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I am looking for scripture to learn about how, why the jews were God's choosen people. i am trying to put together info for a class persentation. thank you

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Keith Newton

it starts with God's promise to abraham that he would be the father of many nations, and the King would come from his line. Then it went to Jacob who was stubborn and wrestled a pre Jesus Christ/Word appearance, Then from His Get became Israel, the line chosen for the Messiah to appear. Jacob became Israel, and his sons were the tribes....

This is pretty easy to locate but I'm pretty sure I"m missing an obvious point...

You have a chosen a difficult topic indeed.

As for scripture that tells us the reasoning behind the mind of God in so choosing Abraham, you must read Job to understand the reason that there is no scripture to tell us why. Genesis is the only book that tells how God did it. Now as for Abraham he believed the promises of God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:16 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” Context (NET)

Romans 4:3 3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Context (NET)

Your question delves into the mysteries of God. It also touches on the Calvinistic idea of predestination. See Romans 8 for that one in relation to the Abrahams calling in Genesis and the Romans passage for a quick reference.

The why IS revealed in Scripture: It is because of God's sovereign grace and nothing more.

Romans 9:10-16
"And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER." 13Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." 14What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." 16So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. "

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All Scripture quotations are New American Standard Bible, unless otherwise indicated.

Yes, Jim you may be right although in the immediate,context the scripture deals specifically with Hebrews 2.0, not with the beta version but obviously it includes Abraham;

But the nature of the Sovereign grace of God is not explainable as to God's reasons for displaying it. Those reasons remain hidden and largely unrevealed. i.e.:

Romans 9:15 15 For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Context (NET)

My understanding is that God chose Abraham and his descendants as a first step in reaching the whole world, like on D-Day when the Allied forces first captured the Normandy beaches and coastal towns to create a bridgehead, from which later they would spread outwards to liberate the whole of Europe. When God chose Israel, He chose them to be a light shining on a hill acting as a beacon to the rest of the world. Israel was like a shop window in which other people could see what a nation centred on the one true God was supposed to look like. God's plan was to eventually bring salvation to the ends of the earth by first revealing Himself to Israel and moulding them into a holy people. I guess this plan was better in God's eyes than trying to reveal Himself separately to every nation at the same time.

In Psalm 105:15 God refers to all the people of Israel as 'prophets', i.e. God's mouthpiece to the rest of the world. And the end of that psalm says:
He gave [Israel] the lands of the nations,
and they inherited what other peoples had worked for.
[All this happened] so that they might keep His statutes and obey His laws.

Many nations will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us about His ways
so we may walk in His paths."
For instruction will go out of Zion
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Micah 4:2

The LORD of Hosts says this: "In those days, 10 men from nations of every language will grab the robe of a Jewish man tightly, urging: Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."
Zech 8:23

All quotations are from the Holman Christian Study Bible.

Deut 4:32-40 32 Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it. 33 Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you yourselves have, and lived to tell about it? 34 Or has God ever before tried to deliver a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, signs, wonders, war, strength, power, and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 35 You have been taught that the Lord alone is God – there is no other besides him. 36 From heaven he spoke to you in order to teach you, and on earth he showed you his great fire from which you also heard his words. 37 Moreover, because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants who followed them and personally brought you out of Egypt with his great power 38 to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property. 39 Today realize and carefully consider that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below – there is no other! 40 Keep his statutes and commandments that I am setting forth today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you may enjoy longevity in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you as a permanent possession. Context (NET)

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Marv
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Thank you all very much for your help. I am learning how to use this site and I apologize for the delay in saying thank you.

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Keith Newton