God's first love: Michael Wyschogrod on Israel's election

Christian Century, July 27, 2004 by Kendall Soulen

What is more, this account of love is untrue to the character of God's love as depicted by the Bible. It fails to see that the glory and dignity of the biblical God consists in God's freedom to engage humanity in a human way. That is to say, God has chosen in favor of genuine encounter with the human creature in his or her individuality. For this reason, God's love is not undifferentiated, having the same quality toward all God's children. Precisely because God is so deeply concerned with human creation, God loves it with a differentiated love, and it comes about that there are those whom God loves especially, with whom, one can only say, God has fallen in love.

This is what has happened in God's election of Abraham and his seed. God's love for Abraham is more than an impartial, disinterested love, but includes an element of eros. God loves the descendants of Abraham above all the nations of the earth, and desires their response in return. That is why God reacts with wounded fury when rejected by Israel.

But this brings us back to our previous question with renewed force: What of those who are not elected'? Wyschogrod admits that it is painful to recognize that one is not the specially chosen child. As a result of God's joining the redemption of the world to Israel's election, difficult roles have fallen to Jew and to gentile. All too frequently, both have acted their respective roles poorly.

   Uncannily expert in the failings of the nations, often remembering
   only its faithfulness and rarely its unfaithfulness,
   turned inward by the hostility of the peoples
   among whom it lives, Israel tends to forget that its election
   is for service, that it is a sign of the infinite and unwarranted
   gift of God rather than any inherent superiority
   of the people.

But just as Israel's record is mixed, so is that of the nations.

   Instead of accepting Israel's election with humility, [the
   nations] rail against it, mocking the God of the Jews,
   gleefully pointing out the shortcomings of the people
   he chose, and crucifying it whenever an opportunity
   presents itself. Israel's presence is a constant reminder
   to them that they were not chosen but that this people
   was, and that this people remains in their midst as a
   thorn in the flesh. Minute by minute, the existence of
   Israel mocks the pagan gods, the divine beings who rise
   out of the consciousness of all peoples but which are
   gentile gods because they are deifications of humanity
   and the forces of nature rather than the true, living God
   of Abraham.

Israel and the nations each fall victim to characteristic distortions of their respective identities: Israel to vain pride in its own election, and the nations to envy of and rage at Israel. As a consequence, they place obstacles in the path of God's plan to consummate creation through Israel's election. Still, in the end, there is a limit to what human freedom can do. This limit consists in humanity's inability to nullify God's purpose: the election and redemption of Israel and through Israel of humankind as a whole.