God Pick Israel to Be His Chosen People

Divine Covenant with Abraham

The foundation of Israel's chosen status begins with Abraham. According to the Book of Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham, promising that his descendants would become a great nation, inherit the land of Canaan (which became Israel), and be a blessing to all the nations of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3). This covenant is seen as a key reason for why Israel is considered chosen.

Let's dive into the Holy Scripture and explore God's reasons.

When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Walk with me and be trustworthy. I will make a covenant between us and I will give you many, many descendants.” Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, “But me, my covenant is with you; you will be the ancestor of many nations. And because I have made you the ancestor of many nations, your name will no longer be Abram but Abraham.

I will make you very fertile. I will produce nations from you, and kings will come from you. I will set up my covenant with you and your descendants after you in every generation as an enduring covenant. I will be your God and your descendants’ God after you. I will give you and your descendants the land in which you are immigrants, the whole land of Canaan, as an enduring possession. And I will be their God.”

Abraham Sacrifice

When Isaac was a youth, God ordered Abraham to take this beloved son to a mountain and sacrifice him. Although he was heavy-hearted with sadness, Abraham obeyed. At the last moment, an angel stopped his hand, with the knife raised in it, telling him not to harm the boy. It was a test of Abraham's faith, and he passed. For his part, Isaac willingly became the sacrifice because of his faith in his father and in God.

Abraham Calling

Now the LORD had said to Abram, Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you: And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Genesis 12：1-9

Isaac and Jacob

The promise made to Abraham was reiterated to his son Isaac and grandson Jacob (who was later named Israel). Jacob's twelve sons became the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel. This lineage further solidified the idea that the people of Israel were chosen by God to fulfill a special role. Let's look into Isaac life and journey.

Isaac:

Isaac was Abraham's son that he bore from his wife Sarah. God had promised him a son through this line, but he'd gotten impatient when years passed and nothing happened. Worried he would have no offspring by the time he passed, he slept with Hagar, a slave in his household. From that union came Ishmael.

(The Israelites and descendants of Ishmael have been at war ever since.)

Isaac son born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. Was one of Israel’s great founding fathers.

When famine struck, Isaac moved his family to Gerar. The Lord blessed him, and Isaac became a prosperous farmer and rancher, later moving to Beersheba.

(Genesis 26:23).

Isaac favored Esau, a burly hunter and outdoorsman, while Rebekah favored Jacob, the more sensitive, thoughtful of the two. That was an unwise move for a father to take. Isaac should have worked to love both boys equally.

Although Isaac was less prominent in the patriarchal narratives than his father Abraham and his son Jacob, his faithfulness to God was evident and remarkable. He never forgot how God saved him from death and provided a ram to be sacrificed in his place. He watched and learned from his father Abraham, one of the most faithful men of the Bible.

In an era when polygamy was accepted, Isaac took only one wife, Rebekah. He loved her deeply all his life.

God answers prayers. He heard Isaac's prayer for Rebekah and allowed her to conceive.

God ears our prayers too and gives us what is best for us.

Jacob

Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebecca; the younger twin brother of Esau; the husband of Leah and Rachel. He later was called Israel (Gen 32:28; 49:2) and thus his sons became known as the twelve sons of Israel (Exod 1:1; 1 Chron 2:1).

This lineage further solidified the idea that the people of Israel were chosen by God to fulfill a special role.

One day when Esau the hunter came in from a futile chase, he bargained away his birthright to Jacob for a batch of pottage (25:30), and thus Jacob gained the rights which by birth were not his. This custom of selling a birthright is described in the Nuzi tablets.

Jacob listened to his mother’s suggestion and followed her strategy for deceiving his father, and he received the father’s blessing that was intended for Esau, the first-born (ch. 27). Although Isaac was suspicious and doubtful, in his blindness he pronounced upon Jacob the death-bed benediction. Shortly thereafter Esau returned, and Isaac realized how he had been deceived but the oral blessing could not be revoked.