I am so glad you’re here!  We’re in the midst of taking a look at God’s plan for Israel and for the world through the great covenant God made with Abraham.  This is part 5 of this particular subject matter, so if you’ve wandered here for the first time or you have missed the first four parts, here they are:

• Israel: God’s Love Story for the World
• Abrahamic Covenant: The Backbone of God’s Promises to Us
• Abraham: God’s Man
• God’s Covenant with Abraham is Worldwide and Eternal

For God so loved the world…!  Indeed, God’s love extends to the most distant reaches, and it is conveyed through the Abrahamic Covenant.  In previous thoughts, we discovered that if God is not faithful to His promises to Abraham and his descendants, we have no hope that He will be faithful to His promises to us (Christians).

So, does God have favorites?  After all, He chose the Jewish people.  Romans 2:9-12 tells us that tribulation and distress come upon all who do evil.  Glory, honor and peace come upon all who do good.  There seems to be no favoritism there!  But the Apostle Paul goes on to remove all doubt when he writes: For God shows no partiality.

God does not love Israel and the Jews more than other people…He simply gave them a very different and distinct role.  God reaches the world through the Jewish Messiah!  Thus, Israel is the vehicle of world redemption!

A few days ago during our live Bible study, I asked a young girl if her parents loved her or her brother more.  She answered that her parents love them the same.  I asked if she was treated differently, at times, than her older brother.  (ie – is he allowed to do certain things she is not allowed, and vice versa)  Her answer (appropriately!) was “yes.”  The point is that parents will treat their children differently, including granting different rights and privileges to each.  That is exactly how God is with us!  He doesn’t love one child (Israel) more than the others.  He has simply granted different roles to each.

But, why Israel?  God could have given a special role to anyone.  Is it because Israel is the greatest nation on the planet?  No…they weren’t even a nation when God called them, and they are a tiny country.  Are they the most worthy?  Heavens no!  Scripture recounts many instances of their turning from God.  (Read the book of Judges, for example.)  Is it because Israel is sinless?  Again, no way!  Have you read your Bible lately?  Even the greatest of Jewish characters had their faults.  Consider Moses and David.  Murder and adultery hardly qualify as sinless.

God chose Israel despite her weaknesses and failures.  Why? Simply because He chose to!  (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)  Yet, throughout history, Israel has been the target of hatred.  Imagine the squeeze:  You’re called by God for a special purpose, yet the world hates you and tries to destroy you.  Would you choose to be a Jew!?!

As we learned previously, before the foundation of the world, God put a redemptive plan in place and that redemptive plan was to be carried out by the Jewish people.  The Abrahamic Covenant was the method in which God chose to implement the plan.

Christian friends, if we fail to understand that God’s plan of redemption for us was given through the Abrahamic Covenant, then we fail to understand the need to stand with Israel.  We also fail to recognize the great debt we owe the Jews for giving us the Word of God, the great teachers of the Word, the Messiah, and yes, even salvation itself!  As we move further along in our study together, the hope is we’ll gain a deeper understanding of just how important the role is that God gave to Abraham and his descendants.

We’ll soon move into the second portion of our study, where we will look more closely at the 3-fold call of God upon Israel.  There are nuggets to be found, so follow along!

Blessings!