Anyway, I apologize for my super shag behaviour last Sunday. I was not really thinking as I thought that day, and was a bit overwhelmed by your fast and coming questions (maybe too long never teach you all already) so I felt I gave slipshod, incomplete answers. One that really bogs me is why God chose Israel as His nation. Is He then showing partiality? So I will try to address it here. If there's any other you have that I have not answered, bug me to give you an answer! :)
Here goes: Is God partial??
The Origin of this choice
I believe that in everything concerning God, there is a top-line blessing, which comes with obedience to a bottom-line command. In John 15:14 “You are my friends (top-line blessing) IF you do whatever I command you (bottom-line command).” Matt 6:33, Luke 12:31 – both passages say to seek first the kingdom of God (bottom-line command), THEN all these things shall be added unto you (top-line blessing).
The same happened here in Gen 12:1-3. God told Abram to leave his country (command), and in v2-3, promises to “make you a great nation… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” We have no idea why God wanted Abram to leave (Abram didn’t know as well!), nor why God only spoke to Abram. For all we know, He could have asked others, but they might have rejected Him. After all, it is no easy feat to abandon everything you have and own to go into a foreign land and a completely uncertain future. The point is, Abram responded, and this promise to bless ‘ALL the families of the earth’ through him is the reason why Israel has been chosen as THE nation. And as we would recall, Israel is the God-given name of Jacob, Isaac’s son, Abraham’s grandson.
Deut 7:7-8 “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery.”
Thus, it was not by any merit of Israel, or any partiality on God’s side, that Israelis the chosen nation. It was simply a promise fulfilled, made to a man who was fully obedient to God. Luckily for us, God takes promises very seriously, and will keep it to the very end. As we know today, Israel is nothing like what we would expect a Christian nation to be. In fact, we can’t even call them Christians at all! But God made a promise to Abraham, and He will not revoke it even though Abraham’s descendants have not been faithful to Him, and have even failed in being an ambassador to the rest of the world.
His choice of Israel came was the blessing that resulted from Abraham’s obedience to God. We should give praise then that we have a God who is unchanging!
The Role of Israel given to us
Since the promise was said, God has placed special focus on Israel. He has chosen them to be a nation of priests, and a holy nation, so that through them all the earth will be blessed.
Deuteronomy 7:6 For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all the people that are upon all the face of the earth.
Isaiah 42:6 “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light unto the Gentiles.”
However, since Christ’s last words on earth (Matt18:18-20), the onus has fallen on us Christians to BE light of this world, not merely the one who sees the light.
Why it is not favouritism
1. There is no distinction in God
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
2. Partiality = double standards.
But God does not show double standards! We are all subject to the same judgment, and the same law. A simple test is this: do you love/show more kindness to the smart/able/kind goodlooker more than the slower/not-so-able/rude plain jane/joe?
3. Partiality = no grace
But God’s grace is free for all, with no strings attached! There is no such thing as a first-class grace or second-class grace, or a streaming test that we are put through to see how much grace we should be allowed. Partiality means that we He loves one more than the other, and this concept denies the workings of grace.
He chose us because He loves us. All that is left to do is to love Him back.
4. Partiality = breaking the law of love
Matt 22:37-40 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Simply, if you love one more or less than another (implying different levels of love) when you have been explicitly told here to love your neighbour as yourself, i.e. having one standard only, then you have not fully obeyed this second commandment.
In other words, partiality is contrary to God, and He has never, nor will He ever, love one more than the other.
Another reason for this choice
“for you were the fewest of all peoples.”
It is often God's way to take the smallest, the outcasts of the world, those who are downtrodden, those whom the world deems as worthless, the people who have little to offer, to work his wondrous miracles!
1 Cor 1 :27-29 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
God has chosen all people, even from the beginning of Creation, to be a people unto his name, but each person much choose back.
As Israel is, we are the weak, imperfect, the downtrodden of this world, who though undeserving, were able to receive mercy through the grace of God, so that we are unable to boast in ourselves, but in the Lord.
I hope this has helped!
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