Why Yehovah Chose Israel

Edited by S. Spencer

Why did Yehovah choose the race of the Israelis, especially considering that other saints came before them? What is the need to have a group to give the picture when there were already individuals who gave the picture?

1. Principalities and Authorities

Ephesians 3:8 This grace was given to me, the less than the least of all the saints, to announce the beneficial proclamation among the races—the unsearchable riches of the Messiah—⁹and to enlighten all what the fellowship of the mystery is that has been hidden from the ages—in God Who created all things by Messiah Yeshua ¹⁰that the multifarious wisdom of God will be now known to the principalities and the authorities in the heavenlies through the assembly ¹¹according to purpose of the ages that He did in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

Yehovah determined to demonstrate his “multifarious wisdom” to the angels (principalities and authorities in the heavenlies). He determined to use the assembly (the church, the Body of Messiah), purposing this throughout the ages.

A significant portion of the angels rebelled, having a view that Yehovah did not use wisdom in His plan. All angels (including demons) have a purpose given in the following text:

Hebrews 1:13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, “Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool”? ¹⁴Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

Job himself had the head demon as a guardian angel:

Job 2:3 And Yehovah said unto Satan, “Hast thou considered my servant Job—that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one who fears God, and eschews evil? And he still holds fast his perfection although thou move me against him to destroy him without cause!” ⁴And Satan answered Yehovah and said, “Skin for skin! Indeed, all that a man hath he will give for his life. ⁵But put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face!” ⁶And Yehovah said unto Satan, “Behold, he is in thine hand. But save his life!”

Satan had to guard this man even while he painfully and severely pushed him to deny Yehovah (Job never did).

Job is a prophet. How can one know this? Consider Yehovah’s words:

Job 42:7 And it was, that after Yehovah had spoken these words unto Job, Yehovah said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends because ye have not spoken of me right as my servant Job. ⁸Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams. And go to my servant Job. And offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. And my servant Job shall pray for you—for I will accept him—lest I deal with you after your folly in that ye have not spoken of me right like my servant Job.

How could he have spoken right throughout all these chapters, since he covered many topics? He spoke things about Yehovah he could have not known. For example,

Job 19:6 Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

How could Job have known this without prophesying? Job also stated,

Job 19:22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

Consider both texts. Are they true in Job’s case? If Job is prophesying, however, he is speaking absolute Truth for another. Psalms written by David, for example, do not speak of David’s experiences, but do show the voice of others (of Israel in the Tribulation, for example). Job did the same thing.

His prophecies regarding Israel are vital to a full understanding of Israel’s future. Israel will experience what he experienced.

Satan learned that Job’s faithfulness to Yehovah was not because he was ‘paid’, since Satan removed all that he had (except for his wife, and she was necessary to keep him alive), and Job remained faithful. Satan and all the angels will learn the same thing about all the Saints, and about the Assembly, the Church.

I already noted the following Hebrews text:

Since all angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation, and since Israel’s assignment has always been to be ministering beings sent forth to minister to the world about the Salvation of Yehovah, it is only appropriate that the entire group of messengers (the Israelis) be used to prove a point to the angels by perfectly demonstrating that ministry for a thousand years! That will show the manifold Wisdom of God!

2. The Church

The Church consists of all Saints added to Israel (the core of the Church). How can one know this? A major clue is found in the following text:

Acts 7:37 This is that Moses who said unto the children of Israel, “Yehovah your God shall raise up unto you a prophet of your brethren like unto me. Ye shall hear Him.” ³⁸This is He Who was in the Church in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to Him in Mount Sinai, and with our fathers who received the lively oracles to give unto us.

Church is Congregation.

Exodus 16:1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the Congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

Thus, a Biblical reader must think of Israel when considering the Church, just like one must think of Israel when considering the olive tree in Romans 11. And just like the Romans 11 olive tree, when anyone comes to faith, Jewish or non-Jewish, that person is grafted into that Tree, and is made part of that Church.

Where can one find that the Church doesn’t exist without Israel? The Ephesians 5:25 text below will demonstrate that Messiah died for the Church. He loved her. He didn’t die for a congregation that had not yet existed, but for one that already existed, for Messiah stipulated,

Matthew 15:24 “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Thus, the Church was already established. Another text also expresses that the Church was already established:

Matthew 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. ¹⁶But if he will not hear, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. ¹⁷And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a gentile man and a publican.

This text assumes that a gentile and a publican are not considered in this group called the church, but are instead outside.

Saints (Jewish and non-Jewish) are added to the church:

Acts 2:47 And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Future paragraphs will explain how the Church can consist of Israel not in faith, yet have Jewish and non-Jewish Saints both added to that Church.

Israel is in unbelief at the present time (that status not being altered by the few individual Israelis who believe), and thus the core of the Church is in unbelief:

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your own wives even as also the Messiah loved the Assembly and gave-up Himself for her ²⁶so that He will sanctify, having cleansed by the washing of water in the Word, ²⁷so that He will present her to Himself the glorious Assembly, not having spot or wrinkle or any of such things, but rather that she will be holy and blameless.

She is presently unsanctified and unclean, anything but blameless, but she won’t be in the future. She is in this condition since just after her beginnings (after the time of Jacob). All Saints have been added to her as part of her as described in Romans 11:

Romans 11:16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷And if some of the branches are broken off, and thou being a wild olive were grafted in among them and partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree with them, ¹⁸boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee! ¹⁹Thou wilt say then, “The branches were broken off so that I will be grafted in!” ²⁰Fine! They were broken off because of unbelief, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear! ²¹For if God spared not the natural branches—lest he also not spare thee! ²²Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God—severity on them who fell, but goodness toward thee if thou continue in His goodness. Otherwise, thou also shalt be cut off! ²³And they also shall be grafted in if they abide not still in unbelief, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴For if thou were cut out of the olive that is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these be grafted into their own olive tree who are the natural branches?

Israel is the core of the Church regardless of Israel’s coming late into the Biblical scene. The same is true of Messiah’s being the Salvation of the world. His coming and sacrifice long after the world was created does not diminish its effectiveness toward those who lived and died in faith before that coming and sacrifice.

The Church, then, has been assigned the position of showing the Wisdom of God to angels.

3. The Church as a Group Versus the Individual Saint

If individual Saints demonstrated their characters from the beginning, why did Yehovah also have to have a group give a picture?

I will not claim to give Yehovah’s mind and His many reasons for doing what He did; I can propose a few reasons.

A group of angels rebelled. A group of angels did not see Yehovah’s multifaceted wisdom. Angels are not tempted in the same ways man may be tempted; man can be tempted in far more ways. If a group of humans with far more possibilities for temptations and reasons to compromise (under great duress) can stand firm with the Truth and righteousness, the excuses the rebellious angels might supply will be futile. If this group additionally stands firm not seeing Yehovah (as the angels see Him), but having to live by faith, they will remove even more challenges to Yehovah’s wisdom. Then again, if this group may be freely tempted by angels who desire its fall (as a group and as individuals) and this group stands firm, the wisdom of Yehovah will be even more apparent.

4. Why Yehovah Chose Israel

Deuteronomy 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto Yehovah thy God. Yehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. ⁷Yehovah did not set his love upon you or choose you because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all peoples. ⁸But Yehovah hath brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of slaves—from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt because Yehovah loved you and because He would keep the oath that He had sworn unto your fathers.

Deuteronomy 10:12 And now, Israel, what doth Yehovah thy God require of thee but to fear Yehovah thy God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, and to serve Yehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, ¹³to keep the commandments of Yehovah and His statutes that I command thee this day for thy good! ¹⁴Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is to Yehovah thy God—the earth also with all that is in her. ¹⁵Only Yehovah had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them—you above all people, as it is this day!

Yehovah chose Israel because of his oath to and delight in the fathers (Avraham, Isaac and Jacob). In order to ‘unchoose’ Israel, He would have to change His mind about the fathers. Once He chose their seed, that choice was fixed by the faithfulness of Yehovah.

5. All Israel Will Be Saved

The entire group of Israelis will be saved with a permanent Salvation:

Romans 11:26 And so shall all Israel be saved as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. ²⁷For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins.

Isaiah 45:17 Israel shall be saved in Yehovah with an everlasting salvation. Ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.

Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days come,” saith Yehovah, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—³²not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they broke although I was a husband unto them,” saith Yehovah. ³³ “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” saith Yehovah: “I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴And they shall no more teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying, ‘Know Yehovah!’ For they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them!” saith Yehovah. “For I will forgive their iniquity! And I will remember their sin no more!”

Jeremiah 32:37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries whither I have driven them in mine anger and in my fury and in great wrath. And I will bring them again unto this place. And I will cause them to dwell safely. ³⁸And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. ³⁹And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and of their children after them. ⁴⁰And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good. And I will give my fear in their hearts so that they shall not depart from me. ⁴¹Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good! And I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.

Ezekiel 37:24 And David my servant shall be king over them. And they all shall have one shepherd. They shall also walk in my judgments and observe my statutes, and do them. ²⁵And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt. And they shall dwell in her—even they and their children and their children’s children forever. And my servant David shall be their prince forever. ²⁶And I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. ²⁷My tabernacle shall also be with them. I will indeed be their God, and they shall be my people. ²⁸And the races shall know that I Yehovah do sanctify Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

Ezekiel 39:25 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;

Ezekiel 39:26 (Literally) “…and they shall carry their calamity and all their trespass that they trespassed via me in their dwelling securely upon their soil, and there is no fear-causer, ²⁷in my returning them again from the peoples. And I will gather them from their enemies’ lands. And I will be sanctified via them to the eyes of many races. ²⁸And they shall know that I am Yehovah their Gods via my exiling them unto the races. And I will collect them upon their soil. And I have left none from them any more there. ²⁹And I will not hide my faces again from them, that I poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel,” saith my Lords Yehovah.”

Zephaniah 3:13 The remnant of Israel—they shall not do evil and they shall not speak lies. And a tongue of deceit shall not be found in their mouth. For they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

I propose that these texts demonstrate both the range of the Salvation (all Israel) and the endurance of the Salvation (that is, every Israeli will be born of God from that time to the end of the planet’s existence). This especially makes sense since a number of these texts deal with the Israelis as a group, not only as individuals. (Literal renderings of these texts demonstrate this even stronger.)

No such possibility exists for the angels that rebelled. The following text that only pertains to humans nevertheless explains this justice:

Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit ⁵and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, ⁶if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.

Jude 1:6 And he hath reserved the angels that kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

The angels that rebelled knew exactly what they were doing and what the consequences would be. Yehovah made no redemption/salvation for them; they are creatures of sight, not of faith. Yet, Yehovah determined that all His creatures would know His wisdom and justice in their judgments and/or rewards. The angels who rebelled cannot clearly see His justice until they see a group that turns to do righteousness by faith (and not by sight), turning from sin, and continually walking righteously before Yehovah in spite of the worst conditions all creatures have ever seen. Once Yehovah has demonstrated this point, all rebellious angels will be locked up for 1,000 years:

Revelation 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. ⁸And he shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Isaiah 5:14 Therefore, Sheol widened her being and opened her mouth without statute! And her majesty descended, and her crowd and her noise and her triumph into her!

Yet, Yehovah’s plan is not finished. He will release these angels for one more opportunity to gather as many human rebels as possible in their attempt to overthrow Messiah at the end of the Millennium. He will thus use these demons to show who is and who isn’t an enemy of Messiah. This is the last service these demons will do (as far as I know). Israel (the group and the individuals) will be the center of the action also at this point.

Is there a time after the millennium when some Jews will again sin? No. Will the rebellious ones be unbelieving ones of other races? Yes. Once the Israelis have the Torah written on their heart, they will do what is right, just as the children born to them will do right. Those children will be born in sin, but will refuse to sin.

6. Frequent Attempts to Annihilate the Jews

How strange it seems that the Jews (as individuals and as a group) are repeatedly targeted for annihilation throughout history. One of the first attempts was when a particular Egyptian Pharaoh commanded the Jewish midwives to drown all Jewish males just after they were born, a command the midwives refused to obey:

Exodus 1:15 And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives of which the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah. ¹⁶And he said, “When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the stools, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him. But if it be a daughter, then she shall live.” ¹⁷And the midwives feared God and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.

Jewish tradition holds that Laban was the first one to attempt annihilation of the Jews (a tradition to which I also ascribe, because it has some merit). Try finding a reason for the many attempts (including Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’); it defies reason. If one includes the demons and their desire to remain free, and to never be placed into the Lake of Fire and Sulfur, the reason is apparent. The ‘hope’ of the unsaved world is in Israel’s destruction, since Messiah cannot return if Israel is destroyed:

Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem! Jerusalem—thou that kills the prophets and stones them who are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under wings, and ye would not! ³⁸Behold, your house is left unto you desolate! ³⁹For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, ‘Blessed is He Who comes with the Name Yehovah!’”

If Jerusalem’s citizens do not make this declaration, Messiah cannot come. If the Jews are annihilated, Jerusalem’s citizens will be gone. Yehovah’s plans are not ‘thwartable’, however. He has invested His entire plan (including the resurrection of the dead) in the existence and Salvation of the Jews! (Read on if you want to see what I’m talking about. I know that this contrasts to modern Christianity’s views. I am not going to leave folks of a race other than Israel, who hold the faith of the God of the Bible, hanging without support.)

John 4:22 “Ye worship ye know not what! we know what we worship. For Salvation is of the Jews.”

Though Yeshua was speaking to a Samaritan woman about the Samaritans, He could have been speaking to the vast majority of members of ‘Christianity’ today and throughout the centuries. Most claiming Christianity have no investment in the continuance (let alone Salvation) of the Jews, and thus have no investment in the Biblically described and defined resurrection of the dead. Every attempt against Jews/Israelis is an attempt against Yehovah and His Messiah.

A reader might point out that the Jews are not innocent, and that the majority of Jews are in unbelief. Paul knew this, and his ministry was always for the benefit of the Jews no matter where he went or to whom he wrote. Of course they are not innocent, and they have been diligent workers against their own Salvation! But Yehovah’s plans are still invested in them and will always be until His plans are fulfilled. Anyone who has the Biblical Hope will also have an investment in the aid and Salvation of the Jews (both as individuals and as a group), for their very resurrection will depend on the Salvation of the Jews! Messiah Yeshua will not return until all Israel has been saved, and no resurrection of the dead will occur until Yeshua returns! Anyone truly born of God will intuitively realize his connection to the Jews in many ways, and will have the strongest investment in the Salvation of the Jews. Those who neglect and/or reject the Jews as central to the Biblical theme neglect/reject their own Salvation! If faith comes by hearing/hearkening, and hearing/hearkening comes by the Word of God, anyone claiming faith who has not hearkened to the Word of God (whether through ignorance or neglect) is a liar. The Bible explains this relationship to Israel from its beginning, and it never swerves from this thrust. Only a damned fool (meant in the most literal sense, not as an insult) will claim Salvation and will ignore or stand against the Jews.

7. So, Why did Yehovah Choose the Jews?

He chose the Jews because of Wisdom, because of His oath to the fathers and because of His love for the fathers.

What is your stand regarding the Jews? Will you be as the ‘righteous’ in (Matthew 25:31 and following) who are willing to risk everything (including the lives of their own families) to help Yeshua’s brethren (the Jews) during the Tribulation, or will you be as the other group (the folks in the ‘goat’ group) who do not, and who are summarily damned in spite of their claims of faith?