In the OT era, why did god reveal himself to the jews and not the rest of the entire world?

Question

why weren't all humans on earth at that time his "special, chosen people?"

Whatever you want to call it, special, chosen, elected, whatever, let's keep semantics out: Israel was the sole place where god revealed himself to mankind for all human history (4000 years according to the bible) until Christianity was spread in the Roman Empire.

why was everyone else floundering around with false religions in which, for all they could figure, the sun was god? Or the Moon? or that each one of those kinds of things were gods?

In the bible, many times it talks about how god gave jews victory in battle, slaying their territorial neighbors. Because all those people were all sinfull and deserved it? Hard to believe. But then again, every single citizen in the two CITIES of sodom and gommorah was so evil that they deserved death, so maybe it IS possible. lol

God had never shone upon those people his existance or goodness or truth, leaving them as primitive people completely without god's guidance, left to worship whatever their town leaders told them to, and yet he has his special people have great victories over these other people, killing hundreds of men in battle. that does not make sense

Answer 1

The Jews wrote the old testament. Would it be reasonable for them to say that some OTHER tribe was the "chosen people?"

Having created a god, they or anybody else who invented a diety, could invade a neighboring province, rape the women and kill the men and children and claim that god almighty told them to do it.

Answer 2

You say the other sects of mankind had no chance wih God. Yet they did. According to the bible, where did everyone decend from? The answer is Noah. After the family got large, they started falling away. Yet Abrham seemed to have the ability to still worshi God when he was alive. . you also make an assumption. You assume that just because the Bible does not say much about wrning the other nations, you assume that He did not.
There is much belief, in the Christian realms, the Job may not have been an Isrealite.
If you would take the time to read the law of the Isrealites, you wil find that they were 'supposed' to be a light to te rest of the worl. it does not mean they did a good job of it. But that is how the law was written.

Before you assume the suplications you made, you might want to verse up on what the Judeao-Christian teaching is of it fromthe Bible.

Answer 3

The sovereign God can pretty much do as He pleases, with whom He pleases. He made His choice long before Abraham was born. He chose Abraham to be the father of His people. God was, and is, under no obligation to reveal Himself to anyone. He is perfectly within His rights as the sovereign of the universe to leave some in darkness, and bring light to others. It is His choice, not ours.

Concerning an answer given earlier, God did not offer the law to any other people except Israel. Israel was His first choice from the beginning. They were His chosen people. Also, the high priest offered sacrifices for the congregation only, the sons and daughters of Israel, no one else. You will not find anywhere in Scripture where a high priest offered sacrifices for anyone other than God's chosen ones.

Lev 16:32 And the priest whom He shall anoint, and whose hand He shall consecrate to act as priest instead of his father, shall make atonement, and shall put on the linen garments, the holy garments.
Lev 16:33 And he shall atone for the holy sanctuary, and for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar he shall atone; yes, for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation he shall atone.
Lev 16:34 And this shall be to you a never ending statute to atone for the sons of Israel, because of all their sins, once a year. And he did as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

Answer 4

Whoever taught you that, was full of it.

Israel was not the sole place where God revealed himself to mankind. The first place God revealed himself was in the Garden of Eden.

After that, God revealed himself to Cain, to Abel, to generations upon generations, long before the first Jew, Abraham. All of these previous generations made sacrifices to God as well.

Furthermore, God offered the Torah to every single nation on earth before he offered it to the Jews. None accepted it except the Jews. Not one. Not one of the moon-worshippers, not one of the Baal human sacrifice worshippers, not one of the sun-worshippers, nobody.

The Jews CHOSE the Torah, when God finally got around to offering it to them (dead last), and IN RETURN God chose the Jews.

Chose the Jews for what? What does that mean? To teach the Torah, that is the meaning of "Chosen" to the Jews.

The reason everyone else was floundering in what you call false religions is that these religions were what these people preferred. It is what they CHOSE. When offered the Torah, they REFUSED it.

Not only did they refuse it, but when it was finally given to the Jews, they KILLED the Jews for attempting to teach it to them. And that goes right up into the years of the Catholic Church, who burned Jews alive, men women and children in their synagogues for attempting to teach the Torah to non-Jews.

Your definition of "chosen" is waaaaaay off the actual definition in Judaism. It simply means chosen to teach the morals and values in the Torah to the rest of the world. Since the Jews were the only ones who accepted the Torah, who else was God supposed to CHOOSE to teach it?

Also, the Jews made sacrifices at the Temple for all of the nations of the world, not just for themselves.

EDIT: To BrotherMichael. Yes, God did offer the Torah to every other nation in the world first, and only after they had refused it, did he offer it to the Jews. You've not been taught that by your Christianity. However, it has ALWAYS been part of our Jewish history. Everything I wrote there is a part of our Jewish history. Remember that just because you don't know something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. :)
Source: Me, Jewish, and the Torah

As for offerings being made in the Temple for all the nations, again, it is OUR history, and OUR Torah, and we know very well who we offered sacrifices for, thank you.
70 sacrifices were offered during the first 7 days of Sukkot, for all of the nations, every year. Furthermore, our Torah says that the Temple was to be a house of prayer for ALL nations. And it was. There was a Gentile court there as well.

Answer 5

Interesting question, it of course elicits nothing but pithy answers from the Theists.

I have never understood why a god would deliberately create a group of people apparently for the sole purpose of torturing them for millenia.

Answer 6

I don't accept your premise that Israel was the only people that God revealed himself to throughout the bible. Certainly the pharaoh of Egypt was well aware of the existence and power of God as were many of the other people that challenged God's "chosen people".

I don't pretend to understand the mind of God, but I have formed my own hypothesis (educated guess) about why he singled out a specific group of people and gave them his support in battle. God singled out one group of people and gave them special attention to make an important point...one that all of us must accept if we are to be reconciled with him.

What point you ask, simple I say...the nation of Israel was given physical proof of the existence of God and his unfailing love for them and they STILL couldn't obey his instructions. God delivered them from slavery in Egypt and before they even got to the land God promised them, they were melting down their jewlery and building a golden calf to worship. Through this example (and all the other examples of "woe unto thee oh Israel for you have sinned a great sin against God" that permeate the bible) God was showing all of us that physical "proof" does not make it possible for people to accept his instructions or his love for them! Enter Jesus with a message of truth and grace and the importance of faith. God knows that his creation can't understand or follow all of his instructions just because they have proof he exists...he chose a special group of people to prove that to us beyond a shadow of a doubt!

Answer 7

The ot was written by Jews chronicling their experiences. The were not interested in researching the revelations experienced by other peoples.

By the way, you should know that existence is spelled this way, not "an".

Answer 8

God revealed himself to the World through the Jews. First to all Egypt, and eventually to all the world. As Kings and Queens came from all over the world. To visit Israel and hear about thier God. That does mighty miracles!
Now God reveals himself to the world through followers of Christ.

Answer 9

The rest of the world wasn't ready for Him yet. God's law was a higher law than that of humans, and it was probably too difficult for most to follow.

Answer 10

you are dealing with the soverignty of God....it was his choice to just select one group....it was his stated intent to pick one group, who would then share the Word of God with others.

he did not leave others out....they were aware of the God of Israel....and even complied at times with his commandments...for example, Soddom and gommorrah were sent Jonah the prophet about their ways once , and they repented....so god spared them of their punishment...but history shows that they later went back to sinful ways

God also blessed king Cyrus of persia, because he allowed the jews to go home to Jersualem from captivity.

Ruth was a moabite who ended up marrying Boaz, and became one of the ancestors of Jesus.

Jesus went out of his way to visit a samaritan women to tell her about himself...he also healed the centurians' son/servant

god repsonds to faith, not people groups