Yes, I think you've got it. For Moses, Samuel, Jacob and and others Free Will wasn't free. God had ordained their faith and much of what would happen in their lives.
The passage I gave you, talks about God's choice of Jacob before he was born, just as I said.
God chose Jacob and that blows the doctrine of Free Will. And thereby opens the question of how God instilled faith in Jacob according to His determination.
Good bye for now.
These facts, that God chose certain people through which to accomplish His purpose and that mankind has free will, are not mutually exclusive. Just because God chose to bless Jacob instead of Esau, this did not mean that neither of them were able to make their own choices.