Whose God is God?
From the start, God created Adam who is traced to Abraham, who goes to Solomon and up to Christ. Israel was the chosen nation and Canaanites had to be killed, people of Jericho annihilated to pave way for Israel. Is the God of Israel therefore selective? Why did he choose one tribe among many when all were his creation? BRIGHT MHANGO writes.
Deuteronomy 7:6 proclaims the nation of Israel, known originally as the Children of Israel, as his “treasured people out of all the people on the face of the earth.” According to the Book of Exodus, the Hebrew people are God’s chosen people, and from them shall come the Messiah, or redeemer of the world.
The Israelites also possess the “Word of God” that is the “Law of God” in the form of the Torah as communicated by God to Moses.
Paul actually told a group of Jews as recorded in Acts 13:46, “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.”
If Paul’s words on Acts 13 are to be believed, does that mean that if Jews accepted the gospel, there would be no need for gentiles to know it?
God actually awards land belonging to other tribes to the Israelites and says to Joshua: “Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea.” (Joshua 1)
Nothing is said about where the displaced Hittites will be housed.
The God of Israel then goes too far as listed in Deuteronomy 20: 16 where he commands total annihilation of ‘everything that breathes’ in cities that the ‘chosen people’ were granted as inheritance.
“However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.”
He went on to command the Israelis to take women, children and wives of enemy city as loot and said those defeated would go into forced labour and work for the Children of Israel.
Did God just call for genocide there? In the beginning there was no life, not even stones, God created everything from scratch and soon enough he is picking a tribe from among tribes to make it his darling tribe? Grant it the law, promise to get the Messiah through it and allow it to own others’ lands? Is God just the God of Israel? Where do the Chinese, Roma Gypsies and African stand in his taxonomy of tribes?
According to Deuteronomy 7: 7-9 God did not chose Israel because of its big population ‘…but it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your forefathers that He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.’
God went on to promise never to go against his promises. Of course, it is difficult to envision God swearing.
In 2010 Greek-Melchite Archbishop Cyrille Butros started a controversy when he raised some questions. He said it seemed Israel was using scripture to displace Palestinians at the conclusion of a two-week Vatican conference assembled to discuss the plight of Christians in the Middle East
“The Holy Scriptures cannot be used to justify the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands,” said Butros as quoted by Russia Today.
The Archbishop then questioned the Biblical idea of a “promised land” set aside by a specific group of people.
“We Christians cannot speak of the Promised Land as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people,” Butros continued. “This promise was nullified by Christ. There are no longer a chosen people – all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people.”
As usual Israel bashed Butros’ comments and said the forum had been ‘hijacked by an anti-Israeli majority.’
Some say God chose Israel so that they could go and teach others about Him. But looking at Israel today one wonders if they are still the chosen people and whether they are really spreading the Gospel.
Seventh Day Adventists say they are the chosen remnants according to Revelation 12:17. Rastafarians say Black People are God’s chosen from the lineage of King Solomon via Queen Sheba.
Mormons say all Latter Day Saints are chosen. Jose Mourinho says he is a ‘Special One’. Mario Ballotteli wonders through his jersey ‘Why always me?’ and the list goes on. Only God knows who is His and only He can explain why He chose, if at all He chose, Israel as a special people.
