Let Us Choose to Focus on Choose/Choice
While we beez digressing on this & that, why not look at what scripture actually says; I search the rather literal ASV. I note that in the NT, so far as I know, no one chooses God, but God does some choosing.
Now the OT has some choosing by men, but not a lot of choosing God, unless there is some synonym that I missed, aside from Joshua ordering them to choose whom they would serve (it not being recorded that they obeyed the order). Similar to Joshua's admonition, there is one in Deuternomy about choosing life:
Thus far looking I only found one passage where it could be argued that Israel chose YHWH.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed;
Here is one in Joshua of men choosing YHWH:
And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you Jehovah, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.
-- But what does that one mean, "witnesses vs yourselves"? Does that mean that they only verbally expressed a choice, but not from the heart?
We can balance that one vs what Judges says:
They chose new gods;
Then was war in the gates:
Was there a shield or spear seen
Among forty thousand in Israel?
Judges also has this one:
Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.
and he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, In the morning Jehovah will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he shall choose will he cause to come near unto him.
and put fire in them, and put incense upon them before Jehovah to-morrow: and it shall be that the man whom Jehovah doth choose, he shall be holy: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.
And it shall come to pass, that the rod of the man whom I shall choose shall bud: and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against you.
And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;
For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God: Jehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth. Jehovah did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples:
Only Jehovah had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day.
but in the place which Jehovah shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee. [I will skip the other times God chooses a place.]
For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God, and Jehovah hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
thou shalt surely set him king over thee, whom Jehovah thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee; thou mayest not put a foreigner over thee, who is not thy brother.
For Jehovah thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of Jehovah, him and his sons for ever.
And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them Jehovah thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of Jehovah;
And Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom Jehovah hath chosen, that there is none like him along all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, Long live the king.
(The people also chose to have a king)
Here is a situation in which God gave David a choice:
Go and speak unto David, Thus saith Jehovah, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
Solomon said:
And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude
O ye seed of Israel his servant,
Ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah,
The people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.