Deuteronomy 7:7 The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. (When the Lord chose His people, they were far fewer in number than their relatives from Ishmael and Esau. Those other peoples, in fact, were far more numerous. The offspring of Isaac, the promised seed of Abraham, fathered Jacob and Esau, Abraham's grandsons. Jacob's twelve sons were Abraham's great grandsons. Ishmael's twelve sons, on the other hand, were Abraham's grandsons and had grown in numbers and power far beyond those descendants of the promised son of Abraham. Only after Jacob and His sons moved to Egypt, residing there first in blessing and then in oppression, did they grow and expand in number. When the Lord chooses us today or His people of old, that choice is not based on anything we bring to Him. He did not and does not choose them or us because we were somehow more special. He chooses us because He Himself singles us out, because of His Own designs and purposes. His has chosen a people, Israel of old and us today, to develop an outreach, a source, through whom He would minister His redemptive plan for the world, and today we are so blessed both to be part of His outreach and to have received the redemption and salvation that He has provided all of us.)
