Jacob in his life’s experiences lived out this promise. It was a pattern for the people named after him. For the children of Israel are witnesses to God’s unfailing love – that does not alter when it alteration finds.
The chequered history of his twelve sons highlights this truth. Joseph’s desire to save his brothers was a model that anticipates so well how God will enter into a new covenant with them, when they come face to face with Christ at his return, and repent (Zechariah 12:10-14). With characteristic perception, Joseph looked back over the long, painful and challenging progress of his life, and discerned the hand of God at work: “God sent me before you to preserve life … to preserve for you a remnant on earth” (Genesis 45:5,7).
“To preserve life” and “to preserve for you a remnant on earth”. These twin purposes are inextricable and help us to understand better the role of the children of Israel in God’s purpose.
God’s choice of Israel was not to make them an exclusive race who would enjoy His favour at the expense of all others. The covenant with Abraham was the catalyst for blessings to extend to all nations:
“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.” (Genesis 17:4-6)
The children of Israel were being given the privilege and the responsibility to live by the faith that characterised Abraham’s life. They would witness so well to the fact that God works in people’s lives despite their weaknesses. By their example, people from other nations could be drawn to God. The preservation of life would involve a remnant because there had to be a continuity of men and women through whom God would work. By them He could show to all men His unfailing love and unalterable purpose.
This helps us to understand the significance of God’s manifestation to Moses at the burning bush through His angel. “I am … the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”, He declared (Exodus 3:6). His Memorial Name enshrined His purpose, as we understand so well, a purpose concerned with manifesting the true life, that life at the heart of the Creator’s purpose to “make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26). When Moses later saw the glory of Yahweh, he saw those qualities which can shine through faithful people in the darkness of the world: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:6,7). These are qualities which bring blessing to individuals, to families and to nations, regardless of race.
The covenant at Sinai
The covenant made at Mt Sinai, when God manifested Himself in such awe-inspiring grandeur, draws out the essence of God’s relationship with His people. It depended on their faithful listening and obedience to His word: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:4-6). Why treasured? Not for any merit in their natures, but because they had the capacity to live up to the vision of Abraham, that vision that embraced the whole point of God’s creative work – “for all the earth is mine”. God’s purpose was inclusive, for all men everywhere.
“A kingdom of priests and a holy nation” enshrines two aspects of God’s requirement: first, they would be separate from other nations because they would live out divine laws and secondly, they would mediate God’s ways to other nations, teaching them by word and behaviour what would bring blessing to the human condition.
As the nation stood on the borders of the promised land, some thirty-eight years later, Moses emphasised the reason for their favoured position: “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). The oath was about blessings for all nations. The Lord who loved them was Yahweh, who will be manifested in a multitude of faithful individuals.
God’s own faithfulness to His purpose gives us all cause for encouragement and hope. Through all that has befallen Israel, we see the unchanging character of God. He will complete His purpose, and the fact that it is despite the disobedience and failings of His people, is testimony to the strength of His abiding love. With what depth of feeling does He later proclaim: “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?” (Hosea 11:8). For better or worse, Israel would remain always a testimony to His grace: “‘You are my witnesses’, declares the LORD, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he’” (Isaiah 43:10).
Lessons for us
There are many great lessons for us in this. Here are seven key points:
- We need to remember always that God has not chosen us because of any merit we possess, but because His arms are ever outstretched to all who call upon Him. The basis of His choice is our willing response, our faith – “those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). God chose Abram because he knew what was in his heart. He renamed him Abraham, because in His purpose all who show the same faith will share the promised blessings.
- In the very process whereby Abraham had a son, God showed that it is not man’s capability that brings salvation. Abraham was “fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised”, despite the fact that Sarah had not conceived a child. His faith was rewarded when Isaac was born. So, in the weakness of Abraham, God showed His strength. He shows it in our weakness too, giving us assured hope and strength to overcome life’s challenges.
- The children of Israel became spiritually soft in Egypt. It took hardship and oppression to generate a plea for help and God heard their groanings. So He continues to wait patiently and shows us His longsuffering character. Like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, he is ever looking for the return of those who lose their way through wilfulness or weakness. Our attitude is critical. If we draw near to God, He draws near to us.
- Peter makes clear that in Christ, all those who have become Abraham’s seed by belief and baptism are now “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9). The choice is dependent on attitude and response. God is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The Lord opens the hearts of all those who open their hearts to Him. For this reason, our example and our preaching should seek to create a climate in which people want to respond to the Gospel.
- Our service to God should be outward-looking. We are not in an exclusive club that merely shelters us from the worst things in the world around us. We should not be living double lives, with one suit for Sundays and another for weekdays. We are to witness to others, to reach out to all men everywhere, seeking to show them at all times the wholesome ways and unfailing love of the God of Israel. We must “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light”.
- Our preaching about “the hope of Israel” must focus on God’s faithfulness, not on Israel’s superior qualities. The fact that their heart of stone can be changed into a heart of flesh is testimony to the power of God’s unfailing purpose. God has chosen the Jews not because He has rejected the Arabs, or people from any ethnic background. He has chosen them to witness to the faith that was found in Abraham, to whom all can be related by belief and baptism into the Lord Jesus Christ. We must ensure that “the hope of Israel” is presented as a hope for all men everywhere.
- God will never abandon His purpose, though many who are called may fall during the wilderness journey. Paul wrote of Israel, the chosen people: “As regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.” Through belief and baptism into the Lord Jesus Christ, God has grafted us into His purpose. We can be sure He will not fail to complete the process of preparing “a people for his own possession” – “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). Only our disbelief will turn God’s choice to rejection. Therefore, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).