1 Chronicles 28.7 requires, if he continues to obey my commands and regulations as he does now, I will make his kingdom last forever.

The Jews understood and still believe, that they are God’s chosen people. Indeed, He did choose them thousands of years ago when God selected one man from all those living on the earth to be the one through whom He will build a nation culminating in His arrival as one of us, Jesus the Messiah.

God’s choice was His own, it wasn’t based upon the merits of the man nor of the people to come from the children born through that man and his wife. Today, the protestant church believes it too is the chosen people of God.

The church is comprised of people saved by grace through faith, not based upon their merit but upon God’s love and purpose; His divine selection. God choosing people seems unfair to some. It is argued that He should love everyone. Indeed, God does love everyone and desires everyone to love Him in return but not all do nor will all people love Him and obey His commands as we experience today.

But those who claim to know God believing they were chosen by God must live in obedience to God or their belief is worthless. God cares deeply, immensely, about His character, His honor, His righteousness and His holiness. It is His holiness and His righteousness that required the sacrifice of His Son on the cross as punishment for the sins of all humanity for all time.

It was His righteousness that caused Him to destroy the earth by flood saving only one family. It was His righteousness that caused Him to allow the Jews to be taken captive by their enemies before God came to earth in Jesus. It was these same enemies of the Jews who also destroyed the holy city Jerusalem and all remnants of their religion which was established by God. It is His righteousness that causes Him to promise a future judgement where every word and every deed will be weighed and measured against His written commands. It is God’s righteousness that causes Him to create both heaven and hell.

God will reward the righteous and condemn the wicked. Who are the righteous? All those whom God has chosen AND who love Him and obey His commands. This doesn’t mean the righteous are the good people who always do good. The righteous are those who understand God and His ways and live to please Him, yet fail often, but remain righteous because they confess their sin and repent of their deeds and are cleansed by the pardon of Jesus the Savior.

Who are the wicked? All those who refuse to obey God’s commands whether they believe in God or not. Believing without obeying is what God’s enemy the devil does so believing alone will not make a person righteous.

The Lord God Who is holy requires His people to do what is right, have mercy upon those who are trying and to walk humbly before God daily realizing they too need His mercy and grace to live with such a holy God: for they have been chosen for such a purpose as this.