If God Loves Everyone Equally, Why Does He Have a Chosen People, Israel? (Part 2) [Class Summary]
If you'll recall, last week we were only able to tackle the first part of this question—the part about whether God loves everyone equally, love vs. hate vs. apathy, and of course the minefield of the two-millenia-old debate over predestination vs "free" will. This week, after a brief recap of the assumptions we're addressing in the question as a whole, we turned our attention to the second part: "why does [God] have a chosen people, Israel?"
Chosen for What?
To answer this question biblically, we need to go all the way back to Genesis, chapter 3...yep—all the way back to the fall. Starting there, and working our way forward we see the following:
Genesis 3:15 — God promises a deliverer...a savior.
Genesis 6:8 — God chooses Noah (and his family) to be the remnant that saves all of mankind from a very soggy eradication.
Genesis 12 — God chooses a garden-variety pagan living in Ur of the Chaldees to uproot his family and head off to a land he'd never seen before, telling him "in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." (Genesis 12:3)
Genesis 21:12 — of Abraham’s two sons (Ishmael and Isaac), God chooses Isaac to be the the child of promise (in more than one sense...see Romans 9:7,8; Galatians 4:28)
Genesis 25:23 — of Isaac's two sons, God chose the younger Jacob (Israel) to rule over the elder Esau (Edom) and also to carry on the promise given to Abraham by God (Romans 9:10-13; Genesis 28:13, 35:12, 48:4)
If we want to get the big picture of where this is all going, we can head over to Matthew 1 were we see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nashon, Salmon Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jeconiah, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abihud, Elikakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, Joseph, the husband of Mary and the legal (adopted) father of Jesus Christ. Aside from four missing names (which are filled in by 1 Chronicles 3: 11, 12, and 15), we have an uninterrupted genealogy giving the earthly credentials for Jesus to sit on Israel's throne.
Ah..."teacher's pet," right? Was God playing favorites? Only someone who has never cracked a Bible would dare level such a laughable accusation. Noah was a lush. Abraham was a coward who twice gave up his wife to other men to save his own hide (Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-11), his son Isaac learned well from Abraham's example and gave up Rebekah to save his own hide (Genesis 26:6-9). Jacob was a deceiver. Israel as a whole was so stubborn that God had to turn a two-week journey into a 40-year-long death march to kill off an entire generation of his pig-headed "chosen people." David was an adulterous murderer, Manasseh provoked God to anger, and the list goes on and on and on. This was anything but favoritism! Why did God choose such a motley crew of knuckleheads to carry on the promise made to Abraham way back c. 2,000 BC?
The answer is easy—because the promise had nothing to do with them, but it had everything to do with God's faithfulness (one student brilliantly pointed out that when God made the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, Abraham didn't "walk between the pieces"...only God did). I'm sorely tempted to point out how this applies to marriage, but alas that is another topic for another day. Focus, I must, or lose you I will. I'd encourage you to read Romans 1 - 3 (yes, chapters one through three) so see more of what God has to say about this notion of "playing favorites" and what was expected of Israel.
But why them?
I'll wrap up this question by pointing you to Deuteronomy 7, where the Holy Spirit tells us why He chose Israel:
“The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments — Deuteronomy 7:7-9
I covered one more question in class, but it's been a rather long day for me and it's after 10pm already. I'll try again tomorrow and see if I can't get it written up for you. In the meantime, here's one for the road:
Homework
The last question I'll address this year is one submitted by another student a few weeks ago:
Do you think Jesus went to hell after he died and before he rose again?
Have fun with that one! :-)