You Didn’t Choose Us, So You Can’t Un-choose Us

It is funny how sometimes when I am reading the Bible I will read a verse that I have read many times before, and instead of the verse just being a part of my readings, a verse will jump out in a new and different way. Recently this happened with a verse from John.

John 15:16  ““You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I selected you so that you would go and produce fruit, and your fruit would remain. Then, the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name.”

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The above verse is very familiar to me and I am sure many reading this are also familiar with the words “You didn’t choose Me, but I chose you.” I have always read this verse in terms of one's redemption, and it does speak to that, after all, John 6 does say:

John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless My Father who sent Me draws him—and I will raise him up on the last day.”

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But on that day, when I read that verse, I read it through slightly different eyes. I read it in terms of the history of G-D’s people, those we read about in the Bible. 

Now let me start by saying the obvious: I am a Jew. I am a genealogical descendent of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. For some reason, out of all of humanity, G-D chose Abraham. Abraham didn’t choose G-D, Abraham responded to G-D choosing him. 

Since G-D chose Abraham and made a covenant with him, you and I have a Messiah. G-D chose Abraham to speak the words “in you all the families of the earth would be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). That promise was fulfilled when a descendent of Abraham, a Jew, was 

born in the little town of Bethlehem to a Jewish man named Joseph and a Jewish woman named Miriam, both who were chosen by G-D.

G-D chose for Yeshua (Jesus) to be born into the Jewish people. The Jewish people didn’t choose for Yeshua to be born into their family. G-D also chose to use the Jewish people to be a light to the nations. As a light to the nations, G-D chose the Jewish people to be the first people to believe that Yeshua is the Messiah and to receive redemption through Yeshua’s atoning sacrifice. 

G-D then chose the Jewish people to share the Good News with the Samaritans and later the Gentiles. As a result, the body of believers grew and those chosen Jews, such as Peter and Paul, shared the Good News throughout the world following the plan that G-D chose which is found in Romans 1:16 and Acts 1:8:

“For I am not ashamed of the Good News, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who trusts—to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

“But you will receive power when the Ruach ha-Kodesh has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and through all Judah, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  

Notice the wording “to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Not to the Jew first and to the Greek. G-D’s chosenness of the Jewish people didn’t end when the Gentiles accepted the Good News of the Messiahship of Yeshua. The chosenness of the Jewish people didn’t end when they were no longer the majority of believers in Yeshua. The Jewish people will continue to be chosen by G-D until the end of days. We know this because we read about Yeshua reigning from Jerusalem and in that day all the nations of the earth will come to Jerusalem as we read in Jeremiah 3:14-18:

““Return, O backsliding children,” declares Adonai. “For I am your Husband. I will choose you—one from a city and two from a clan— and will bring you to Zion. I will give you shepherds after My own heart who will feed you knowledge and understanding. It will be in those days when you multiply and become fruitful in the land.” It is a declaration of Adonai. “They will no longer talk about the ark of the covenant of Adonai, nor will it come to mind or be remembered. Neither will it be missed or another one made again. At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of Adonai and all the nations will gather into it, to Jerusalem, in the Name of Adonai. No longer will they walk according to the stubbornness of their evil heart. In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel. They will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.””

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Notice the wording of these verses as G-D speaks to His backsliding children. He referred to them as the house of Judah and the house of Israel, the Jewish people. The people G-D chose. Then, G-D says all the nations, referring to the nations other than the Jewish nation Israel, will gather in Jerusalem the capital city of the Jewish nation Israel. 

So when I read those words from John 15, they reminded me that the truth is that G-D chose us, we didn't choose him. Likewise, G-D chose the Jewish people, the Jewish people didn’t choose Him. This truth also reminded me that because G-D chose the Jewish people, then no one can unchoose them except G-D. Not any church denomination. Not any seminary professor. Not any government. Not any commentator. Not any social media activist. And certainly not any antisemite.