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Chapter 3: Can Election Be Forfeited?
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44 c H a P T e r 3 R Can election be Forfeited? j o e l s . k a m i n s k y of late, the biblical theme of chosenness has begun to receive increasing attention after a long period in which this important theological idea was rarely discussed. aside from Jon levenson’s seminal monograph The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son, several other books touching upon various aspects of election in the bible have been recently published. These include Frank Spina’s The Faith of the Outsider , lawrence wills’s Not God’s People, my own Yet I Loved Jacob, and more recently Joel lohr’s Chosen and Unchosen.1 each of these studies explores in its own way the notion of God’s special favor toward some and its implications for those not chosen. one area of election theology that still has not been examined in a sustained manner concerns whether a chosen individual or group can lose their chosen status, and if so, under what circumstances. In this essay I hope to map out some of the complexity of the biblical evidence, Can election be Forfeited? 45 for one cannot give a simple yes or no answer to this type of question. Differing biblical texts reveal a range of views on this subject and certain passages leave some ambiguity about the possibility of the elect forfeiting their lofty position. when we look at the many stories of sibling rivalry found in Genesis, these narratives suggest that although a chosen person may be punished for acting wrongly, those who are favored by God seem to retain their status. This is true even when a chosen person or group acts in a questionable or even immoral manner. one need only think about a character like Jacob, who somewhat regularly acts in ethically or religiously troubling ways and yet remains divinely favored. Jacob does at times suffer the consequences that flow from his problematic actions. Thus he is forced to flee before esau’s wrath after deceitfully obtaining the blessing reserved for the firstborn son. In addition, one senses that laban’s substitution of leah for rachel may be a form of divine payback for Jacob’s usurpation of esau’s position. but the fact that Jacob suffers certain punishments for his behavior does not mean that he is not blessed. Upon realizing that Jacob had obtained the blessing he intended for esau, Isaac exclaims, “yes, and blessed he shall be” (Gen 27:33).2 we might speculate that this is because blessings, once issued, cannot be retracted. but this explanation is less satisfying when one reads the larger Jacob story in a holistic manner. Immediately after Jacob ’s deceit, Isaac once more blesses Jacob, and in the following verses God appears in a dream vision and bestows a version of the abrahamic blessing on Jacob. additionally, the birth of Jacob’s many children and the multiplication of his own flocks as well as those that he tends for laban all point to God’s continuing favor toward Jacob. laban acknowledges this fact when he tells Jacob: “I have learned by divination that the lord has blessed me because of you” (Gen 30:27). although not a case of sibling rivalry, abraham too engages in occasional unsavory behavior when he twice attempts to pawn off his wife as his sister. yet in these instances those who took possession of Sarah suffer, rather than abraham. Pharaoh’s household experiences plagues (Gen 12:17) and the women in abimelech’s house become infertile because each man had unknowingly and illicitly taken the married Sarah as a potential wife (Gen 20:18).3 abraham not only remains untouched, [3.129.247.196] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 08:20 GMT) 46 Joel S. Kaminsky but in the first instance he gains great wealth through his questionable behavior. The one possible instance of a specific character in Genesis losing his chosen status is reuben’s apparent demotion in the wake of his sexual liaison with bilhah, Jacob’s secondary wife (Gen 35:22; 49:4).4 but reuben’s special position in Genesis flows from his being Jacob’s firstborn son, which throughout Genesis is generally a marker of being unfavored . while reuben’s immoral behavior helps to explain his fall from Jacob’s favor, the thrust of the Joseph story requires that Joseph displace him. It is far from clear that reuben was ever a divinely favored...