Choosing To Be Chosen By The One God – OpEd

A major misunderstanding of the Biblical concept of God choosing a people or a prophet is caused by the use of the word ‘the’ chosen when a better translation would be ‘a’ chosen people or prophet. Relationships are always unique and exclusive, but just as a parent can and should have a loving relationship with several different children; God can and does have unique and exclusive relationships with many religious communities. 

According to the Bible the relationship between God and Israel is similar to a marital partnership. Read the following Biblical verses and see for yourself. 

God proposes a marriage covenant at Sinai.

God said to Moses “Speak thus to the house of Jacob, and tell this to the children of Israel… Now if you listen to me and keep my covenant, then you will be my special possession out of all the peoples, for the whole earth is mine. You will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation. 

These words you shall speak to the people of Israel” (this is the proposal) “Moses came and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these proposals as God had commanded him. All the people answered together, “All that God has proposed, we will do. (the acceptance, similar to the “I do” at a wedding) Moses brought this answer back to the Lord.” (Exodus 19:5-8)  

Why the Jews?  Not because they were better than everyone else, but because God loved their ancestors. “Only the Lord cared for your ancestors, loving them and choosing their descendants after them from all nations, (at that time) as you are this day.” (Deuteronomy. 10:15)

“I will fulfill my covenant between myself and you (Abraham) and your descendants after you, generation after generation, an everlasting covenant, to be your God, yours and your descendants after you.”  (Genesis 17:7) “All the families of the earth shall be blessed through you (Jacob) and your descendants.” (Genesis 28:14)

Why the Jews? Divine love isn’t based on popularity or large numbers. 

“It was not because you were more numerous than any other nation that the Lord cared about you and chose you, for you are the smallest of nations; it was because of the Lord’s love for you, and his oath to your ancestors.” (Deuteronomy. 7:7-8)

Does being chosen and special make you better than all others? 

No. Being in a committed loving relationship results in more giving (Mitsvot duties), more receiving (Torah, Prophets and sages) and more grief (because each cares about the other). “For you alone have I cared among all the nations of the world, therefore I will castigate you for all your iniquities.” (Amos 3:2) Although the prophet Amos says that God only cares for Israel; He also says that “Israelites (are) like Ethiopians to me”.

This seems to be a logical contradiction; but it reflects the difference between an emotional relationship like love, which is always felt to be unique, and a rational understanding that others also have unique relationships that are similar to your’ s.Israel can’t adore any other God but God can and does redeem other nations. “Are not Israelites like Ethiopians to me? Says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Crete and the Aramaeans from Kir?” (Amos 9:7)  

Jews are not THE chosen people; they are A chosen people, the first of several monotheistic religions. A parent can have many children but only one is the firstborn. “These are the words of the Lord, Israel is my first-born son.” (Exodus 4:22) The Jewish People was the first community to enter into a sacred relationship with the one God but they are not the only ones to do so. In later centuries other communities were formed that Jews see as our younger siblings. 

That process will continue until all nations have a sacred relationship to the one God of Israel. “Each nation will walk in the name of its God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.” (Micah 4:5)  Even in the Messianic Age the other nations will be free to faithfully follow their vision of the One God.

What is Israel chosen for? To be an agent of holiness and enlightenment. “You are the children of the Lord your God…You are a people holy to the Lord your God (see Leviticus 19) and the Lord has chosen you out of all the nations on earth to be his special possession.” (Deuteronomy 14:1-2) “I will make you a light for the nations” (Isaiah 49:6) 

So other nations will also be blessed through their own religions that were sparked by Israel’s covenant with God at Sinai, thus fulfilling the promise to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth.

Since the Children of Israel were the only ongoing monotheistic community for twelve centuries after the Torah of Prophet Moses, there were many occasions when a part of the Jewish people were seduced into following the majority of non-Jewish idol worshippers. The prophets constantly opposed those who made and worshipped idols. 

As Prophet Habakkuk proclaims: “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.” (2:18)

And Prophet Muhammad proclaims the same message: “As for the idols they set up beside GOD, they do not create anything; they themselves were created. They are dead, not alive, and they have no idea how or when they will be resurrected.”  (Qur’an 16:20-21)

In addition to these two basic commitments relating to Divine worship, God requires all of us to live a   humble, kind and virtuous life, according to the rules that each of God’s Prophets have given to our nation and tribe: 

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to be in awe of the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good.”  (Deuteronomy 10:12-14)