“Why are Jews God’s chosen people?”

Steve Brown:
Why are Jews God’s chosen people? The answer to that and other questions, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life dedicated to the message that the only people who get any better are those who know that if they don’t get any better, God will still love them anyway. That teaching raises a lot of questions, so here’s author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from ForgeBibleStudy.com with answers to the Bible, that’ll make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey man. Happy Friday. How you doing?

Steve Brown:
I’m doing good, really good for an old guy.

Pete Alwinson:
I mean, you look great. I mean healthy, you ought to be on the cover of something.

Steve Brown:
Something, an old folks magazine.

Pete Alwinson:
No.

Steve Brown:
That’s Pete Alwinson, by the way. And for over 25 years, Pete has come into this studio and sat down in that chair with me every Friday, and we’ve answered questions. And we have spoken from Sinai, and what we have said has been quite profound. And it is my hope that you have taken notes while we have answered these questions. And if you believe any of that, you’ll believe anything. Hey listen, be sure and go to ForgeTruth.com and there’s a great podcast there that you’ll absolutely love. By the way, you in, what? Were you crazy? You invited me to be on it?

Pete Alwinson:
Absolutely. I can’t wait.

Steve Brown:
You, you’re trying to get me saved or something?

Pete Alwinson:
That would be one of the goals.

Steve Brown:
Listen, we love getting your questions and we love this time. You can ask a question by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 24 7, and often we put your voice on the air, when you call.

Key Life Network
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or you can send your questions to

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or you can e-mail your questions to [email protected]. And you knew I was going to say it, and I will, if you can help us financially, please do. You help us, you help a whole lot of other people and I promise if you can send a gift that we’ll be as faithful in using it as you were in giving it. We are a not-for-profit organization. We, are a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. They oversee our books, didn’t need to, we were ethical before they started. But just so you know. Help us if you can. If you can’t, we understand and say a prayer for this ministry. Pete, would you leave us in prayer and then we’ll get to some of these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
Absolutely. Let’s pray together. Our Great God, what a joy to be able to come together just for a minute at the end of this busy week, and we come to you in prayer. We pause for a minute, remembering Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are the supreme king of heaven and earth. You created us, you spoke and it was done, you recreated us in Christ, you have done everything good for us. You are omnipotent, all-knowing, you love us, you’re merciful, gracious, kind, and you’re holy and we worship you. We need you more than we even know. And this week-end we ask that you would be with all of our leaders at church, our pastors, priests, spiritual leaders through our worship team. And we just ask Lord, you would use all of them to bring honor and glory to your great name. And that we would have grace taught us and applied in our lives. So, we commit this time of Q&A to you right now, thankful that your truth sets us free every day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete, let’s first go to our phone lines.

Caller 1:
My next door neighbor is Muslim and she was wondering why are the Jews a chosen people?

Steve Brown:
Well, first I would commend her for becoming friends with her neighbor who is Muslim. You know, we have a tendency to back off and think they’re different than us and they’re not. You know, they have the same aspirations. We have tried to define Islam in terms of its most radical and violent side, and in fact, we have some Muslim neighbors and you need to, and we like them. You need to be careful, about that sort of thing. So, good for you, and you even got close enough, for a pretty important question to be asked.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. So, how do you, how do you begin approaching that?

Steve Brown:
Well, you have to say, look, I’m a Christian, I believe the Bible. And the Bible clearly teaches some things that I can’t change. It doesn’t teach that God hates Muslims, but it teaches that their choice by God is different than the choice of Jews. Jews are called, as you expressed when we were talking about this before, to be the mark people to reach the entire world from whom the Messiah would come. And they suffered a lot because of that. Somebody said a rabbi said, Lord, could you choose somebody else? A lot of suffering, a lot of pain, a lot of hard stuff, and even hatred on the part of so many other countries. And yet they have been called and they’re still definable as a people because there are God’s chosen people in that sense. Now, there are other nations that are chosen too, and the Bible specifically speaks of Islam and it’s roots as being chosen by God. It’s just different.

Pete Alwinson:
Mm-hmm. Through that Abrahamic base there.

Steve Brown:
Absolutely.

Pete Alwinson:
And so, yeah, and really realizing, like you said, the cost that comes with being the chosen people. It almost sends the message, this question, that Jews are the only ones that God cares about and far from it.

Steve Brown:
No, that’s not what,

Pete Alwinson:
And that’s what the Christian message is the fulfillment of that Old Testament calling that through you the nations of the world will be blessed and that includes the world. For God so love the world.

Steve Brown:
That’s so true. And we need to remember that in the conversation with our neighbors. And as that conversation grows, that doesn’t mean because you say kind things about Muslims that you agree with them.

Pete Alwinson:
Right. Right.

Steve Brown:
And so, at some point you’ve got to say, there are places where we have some significant disagreements, not about God’s choosing people, he chooses all kinds. And we’re talking about a particular thing in terms of a national choice. But there are areas where we do disagree. And then begin that discussion, which is even a more important discussion than that one.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, you’re absolutely right. And what that just set off in my mind is this reality that many of the Jews who knew they were the chosen people and through whom the Messiah was to come, rejected Jesus himself and have become enemies for the cause of Christ, so that even though the generally chosen people have rejected him and so the whole world is called to the Messiah. We all have to bow the knee, whether we’re Jew, Gentile, Muslim, whatever we are.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. That’s good.

Pete Alwinson:
Jesus is the only way.

Steve Brown:
But again, we commend you for spending time.

Pete Alwinson:
Absolutely.

Steve Brown:
You know, we’ve answered this before, but you know. Let’s do it again. What does the Bible say about tithing?

Pete Alwinson:
To Key Life and the ministry I serve

Steve Brown:
at least 15%

Pete Alwinson:
at least. Yeah. Tithe really means 15%.

Steve Brown:
No, they’ve been telling you its 10

Pete Alwinson:
or it’s 20

Steve Brown:
it’s not, it’s 15. Maybe 20.

Pete Alwinson:
Maybe 20. Yeah.

Steve Brown:
Alright. Seriously, what does the Bible

Pete Alwinson:
Well, you know, the basis, really overall, God owns everything. He owns us. He owns, you know, that Psalm, God owns the cattle on a thousand. He owns us by right of creation and redemption. And yet the reality is, is he’s called us to, from the Old Testament perspective, start with that 10% as a base of giving and be generous. But you know, Jesus said something so powerful. Don’t lay up treasures on earth, moths and rust will destroy. Layup treasures in heaven. So, we have the opportunity to give, be a part of what God is doing, even though he could just take it. We get to be a part of that joyfully because of how much he loves us and has provided for us.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. Fred Smith, my late mentor, used to say that if you’re rich, and he was, by the way, if you are rich and you only give 10% to God’s work, you’re stealing from God.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s straight up.

Steve Brown:
Well, I wouldn’t say that, but he said it.

Pete Alwinson:
I know

Steve Brown:
Boy, people would wince because we would both be speaking at a conference where there were a number of very affluent people there, and he didn’t back off at all. Fred also would go buy his clothes at the secondhand store

Pete Alwinson:
wow

Steve Brown:
for $10 and wear the suit to the Rotary Club when he was speaking in Dallas, very affluent people. And tell them, how much do you think I spent for this? And they would say, three or $4,000. And then he would smile and say, 10 bucks.

Pete Alwinson:
Wow

Steve Brown:
And Goodwill was the place where I got it. And I have a lot of leftover money that God could use.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh man. He just put the screws on ’em. Right, you know.

Steve Brown:
He could really do it. But there’s an aspect of tithing that is really good because it gives us a place where we, if we go, we don’t have to feel guilty about not giving everything.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
You know, there’s some Christians and we even know some of them, who have gone way beyond at the expense of their family, food for their family, braces for their kids and shoes. And have given money away like that, speaking of Fred Smith, his father was like that. And he gave, he gave things away and the family went wanting

Pete Alwinson:
they needed it

Steve Brown:
because of that. So, there’s this, and I have a friend who says he’s glad that God said 10% or his wife would give the house away.

Pete Alwinson:
So, it’s really, it’s a great starting point.

Steve Brown:
It really is.

Pete Alwinson:
But it really opens us up to this greater call toward generosity.

Steve Brown:
It really is.

Pete Alwinson:
You cannot outgive God, you know, Malachi 3, you just, you can’t. I was talking to a wealthy businessman at lunch, young businessman. And he just says, you know, the more he gives, the more God enables him to make the money. And it’s a gift.

Steve Brown:
It is, and it’s named as a gift in Romans.

Pete Alwinson:
It is. So, it’s a real, a great opportunity. But on the other hand, when you look at the flip side of this, you could become a hoarder and that’s a horrible sort of disease, but it’s also, we don’t get to see the work of God through us.

Steve Brown:
And you know something that I’ve found, and I’m sure you have too, that as you begin to give, it is a freeing kind of thing, to watch what God does with your goods and to be a part of what he’s doing in the world. That’s a good thing. Well, that’s a good comment. We ought to have this published.

Pete Alwinson:
I know. I think so, maybe we could talk about it on the podcast.

Steve Brown:
Guys, we’ve got to go. But first, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.