The Chosen People

I thought I'd choose a topic of choice, the Chosen People of God. Being chosen specifically by God as "His people" seems like a pretty glorious position to hold. Sure, it does until you look at the track record and earthly fate of these select few.

How few?... Less than 0.2% of the world's population. That means out of 1,000 people there are 2 people of the Jewish faith.

This is who all the antisemitism throughout human history has been directed against. During the 800 year period that we call The Dark Ages, Jews were forbidden from holding public offices, professional positions, or owning land. If they became too prosperous, too visible, or too easy a target a more severe treatment was regularly applied.

One of the few jobs that Jews could hold was money lender, since the lending of money at interest was considered the sin of Usury by the Catholic church. Another legal occupation for Jews at the time was entertainer. Showmanship was considered a lowly and sordid business back then.

Oddly enough, those ignorant of history think the large numbers of Jews in the banking and entertainment industries are evidence of a some grand Jewish conspiracy. In truth, it was a Christian conspiracy against the "Christ killers" being employed that produced the large number of Jews we see in these trades today.

Today banking and entertainment are big businesses largely because of the innovations and contributions of the minuscule 0.2% of the global human population we call "the Jews". It seems to be an insignificant percentage in the scope of the other 99.8% of humanity, doesn't it?

Let's put this number in perspective...

• If we took everyone on the planet and went to war against Belgium, that would be equal to the 0.2% the Jews comprise. 

• How about the world vs. the State of Pennsylvania? That's the numerical equivalent as well.

Jesus was one of those "chosen people", and arguably He still is, since He never required His own blood for Salvation. 

Jesus was the Choicest of the Chosen, and look how that worked out for Him. He was nailed to a tree for telling people that they should be nice to each other and spend more time getting to know God. For this horrific agenda, He was treated like an abomination, like a worm, and despised by His own people, the Chosen People.  

If you recall from the Passion plays of your youth, the only one who offered Jesus the least bit of mercy on the cross was a Gentile, one of the Roman soldiers who had nail Him to it.

"I thirst", Jesus said as His tongue stuck to His jaw like a dried pot shard.

A Roman soldier dipped a sponge in wine mixed with gall (also called "sour wine" or" wine mixed with myrrh"), and raised it to the Savior's mouth, but Jesus refused the bitter painkiller to ease suffering.

He would remain there, in the agony, in thirst, suffocating under His own weight, and nothing would move from that place. 

This was His time, this was His place, and these were His chosen people. He came to pay the ransom, and there was no negotiating the price. This is what He was born to do.

So, do you still want to be "chosen by God" ? 

Well people, you already have been. Before He knit you in the womb, He knew you, and He knew the price He would have to pay in order to redeem you.

How's that for a testimony of the Love of God? Does it move you to tears?  If it doesn't, then you might be a sociopath. Don't worry, because God will fix you too, that's what He loves to do.

Maybe this would be more comprehensible if we brought this concept home...

Imagine you decide to have children, and by some miracle you get to know the children's destinies. You see their birth, their first steps, first words, first day of school, career, and marriages. Life is looking good for the kids and you're a proud parent, but then it all falls apart. They stop speaking to you and take the counsel of a known liar. Everything you taught the kids has been misconstrued and twisted in a bizarre manner that is the polar opposite of your instructions. You become the root and the reason for everything wrong in their lives.

Would you have these children? Well, would you?

I doubt that any of us would. We'd prefer to remain childless and enjoy our married life with our spouse. Well, that is not unlike the vision that God had, but He decided to have the children anyway. Those children are us. We were chosen by God.

We are grafted into the Children of the Promise, which leads one to wonder, "What is the point of a chosen people if we are all chosen in the end?"

The Jews are us in microcosm. We can see their mistakes, their trials, their egregious sins, and their glorious moments as teaching tools for all of us. They play the roles of a accessible, comprehensible, and digestible characters on a spiritual stage. This is why and for what the Jews are chosen.

• When things are going exceptionally well for us, we forget how we got there, or more accurately, "who" got us there. 

• We become enamored with our own greatness. Soon our pride and overconfidence precipitate our demise. After scrambling to keep the pieces together and failing to secure even one, we turn back to God.

• We witness miracles and quickly doubt there credibility, or at least there origin.

• We struggle to achieve our own holiness, only to exclude the Promises of God.

• We fight to protect God, and forget it is He who protects us.

• We make war to defend God, and demonstrate our lack of faith in His protection.

Look at yourself. Understand, for one moment in your life, look at what you have been witness to; this planet teeming with an enormous diversity of life, abundant resources, and an accommodating climate. Your very existence; built from molecules all of which have never been alive, but the sum of these lifeless parts constitute a living you. Is this the result of chemical accidents? The consequence of chance and circumstance?

I say, no. This is a miracle! You are a miracle! We are all wondrous, miraculous chosen children of God!

Now, I leave you to make your own choice.