What comes to mind when you hear 'the chosen people'? Most of us would lean toward making it a title "The Chosen People." Because we are human, we naturally put titles into categories of rank. If I choose steak instead of liver, folks assume that I think steak is better than liver. So Chosen People must mean 'better than those not chosen'. The Hebrew Scriptures seem to reinforce that thinking. God repeatedly calls the Jewish people 'the apple of His eye,' His son, His beloved, His wife, and many others. We Gentiles prefer the Apostolic Scriptures which seem to do away with all that favoritism to bring in a new order of sameness, a doctrine of fairness, if you will.
But what if being chosen has less to do with ranking and more to do with calling to a particular role? What if, in God's big plan, He has arranged the peoples of the earth into groups not to indicate he likes some better than others, but because He has a plan He is working? What if the Jewish people are beloved only because He loves them and not because they are better? (Deuteronomy 7:7-8) What if His plan from the beginning was to invite all the peoples of the earth into His salvation, and to call the Jewish people into partnership to make that happen? That would mean Gentiles are not an afterthought, or plan B, they are included in God's original plan (with a different role). What if He has arranged things so that no one group could boast about being better, or more loved?
If you step back and look at the big picture, God started with just people, then He created the Jewish people, then He called the Gentile peoples, then He enacted His plan to save people, then at the end He saves the Jewish people and ends up with redeemed people...the ones who love and obey Him. So in the end God gets what He wanted and planned for from the beginning. His perfect plan repairs and restores the earth and creates a set-apart people for Himself, showing the powers and principalities that He is willing and more than able to finish what He started.
So the chosen people are people chosen for a particular role, or calling. In fact God didn't even just pick a people, He created a people group out of one man (Abraham), perhaps to avoid the criticism of favoritism. So distinction theology, which groups people into either Jew or Gentile, is distinction for calling only. God loves us all the same. We are saved the same way, through the loving grace and faithfulness of God alone. We are all of equal value. Distinction is about calling, not value.
The choosing of the Jewish people is an identity that has carried great responsibility. The distinctives that mark them were given them by God to mark them as belonging to God. He wanted the world on notice that the God of Israel is not like the pagan gods. His character is not the same; His path is not the same; His worship is not the same; His kingdom is not the same. To follow the God of Jacob would mean living differently than the rest of the world. Those differences have cost the Jewish people for thousands of years. To be chosen by God is to be hated by the world, because the world hates God. To be chosen for God's purposes is a privilege, but it's a terrifying, life-altering privilege.
We can celebrate that the Jewish people were chosen, because their calling was part of bringing all the nations into God's kingdom. Their obedience gave us our Bible and our Savior. Even their disobedience brought the gospel of the kingdom to the Gentile world. God promises mind-blowing, world-altering blessings when they return to obedience again. We long for the day when God fulfills His promise to gather then once again and reveal their Messiah, our Savior. (Romans 11:26-27). We love them because God loves them. We believe God still has a purpose and calling for them, because the Bible is full of prophecies yet unfulfilled. We remind God of His promises regarding them, because He has asked us to (Isaiah 62). He is a faithful, promise-keeping God and we wait with expectation for His return to make all things new. Maranatha!
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Isaiah 62:6-7
