Divine election, is it arbitrary?

[Gerr]

Did God arbitrarily chose Jacob over Esau? Arbitrarily decreed that the older serve the younger?

Was Judas arbitrarily chosen to betray Jesus?

Did God arbitrarily chose Israel as His people?

Gerry

[David Koot]

No to all three, Gerry. Israel was chosen because of God's covenant with Abraham. Judas volunteered himself to be a disciple of Jesus. Jesus did not call him as He did the eleven. As for Esau/Jacob, God knows the end from the beginning, and because of His foreknowledge, both foretold what would happen, and also chose Jacob because He knew the hearts and future histories of both men.

Perhaps a good key Bible reference is in Rom. 8, "For whom He foreknew . . ." Greek word is 'proginoskw' which means to know ahead of time.

[John317]

Did God arbitrarily chose Jacob over Esau? Arbitrarily decreed that the older serve the younger?

Was Judas arbitrarily chosen to betray Jesus?

Did God arbitrarily chose Israel as His people?

Gerry

Great question.

As far as human knowledge-- and God's revelation-- is concerned, it is true that many of God's choices appear to be arbitrary. However, the Bible makes it clear that God is a just God, one who is "no respecter of persons." There are places in the Bible that explain why God chose Israel as His special people, and it wouldn't appear to be anything they could take pride in. On the contrary.

Among the Jews today, there's a saying about this question. It's that God called lots of people to be His chosen, but they all refused and the Jews were the only ones stupid enough to accept the call. In other words, they realize that they were not called to be the chosen because of anything good in themselves. Remember that there are many scriptures that teach God takes delight in using the apparently worthless and humble to make something great. Who, for instance, looking at Ellen White in her youth, would have chosen her as a prophet? Take William Miller as another instance-- he was nothing but a farmer. (See Robert Gale's book, The Urgent Voice, the story of William Miller, Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1975. It's out of print but is usually available at Adventist universities and in the Ellen White estates.)

I think if you do a character sketch of both Jacob and Esau, you would probably choose Esau as the man with the greatest human potential. Jacob seems to lack a lot when compared to his more ambitious and vigorous brother. Jacob was a thief. So then why did God choose Jacob? I beleive that in heaven we will find that God chose Jacob because of what He knew Jacob would turn out to be. Jacob would be loyal to God, although it certainly didn't look that way to begin with.

As for Judas, it seems plain from what the Bible says that Judas became who he was, the betrayer of the Messiah, because of his own choices.