There is no doubt that God loved the people of Israel with great love, but the Bible also teaches us that this people loved by God, went many times behind idols and hardened their hearts to the voice of God, even seeing all the wonders that God did for them before Egypt. But another thing that we must take very much into account is that God always kept correcting them, exhorting them to walk on the right path, and in the same way God calls us to walk in His will.
Before the people of Israel obtain the promise of the land that flowed milk and honey, God said to His people:
28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 4:28-29
