Is God a Racist?

In order to understand the Scriptures, it is absolutely essential that we understand God’s dealings with the Jews, and their perception of the security they have in Jehovah, and their perception of Gentiles. We also need to understand God’s heart toward the Gentiles. So, let’s have a pop-quiz:

Who are God’s chosen people?

Where is the Promised Land?

Whose side is God on in Middle Eastern struggles?

When did God decide to let Gentiles in on His blessings? Hmm, the New Testament maybe, how about Acts 13:45-46. Sounds good. Right. We’ll see.

Now, you might wonder why I ask those questions. You might think that I am surely an imbecile if I don’t know the answers to those questions. But I am going to suggest to you that we have formed our understanding of God’s relationship to Israel on the teachings and traditions of man and not on the revelation of the Bible.

In Genesis 1-9, we do not find any variation among the people of the earth. When Chapter 9 comes to an end, we have Noah, Mrs. Noah, Ham, Shem, and Japheth, and their wives. Chapter 10 begins by listing the descendants of Ham, Shem and Japheth. We refer to this chapter as the table of nations because of v32. When the Bible speaks of nations, rarely, if ever does it mean a geopolitical entity like we think of when we use the word nation. Usually if not always, what is meant is a group of people linked together culturally by ethnic, linguistic, and societal similarities. The Greek word in the New Testmant for nations is the word ethne, from which we get the word ethnic. So, when we refer to nations, we are speaking of people groups, not geopolitical states.

We know that the descendants of Ham migrated generally speaking into Africa, and the descendants of Shem occupied, generally speaking, the Asian regions, and the desendants of Japheth occupied primarily the European regions. This dispersion of people took place at the tower of Babel, which is spoken of in Genesis 11 (11:8-9). Up until this time, there is no mention of Jews or Gentiles. There is one family of people on earth, who are divided into nations (that is, ethnolinguistic people groups), and scattered over the whole earth.

Bible scholars agree that there are 70 distinct people groups mentioned in Chapter 11. Now, at this point, do we have any reason to believe that God loves any one of them more than the others? No. We should therefore assume that God desired to reach out and redeem them all. And we believe that God is big enough to speak to them all at one moment with the announcement of the gospel message. But He didn’t. Why not?

When God doesn’t do what we think He should, it means that He knows something we don’t, and His ways and thoughts are much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). God prefers, it would seem, to make His glory show through human instruments, and to use people to draw one another to Him. So, in order to reach all nations, God chose one group of people to show Himself to through special revelation, in order to use them. So who do you think He chose?

He chose a man named Abram, who we come to know as Abraham. At Chapter 11, verse 10, we begin to pick up a further development of the descendants of Shem. And we trace that family line to Abram. He is a descendant of Shem (hence the word Semite), and a descendant of Eber (hence the word Hebrew, first used in Genesis 14:13).

We learn a little about his background in Chapter 11, but in Chapter 12, God calls Abram to be His own. Read Genesis 12:1-3.

Now so often, we want to understand only half of this promise. It is more than just a promise to bless Abraham and his descendants. God also promises to make him a blessing. He promises him preservation, and finally that in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is in fact, the Great Commission. It is equivalent to God telling Him, “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations.”

Now, God directed Abraham to a region. It goes by different names. The Arabs call it Palestine, its original name was Canaan, today we call it Israel, but in order to not confuse it, let’s just refer to it as “The Promised Land.” Now, why did God give it to Abraham and his descendants? Now, if you want God to be a racist, you will say, “Because it was a land flowing with milk and honey, and God loved them so much he wanted them to have the very best.” But you’d be wrong. God tells them why He gave them that place: Ezekiel 5:5. Every major trade route passed right through it. If God was going to use one people in one geographic location to reach the world for Himself, the Promised Land was a strategic location for them. All these merchants and travelers would pass through and hear of this God, different from their gods, a God without a statue or an image, who had done these remarkable things for this little group of people. And as they traveled they would tell others, and they would tell others, etc.

So Abraham had two sons, Ishmael (who was illegitimate), and Isaac (the one to further the promise). Isaac had two sons, Esau (who got suckered out of his birthright), and Jacob (the unlikely candidate to continue the promise of God). Jacob had his name changed—to what? ISRAEL! And he had 12 sons. So there are twelve tribes of Israel, who have inherited the Great Commission to be God’s missionary agents to reach the 70 scattered people groups in the world. By the way, the reason we refer to the “children of Israel” is not because they were children, but because they were all descendants of Jacob, or Israel.

Now as you are aware probably, Israel (the nation), did not stay in the promised land. They spent a little time in Egypt. This was no accident, and it did not take God by surprise. See, if God is a racist, then we say, “He took them to the promised land, and because He liked them more than everybody else, He told them to kill everybody and steal their land, because they didn’t matter to God anyway.” But, if we’d say that, we’d be wrong. Turn to Genesis 15, and let’s read the whole chapter, remembering that this event occurred several hundred years prior to Israel’s journey to Egypt.

Several hundred years before it happened, God said that they would go to Egypt, and that it was necessary because the present occupants of Canaan were going to continue in sin, and when God’s patience was exhausted with them, he would bring Israel out of Egypt and use them to enact His judgment on them. This is why Israel was commissioned to purge them from the land. It was the fulfillment of God’s judgment on them for their sins, and the fulfillment of the curse on Canaan, grandson of Noah. (Genesis 9:22-27). Some people have used this to justify the mistreatment of people of African descent, because they say God put a curse on Ham, but the curse, as you can easily see, was on Canaan, his son, and that curse was carried out completely when Israel took possession of the land after the return from Egypt.

Now, keep in mind, these twelve tribes are to be God’s missionary representatives to the 70 people groups scattered throughout the world at that time. So God is bringing them back to the land, and He leads them to a place where they can stop and rest on the journey, and where He can remind them of His purpose. Exodus 15:23-27.

But, by and large, Israel did not get it. They continually prided themselves on the false notion that God was a racist. They thought that they were so special and that God did all this great stuff for them because they were better than everybody else. But, go back to the Old Testament and look at the great miracles God did, and ask, “Why did God do this?” Did He do it because He was a racist, or for a different reason?

Daniel and the den of lions: Daniel 6:25-26

David and Goliath: 1 Sam 17:45-46

The plagues on Egypt: Exodus 12:38

Parting the Red Sea: Joshua 2:8-11

The Ten Commandments: Deuteronomy 4:6

Solomon’s wisdom: 2 Chronicles 9:22-23

Solomon’s temple: 1 Kings 8:41-43

Jonah and the great fish: Jonah 2:10-3:2

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point now.

So, why then, did Paul speak of Gentile inclusion in the plans of God as a mystery? What do I mean? Ephesians 3:2-6. Romans 16:25-26. Colossians 1:25-26. The mystery, he says, is twofold: 1) Gentiles can be saved; 2) Gentiles can know the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. But how can that be a mystery, when we have just seen it over and over again in the OT?

It has to do with the fact that the Jews themselves understood God to be a racist. See how Paul said in Colossians 1:25 “the word of God in its fullness.” That implies that previously, it was not known in its fullness. Indeed it wasn’t. The rabbis taught what they wanted the people to know, and rabbinic tradition became as reliable as the Old Testament to the Jews. That is why when Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount, He kept saying, “You have heard that it was said ….” This occurs 5 times in Matthew 5. And each time, He concludes by saying, “But I tell you ….” What is He doing? He is saying, “You have not been told the word of God in its fullness.” So, before recommissioning the disciples with the Great Commission, we read, Luke 24:44-47.

The Israelites so misunderstood God’s purposes for them, that in order to keep from bringing destruction upon them, in order to preserve them as the line from which Messiah would come, God locked them in a prison of blindness to His spiritual truth. See 2 Corinthians 3:14-15; Romans 11:25-36.

Now, as we understand this then, we need to realize, God has not ever promised eternal security to every person born to the line of Abraham. John the Baptist told them plainly that this was not the case, Matthew 3:7-10. Jesus also: John 8:31-44. There is now, and always has been only one people of God: those Jews and Gentiles who come to Him by repentance of their sins and faith in the promise of His salvation. See what Paul says in Romans 2:28-29.

Yes, God chose a people for Himself: Israel. But in choosing them, He was choosing them to be His missionary people. His choosing of them in no way supplied them with special access to salvation that was not also intended to be extended to others as well. Jews were still obligated to enter a relationship with Him through repentance and faith in order to be “saved.” Of course we realize that those in the Old Testament were saved by looking ahead to the promise of Messiah, while we are saved looking back on Him. But, nonetheless, no one was ever saved by keeping the Law or by being a Jew. In fact, the Law itself contains provisions for repentance and forgiveness.

Now, its important for us to learn this lesson because much in the Bible depends on it, but that’s not the only reason. We also need to learn this lesson because we are in danger of falling into the same trap as Israel. I have found American Christians to be extremely arrogant when it comes to the way God has blessed us. Beloved if God has blessed us in extraordinary ways, we must realize it is so that we will allow Him to use us as a blessing to the rest of the world. No one is going to heaven because they are American. God is not the God of Reagan, Bush, and Bush. He doesn’t love America more than the rest of the world. He has extended much grace and mercy on America, and has blessed us extraordinarily so that American Christians will be a mighty missionary Army for Him in the world.

And friends it is true individually as well. God has not blessed you so that you could just feel what it is like to be blessed. He blessed you to bless others. He works in your life so you will work in others. And your mission field is the globe. Across the street, across an ocean, across a living room, are you allowing God to have His way with your life, and make your existence count for Him?

Have you been guilty of seeing God as a racist? Can you see how Israel made the same mistake? Rather than seeing God as a racist, let’s understand Him as a compassionate Savior. He chose a group of people to be His missionaries to the rest of the world. But, let’s be sure that we realize, now, then, and forever, there is only one people of God. The people of God are those who unite themselves to Him through repentance and faith in His promised Messiah. That will help us understand the Bible and our lives as well.