For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:6-8)

For God So Loved The World

For a period of time in history, the nation of Israel was the special treasure of God. Born from the bondage of a foreign land that oppressed the children of Jacob for hundreds of years, Israel would rise to a status, unlike any nation the world had ever seen. At its zenith, the Hebrews were the most blessed and powerful nation man would ever see. It was not because of the expanse of their land holdings or the size of their army that made Israel a formidable nation but the God that created the small nation from His love and His promise. Israel was a people elected by the Creator of the world to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. Of all the great masses that came from the dispersion of Babel to present day, there has never been a more blessed group of individuals where God has shown Himself in His power, love, protection, benevolence, and care. They did not number more than any other nation. Of those who came from Egypt, they numbered six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. Including women and others, the nation of Israel was small compared to all other peoples. The Lord notes they were the smallest of all peoples. God did not choose Israel because they were more numerous than all other nations but because He loved them and He had made a promise to Abraham. As a faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations the Lord chose the Hebrews as an act of love and faithfulness. Sadly, Israel would enjoy the favor of the Lord God for a short period of history as they rejected His love like a wife to a faithful husband committing spiritual whoredom with the nations around them. After repeated pleas to return to the covenant established at Sinai through His servant Moses, Israel lost their favor in the eyes of God. Redemption would come through the final act of rebellion when the Jews killed the Son of God refusing to accept Jesus as the Christ. The Roman authorities were complicit in the murder of Jesus accounting the wrath of God upon them. God established a new covenant through the blood of Christ. Israel was no longer the special treasure of the Lord.

God’s love for Israel was the basis for Him choosing them. He had promised Abraham that He would create this great people that would number as the stars in the heavens. Because of their sin, Israel was rejected by the Lord. Salvation can only come through the name of Jesus Christ and the offering of God to man today remains the same. Like Israel of old, the chosen people of God are those whom He has loved above all others and to whom He had made a promise. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to save man, redeem Him from the penalty of sin and fulfill a promise made in the Garden of Eden. No longer an earthly kingdom but a kingdom eternal in the heavens, the kingdom of God is made up of the chosen vessels of God’s love. The sacrifice of Jesus is the offering of the Lord to show His great love for all men. That salvation did not come because of anything man has done to deserve such love. It was not because there were billions of people on earth. Nothing man did warrants the grace of God to be given to him. In fact, everything man did prove that he did not deserve or merit the love, grace, and kindness of the Lord. Mankind had become a putrid world of darkness that would murder in the most horrible manner the only Son of God. If the truth of man’s sin was clearly understood the wrath of God should have utterly destroyed the universe where men dwelt but God did not do that. He loved man and chose to save Him.

One of the most important characters of the Lord God is that He cannot lie. This is absolute. There is no changing and vacillating with uncertainty. When Adam and Eve did exactly what the Lord told them not to do in taking the forbidden fruit, the grace of God made a promise to save them. He told them a Seed would come that would redeem the world and that Seed was Jesus Christ. No promise of God has ever failed. Salvation is offered to all men today because God made a promise that He would offer a way of escape. It would not come through the sacrificial offerings of animals or the failed righteousness of good men. The promise made by the Father in the Garden of Eden had already been defined before time began to be the literal sacrifice of God in the form of a man. Jesus came in the flesh and suffered every pain of humanity including the horror of the crucifixion so that all men could find peace through His blood. The death of Jesus was the fulfillment of the Eden promise that came from the love of God. What does man have to glory in? Is there anything men can say they have done that deserves this kind of love? Salvation came from the love of God and the fulfillment of the promise made in the garden. Thank God for His love and for His faithfulness.