God's Chosen People

The following E-mail from a friend dating back to our high school years prompted this post:

Mike, I was just visiting your web-blog "traversing the wilderness". A question recently came to me, from a relative, concerning the Jews as God's chosen people. I have no problem with it whatsoever. But, the question was posed: "how can a fair, loving, unbiased God have a chosen people". As I read the scriptures, I see Abraham choosing God before God chose him to be the father of a people that God would bless. Abraham sought after God and found him. How do you address that issue?

My response:

I think we need to examine exactly what God's "chosen people" means in reference to the Jews.

From the Hebrew Scriptures through the Christian Scriptures, two competing concepts about the Jews can be discerned. One concept, with which most people seem to be familiar, is that the Jews are God's chosen people to the exclusion of all other peoples, i.e., gentiles. I suspect that most Jews today adhere primarily to this idea. I do admit, however, that some Jewish religious scholars go beyond this proposition and support the second concept.

The second concept proposes that Jews are God's chosen people in the sense that they are to be a "light to world" and that God's salvation will come to all peoples, including non-Jews, through the Jews.

Many of the Hebrew prophets definitely espouse this second point of view. Furthermore, the Book of Ruth appears to have been written in support of the inclusiveness of God's salvation. The Christian Scriptures trace Jesus' ancestry through Ruth, a Moabite woman, i.e., a non-Jew. The Hebrew Scripture definition, and I think the current Orthodox definition, of a Jew is a person with a Jewish mother.

A digression:

Why a Jewish mother? Simply put, the ancient Hebrews were allowed to wage war without restriction against non-Israelites. That is, they could rape, pillage, plunder, and kill non-Israelites. Under these circumstances, the off spring of these Israelite male rapes of non-Israelite women could not be allowed to become Jews.

By analogy today, we might ask why the children, born in the US, of illegial immigrants should be US citizen by Constitutional dictate ?

The Christian Scriptures, including some of the Gospels in addition to the Epistiles of Paul and those attributed to him, can easily be read to support the second concept, that is, God's salvation is universal and not restricted to Jews, not even to "completed Jews". Importantly - we are all God's chosen people.

I believe an erroneous interpretation of the Jews as God's jonly chosen people (the first concept) has become the foundation for anti-Semitism that dates from the Middle Ages. Admittedly, many (some?) of ourJewish brothers and sisters, including many (some?) in Israel, foster this pernicious dogma.

As I have "matured" and gained "wisdom", and when under the influence of my better angels, I try to refrain from telling God what God must do. I simply don't know why God "chose" Abraham and his descendants to be God's chosen people. Perhaps, God saw something genetically-based in Abraham's character that would allow his descendants to persevere and bring salvation to the world. In this context, we simply must remember that Jesus Christ was first and foremost a Jew. That is part of the reason why I term myself a Judeo-Christian rather than a Christian. I take great satisfaction and immeasurable relief that, as a gentile Judeo-Christian, I have been "grafted" onto the vine of Judaism.

With respect to the current nation of Israel, I am an unabashed supporter of Israel's legitimate aspirations. I do reserve the right to criticise what I consider their unjust and unwise decisions and policies. Seems as if, however, I can't think of any of these at the present moment except for failing to do the job against Hizbollah in Lebanon.

As a Judeo-Christian, I give great validity to the land of Israel belonging to the Jews. I am in fact a supporter of "greater Israel". I think the Palestinians should have their own homeland, in Jordan.

Nevertheless, the Judeo-Christian support and advocacy of the Jewish homeland in Israel has no validity to non-believers. Thus, leaving religious sentiments aside, both Jews and Islamics have equally valid historical claims to the land of Israel or Palestine. The greatest validity, aside from religious sentiments, the Jews have to their homeland rests on two facts: (1) The United Nations decreed the Jewish homeland in 1948, and (2) the Israelies won and occupy this land by military force, which is most often the deciding factor, possession being nine-tenths of the law.

On a geopolitical front, I firmly advocate that the US must support Israel if for no other reason than Israel is a land-based aircraft carrier and can serve as a staging point for our own armed forces when we finnaly come to the realization that we must ensure the world's supply of oil until our science and techonology find substitute energy sources. (At that time, I'd delight in telling the Arabs and Iranians,to " eat their oil".

While I don't despair of the situation, I am convinced that, if the US were to withdraw support of Israel and the country were destroyed, the Islamics would nevertheless be committed to bringing the entirety of the world under their domination, essentially by military means. That's what they tried to do in the past but the Judeo-Christian West prevented the onslaught at great cost.

I sometimes allow myself to fall into an apocalyptic mode; hence, I think the current situation between Hamas and Israel reeks of the potential for a failure of will similar to what occurred when the Israelites first came into the Holy Land. Yaweh told the Israelites at that time to kill all non-Israelites in the land - men, women, and children. The Israelites failed to carry out this dictum and we've been living with the consequences ever since.

I believe, therefore, Hamas must be utterly destroyed. The next step would be the complete destruction of Hizbollah. "Destroyed" is a vicious word but I don't see how to "neutralize" Israel's enemies short of destruction. I'm willing for the US to assisst in these efforts. Iran must then be made to understand their own destruction is a certaintly if they don't confine their activities to within their own borders.

I get extraordinarily upset when my liberal brothers and sisters put forth the proposition that the majority of the Palestinians (and Islamics) are peace loving and would co-exist with Israel if it were not for the Islamo-fascist terrorists. In this secnario, therefore, Israel is guilty of committing war on the entire civilian population in Gaza and elsewhere. My response is: "Sleep with dogs, wake up with fleas." The Palestinians in Gaza held a free and open election in which they chose Hamas as the governing authority. Israel not only allowed but encouraged this free election, admittedly with false expectations. The Gazans must now live with the consequences. If they want peace, simply run Hamas out of the territy so that no more rockets are fired at Israel and no more suicide bombers are dispatched there.

I hope the Israeli Defense Forces will hurry to complete the job of destroying Hamas before the Obama administration yields to "world opinion". This "fear" is a primary reason I have reservtions about the Obama administration's foreign policy.

I suspect the above more than provides my answer to the original question.

Perseverantia usque ad finem – Perseverance to the end