Why the Jews?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ac_claire
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

ac_claire

Guest
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. (Deut 7:6)

My question is, why the Jews? What made them so special that out of every race of people on earth, they were God’s chosen? Seems kind of arbitrary.

Any insight is appreciated! 🙂
 
You got it right. It is, ultimately, arbitrary. There isn’t anything about the Jews that made God select them. He needed one group, so he picked one. He made them special by His selection, not the other way around.

Two notes:
  1. God of course selected them from before time began, and so the course of history in the book of Genesis leads to them particularly. You have all the right people being granted to messages from God so that that message passed down from Abraham all the way to the Israelites through Moses.
  2. God may have had some reasons for picking Israel. This doesn’t mean they earned it or were special in any way. In other words, God still picked them for His own purposes entirely, but that being said He may have done it in part for one reason or another. For example, Israel was the smallest, weakest of the peoples around in their time. God may well have chosen them to exhibit His power throuh so weak a nation, so that nobody could possibly claim that their success was due to their own means.
 
ac_claire said:
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. (Deut 7:6)

My question is, why the Jews? What made them so special that out of every race of people on earth, they were God’s chosen? Seems kind of arbitrary.

Any insight is appreciated! 🙂
Click to expand...
Why?

Because God is God and He selected them.

We don’t–correction, can’t–know the mind of God. We might as well ask why God does anything.
 
ac_claire said:
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. (Deut 7:6)

My question is, why the Jews? What made them so special that out of every race of people on earth, they were God’s chosen? Seems kind of arbitrary.

Any insight is appreciated! 🙂
Click to expand...
That is what is called the scandal of particularity. Unfortunately God doesn’t owe us any explanations, and he doesn’t give us any. The scandal becomes even more accute in the NT, where the “chosen people” are no longer identified with a political entity, and what was already implicit becomes explicit - the predestination of individuals.
 
ac_claire said:
My question is, why the Jews? What made them so special that out of every race of people on earth, they were God’s chosen? Seems kind of arbitrary.
Click to expand...
I does not seem completely arbitrary.

First, God promised Abraham such a Blessing.

Also, the symbolism of God’s deliverance of the Jews from slavery in Egypt is rich.

The bottom line, God choosing and preparing the weakest, the least significant, and those who were not the ‘worldly power’ allows one to focus more on God (and learning about God) than the pagan powers where another god would be one among many.
 
Why not the Jews? Is there any other culture that could have done the job better? Honestly, now.

Matthew
 
It reflects the question
Why he choose me ?
The sinner , the one who is no better than any one else , and may be much worst than any one else , but He opened to me the treasure of His Being , His Word , His salvation.
Because of His great love !
 
Before Abraham there were no Jews. Jews were not and are not a race. Abraham was of the people who lived near probably Basra in the southeast of present day Iraq. Abraham formed a special relationship with God and God rewarded him by making his descendants a holy nation from which Jesus sprang. The religion of Judaism did not spring full blown and fully formed with Abraham, but was formed over time as God worked with Abraham’s descendants. God prepared them as a people who would be capable of recognizing and accepting Jesus for who he is; not to imply that everyone of them would. Imagine if Jesus had been born an Egyptian, an Assyrian, or a Babylonian. How would they have received him? How would he have been educated? How different would Christianity be without its roots in Judaism? God was not playing favorites, he was making a deal and working a plan.
 
Thanks for the replies! 🙂
Every single one was enlightening. I’ve honestly had this question pop up in my own mind, but now I really did need an answer of some sort for apologetics reasons.
mathematician said:
That is what is called the scandal of particularity. Unfortunately God doesn’t owe us any explanations, and he doesn’t give us any. The scandal becomes even more accute in the NT, where the “chosen people” are no longer identified with a political entity, and what was already implicit becomes explicit - the predestination of individuals.
Click to expand...
I’ve never heard of this. Can you explain more?
Also…Didn’t we reject predestination, except for meaning that God pre-destined everyone for salvation, but gave us free will to reject it? That’s what I thought anyhow.
 
ac_claire said:
Thanks for the replies! 🙂
Every single one was enlightening. I’ve honestly had this question pop up in my own mind, but now I really did need an answer of some sort for apologetics reasons.

I’ve never heard of this. Can you explain more?
Also…Didn’t we reject predestination, except for meaning that God pre-destined everyone for salvation, but gave us free will to reject it? That’s what I thought anyhow.
Click to expand...
Predestination is one thing where the RC Church doesn’t seem to lay down the law about what everybody must think. There is Augustine’s and Aquinas’s position, which is very close to that of Calvin, and there is Molina’s position, which is closer to what the majority of Catholics, and probably the majority of Protestants, think.
 
Your query made me remember a little poem I heard ages ago:

How odd
that God
should choose
the Jews.

Anyway, I googled it and found this article by Jimmy Akin in This Rock which is enlightening.
 
didymus said:
Your query made me remember a little poem I heard ages ago:

How odd
that God
should choose
the Jews.

Anyway, I googled it and found this article by Jimmy Akin in This Rock which is enlightening.
Click to expand...
“But not so odd
As those who choose
A Jewish God,
But spurn the Jews”
 
Rwoehmke is right in its statement.

Right , but my thought leads … if I would think about the unworthiness of others to be loved or noticed as some one would think about the Jews … ,

I mean that’s me , the unworthy sinner , whom God choose and loves ,
If some one would think – How God could choose the Jews ?

I should ask this question conserning myself.
How could God notice me ?
How could God loved me ?
I do not deserve God’s mercy , I can be worst than others , and no better than other’s , I have nothing mine special to boast about.

In my opinion , the answer for this question , for those who think about the unworthiness of the Jews , just prove the evidence of God’s love .
 
ac_claire said:
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. (Deut 7:6)

My question is, why the Jews? What made them so special that out of every race of people on earth, they were God’s chosen? Seems kind of arbitrary.
Click to expand...
“…were God’s chosen?”

You mean “are”, right?
 
ac_claire said:
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. (Deut 7:6)

My question is, why the Jews? What made them so special that out of every race of people on earth, they were God’s chosen? Seems kind of arbitrary.

Any insight is appreciated! 🙂
Click to expand...
Why the Jews?

Because of Messiah, who is Jesus Christ. Just look at today how the world, and sadly, some who claim to be Christians say there is more than one way to God. We need to seek and know the true God. God has identified himself with Israel. I know God has opened the plan of salvation for all mankind. But knowing his character and identity as the God of Israel(from the scriptures and prophets) proves that Jesus Christ(who is a Jew, an Israelite) is the way, the truth, and the life.
 
Lev23 said:
“…were God’s chosen?”

You mean “are”, right?
Click to expand...
Well, yes. But I was specifically wondering why they were chosen to be the Chosen…and the choosing is past tense; already happened. Make sense? 🙂
 
The Israelites were God’s chosen people because Abraham was
a dear friend of God to whom God made the promise of multiplying his seed through Abraham’s son Isaac, from whom was born Jacob (Israel). God told Abraham in Genesis that his descendants would be slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years and that He would bring about their liberation and through the Israelites (commonly called Jews) all nations of the world would be blessed. The Israelites are thus a chosen people because of the promises God made to God’s Friend Abraham.

Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
 
ac_claire said:
Well, yes. But I was specifically wondering why they were chosen to be the Chosen…and the choosing is past tense; already happened. Make sense? 🙂
Click to expand...
The short answer is that you cannot peer into the mind of God. We have to take what we are given by way of revelation, and leave it at that; anything else is presumption.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top