In the life of Jacob we see that he was chosen by God, dealt with by God, and broken by God so that he would enter into the reality of the dream he saw at Bethel in Gen. 28. First he saw the dream, and the dream of the house of God – God being brought into man and man being brought into God for the house of God – has been with him all the days of his life.
We need to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see how was Jacob called, dealt with, and broken to cooperate with the Lord and with one another so that God may gain Bethel, the house of God.
First of all, God chose us; then, He is dealing with us and breaking us so that we may be genuine transformed for the church as His house today consummating in the New Jerusalem.
Jacob was chosen by God – God loved Jacob and chose him even before he was born. In the same way, before the world began, even before God created the heavens and the earth, He chose us in Christ.
He loved us, chose us, predestinated us, and selected us even before we were born. And this is not because of our works or struggling, but it is because of God who shows mercy and grace, the God who loved us and chose us. This is so wonderful!
It is His mercy that we are chosen by God, and it is His grace that we have been selected by Him. Because of His great love toward us, before we were thought of by our parents and even before the foundation of the world we were chosen before God in Christ in love.
And in time God drew us to Himself, courted us, regenerated us, and is now in the process of transforming us and conforming us to the image of Christ, the Firstborn Son of God.
The Bible tells us clearly that God chose us and selected us, and our experience confirms it. No matter what we do and what we are, God chose us in Christ and He will accomplish in us the work He has began by regenerating us.
Even if we were to tell the Lord, I am tired of this Christian life – I want to run away and stay away from You! – even if we would try, we can’t do it. God’s selection is powerful and His choosing is strong. Praise the Lord for selecting us and choosing us even before the world began!
Just as God Loved Jacob and Selected Him, so God Loved us and Selected us!
In Jacob’s life we see how God loved him and chose him. In Mal. 1:2 we see that God loved Jacob, and in Rom. 9:10-13 we see that even before he was born and did anything to please or displease God, God selected Jacob. It was nothing of Jacob’s struggling or striving to do something for God: it was all of God.
In the same way, God loved us and selected us in Christ before the foundation of the world before Him in love (Eph. 1:4; 2:4). The source of God’s choosing is His love: He loved us, and therefore He chose us. Our being chosen and selected by God even before the foundation of the world is intimately connected with God’s love for us.
Even before his birth, even before the foundation of the world, God chose Jacob (see Gen. 25:22-23). Before God created anything, He chose us. We may thing we are insignificant and small, but before God created all things He loved us, thought about us, and selected us.
His selection is NOT up to us: it is nothing of our merit, not of our running or striving, but of God who shows mercy (Rom. 9:14-16). God’s selection is of His mercy, and He has mercy on whomever He has mercy, showing compassion to whomever He will have compassion (Rom. 9:15).
How wonderful it is that God had mercy on us and selected us! Out of all the people on earth, many of whom we may think are better than us, God selected us! God’s selection is of His grace (Rom. 11:5), and today we have God’s grace within us.
Hallelujah for the selection of God’s grace! Today we are not only under God’s mercy but we have God’s grace in us: we have Christ as our enjoyment in us, Christ as the life-giving Spirit living as a Person in our being to be our enjoyment! How wonderful!
God chose us in Christ – Christ is the sphere in which we were selected by God (see Eph. 1:4). Outside of Christ we are not God’s choice, but in Christ we are beloved and pleasing to Him.
God chose us according to His foreknowledge (1 Pet. 1:2; Rom. 8:29). Before we were born, before the world came into being, God foreknew us and chose us, predestinating us unto sonship. Those whom He foreknew He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that Christ might be the firstborn among many brothers.
We did not choose Him but He chose us and He set us to be grafted into Christ and abide in Him so that we would bear much fruit for the Father’s glorification (John 15:16). How much we ought to thank God for choosing us from the beginning in Christ! We have been chosen in the stable, immovable, steadfast, and unchangeable Christ, and our being chosen by God will NOT change because it is in Christ!
Thank You Father for choosing us before the foundation of the world in Christ in love! We praise You for Your foreknowledge: You foreknew us before the world began, You loved us, and You selected us in Christ in love to be Your many sons. Thank You Father for Your great mercy shown toward us by choosing us and selecting us. Thank You for the selection of Your grace. Your choosing is not based on our works and struggle but on Your mercy, grace, foreknowledge, and love! Father, we praise You! Thank You so much!
As Those Chosen by God, we should Cast Ourselves upon Him and Trust in Him!
God’s selection depends on His sovereign mercy; as those who have been chosen by God, we should cast ourselves upon Him and trust that He will bring us to the point where we are pleasing to Him (quote from, Watchman Nee).
What should our response be when we see that God so graciously chose us in Christ in His mercy and with much love even before we were born? What can we do to repay Him or be pleasing to Him?
As those who have been chosen by God even before the foundation of the world, we should do only one thing: cast ourselves upon Him and trust that He will bring us to the point that we are pleasing to Him.
Seeing God’s selection, we should not worry, strive, or struggle to obtain something (as Jacob did) or be pleasing to God. Rather, we should cast ourselves with everything that is about us on the Lord and give Him everything, and He will make us pleasing to God.
Day by day and moment by moment we need to cast ourselves on the Lord, open our being to Him, call on His name, love Him, and cast everything about us on Him – we are His! We don’t belong to the world, to Satan, to the flesh, or to anyone else; we were selected by God and we belong to God.
Since God selected us and chose us, why should we worry or do things that are apart from Him? The only ONE pleasing to God is Christ Himself – the Father delights in His Son, and He finds all His pleasure in Him. What makes us pleasing to God is when we are full of nothing else but Christ, when we are Christified!
What makes us pleasing to God is our allowing Christ to spread from our spirit into our whole being to saturate us, permeate us, and make His home in all our heart. In this way Christ becomes our life and person, and we are pleasing to God. The more we gain Christ, the more we are pleasing to God.
Let us put ourselves in God’s bosom and cast ourselves upon Him, opening to Him and trusting Him that He will bring us to the point where we will be pleasing to Him in Christ.
Lord Jesus, we open to You and we cast ourselves to You with everything that is about us and of us. Lord, we want to stop our struggling to please You and do things for You, and we simply allow You to make Your home in our heart. Saturate us with Yourself. Permeate us with Your element. Lord, we want to take every single moment today to enjoy You and gain You! Gain more room in us. Fill us with Yourself until we become the same as You are. Lord, only You can make us pleasing to God by making us the same as You are! We trust in You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-Study of Genesis (msg. 66), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 2 / msg 2, Chosen, Dealt with, and Broken.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Do you know that you were chosen / Long before the world began / That by God you were selected / And appointed for His plan? / Something in your inmost being / Tells you this is surely true; / That’s why you are in this meeting, / And you feel the way you do. (Hymns #1332)
# By His mercy, we’re selected, / Ours a glorious destiny. / Not by running, nor by willing, / But through God’s own sovereignty. / Once we were wild olive branches, / Now the root and fat partake, / Grafted in, rejoice together, / Growing for the kingdom’s sake. (Hymns #1203)
# In eternity He selected you, / Then He came to earth in His love for you; / On the cross, His life gave, / Then He rose from the grave. / Coming forth to seek for you, / To bring God Himself to you, / Life divine impart to you, / Grace abundant give that you / May be satisfied. (Song on God’s selection)
I've been prayerful considering God's choosing before the Lord for some time and it's wonderful how intentional and wonderful this is. Sometimes we are not contacting the Lord too seriously, others we do not see much of the Lord, or we just want to quit, but note that God chose, elected and predestinated us in the past eternity to fulfill a dream regarding His eternal dwelling place where God and man would be brought into each other. That's something beyond measure and natural understanding. That's a wonderful vision. Will God continue to transform us? Will God continue to love us in such a way that we may be disciplined in our environments, hence fully transformed? YES. YES. Thank you Lord for that. Thank you Lord that you're involved in loving us in a heavenly way. Oh, Lord Jesus. Thank you Lord for your working into us. You love us so much!