Second, Israel is the chosen people of this god, not simply for her own sake but in order to be his means of furthering his work for the reordering of his world. This election of Israel, of which the covenant is the instrument, has now been focussed on the group, who collectively form the people of the new covenant, the new elect. It should be noted at this point that discussions of ‘predestination’ can throw the emphasis of such a view of ‘election’ in the wrong direction, evoking questions of individual election which are quite foreign to concerns expressed in the Scrolls. The emphasis,
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