“GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE”
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show his might in behalf of those whose heart is blameless toward him.”
– 2 Chronicles 16:9
There’s lots of confusion about this… God’s chosen ones and all. I stumbled on it again this past Sunday. You may have gotten tangled up in it, too, at one time or another. So… I’m gonna try to paint a picture here and I hope I don’t drop the pallet and colors…
Have you given any real thought about God’s chosen people? Who they might be? Where they’re from and how it was they got chosen? And beyond that… have you considered yourself one of the chosen? These are loaded questions and over the centuries many answers have surfaced.
Take Genghis Khan for instance… back in the late 1100’s and early 1200’s. He thought he was omnipotent or at least was a man of privilege. He had no boundaries and tried to take over the world killing over 40 million people and amassing over 11 million square miles of territory. Talk about chosen? It is said that one in 200 people worldwide share the DNA of the Great Khan.
In my lifetime there were a few others who considered themselves God’s chosen people… Jim Jones and his community of naïve followers in Jonestown, Guyana… and David Koresh and the Branch Davidians outside of Waco here in Texas. Both those movements ended in many deaths. It seems being chosen can invite danger.
But here’s the thing… I started thinking about all this in response to a conversation I had at lunch this past Sunday. I was sitting with someone who said was a ‘military brat’… their father being career U.S. Army.
The family went to worship on the base and all they knew was there were three services… the Jewish service led by the Rabbi, the Roman Catholic service led by the priest and the Protestant service led by whatever Protestant pastor was assigned to the base they were stationed at.
It wasn’t until this person reached adulthood and done with all the military travel that they discovered the Protestants were made up of Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Southern Baptists and even non-denominational kinds of folks. That person said… “Finding that out was so confusing… so… who’s right? Who are the chosen ones?
This question took me deep into dessert!
When I was in seminary one of my professors asked, “should Christians try to convert the Jews?” He waited for our lame responses. Then he said, “No. I mean, no! The Jewish people are God’s chosen people and trying to convert them is not trusting God’s judgment.” Faith matters… especially for God!
So… if my professor was right… then the Hebrew nation has a special place in God’s design… then comes Jesus onto the scene… God’s only son… a good Jewish boy from a low income family who starts a movement called “the Way” and then in Antioch they make fun of his followers and call them… “Christians”… a dirty word… who make good by being faithful and 300 years later there are no more restrictions for Jesus followers.
Then… they have a fight and the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox church still have their differences while the Coptic Christians in Egypt (the three of them being the oldest Christian communities) didn’t’ engage in the battle of who’s first at all… standing tall today comprising over 30 million people… but then there was that Reformation in the 1500’s creating more branches of the faith on the one true God and it seems there’s a new church popping up weekly…
So… I’m gonna take stock in the Chronicler and trust God will continue to look to and fro over all the earth…seeking me and you to be among God’s chosen… making it good for God and good for us!
The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Gigee is a long-time resident of Pearland, having pastored four churches over the last four decades in Texas and Louisiana.
Read more following Brian’s blog ‘murmurings’ at https://briangigee.wordpress.com/. Send comments and/or questions to godworks247365@gmail.com.
