What's So Special About the Jews?

Because the people in my life know that I carry a great burden of prayer for Israel and a deep love of the Jewish people, I get asked a lot of questions. Some people want to know why the Jews are hated so violently and persecuted so often throughout history. Others ask me why God would choose one certain tribe/nation of people and set them apart as special to Himself.  "What's so special about the Jewish people?" they ask. "Aren't they just as rebellious, just as sinful as the rest of us? "

The first question became ever more real, more terrifying, and more difficult this past week with the massacre of innocent Jewish families in Australia, joyfully and peacefully celebrating Hanukkah at a beautiful beach. Children were running and playing, some with their pets racing alongside. Adults gathered to remember the re-dedication of the temple, which had been desecrated along with the brutal mass murders of thousands of Jews by Antiochus IV Epiphanes from 168-167 B.C. This event is written in the book of Maccabees:
When these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery.
— 2 Maccabees 5:11–14 (NRSV)

I couldn't help but think what a mirror this horrifying event in Australia was to the verses preserved above. The very same viciously evil hatred that fomented violence in 167 B.C. is now gaining great momentum across the world. People are wondering why. My first answer is that the hatred of the Jews is Satan's #1 weapon, his most fierce passion. But why? It's all about Yeshua - Jesus - the One who became incarnate as a Jewish man, born in Bethlehem in Judea, the son of God become flesh. 
John 1:1-2: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God. He was with God in the beginning. 

Satan saw this and raged.  He knew the plan was for the Word to become the Messiah, who would shed his blood on the tree and make atonement for sin. And he knew the Messiah would be a Jewish man. This was clearly prophesied in Revelation 12: 3-5: Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to His throne.

Though the dragon (Satan) tried to kill every Hebrew male baby around the time of Yeshua's birth, he failed. Though he roared across the globe in World War II, attempting to wipe out the entire race of Jewish people in the Holocaust, he failed. And so his mission has not yet been accomplished. This means he will again rouse every demonic spirit and try to saturate the minds of all living humans with his agenda: DEATH TO THE JEWS. FROM THE  RIVER TO THE SEA. GAS THE JEWS! The signs are cropping up all across the nations, and even within Israel itself. That horrifyingly evil spirit arises again and since it may be Satan's final attempt, be assured that it will be worse than the previous ones. It will be the fulfillment of Revelation 12:

I hope that helps bring understanding of why there is such hatred of Israel and the Jews. But what about the second question? Why are they set apart as "chosen" by God?  I've struggled to form an answer to that question until this past week, when I was in a study of the book of 1st Samuel. One single verse jumped out at me with such power and truth that I felt like my heart had stopped. Here is the verse in 3 different translations. 
1 Samuel 12:22: For the sake of His great Name the LORD will not reject His people, because the LORD was pleased to make you His own. (NIV)
 For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. (ESV)
The Lord will not abandon his people, because that would dishonor his great name. For it has pleased the Lord to make you his very own people.

Sounds so simple, doesn't it? The answer is YES. It is simple. In His infinite wisdom our Sovereign God, who created everything and everyone in the universe, had the right to choose a certain people through whom He would work out salvation for ALL people. As Paul says of the Jews, his own people, "Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the Torah, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen!" (Romans 9:4-5)

Amen! So be it! Let us endeavor to fully grasp God's sovereignty and His perfect plan for mankind. Through the Jewish people He chose to carry out and faithfully keep His covenants, His promises, and his Word. For this reason they are despised by the enemy. For this reason we love them, honor them, and pray for them. We love what God loves - for His Great Name's sake!