Are the Jews still the chosen people?

Unconditional covenant

The Israelites are the corporeal depiction of our soteriological reality (Rom. 4). Their covenant, their promise, and their right to exist as a nation is no more dependent upon their perfect obedience than our salvation is dependent upon perfect obedience (Eph. 2:8). Works and obedience are critical! (James 2:24), and YHWH will not hold back his hand from discipline "for if you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are bastards and not sons [of YHWH]" (Heb. 12:8), but so long as there is a remnant that seeks YHWH (1 Kings 19:18; Rom. 11:1-6), YHWH will not abandon his peoples but will continue the process of pruning his vineyard, whether it requires discipline, exile, or even the death of his own Son.

At what point did Israel break its covenant with YHWH so that the great Redeemer was not able to redeem his own people? Even the pagans recognized that a god who could not protect his own people was no god at all (Exod. 32:12; 2 Chron. 25:14-15; Isa. 36:18-20). Israel broke its covenant with YHWH before it ever made it down from the mountain! (Exod. 32:19; Deut. 9:16-17). Again, YHWH does not fail to discipline his people for the sin of worshiping the golden calf (Exod. 32:20, 27-28), but nonetheless he immediately reinstates his covenant with them (Deut. 10:2, 4; Neh. 9:18-21). "Know, therefore, that YHWH your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people" (Deut. 9:6), but so that "he [YHWH] may confirm the word that YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (Deut. 9:5).

But perhaps YHWH abandoned his people at the point of the Babylonian exile? After all, didn't YHWH himself say "you are not my people and I am not your God" (Hos. 1:8)? The language the prophets use to describe YHWH's relationship with Israel at the time of the exile is nothing short of divorce (Hos. 2:2; Jer. 3:8), for Israel has pursued many lovers (Hos 2:5, 7; Jer. 3:6, 9). And "if a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares YHWH" (Jer. 3:1 [see Deut. 24:1-4]). Yet that is exactly what YHWH does! (Hos. 2:14-20). Even though it defiles YHWH to do so, YHWH is sick in love with Israel and cannot reject her forever. YHWH does not fail to punish Israel for her acts of whoredom (Hos. 2:8-13), but he nonetheless accepts her back and specifically revokes his statement "you are not my people, and I am not your God" (Hos. 2:23). While YHWH may use exile as a tool of discipline, he consistently restores his people to their land, even (according to Isaiah) when they haven't yet learned their lesson!1

Or perhaps it was the Jewish people's rejection of Messiah Jesus which was the final straw? After all, Jesus was crucified in 33 CE and the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people driven into exile less than 40 years later in 70 CE. Surely "this work of wrath is proof that the Jews, surely rejected by God, are no longer his people, and neither is he any longer their God" (Martin Luther, The Jews and Their Lies). Paul seems to disagree: "the Jews are still his chosen people because of his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For God's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn" (Rom. 11:28-29).

==exegetical cross references==
*Gen. 15:7-20 YHWH's UNILATERAL blood covenant with the Israelites through Abraham--this covenant is NOT conditional on Abraham, but YHWH says if Israel breaks the covenant, YHWH himself will bear the bloodguilt--through his son Jesus the Christ. http://bible.us/n/6Ob8
*Jer. 31:35-37 "Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar-- the Lord of hosts is his name: 'If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.' Thus says the Lord: 'If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.'"
*Ps. 89:28-37 "My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens. If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.
*Isa. 54:7-10 "'For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,' says the Lord, your Redeemer. . . 'For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,' says the Lord, who has compassion on you."

1. Deutero-Isaiah indicates that after the Babylonian exile, even the Israelites believed that they have been abandoned by YHWH, their covenant forgotten (Isa. 49:14). YHWH assures Israel that a mother would sooner forget her nursing child than he would forget Israel, and indeed YHWH has already begun to work towards her restoration (Isa. 49:15-21). YHWH's forgiveness and restoration precedes even Israel's repentance! In Isa. 46:12-13 YHWH calls stubborn Israel to accept that his righteous salvation is not far off even though they themselves are far from being righteous. "The Judean community has learned nothing from the experience of being devastatingly chastised by Yhwh [by means of the Babylonian exile], but this does not mean that Yhwh has finished with it. Indeed Yhwh intends to fulfill the original purpose of adopting it" (John Goldingay and David F. Payne, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 40-55 [ICC, vol. 1. Introduction and commentary on Isaiah 40-44.23 London; New York: T&T Clark, 2006], 30).

Created 12 months ago