God's Choosing

As individuals, we are all faced with making choices. These positive or negative decisions have the power to influence our future. It's important to acknowledge that God also plays a role in directing our lives through the choices He makes.

The story of Jacob and Esau is an illustration of God’s sovereign choice. It’s one of those stories many preachers would skip because of its difficulty.

Can any of you explain why God chose you?

Two additional scriptures provide further explanations of this story. Malachi 1:2-3 shows God's reasoning for loving Jacob and rejecting Esau, while in Romans 9:13, Paul clarifies that no one can claim to be chosen by God solely based on their background or actions.

Our struggle is that God freely chooses to save whomever he wills. The doctrine of election teaches that its God’s sovereign choice to save us by His goodness and mercy, not by our merit. God chose Jacob to continue the family line of the faithful because he knew his heart was for God. But take notice that God did not exclude Esau either from knowing and loving him.

We must remember the kind of God we worship: God is sovereign; God is not random; God works in all things for our good; God is trustworthy; God will save all who believe in Him. When we understand these qualities of God, we know that His choices are good even if we don’t understand all his reasons.

I am sure that I don’t understand God’s reasons, but I am thankful for His divine wisdom, love toward me, and goodness.

God announces His intentions to Rebekah after she has prayed, trying to understand what is happening to her. God tells her two nations are in her womb, and the older will serve the younger. Basically, these boys were fighting from the very beginning.

But the answer that God gives is a divine promise for the younger. God is choosing to overturn human values. For example, Abel, Isaac, Joseph, and David are preferred by God against the rules of society because they all were younger sons. This theme is brought to a climax in Jesus, in whom, according to the song of his mother, “God has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.” It continues to this day in the Church, where “God has chosen what is weak to shame what is strong.”

If you followed this story and a few more verses, many of us would have chosen Esau as the leader. He was the oldest, a skilled hunter, and deserved it by his birthright. Now I would add that he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the bag. Then we have Jacob, the trickster. By no means does his actions or his life deserve any of God’s blessings.

Frederick Buechner writes, “Luckily for Jacob, God doesn’t love people because of who they are, but because of who He is. It’s on the house, is one way of saying it. It’s by grace is another, just as it was by grace that it was Jacob of all people who became not only the father of the twelve tribes of Israel but the many times great grandfather of Jesus, and just as it was by grace that Jesus was born into this world at all.”

It is undeniable that God's will for our lives is unwavering, as His sovereignty is absolute. Those who believe must submit themselves with humility to His divine plan in order to be bestowed with His plentiful blessings.

You see, friends, God wants to lead us toward a fuller life without taking away our freedom. Jesus gives life as he says in John 10:10. The life he gives right now is abundantly rich and full. It is eternal, yet it begins immediately. Life in Christ is lived on a higher plane because of his overflowing forgiveness, love, and guidance it is our choice to believe in Him and God’s choice to love us. Therein lies the story of our own redemption today, when divine grace meets us in all of our flawed choices.

Getting back to God overturning our human values, God is making choices that runs counter to our wisdom. God picks a couple who couldn’t produce any children. Then, we’d make sure that his son and his wife were fertile. In God’s sovereignty, the son’s wife was barren. His half-brother, Ishmael, didn’t seem to have any problem producing twelve sons, but Isaaccould produce only two, and that only after 20 years of pleading with God. If we had to pick between the two sons, we’d pick the oldest. He seemed to be the strongest. The youngest was a wimp and a deceiver! God picked him. That’s how God’s choice usually runs--counter to man’s wisdom. As the apostle Paul explained (1 Cor. 1:26-30):

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God.

If God chose those who were strong in themselves, they would boast in themselves, and God would be robbed of His glory. If God chose those who first chose Him, they could brag about their intelligent choice. So, God chooses those whom the world would never choose, those who cannot choose Him. When His purpose is fulfilled through them, He gets the glory.

Lastly, God’s choice operates on the principle of grace, not merit.

One of the most difficult, but most rewarding, truths in the Bible to grasp is that God doesn’t operate on the merit system. He doesn’t choose those who have earned it or who show the most potential. He doesn’t choose on the basis of birth order or strength. If He did, He would have picked Ishmael over Isaac. Ishmael was tough; he grew up surviving in a hostile desert. Isaac was a mild, blah sort of guy, not noted for much except digging a few wells. God would have picked Esau over Jacob. Esau was a man’s man, an outdoorsman. Jacob was a conniving mama’s boy.

God sovereignly chose whom He chose according to grace, which is His unmerited favor. This bothers people because it humbles and strips us of all glory, but it’s one of the most rewarding concepts in the Bible to lay hold of. It means that your salvation does not depend on your works, but it is only by God’s grace. We don’t have to perform or measure up to other people’s standards to be accepted by God. It casts you totally on God and His grace, which is a good place to be. It floods you with gratitude as you consider His mercy in choosing you despite your sin.

While the Bible teaches that God’s purpose, according to His choice, will stand, it also teaches that I must submit myself and commit myself to what He is doing in the world. I can either cooperate with His sovereign plan and be blessed. Or I can resist His purpose, and He will set me aside and raise up others to fulfill it. While God is sovereign, He has given me the responsibility to obey Him.

There is a prominent false teaching in our day, that if you’re a faithful Christian, you’ll be spared from all suffering. If you’re sick, you can claim instant healing by faith. If you need money, ask God for it; it’s your divine right. Whatever trial you’re in, you can get out of instantly if you’ll just claim deliverance by faith. Those who teach such nonsense should read their Bibles!

The Lord didn’t wave His wand over the land of Canaan so that Israel could move in without any struggle. They had to commit themselves to God’s purpose to give them that land, and they had to fight to get it. And we must commit ourselves to God’s purpose to call out a people for Himself from every tongue and tribe, and nation. God’s missionary purpose requires our commitment of time, effort, and money. He will accomplish His purpose for the nations, but we must commit ourselves to see that purpose fulfilled.

You probably have heard the story of Little Leaguer and how his team was doing. The boy replied that his team was doing well, but that they were behind 17-0. The man asked if he was discouraged at being so far behind. The boy replied, “Oh no, sir, we haven’t even been up to bat yet!”

Sometimes it’s easy to look at all the evil in the world and get discouraged because it seems like God’s side is losing badly. But the Book of Revelation shows that it’s going to look like that until the bottom of the ninth. Then, in one hour, the tide will turn, and God will triumph mightily. I’ve read the last book of the Bible, so I know how the story ends. I’m on the winning side!

The great doctrine that God will accomplish His sovereign purpose according to His choice should encourage us to submit ourselves to God and give ourselves fully to His purpose of taking the gospel to every people. When we do that, he will truly bless us.