Why do the Israelites believe they are God’s chosen ones?

Why do the Israelites believe they are God’s chosen ones?

            Israelites are God’s chosen people by covenant to Abraham as written in Genesis 12:2, God said that He will make him a great nation. Abraham had been a great and faithful servant of God. God has chosen one man, Abraham, to establish a new nation through which all families of the earth would be blessed.

God has chosen Abraham to serve as a physical and spiritual model and to extend God’s love to the humanity. Abraham set an example of obedience in leaving his home country at God’s command, not even knowing his final destination (Hebrews 11:8). He believed God would fulfill His promises, in spite of the seeming impossibilities involved. He was even willing to give up his own son (Genesis 22), prefiguring the sacrifice of Christ. In faith he knew that God could raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19).

Israelites believe they were the chosen people because they are the repository of the commandments of God. They are the recipient of the God’s law. They were entrusted with the words of God that given them a road map. They have in possession the scripture of God. They thought they knew the will and the heart of God. They thought they knew all that God wanted. Theirs are the transcript of eternal mind, theirs are the prophets, and theirs are the birth of the savior of the earth. They claim to be the guide of the blind and instructors of those people who are in the darkness, people who have not known God.

 Not only that God has chosen the people of Israel but the land also is special. As written in Deuteronomy 11:12, “It is the land the Lord your God cares for, the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.” God also said that He will bless those who bless them and curse those that curse Israel (Genesis 12:3).   Throughout history, every nation that has oppressed or cursed the Jewish people is either no longer in existence or has had to suffer various consequences as a result.

            It is also in the book of Deuteronomy 7:6, God says that, “For you are the people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”           Many of the first Christian believers, all 12 disciples, the writers of the Bible, and Jesus Himself are all Jews.  Paul, a Jew, wrote most of the entire New Testament or some of the books were based on His letters.  “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22).  Jesus came to save the Jewish people.  He is still the Messiah of the Jewish people.  Romans 1:16 says that “It is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first, then to the Gentile.”

            It was in Israel that the Son of God that been promised was born to reconcile the world to Himself. It is also in Israel that the God’s miracles, judgments, promises and blessings happened.

            God’s purpose to choose the nation of Israel is not because they were superior to other nation but to represent Him, to show an example that God’s way works. To show the nations around the beauty of God’s laws at work in lives of the Israelites.

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