Doesn't take much "study" to see what God said clearly there were conditions to His blessing anyone for any length of time, let alone a 1000 generations:
Hmmmm...sounds conditional to me....Can one 'love Him and kill His Son' while keeping the 10 Commandments??
Sounds like here (to me)something is require for God's blessing, something outside of race, blood or cultural affinity:
Gee...still sound like obedience is mandatory.
As to Deut. 7:9 I would say that to have the correct context we would need to go back to 7:6.
7:6.................
"holy people. . .God has chosen you". That speaks to Old Test. election which was for service, and did not always involve salvation (Cyrus in Isa. 44:28; 45:1).
"Chosen," like "holy," had more to do with their relationship to the Lord than personal piety, like the NT use of "saint" for believers. God chose Israel to choose a nation to choose a world (Exod. 19:5-6).
He wants a "holy people" to show the world His character and desire to know them. But, even within that nation, it was always an individual act of faith that made a person right with God, not simply being a part of the covenant community ( Ezekiel 18). The covenant community was made up of individuals who submitted themselves, by faith, to the Law of God.
It was made up of more than just Jews; the stranger in their midst, the alien in their land, and the foreign slaves in the home were all graciously adopted and were allowed to partake of the covenant of election (cf. Exod. 12:38).
http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/old_testament_studies/VOL03OT/VOL03OT_07.html
Now we can see how this verse points to the unmerited, undeserved mercy, grace, and love of God! As a matter of fact, and you are correct Rusty, Israel was difficult to love because of her stiffnecked stubbornness. God's grace is displayed even more clearly because of Israel's rebellion!
Then to Exodus 19:5,
Only then.....(KEEPING MY COVENANT) would God fulfill all the promises for protection and favor. The time of the law was clearly based on a conditional covenant.
Now..........the quotation of parts of verses 5 and 6 in the New Test. (1 Peter 2:9 & Rev. 5:10) is by way of application and in no way indicates that the church has replaced Israel or has taken over the promises given to her.
Jeremiah 31:31 says.........
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah".
This clearly tells us that Israel was given a new covenant to replace the broken Sinaitic compact. The Church participates only in the salvation aspects of the new covenant.
Did the people then agree to keep that promise?? Absolutely. That tells us how easy it is to make a promise to do something but then see how hard it is to follow through on our promise.