Predestination

“But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

“But I will also make a nation of the slave woman’s son, because he is your offspring.””

“But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power to you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

““I will cause all My goodness to pass before you,” the LORD replied, “and I will proclaim My name—the LORD—in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.””

“Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power,”

“The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.”

“But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

“Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day.”