We refer to the Jews “as God’s chosen people”. We misunderstand what that means. It does not mean that they are chosen because they are better than any other people or ethnic group. They were chosen as a light of monotheism for all the nations. “He says: ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’” (Isaiah 49:6 ESV). (See also Isaiah 42:6). They were chosen to be on a mission to the Gentiles. They were chosen to tell the whole world that they too are chosen. The New Testament says that this is the mission of the church. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9 (NIV). It is easy to make “chosen” about us when it is really about them. Chosen-ness is ugly when we make it about us.
