I would like to make some comments on election and God's freedom. God created in freedom. God elected to work with Abraham in freedom. In freedom God elected Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau and the Israelites over the other nations. In these cases divine election comes first but election must be understood as resulting from the divine love for the sake of relationship.
Election is for the sake of service in order to accomplish the divine plan for all creation.
Some may criticize open theism for seeing a conditional element in election. But actually, this is nothing new since the early church fathers, the Eastern Orthodox church, Wesleyans, and Arminians have all affirmed conditional election. For these believers, God knew through foreknowledge which individuals would exercise saving faith and thus God elected them based upon his knowledge of their free choice. John Sanders Huntington College Eph.