Reconsidering the Unchosen in the Old Testament: The Case of Esau
A pervasive yet difficult notion in the Old Testament is the idea that the God of the Bible chooses some (Israel and its ancestors) as his special people. The theological term for this idea is election, a concept that is clearly set out in Deuteronomy 7:
6 “ For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession. 7 It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you — for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you.” (NRSV)This theme of election runs throughout the Old Testament, from the ancestral narratives of Genesis, through to the return of Israel to the land of promise after the exile. But this particularity in Israel’s story entails that there are a host of “others” who are not the chosen people, creating at points a sharp distinction between insiders and outsiders. In the contemporary world, a God who chooses some and not others is a contentious notion.
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