When we think of what the word chosen means and implies for Israel in the Old Testament we should never think of it to mean Israel was saved and the rest of the world was not. Instead we must think of this in that God simply set Israel apart for a certain job.
One in which when God finished His 70 weeks prophecy dealing with Israel He said, “So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.”
Because when you think of Israel as the chosen ones and the things she was chosen for a very different set of things comes into light. Like her being chosen to live according to the law given through Moses. While the rest of the world had no law.
Did her having the law save her? Paul makes it very clear that this was never the purpose of the law. In Gal.3:21 he says, “21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.”
So clearly the law was never given for salvation unto eternal life. Rather, the law was given to save Israel from destroying herself as God prepared the way through her to bring His messiah into the world. To have a set of rules to live by that would preserve them as a people.
And interestingly enough Paul also says those rules are universal in their usefulness toward that end for all nations. Referring to them in 1Tim.1:5-9 saying, “5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
6 From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;
7 Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man”
So when the US claims the 10 commandments as the basis for the law of this land it does not mean that everyone under and who obeys those commands is saved. It means that they are to be used to preserve our nation. Just as God gave them to preserve Israel. And not to give them eternal life.
Another thing that God chose Israel for was to be a people whose bloodline the savior of the world would come through. Does this mean God brought salvation to every Israelite through this? No.
It means that God gave them a set of rules to live by that would culminate in the birth of the messiah. By keeping their bloodline pure from the contamination of the seed war that God spoke of in Genesis.3:15 saying, “15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
This means that the serpent Satan would try to thwart God’s planned messiah by contaminating Israel’s bloodline. So that He would not be fully human and the same flesh and blood that all men have. But, because of the law and ordinances God gave Israel the bloodline was not contaminated. And Jesus was the same flesh all men have just as God said He would be.
Because it was only by His having the same flesh and blood all men have that Heb.2:17,18 tells us Jesus would “be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.”
Israel was also chosen by God to be a people that He would make His power known through. Using them to show Pharaoh that he was only a man. And to show the Philistines that no matter how big their warriors were God would use a young and not so big David to bring them down.
But, did this mean they were chosen to be the only ones who would have eternal life? Again the answer is no. Because many Israelites made an idol of the law by making it their means for righteousness.
An idolatry Paul told them they needed set free from in Rom.7:4-6. Saying, “4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
This idolatry is what also prompted Isaiah to say “6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Their righteousness were as filthy rags because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. The law was never given to make men righteous.
What was given for that purpose was the covenant God made with Abraham. For it was in that covenant the righteousness of faith without works was established. A righteousness that required only for Abraham to believe God’s promise of eternal life.
Which is why Isaiah further said, “7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.”
Isaiah’s reference to filthy rags righteousness in vs.6 shows us that the iniquities he is referring to here in vs.7 was their idolatry of the law. It was the fact that “there is none that calleth upon thy name” that made their righteousness as filthy rags.
It’s the same filthy rags righteousness Paul writes about in Rom.10:3 saying, “3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”
These were keeping the law. But, because the law can not give life their belief that it could made it an idol. They put it between them and God. And by doing so they made it the measure of their relationship with Him. Instead of simply believing God as Abraham did.
So we see that Israel being the chosen people of God does not equate to salvation. But, only that they would be the people God chose to do His work of making His name known in the earth through. Even though they repeatedly went whoring after other gods.
But, in the New Covenant we see a change in what God means by this term chosen. When we are told that “many are called but few are chosen” we are meant to understand that the chosen are those that have come to a saving faith by choosing of their own free will to believe Jesus as Abraham believed. As opposed to those who are called to that saving faith.
Being called in this context is a reference to what John3:16,17 says. “16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
This is an overall perspective on why Jesus came. To bring salvation to the whole of mankind. This means that all mankind has been called by God to be saved.
But, because love requires free will it takes a choice on our part to make the step from being part of those who are called, to becoming a part of those who are chosen. And this happens when of our own God given free will we say yes to the gospel when it is preached to us.
Paul teaches this in Rom.10 when he writes, “13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
When Paul says “But they have not all believed the gospel” he is referring to those who have chosen of their own God given free will to reject it. These are the called but not chosen. By their own choosing they remain only called and not chosen. The choice being God’s to send Jesus, and theirs to believe or not believe.
Those who believe God chooses a few for heaven and the rest for the lake of fire have missed the meaning of the use of chosen here. They have missed the fact that God is love. And that without free will there can be no love. And that because of free will becoming a chosen unto eternal life must be arrived at through a free will choice on both parties involved in the covenant.
I hope this helps those who wonder if Israel are God’s chosen people or not. I hope you understand that their being chosen was not to say that they were given eternal life and the rest were not.
Because what they were chosen for in Old Testament times was not eternal life. But, only to be the people whose bloodline God would bring the messiah through.
This is what created the need for the law with all of its harsh penalties for disobedience to it. And is also the reason that it is no longer a necessary part of the Jew’s life in this dispensation.
Their job that God chose them for is done. Now God’s job of saving them must be completed. A job Daniel spoke of in Dan.9:24 where he wrote, “24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.”
And because these 70 weeks have yet to be fulfilled God is not done with the Israelite’s as a nation yet. As we see in the rest of this chapter Israel will be sorely tested regarding her faith in Jesus during the time of Jacob’s trouble we commonly refer to as the great tribulation.
It is at this time Israel will either come to a saving faith in Jesus. Or they will remain in their blindness trusting in a false messiah who fights for them to gain their earthly kingdom by their own strength.
Make no mistake, to be translated from being only the called to being chosen is a choice every Jew and gentile must make. As God has already done all that His plan requires to bring salvation to all mankind. Here in this dispensation Paul called the “fullness of the gentiles” in Rom.11:25, and in the next we call the great tribulation.
Now for you to become the chosen who are saved Paul says we must confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead. It is by doing this that Paul says we are saved. It is by doing this that Jesus said we are born again. For as Jesus said in Mt.12:37, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
If you will make this confession you will be translated from the called into the chosen. If you will make this confession a spirit will be created in you that makes you God’s child and heir to His kingdom. If you will do this… then I will see you there or in the air!
