WILL GOD SAVE HIS “CHOSEN PEOPLE”?

We need to start by understanding who we mean by God’s “Chosen People”. The Israelites were named as God’s chosen people in the time of Abraham. However, the covenant with Noah before, during and after the “flood” seems clear. At that time in history the survivors of the flood were Hebrews. Hebrews is a synonym for Jews. The term Jews was first used in 2 Kings 25:25 (NAB). So to define the terms Hebrews were Jews and they were also Israelites. Further, many use the term Jew as a form of Judah- or vice versa.  Judah is the son of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel by God. The point of all of this is that whenever people are referred to by any of these names, they are considered God’s Chosen People.

So look at the various places where we see that God will save His people:

1. Zechariah 8:7-8. “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west” (v.7 NASB). “and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness” (v.8 NASB). This is a prophecy of the end times and it is about the Chosen People. Then in 9:9 Zechariah gives a stunning prophecy about the Messiah (Jesus): “Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey for the remnant of Judah” (NLT). Here the remnant of Judah is the Chosen People and it states that the King is coming with salvation. In Zech. 9:11-17 it says that the Lord will deliver Judah and Ephraim, which are the Jews, because of the blood of His Covenant.

 

2. Malachi 4:4-6. “Remember the Law of Moses My servant, even the statues and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.” “Behold I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.” “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.” This is called this the final admonition to the prophecy of the Lord promise to be with His people.

 

3. Habakkuk 3:1-19. This tells of Habakkuk’s prayer for God’s people and God response was deliverance. Verse 13 states: “You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You stuck the head of the house of the evil to lay him open from thigh to neck.” This is God promising to save His people and to protect them from the evil to come in the end.

 

4. Micah 4:1-2. “And it will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it.” “Many nations will come and say Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob that He may teach us about His paths. For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” He will assemble the lame, the outcasts and afflicted and make a remnant that strong nation (Israel) and the Lord will reign over them in Mt. Zion. This is clearly bringing His people back to Jerusalem to save them. Jeremiah states the same type of the Jews returning to Jerusalem in the end times (more on this later).

Micah 5:1-5a, the birth of Jesus is prophesized, and in verse 2 it states: “From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” Then in verse 3: “Therefore He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel.” This is also viewed as the same promise given earlier in Micah that His people will return to Jerusalem to be “saved” (protected) by God.
Verse 7:8 says the remnant of Jacob (Jews) will be among many people and nations and the Lord will be among them.

 

5. 1 Chronicles 17:9-10. Here is one passage that clearly tells what God will do for His people: “I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and not be moved again; and the wicked will not waste them anymore as formerly”. This continues the thoughts from Zechariah, Micah and Jeremiah about “bringing His people bank to Jerusalem for protection and salvation in eternity. This is also the covenant God made with David.

1 Chronicles 16:15-17 says to “Remember His covenant forever…” which is the covenant made with “thousands of generations- Noah Gen. 6:18; Rainbow covenant Gen. 9:13; and Abraham Gen. 17:2-4 – to name just three.

 

6. Ezra 8:31b. “and He delivered us (Levites who are Jews) from the hand of the enemy and the ambushes by the way.” Here Ezra is talking further about the protection for the remnant. As we now know the remnant who those Jews who were saved/protected and permitted to return to Jerusalem to re-build the temple. During the time of Ezra 2 Chronicles 36:23 says that the Lord told Cyrus to let the remnant return to Jerusalem so it would lead to the coming of Jesus.

 

7. Jeremiah 23:1-6. This is telling of the coming of the Messiah: the Righteous Branch and the Lord will gather the “remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture…”(v. 3 NASB). Then verses 5-6 says: “Behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which by which He will be called, The Lord our Righteousness.” While this is a promise in Jeremiah’s day it is clearly not about his time as it says “Israel will dwell securely” which they were not during Jesus’ day when the Romans were in charge. Further in verse 8 Jeremiah writes: “but, As the Lord lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them. Then they will live on their own soil (Jerusalem).”

Jeremiah 31:31-33. “Behold days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (v.31). Then it says that it is not the same covenant which He had made with their fathers but a new covenant. Verse 33b states:  “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Jeremiah 32:37-38. “Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. They shall be My people, and I will be their God.” Here God repeats, for more than two times, that He will restore His people and save His remnant. It has been said that when God says something twice or more that He wants us to hear it and – He means it!

 

8. Ezekiel 39:28.Ezekiel makes it clear that this gathering of the remnant means God will return every single living Jew back to their land. He writes that the Lord said He would gather them again to their own land- “and…none of them will be captive any longer”.

God’s covenant with Abraham will reach its ultimate fulfillment only upon Christ’s second coming. The Jews will return to the Lord and, as Zechariah, Micah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others prophesied, they will be His people and He will be their God. The borders of the land will expand to the dimensions described in Genesis 15 and Ezekiel 48. Christ’s return will also fulfill the prophecy of Jeremiah 32:37-38 (above) that God will gather the Jews.

Today we see this prophecy being fulfilled right before our eyes. In 2006, for the first time in nineteen hundred years, Israel became home to the largest Jewish community in the world, surpassing the Jewish population in the U.S. From the 650,000 who returned when the Jewish state was founded in 1948 (and recognized officially by President Truman), the population of Israel has swelled to approximately 5.4 million, and it’s expected to exceed 6 million by 2020 (unless Rapture occurs first).

 

9. Revelation 2:9 states that all who claim to be Jews are not the chosen people. As some residences of today’s Israel do not even follow the Old Testament – like alone the New Testament. Jesus has John to give this warning to that they are “a synagogue of Satan”. However, the Book of Revelation foretells the last wave of Anti-Semitism that will roll over the world. This is telling all that God will not permit this prejudice to continue.

Revelation 7:4-9 tells of the remnant of Israel and the 144,000 who are sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.

 

10. Luke 22:20. Jesus said this is “the new covenant in My blood”. Then in Luke 21:20-22 Jesus supports and basically says the same thing that Jeremiah said about the remnant returning to Jerusalem when He talks about the things to come.

 

11. Acts 3:25b. Luke writes what Peter quoted from Genesis: “And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. While this says “all families”, this covenant was made to Abraham for the chosen Jews.

 

12. Hebrews 7:22. “So much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant”.

 

After all of this maybe the best indication that God will save His Chosen People is that even though Israel (the chosen people) failed to bring about hope and salvation for humanity during their history, the Jewish people and lineage had the privilege of bringing the Deliverer (Christ) into the world as a Jewish person.

We know that those of us who are believers in Jesus and have repented will be saved whether we are Jewish or not. We also know that, according to Jesus’ teachings, no one who does not believe in Jesus and repent will find the way to eternity. So where does that leave “the non-believing” Jewish people who came from the remnant and were consider the “Chosen People”? That is why God continues to give all the chance to find His mercy and love through Christ and has not yet signaled for Christ’s second coming. Even before that coming, many will be saved (who were not Raptured) in the Tribulation primarily due to the two witnesses and the 144,000. Also remember, as we are told in Revelation chapter 20 that there will be a Millennium, where others will be given a chance to come to the faith in Jesus who will be the King during that time. My writings on the Millennium will further explain this concept as I see in Isaiah and other areas of the Bible. There is one last thought about those who chose to be saved or not choose God’s grace and undeserved mercy of salvation: all must make that decision to follow the “narrow path” to salvation that Jesus teaches- prior to their physical death on this earth.