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There are multiple problems with the commonly held belief that the Jews are God’s chosen people, and this too requires repentance. First of all, it presumes that it applies to those who reject Jesus as the Messiah, when in fact no one is chosen apart from faith in Him.
Second, it presumes that the Jews are Israelites and are the heirs of the promises to Israel. This, of course, ignores the history of the Divided Kingdom, when the 10 tribes of Israel revolted against Judah. Up to that time, Israel included all 12 tribes, but after this, the name Israel applied only to the 10 tribes and excluded Judah. In other words, the definition of Israel changed to suit the political situation, and all the prophets who prophesied subsequently distinguished between Israel and Judah.
Judah’s calling was to produce the kings, culminating with Jesus Christ, who is the final King. Other kings from the line of Judah continued to rule through King Zedekiah’s daughter, whom Jeremiah took to Ireland, but these were placeholders until Christ would come personally to take His throne. Though imperfect, their role was vital to fulfill Jeremiah 33:17,
17 For thus says the Lord, “David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.”
The Israelites, meanwhile, were conquered by Assyria and resettled in the land of Gamir, as we learn from the archeological records from the great library at Nineveh. Many of them moved west to Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and Asia, where Peter found some of them (1 Peter 1:1). This region is now part of Turkey.
When Assyria fell a century later, many Israelites began to migrate north through the Caucasus Mountains into Europe—so many, in fact, that historians called them Caucasians. Hence, Israel’s graveyard in Assyria was the birthplace of Europe. The groups of immigrants were called by different names in the records of the nations. Hence, they lost the name Israel and became known prophetically only as the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Jeremiah 50:6; Matthew 10:6).
To repent means to turn in a new direction or to change one’s belief. Understanding the difference between Israelites and Jews is a very important change if one hopes to understand Bible history and prophecy. One cannot assume that the Jews are the Israelites that the prophets wrote about, nor is it true that the modern state of “Israel” is the biblical Israel.
The Kingdom “tree” had some branches pruned from it, including both Israel and Judah. Israel was pruned 700 years before Christ when God divorced Israel and sent them out of the house to Assyria on account of their unbelief. The same occurred with Judah in the first century—and for the same reason.
In light of this, Paul asked in Romans 11:1 if God had rejected His people. The answer is NO, because His people are people of faith. He then gives the example of the days of Elijah. The small remnant of grace (a mere 7,000 men) was never rejected, even if God rejected the rest of the nation. In Romans 11:7 Paul concludes,
7 What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
Paul tells us that there were just 7,000 men in all of Israel who were actually “chosen,” and that these carried the promises of God, even when the rest of the nation was rejected. In other words, most of the Israelites were not chosen, nor were they God’s people. To be God’s people, they had to be men of faith whose faith resulted in obedience.
So we see that even though both Israel and Judah were rejected, the promise of God did not fail, because His promise was carried by the overcoming remnant of grace. So how is it said today that unbelieving Jews are God’s chosen people by virtue of their genealogy? That was not Paul’s revelation, nor, in fact, was it Elijah’s revelation. Neither King Ahab nor the high priest Caiaphas were chosen. Instead, they were among those who were “hardened” (i.e., blinded).
Many in the church need to repent of thinking that God has chosen those who are not part of the remnant of grace, those who have no faith in Jesus Christ. If a Jew or an Israelite by genealogy wants to be chosen, let him or her believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah). The way is open to all equally.
Dr. Stephen Jones has been writing blog posts since 2005 on a variety of topics from Bible Studies to World News, and he has been writing books since 1992. Dr. Jones' most important writings came after God brought him back into the full-time ministry in 1991. It is here that all his earlier years of searching the Scriptures began to come into clear focus. He combines a knowledge of the Old and New Testaments with a personal revelation of God that began and developed during the "wilderness" period of his life, which he often refers to as God's True Bible College... Read More
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