Why did God choose the Israelites out of everyone else?

And we are currently working on some Curiously Caitlyn exclusives that will be on Holy Post Plus in the coming weeks that I think you're really gonna like. So head on over to holypost.com slash patreon and sign up today for just five dollars a month.

I don't know.

Dr.

Carmen Imes, thank you so much for joining me today. Hi Caitlyn, so good to be with you.

And so we wonder what kind of a God would do that, and what does it say about him, and where do we fit into this story? So I really appreciate the question.

the angst you were just describing of like, this doesn't feel fair. So we can talk about the character of God, part of that in a minute. But first, let's just start with in the story of scripture, is there an answer to, just within this story, why choose a specific people? So why choose a specific people, first of all, and then why this people? Did they do something to deserve it?

And then things go wrong, and people start sinning, and things spiral downward. And the downward spiral gets worse and worse. People start killing each other. And all sorts of things happen, the flood.

And so it's what God says to Abraham that makes the difference. So I'm just gonna read from Genesis, chapter 12, the first three verses. So the Lord had said to Abram, we later call him Abraham, God later changes his name to Abraham,

To read more about what's going on when Abraham's name changes, you can read Genesis.

. So the Lord had said to Abram, go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you, and I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse. And then here's the really important part for our question, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

So when God chooses Abram, he's not deciding not to care about everybody else. He's not giving up on the rest of the world. He actually thinks the best way to bless everybody is to pick one guy and reveal himself in a special way to that family and to help them to understand what does it look like to live well with God and with each other. And then the blessing will be so great that it will start to flow out to other people as well. So the blessing of Abram, and therefore the blessing of the Israelites, is not forgetting about everybody else.

It's for the sake of everyone else. Yeah, I love that. Such an.

Like, was there something about Abram? Was there something about his family that God was like, these are the best people? You know, as we follow the story of.

So there's layers of problems there. Yeah. And so I don't think we're supposed to see Abram as somehow the winner of the student of the month award or something. It's not like. he got to go to the head of the class.

Yeah. God chose him for reasons that we can't explain. He's just an ordinary guy and he does follow God to this new land. And then we watch him as he kind of tries to figure out what does it look like to walk with God. And he makes lots of mistakes.

And later his descendants seem to be in danger of misunderstanding their special status. And so I love the way God addresses them in the book of Deuteronomy. So Deuteronomy is fast forwarding past the Exodus, past their time at Mount Sinai, getting the laws, and they're getting ready to go into the promised land. And several times God speaks through Moses to the people. just to clarify, like, don't think, don't think this is happening to you because you're better than other people.

So one of those is in Deuteronomy, chapter seven, where he says in verse seven,

the Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath. He swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So he it's saying that God didn't choose them because, wow, this is a really big and powerful group of people. I think that it'll work if I pick them.

They were actually few in number, and they were being oppressed by the Egyptian rulers. And it says God wanted to keep the promise that he made to Abraham, that that's why they end up getting rescued from Egypt, not because they're bigger and better. And then chapter nine gets even more specific. Deuteronomy, chapter nine, verse four, it's talking about when they enter into the land and they drive out the people who already live.

No, it's on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It's not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you're going to take possession of their land, but on account of the wickedness of these nations. So God is looking at the nations in the land, and he's like, your time's up. You had your chance. You are behaving terribly, and you can't live in this place anymore.

And so he moves them out and makes room for the Israelites, not because the Israelites are better, but because the clock has run out on the people that have been living there. And God wants to do kind of an experiment with the family of Abraham and say, what if we could be, to use a phrase, that.

But I'm imagining someone saying, it still feels sort of unfair to choose a certain people, and it kind of almost seems like consolation prize to say, oh, you'll be a blessing to the nations. But how does that work itself out throughout the story? Yeah, that's a great question. There's a.

They're loving their neighbors. And so everyone can find a place and find a way to contribute and find a way to belong. Even foreigners can belong. And so there's a way, there's a path for foreigners to join. And we have a couple of glimpses of this in the Old Testament story, where somebody who's not an Israelite receives blessing because of their association, their positive association, with the Israelites.

So the first one that comes to mind is Jethro, who's Moses' father-in-law from Midian. And he comes to Moses in chapter 18 of Exodus. And he's just like celebrating all of the wonderful things that God has done on their behalf to set them free from slavery. And he just sort of gets to revel in that blessing. And they eat this covenant meal together.

And then he gives some good advice to Moses about how to run this new country. And Moses takes the advice. So there's this positive, collaborative relationship with Jethro. And he doesn't become an Israelite. He just visits.

But because he's positively allied with the Israelites, there's a blessing for him in it. And then the next one that comes to mind is Rahab, who is the first Canaanite we meet when they go into the land. And they've been prepared that the Canaanites need to be driven out. But the first one they meet actually invites them into her home, declares allegiance to Yahweh. And she's saved.

And so when the rest of her community is killed in battle, she and her household are saved. And then they're incorporated into the people of Israel. They get to join the Israelites. And so they're blessed through the Israelites because of what God said to Abram, whoever blesses you, I will bless. And she is an example of a Canaanite who blesses them rather than trying to get rid of them.

So we have a few glimpses like that through the Old Testament, of people recognizing that Yahweh is the most powerful God, that if they ally themselves to him and his people and treat them well, then there will be benefits, tangible benefits for that. I'm thinking of Naaman, the Syrian general who has a skin disease. And he has a slave captured from a raid in Israel, this little girl who says, oh, back, where I come from, there's a prophet and he can heal you. And so the Syrian general goes and finds the prophet and is healed. That's another example of the nations being blessed by a positive association with the people of Israel.

And then, if we fast forward all the way to the New Testament, we see that all of a sudden people who are not Jewish, who are not part of the nation of Israel, start to follow Jesus and they want to become part of what God is doing and they're fully incorporated. So I'm guessing that the kid who called in this great question is probably not Jewish, probably doesn't have Jewish background. And if they're in a family that's following Jesus, which it sounds like they are, then they are the direct recipients of the blessing through the Jewish people, the family of Abraham. that goes to all nations. If we're not Jewish and we're part of the faith community, then we have been blessed by the people from whom Jesus came.

And now a word from our sponsor. Wait, what's a sponsor?

It was formulated by skincare chemists at the top of their field to create a product that supports collagen and elastin production without irritation. We have a special offer for you to try out Purity Woods' age-defying dream cream. Purity Woods is currently offering 17% off site-wide, but we have an additional 10% discount for our listeners for a total savings of 27%. Go to puritywoods.com slash curiously or enter code curiously at checkout for an additional 10% off your first order. That's P-U-R-I-T-Y, W-O-O-D-S.com and enter code curiously for a 27% off your first order.

So we might be like, I'm kind of glad I'm not one of those ones that's chosen. Can you talk a little bit about what is part of this chosenness for Israel? What does that practically look like?

We tend to think negatively of laws like, oh, that seems like a ball and chain, but that's not how they thought about them. And that's not how Moses thought about them. But back to Exodus 19,. he says, this is what you're to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel, you yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations, you will be my treasured possession.

It's that out of all nations part that I felt like I heard in the question, like, why did God choose the Israelites as his special people out of everyone else? And God is specifically saying, out of all the nations, that they all belong to me, but you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. So I think it's really helpful for us to drill down and see if we can understand better what those titles mean. When God calls them his treasured possession, he's not just trying to think up something really nice to say.

Like when parents pick a little pet name for their kids, like Buddy or Peachy or whatever name, like Sweetheart. This isn't just like a holy sweetheart. This is actually an official title that would have been given in a context where there was a treaty or covenant. Remember when.

If the teacher has to step out into the hall for a moment or go use the bathroom or something, and there's not another adult that can come and be put in charge, maybe what the teacher will do is select a student in the class that she can trust, she or he can trust, and say, okay, I'm going to step out for a minute. You're in charge while I'm away and keep the peace. Now, for a teacher to do that, they have to really trust that this student is not going to say, jailbreak, let's all get out of here, it's time for recess, but that they will take seriously the task of maintaining order. And that's kind of what it means to be God's treasured possession. He is appointing the Israelites to help rule on his behalf, because not everyone can see Yahweh and hear his commands.

The Israelites understand his commands and they're supposed to kind of mediate that sense of order and doing the right thing to those around them. So it's a special role. It's a special job. It's not just like getting picked to win an award. It's more like getting tagged in a game of tag.

If you're playing tag and someone tags you, then you're it. And when you're it, you don't just sit back and cross your arms and say, wow, I must be really special. I'm it. You go chase people. That's what it means to be it.

You run around and try to tag other people. And if you're playing blob tag, I don't, there's many names for this, zombie tag or blob tag or whatever. Then the goal, then everyone who's tagged is also it. And there's more and more people who've been tagged and they're all part of tagging everybody else. That's how I actually think about God's idea of election or of choosing the Israelites, that he's tagging the Israelites and saying, you're it.

But that doesn't mean nobody else matters. It means their job is now to go and tag as many people as possible. They're blessing all nations until everybody's it.

Dr. Ems, this is a big question, so you don't have to give a thorough answer to it. And we might even do episodes in the future that dive into this. But I could also imagine a kid or an adult who's listening to the kid question thinking like, yeah, God chose Israel in the Old Testament. And then in the New Testament, we're kind of done with Israel.

So what does this kind of chosenness, does this continue? And you've already sort of said to us, there's a sense in which we benefit from this chosenness, even though we are not Jewish, Christians who are grafted in. Yeah, we get tagged. But how do we think about this chosenness in terms of the way the story continues to unfold?

But Jesus was Jewish, and he came to save the Jewish people. He came to reconcile them back to God, because, as history shows, not all of the people of Israel were living well with God and with each other, and they made a lot of mistakes, and they lost their place in the land and had to go into exile. And so God sends Jesus to help reconcile all of Israel back to him. And because Jesus is Jewish, God's not done with Jewish people. Like now, the way I see it is...

But two, this question of the relationship between Israel and the church is a complicated one. That the church has often gotten wrong in the past, to the point of anti-Jewish violence, and that scholars continue.

Imes, imagine that you are actually with.

I hope you caught an important word Dr. Imes used in this conversation. Mediate. God chose to use Israel to mediate blessing from God to all of creation. God uses mediators all throughout scripture, graciously allowing humans to participate in what He is doing in His creation.

I think we have sometimes gotten this role a little confused. Sometimes Christians have thought of ourselves as the people who have all the right ideas, with access to perfectly accurate information that no one else has, who have a special connection with God. so we know what God thinks about everything here on earth. And that's not totally wrong. Part of Israel's chosenness is a special relationship with God, so they could know how God wants people to live and tell the nations about it.

And that's not totally different for Christians either, as people grafted into the people of God. But sometimes Christians have isolated this part of being God's people away from the rest of the story. We've ignored the part where the people of God are to be a blessing to the nations, not just in what we know and proclaim, but in how we live, how we treat people, how we serve our communities. Next time you're reading the Bible, think about this question. How are the people in this part of the story either bringing God's blessing to the world or failing to do that?

How can we bless the communities we live in? How have we failed in the past to bring blessing? But let's not forget the best news of the story, as Dr. Imes described, that God is faithful to bring blessing even when God's people fail. And even though we do fail, God keeps asking us, inviting us, again and again, to participate in blessing creation.

Curiously, Caitlyn is a production of Holy Post Media, produced by Mike Strelow, editing by Seth Corvette, theme song by Phil Vischer. Be sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review so more people can discover thoughtful Christian commentary, plus cute kids, and never any butt news.