Isaiah 44:1-5--Israel the LORD's Chosen

Isaiah 44:1-5
English Standard Version

Israel the LORD's Chosen
44 “But now hear, O Jacob my servant,
    Israel whom I have chosen!
2 Thus says the LORD who made you,
    who formed you from the womb and will help you:
Fear not, O Jacob my servant,
    Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
    and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,
    and my blessing on your descendants.
4 They shall spring up among the grass
    like willows by flowing streams.
5 This one will say, ‘I am the LORD's,’
    another will call on the name of Jacob,
and another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD's,’
    and name himself by the name of Israel.”

---

This passage goes straight to the heart of the doctrine of Election.  God chose Israel from among all the nations (see the Tabel of Nations in Genesis 10 and how there is a process of how Shem has been selected from Noah, and then Noah is selected from among the Shemites (we might say Semites) and then Isaac, the miracle child of Abraham and Sarah's old age was chosen, and then Jacob was chosen to have both the birthright and the blessing, though he was younger than his brother Esau.  God chose these people (and later the tribe of Judah, and the line of David) from which His Messiah would come forth.  Salvation would come to the world through the Jews, and so would the message of salvation that would go to the whole world (God chose to use Jewish men to write down His Words for all people in all places throughout all generations).

God would quench their spiritual thirst and cause life to come back to the places that seemed to be a desert where nothing would grow.  Just like He brought water from the rock in the Exodus, He would pour His Spirit out like a flood on the descendants of Israel (this happened for sure at Pentecost).  There would be people outside of the Twelve Tribes that would call themselves the LORD's people and would be marked by His name.  They would identify with the Jewish people (as the wild Gentile branches are grafted into the True Vine, the True Israel, which is Christ).  We are all part of the family of God by Adoption...both the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles.  Though we are not the same and God still has plans to bless ethnic Israel and fulfil His covenant to them, there are many blessings that we inherit as adopted children though we were once outsiders.  Praise be to God that salvation was not only for the Jews, but that it did come through the Jews and is available to all who believe.