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 Jehovah
repeatedly told the Israelites that they were a “chosen people”
a “people for God’s own possession. (Ex. 19:5-6; Deut. 7:6)
And these same expressions are applied to the people of God in
Christ — spiritual Israel. (1 Pet. 2:9; Titus 2:14) Those who
obey the call of the gospel — who come into fellowship with
God in Jesus Christ — are God’s people in a special or “peculiar”
sense.
Students
of the Bible (or even of secular history) are aware that many of
the Jews were lifted in pride by God’s special treatment —
that they came to regard their position as superior by virtue of
ancestry — and forgot that their race was developed and chosen
for a specific purpose; i.e., to bring Christ into the world.
(Cf. Gen. 12:3 Gal. 3:16-29) Individual and national
responsibility to be faithful to God was smothered by a pride in
“identity” (“We have Abraham to our father” Matt. 3:
7-f) — an “identity” which became external only, and lost
its inner and true significance.
If
the Jews, and those who claim to be spiritual Israelites, will
read Deut. 7: 7-f. this significant statement should dampen
false pride.
“Jehovah
did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were
more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all
peoples: but because Jehovah loveth you, and because he would
keep the oath which he sware unto your fathers, hath Jehovah
brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the
house of bondage, from the hand of Pharoah king of Egypt.”
God
did not choose you because you
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were great. Israel, you were the
fewest of all peoples; Christians. you were lost in
sin, without hope. when Christ died for you. (Rom. 5:8; Eph.
2:1, 11-13) How easily man forgets his dependence upon God. The
church grows and we praise the product of God’s mercy
instead of the God who made the church possible.
We
are “chosen” because God loved His creatures — so loved
them that He gave His Son to die for their sins. (Jn. 3:l6) How
often do we use this passage for something other than a rebuttal
of “faith only’ error?
It
was God’s love for fallen mankind that initiated His covenant
and promises to Abraham — that a special nation would be
built; and “in thy seed” (singular — Christ) “all
nations he blessed.” (Gal. 3:8-f) The passage in Deut. 7:
tells the Jew that his being “chosen” was not for
glorification of one race, but for the blessing of all peoples,
in Christ.
We
must endlessly remind God’s people today that they too have
been chosen and developed for a specific purpose — to glorify
and promote that Christ which the “chosen” Jews gave to the
world. And this “nation” can lose its spiritual
significance; its citizens. lifted with pride in externals, can
utterly fail their purpose.
“We
are the church,” someone cries; and I hear the echo. “We
have Abraham to our father!” Will We never learn that being
“faithful to the party” or “staying with the building”
IS NOT THE SAME AS BEING FAITHFUL TO CHRIST.
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