So when we are first introduced to the idea of nations in Scripture, this is what we find. Genesis 10 describes the origins of nations. We are told there of all the families fathered by the sons of Noah. Israel always saw its nationhood in such terms. That which bound them together was the bond of being sons of Abraham.
Every family faces the danger of becoming introverted, aloof from the surrounding world.
Such aloofness was one of Israel's sins - they failed to extend the blessings of the covenant to surrounding nations. But this is not a reason for abandoning the model. If Israel had been obedient to all that God had said, their family identity would not have become a matter of arrogant exclusivity. The Scriptures had much to say about how the nation of Israel was intended to relate to foreigners and strangers - and those were not in any sense pejorative terms. If Israel had observed these instructions, there would have been none of the nationalistic racial pride that later developed.