Tell me, please! Love where your mind goes. Spill, please bobby.
Ha ha. My mind is not unlike a wandering child. always asking random questions, and then turning around and questioning the answers.
As for my suspicions, that's all they are. It's been quite some time since I read up on the historical context concerning the nation of Israel, but even for Theologians, Archeologists, and Historians, it is a patchwork quilt with no pattern, so it is best guesses in many cases.
My memory is a bit rusty on it, but it seems that the Israelites originally came from the Canaan area, and like many there, they had multiple Gods, and even in Egypt, they were exposed to others. This seems to have continued after returning to Canaan, and even into captivity in Babylon, although they were beginning to whittle their beliefs down to one single God, and that's when most of the early writings of the Bible materialized.
My suspicious are that they needed to re-establish themselves, and re-build what was destroyed. Claiming to be God's chosen ones united their people, and served to distinguish them as a relevant nation. It seems to work. Some of the figures (Abraham and Moses may be little more than literary inventions since no extra-biblical references exist).
At any rate, I'm pretty much in the dark about it all, but it never really made any sense to me that if there was a fair and just God, that he would have a chosen people, especially many who weren't very obedient. People are all different. Just because a person is of a certain ethnicity doesn't mean they will make good disciples. Besides, is the child of a chosen and a non-chosen just half-chosen. I don't know. Just unanswered questions like many others.