Did God choose the nation of Israel because they weren't as wicked as the rest?

Here's the full question.....

Didn't God choose the Israelites because they were in better standing with God than the other nations? Did God see something more noble in them than in the others? Kind of like when God spared Noah above the rest? If so....God was justified for choosing one group over the other.

Some thoughts.....

Israel did a pretty good job of proving that they were as sorry as their neighbors....maybe even sorrier (is that a word?). When Moses met with God on Sinai, Aaron and the rest were melting gold rings and bracelets so they could make a golden calf to worship and dance around like a bunch of hooligans (Ex 32). Later, the rollercoaster that is 1st/2nd Kings and 1st/2nd Chronicles proves that they were a pretty sorry bunch. To REALLY get an image of what God thought of Israel, READ EZEKIEL 16. Get ready to read one of the raciest, in your face chapters in the Word. Once you've finished reading it, read it again.....and maybe even again. Try to feel the full weight of what God is saying to the Israelites. God ends the chapter with.....despite the fact that you've prostituted yourselves (a politically correct way of saying what God really says to them)......"I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you." God chose them, not because there were redeeming qualities, but rather because of His promise to Abraham! They ultimately benefitted from their relationship to Abraham and from a God who makes good on His promises.

Great question......more later!!
Ben

a new question....the impact of God's sovereignty on our parenting

We're desperately trying to work out the bugs so your comments can be viewed....between now and then, I'd still like to field questions, so I'm entering them myself. Here's a response from someone to the John 3:16 entry.....

So you are saying that if we have come to know the Lord and accepted him as our savior, then we are of his sheep, and we were chosen by him long long before we ever knew about it? What about our children, I have a huge fear for them, this keeps me on my knees begging for their salvation. Is there anything that you can tell me about that to calm my fears?

Christi and I have three little ones so I share your burden. Let me start by saying this.....I'm not sure I want to calm your fears. I like the thought of fearful parents who aren't going to contract out their privileged role of teaching and training their children in righteousness to the church staff and sunday school teachers. I like the thought of desperate, needy, clingy, hungry, burdened parents....because I believe these parents will saturate their homes with the gospel of Christ and they'll bend their knees in begging for the souls of our children. If this truth turns me, as a parent, Godward and makes me more dependent on Him and His divine work in the hearts of my children, I'm embracing it all the more!! Frankly, the more and more acquainted I become with my own failings as a parent, the more and more comforted I am in knowing that God's the Saver through and through! So that comfort in God's saving ability teams up with my fear and trembling for the souls of my children so that I parent with a burdened trust and a striving rest.

We can't save our children, anymore than we can a friend or a neighbor or a brother or a sister. But we can prepare the soil. We can bathe our homes in prayer and wonder at the glories of Christ. We can worship with our words and our actions and hope that our children smell the aroma of Christ in us and someday say "mmmmmm, that smells gooooooood." We can teach the word in daily/weekly home studies, while begging for their little souls, and hope that someday they will hear the Shepherd's voice.

Please don't let anyone calm your fears. Please don't let anyone say something to you that causes you to exhale and relax and sit back on flowery beds of ease. Parenting is a high call and we are stewards with little plots of soil. Our only response can be to do what God has told us to do.....

Deut 6:5-9 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

GREAT question burdened, fearful parent. I hope this helps. :)
Ben

What about John 3:16? Doesn't "whosoever" mean "whosoever"???

Before I address this question, I'd like to introduce the concept of what I'd call "resolution." The GPS (Global Positioning) systems you have in your car or that the military uses work off of satellites. The hand-held units or car units collect date from multiple satellites to tell you where you are in the world. A GPS will not report a position to you unless it can locate 3 satellites. Anything less than that and it's not able to triangulate a position or give you an accurate answer as to where you are in the world. The resolution of the information it provides (or the accuracy) comes from multiple sources.....not a single source. Scripture is the same way. It's not sound to build a doctrine on a single verse. A single verse can be completely true without revealing the truth completely.

So, in pursuit of resolution (truth), we need to eat the full counsel and should never stand on a single verse. I adore John 3:16. It's the first verse I ever learned!! I earned a bag of peanut M&M's for learning it!! (I adored those too!!) I do believe with ALL my heart that "whosoever" believes will be saved!! That's a hill I'll die on (and live on, I trust!!) Now.....let's add in some satellites to provide more resolution. In John 10:26, Christ tells the unbelieving "you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep." In this passage belief is characteristic of sheep....like wool and hooves!! Belief doesn't make them a sheep....it's simply a trait of sheep-hood. So it is with the "whosoever's"......they (us) will believe because we are of His sheep. Another satellite is in the high priestly prayer of John 17. (especially vv. 6, 9, 19). He gives His life for those whom the Father has given Him out of the world.........those are the "whosoever's." Another satellite is Eph 2:1-10, showing that apart from Christ we're dead in our trespasses and sins, quickened by God, with Christ, and seated with the Victor! And all of this is by faith, not by works, and even the faith (faith=belief in Greek) is not of yourselves, but a gift from God! We can't even believe unless He grants it to us! "Whosoever's" will believe because He granted us belief! (also see John 6:65 "no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.")

The skies are full of satellites and every one, when weighed in and factored in, provides a more robust and resolute picture of salvation. EMBRACE John 3:16.........along with her sisters and brothers and many other family members of truth that help us understand this scandalous mysterious gospel.