During times of war I have always been told by the elders of my family that the country Israel is not to be “messed” with because they are “God’s chosen people.” At a young age I didn’t question why they were the chosen people. I was actually disappointed that I wasn’t a chosen “one”.
Did the Israelite people do something special that granted them the chosen people award? Were they chosen because the size of their nation? Were they more holy than the other nations? No, they were just loved!
How do we know that the Israelite people are the chosen people, well Deuteronomy 7:6 states “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
They weren’t chosen because they are a nation of many and powerful people such as the Greeks or Romans, actually the next verse states they are the smallest nation. “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.”(Deuteronomy 7:7)
The only reason of “choseness” we are given comes from Deuteronomy 7:8 “but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
So they didn’t do anything to deserve the award, the protagonist just loved them! To be so loved, were they holy? Not at all, the protagonist states in Deuteronomy 9:6 that they were stiffnecked or stubborn people!
“Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.” (NKJ)
They were loved because they accepted the covenant at mount Sinai. We are given this evidence in a previous book. Exodus 19:5 says “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine,”
So thanks to Moses running up and down the mountain, in verse 8 the Israelite people accept the covenant by saying “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
From one Jewish perspective, the answer is fascinating. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/are-the-jewish-people-chosen/The website My Jewish Learning states in the article “Are Jews the Chosen People?” This article says “God first offered the Torah to the children of Esau, the children of Ammon and Moab, and the children of Ishmael, but when they were told about the Torah’s prohibitions against murder, adultery, and robbery, respectively, they turned down the offer. Only after going to every nation in the world did God finally offer the Torah to the Jews.”
Old Testament 