Throughout the Book of Genesis, God has either chosen a person, or group of people to fulfill His purpose. This is evident when God is speaking to Abraham, he says, “Then the Lord said to Abram: Know for certain that your descendants will reside as aliens in a land not their own…but I will bring judgement on the nation they must serve, and after this they will go out with greatwealth” (Gen. 15:13-14). By God choosing Abraham, he is also choosing those who come after him, which are the Israelites. This known as election, which, according to Jeremy Cott, involves “a belief that God has singled out a certain group of people and has endowed them with a value or function possessed by no other people. It is the idea of a chosen people” (Cott 199). In addition to this he also states that “the belief in election is important…because it is based on a fundamental human need—need for recognition” (Cott 199). This is important to understand because it gave those who had very little, something to believe in and gave those people a purpose in the life that they were living. This purpose allows those to follow in his divine plan. A pivotal example of election occurs when the Israelites were “elected” by God to be his chosen people. Even though this choice of Israel is seen as the utmost honor and privilege, it also does carries a lot responsibility. It involves being faithful to Him and no one else, following His commands, and many other aspects. Unfortunately for those who weren’t “elected” by God, might wonder why the Israelites were chosen instead of themselves, or their own people. This can lead to many conflicts between the Israelites and other religious groups that also follow the same beliefs. Although it is impossible to understand and fully comprehend why God does what He does, it is possible to make very educated conclusion as to why the Israelites were chosen by God. H.H. Rowley helps to answer this question. Rowley states that “God ever chooses those who are best suited for His purpose. His purposes are many, and He chooses many to serve Him. His greatest purpose is to reveal Himself to man, and for that purpose Israel was chosen because Israel was most suited to it” (Rowley 39). This is important because those who did not get elected may have felt that they were worthless in the eyes of God, and this could have lead them to abandon their faith entirely. Since God is all-knowing, He knew of the consequences that were to follow. This has been his plan, and the Israelites were the best suited to fulfill it.