Critics often ask, "How then could God have chosen the Jews 'above all people that are upon the face of the earth' (Deuteronomy 7:6)?" in light of verses stating God does not show favoritism (Acts 10:34, Deuteronomy 10:17, Romans 2:11, Galatians 2:6, Ephesians 6:9, Colossians 3:25, 1 Peter 1:17).

Note the reasons for God's choice in Deuteronomy 7:8: "But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand..." The reason, then, that the one people were chosen was because of the acts of obedience of their forefathers.

Note the distinction here: God accepts those who "fear him and do what is right" - so that acceptance is not the result of favoritism, but of faithfulness and cooperation with God's grace. Similarly, in the rest of the citations, the point is that men are not accepted or given special privileges based on their own "virtues", but rather, in their attitudes towards God and the resultant behavior.

Further, all of the New Testament citations use, or use a variation of, the word prosopoleptes, which means "an accepter of face". In human terms, as illustrated in James 2:1-2, "respect of persons" has nothing to do with covenantal agreements, or even judgment based on faithfulness, but with judgments based on our own suppositions and deductions. In other words, it means God does not take people at "face value" but searches them out. There is no relevance to the matter of the choice of Jews for service; they were chosen because their forefathers, and they, were obedient.

Favoritism defines out as one of two things: "an inclination to favor some person or group" or "unfair treatment of a person or group on the basis of prejudice". Neither of these applies here, since any person was eligible to become a Jew (like Ruth). The core issue is that God does not judge by "face value" -- He doesn't judge a book by its cover. Showing the continued adherence to the covenant was necessary for the Jews to keep occupation of their land.