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Jewish people take pride in being called God’s chosen people. But, as the proverb goes, “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). This article will discuss Jewish pride, the ‘chosen’ status of the Jews of Israel, whether being Jewish makes someone more special to God than non-Jews, and if the Jews of Israel are still chosen today.

DEUTERONOMY 7:6-11 (NKJV):
For you are a HOLY PEOPLE to YHWH (the Lord) your God; YHWH (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. YHWH (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 YHWH (the Lord) loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, YHWH (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.
Therefore know that YHWH (the Lord) your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

DEUTERONOMY 14:2 (NKJV):
For you are a HOLY PEOPLE to YHWH (the Lord) your God, and YHWH (the Lord) has CHOSEN YOU to be a people for Himself, a SPECIAL TREASURE above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

God chose the Jewish people to be a treasured people on the Earth, to be His example nation to the other nations of the world. God did not choose the Jews because they were holy and special; He chose them to be a holy and special people.

The Jews failed in their covenant with God, to keep His commandments and statutes. As a man divorces his wife for repeated unrepentant acts of marital adultery, YHWH (the Lord) divorced the twin kingdoms of Israel and Judah for their continued acts of spiritual adultery in worshiping other gods.

ISAIAH 50:1 (NKJV):
Thus says YHWH (the Lord):
“Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, and for your transgressions your mother has been put away.”

JEREMIAH 3:6-10 (NKJV):
YHWH (the Lord) said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says YHWH (the Lord).

ISRAEL STOPPED BEARING SPIRITUAL FRUIT TO THE WORLD

MATTHEW 21:18-19; MARK 11:12-14 (NKJV):
Now in the morning, as Yeshua (Jesus) returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.”

LUKE 13:6-9 (NKJV):
Yeshua (Jesus) also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’”

The fig tree, symbolically throughout Scripture, represents the nation of Israel. Although Israel was chosen to be a holy special nation, they failed at their calling and were cursed by God to not be the nation any longer that would bear spiritual fruit to the world.

WHO IS A JEW AND WHO IS CHOSEN NOW?

ROMANS 2:25-29 (NKJV):
For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, IF HE FULFILLS THE LAW, JUDGE YOU who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?

FOR HE IS NOT A JEW WHO IS ONE OUTWARDLY, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; BUT HE IS A JEW WHO IS ONE INWARDLY; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

A Jew or a Hebrew to God is one by faith, meaning one who has crossed over from all false religions and has accepted God in truth. Romans 2:27 proclaims that the uncircumcised Gentile will judge the unrighteous circumcised Jew.

LIVING STONES OF YESHUA MESSIAH (JESUS CHRIST) ARE NOW CHOSEN

1 PETER 2:4-10 (NKJV):
Coming to Him as to A LIVING STONE, rejected indeed by men, BUT CHOSEN BY GOD AND PRECIOUS, you also, AS LIVING STONES, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ).
Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. BUT YOU ARE A CHOSEN GENERATION, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, HIS OWN SPECIAL PEOPLE, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; WHO WERE ONCE NOT A PEOPLE BUT ARE NOW THE PEOPLE OF GOD, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Yeshua (Jesus), the chief cornerstone, was rejected by the builders (the religious architects and elders of Israel) as their Messiah. This rejection has caused the Jews of Israel to stumble in blindness.

ARE THE JEWS STILL CHOSEN?

The Jewish people are not currently chosen to lead the world to God, but God has not forgotten them either. They have been returned to the land of Israel as foretold (Ezekiel 11:17). God has a special purpose for the Jewish people of Israel in His end time plans. They are His lost sheep. One day the world’s righteous will be taken to Israel and Jerusalem will be the beloved capital city of the world (Revelation 20:9).

MATTHEW 15:24 (NKJV):
Yeshua (Jesus) answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

ROMANS 11:1-2,7-12,25 (NKJV):
I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.
…
What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Just as it is written:
“God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”
And David says:
“Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always.”
I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!…
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

The Jews’ “fall” from being the chosen people and source of spiritual fruit for the world is explained in Romans 11. Believers should understand that God Himself claims credit for giving the Jews “a spirit of stupor with eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear.” And why did God do this and allow His chosen people to stumble? This was done so that the Gentiles and all believers of Yeshua (Jesus) could be grafted into Israel, not through election or ethnic nationality, but by grace through faith (Romans 11:5-6).

ARE THE ETHNIC JEWS CURSED?

MATTHEW 27:22-25 (NKJV):
Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Yeshua (Jesus) who is called Messiah (Christ)?”
They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!”
Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?”
But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!”
When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”
AND ALL THE PEOPLE ANSWERED AND SAID, “HIS BLOOD BE ON US AND ON OUR CHILDREN.”

MATTHEW 23:31-33,37-39 (NKJV):
“Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?…
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

The Jews of the house of Israel, ethnic national Jews, are under a certain curse. God does punish disobedience and sin. When Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt, even though Joseph forgave his brothers, this evil deed did not go unpunished by God. Joseph’s brother’s children became slaves of Egypt. Joseph’s brother’s children were cursed with slavery for the slavery they imposed upon Joseph. God saw to it that Joseph’s brothers were tormented throughout much of their lives with guilt and their children, and their children’s children, were punished with slavery in Egypt for four hundred years (Genesis 15:13; Exodus 12:40).

JEWS ARE AMONG THE MOST BLESSED PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

GENESIS 12:1-3 (NKJV):
Now YHWH (the Lord) had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The ethnic national Jews of Israel are in a peculiar position with God. They are simultaneously both under a covenant blessing and a national curse. Should believers unconditionally bless Israel or have nothing to do with the Jews at all? God will bless Jews if they keep the commandments and statutes of God (Deuteronomy 7:10-11), just as He will bless all other people of all other nations for doing so. God does not love the Jews unconditionally and neither should believers. Believers wishing to support ethnic Jews should do so by supporting righteous Jews, even if they currently deny their Messiah. Supporting everything ethnic Jews do is not what God would want. Supporting the nation of Israel in general is good, as God has given the land of Israel to the Jews by covenant. Tel Aviv, Israel hosts one of the largest gay pride parades of the world every June. Many Israelis and tourists flock to the city during this time to participate in this national disgrace, flaunting sin, and mocking God. Should believers support the Jews in this? Of course not! God’s definition of a Jew is not one outwardly, but inwardly (Romans 2:28-29).

GOD SHOWS NO PARTIALITY FOR THE JEW OVER THE GENTILE

JOB 37:24 (NKJV):
He shows no partiality TO ANY who are wise of heart.

MATTHEW 8:11-12 (NKJV):
“And I say to you that many [GENTILES] will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom [UNRIGHTEOUS ETHNIC JEWS] will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

ACTS 10:34-35 (NKJV):
Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that GOD SHOWS NO PARTIALITY. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.

ACTS 15:8-9 (NKJV):
So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them [GENTILES] by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us [JEWS], and made no distinction between us [JEWS] and them [GENTILES], purifying their hearts by faith.

ROMANS 2:8-11 (NKJV):
To those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness – indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. FOR THERE IS NO PARTIALITY WITH GOD.

JEWISH PRIDE, ETHNIC SUPERIORITY, AND SEPARATION MENTALITY

Many Christians proclaim the law was given to the Jews and was for the Jews only. Likewise, many Jews believe that they are an eternal special set apart people, ethnically superior, and as such the Torah (law) was for them only. Even in some Messianic Judaism congregations, which are heavily influenced by Jews coming out from Pharisaic Talmudic Judaism – and bringing their false religious doctrinal baggage with them, they try to make a distinction between Jews and Gentiles, saying that the Gentiles do not need to obey the ‘ceremonial,’ ‘dietary,’ and ‘Mosaic’ laws as the Jews were commanded to. Messianic Judaism has cited Acts 15, using the chapter to proclaim that Gentiles do not need to obey the Torah (law) as the Jews do.

ACTS 15:1 (NKJV):
And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

ACTS 15:10 (NKJV):
Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

The yoke spoken of in Acts 15:10 is adult circumcision, NOT the Torah (law). Circumcision was for the eighth day and ONLY the eighth day (Leviticus 12:3). Yeshua (Jesus) died and removed the ordinance penalty, which was to be cut off from God’s people, from male converts who were uncircumcised. Adult circumcision is optional. Gentile believers should circumcise their male children on their eighth day.

ACTS 15:19-20 (NKJV):
Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.

Some Messianic Jews are attempting to say that the only laws Gentiles were required to keep were sexual morality laws, to abstain from foods offered to idols, and from animals which were strangled and thereby not properly slaughtered and drained of blood. The advice to Gentiles was due to widespread Gentile issues of the time, practiced by Roman, Greek, Babylonian, and other surrounding cultures. To suggest that these were the ONLY commands Gentiles were ever required to follow is sheer lawlessness absurdity. The motivation of ethnic Jewish Messianics who teach that Gentiles are not required to obey many of God’s laws, is likely motivated by an ethnocentric superiority mentality and a desire to separate and elevate themselves above Gentile Messianic believers who they worship with. There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile (Acts 15:8-9).

MATTHEW 28:18-20 (NKJV):
And Yeshua (Jesus) came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of ALL THE NATIONS, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, TEACHING THEM [GENTILES] TO OBSERVE ALL THINGS THAT I HAVE COMMANDED YOU [JEWS]; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

There is one law for Jews and Gentiles. Yeshua (Jesus) commanded His Jewish apostles to teach the Gentiles all things, including all the law, which He had taught them. The Gentiles were given the law, along with the Gospel; it is fully contained in the complete set of the books of Scripture. When Jews and Gentiles enter God’s kingdom, there will not be a kosher Jewish kitchen and a Gentile all-creatures-you-can-eat kitchen. There will not be Jew circumcised bathrooms and Gentile uncircumcised bathrooms.

JOHN 10:16 (NKJV):
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be ONE FLOCK and one shepherd.

All ethnic Jews and Gentiles who will enter into God’s kingdom will all be as Jews, those who are Hebrew having ‘crossed over’ and will worship God as one, in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). We will be one flock.

MATTHEW 12:30; LUKE 11:23 (NKJV):
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”

ROMANS 11:28 (NKJV):
Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.

The ethnic national Judaic Jews, as far as spreading the gospel of Messiah (Christ) is concerned, are against Yeshua (Jesus), but are under His covenant protection as His elect people who will one day call on Him to save themselves (Matthew 23:39).

ARE BELIEVERS PERMITTED TO CRITICIZE JEWS OR ISRAEL?

GENESIS 12:3 (NKJV):
I will bless those who bless you [ISRAEL], and I will curse him who curses you [ISRAEL]; and in you [ISRAEL] all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Many Christians and other believers have been conditioned to never speak evil against the nation of Israel, or ethnic Jewish people, even if they are doing evil. If a nation or an individual is engaged in sin, then a believer is to rebuke sin, whether the evil is coming from an ethnic Jew or a Gentile.

There are certainly many ethnic Pharisaic, Talmudic Jews, who cite Scripture and promote the idea to Christians and other believers that they should unconditionally bless Jews and Israel, to receive God’s blessings, and never speak evil of Jews or Israel, to not be cursed by God. Rebuking sin, whether committed by Jews or commenting on the national sins of Israel, is not cursing Israel.

AMOS 7:14-17 (NKJV):
Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah:
“I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a sheepbreeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. Then YHWH (the Lord) took me as I followed the flock, and YHWH (the Lord) said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now therefore hear the word of YHWH (the Lord): You [ISRAEL] say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not spout against the house of Isaac.’
Therefore, thus says YHWH (the Lord):
‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city; your sons and daughters will fall by the sword; your land will be divided by survey line; you shall die in a defiled land; and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land.’”

God rose up Amos (and others) to prophesy against Israel. Israel’s reaction to Amos was the same reaction that many Jews have today if you speak out against the sins of a Jew, the false practices within Pharisaic Talmudic Judaism, or say anything critical about the national sins of the State of Israel.

GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE ARE THOSE WHO ARE WITH YESHUA (JESUS)

REVELATION 17:14 (NKJV):
These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; AND THOSE WHO ARE WITH HIM ARE CALLED, CHOSEN, AND FAITHFUL.

Believers in Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) are God’s chosen people. As chosen people, we are not to support and ‘worship’ the Jews in everything that they do. Believers should not be afraid to speak out against Jewish practices that are sinful. Yeshua (Jesus) spoke out against the Jewish religious authorities and their wickedness; His faithful can also.

God’s called, chosen, and faithful people will join Yeshua (Jesus) when He returns to Earth to save His lost people, the Jews of Israel, from annihilation. Believers should have a certain respect for the Jews, who have imperfectly brought forth the salvation message to the world (John 4:22). The Jews are prophesied to one day come to understand the full truth of their Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) and many of them will be grafted back into the family of God (Ezekiel 37; Matthew 24:30, 26:64; Mark 13:26, 14:62; Luke 21:27; Romans 11:23-24).