Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:7-11

Bird's-eye view

This passage is one of the clearest and most potent declarations of God's sovereign, electing grace in all of the Old Testament. As Moses prepares the people to enter the Promised Land, he confronts a temptation that has plagued God's people in every generation: the temptation to find the reason for God's favor within themselves. Moses demolishes this notion entirely. God's choice of Israel was not based on their demographic strength, their moral superiority, or any other native quality. The ultimate ground of their election was found entirely within God Himself, in His inexplicable love and His covenant faithfulness. This passage establishes a crucial theological principle: God's love is the cause of His actions, not the result of our qualifications. He then connects this foundational grace to the demands of the covenant. Because God is a faithful, promise-keeping God, His people are called to be a faithful, commandment-keeping people. The logic is clear: grace is the foundation, and obedience is the necessary response.

The text sets up a stark contrast between those who love God and respond to His grace with faithfulness, and those who hate Him. God's dealings with both are certain and direct. His lovingkindness, His hesed, extends for a thousand generations to the faithful, while His judgment upon the rebellious is swift and personal. This is not a contradiction but two sides of the same coin of divine righteousness. The God who is free to love is also the God who is free to judge. The passage therefore serves as both a profound comfort to the believer, grounding their security in God's immutable character, and a solemn warning against presumption and disobedience.

Outline

Context In Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy is a book of covenant renewal. The generation that came out of Egypt has perished in the wilderness, and now their children stand on the brink of the Jordan River, poised to enter Canaan. Moses, in his final sermons, is re-stating and applying the law for this new generation. Chapter 7 begins with a stern command for the total destruction of the Canaanite nations. This is a holy war, a war of herem, or utter devotion to destruction. The reason for this severity is the spiritual contamination the Canaanites represent. God is protecting His people from idolatry. Following this command, our passage (vv. 7-11) provides the theological rationale for Israel's special status. They are a holy people, set apart for God, not because of any innate virtue, but solely because of God's gracious choice. This explanation is crucial. It prevents Israel from thinking that the command to dispossess the Canaanites is based on their own superior righteousness. It is not their goodness but God's grace that makes them His instrument of judgment. This section therefore functions as a vital guard against national pride and self-righteousness, which are forms of idolatry just as dangerous as bowing to a Canaanite idol.

Key Issues

The Logic of Sovereign Grace

At the heart of our Christian faith is a profound mystery that our modern, democratic, egalitarian sensibilities find difficult to swallow. It is the doctrine of election. Why does God choose one and not another? This passage in Deuteronomy gives us the bedrock answer, and it is an answer that reverberates through the rest of Scripture. The reason for God's choice is not found in the chosen, but in the Chooser. God's love is not a responsive love, drawn out by our loveliness. It is a creative love, a love that originates in the free and sovereign good pleasure of His own will. He does not love us because we are valuable; we are valuable because He loves us.

Moses is at pains to make this clear to Israel. "You were the fewest of all peoples." He removes any possible ground for boasting. If God operated on the world's principles, He would have chosen Egypt or Babylon, the great and mighty empires. But God's ways are not our ways. He chooses the small, the weak, the insignificant, so that no one can boast in His presence. This principle is picked up by the apostle Paul in the New Testament: "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong" (1 Cor. 1:27). The entire plan of salvation is designed to put God's grace on display and to humble the pride of man. This passage is the Old Testament headwaters of that glorious river of sovereign grace.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 “Yahweh did not set His affection on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

Moses begins with a direct and forceful negation. The word for "set His affection on" is a strong word, implying a deep, binding love. Why did God bind Himself to Israel? Moses immediately dismantles the most obvious worldly reason: size and strength. In the ancient world, the power of a nation was in its numbers. But God did not choose Israel based on a demographic survey. He did not look for the most impressive candidate. In fact, He chose the opposite. "You were the fewest of all peoples." This is a statement of historical fact. When Jacob's family went down to Egypt, they were a clan of seventy souls. Compared to the sprawling populations of the surrounding nations, they were utterly insignificant. This is a deliberate, divine strategy. By choosing the least likely candidate, God ensures that the glory for Israel's subsequent success will go to Him alone. It is a foundational lesson against human pride.

8 but because Yahweh loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your fathers, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Having cleared away the false reasons, Moses now gives the true ones. There are two, and they are intertwined: God's love and God's oath. The first reason is simply, "because Yahweh loved you." This is a staggering statement. The ultimate reason for God's love is... God's love. It is its own cause. It is not a reaction to Israel's worthiness, but an action flowing from His own gracious character. The second reason is that He was keeping the oath He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But this is not really a separate reason, because the oath itself was a product of that same sovereign love. The promise to the patriarchs was an act of pure grace. So God's love is the source, and His oath-keeping faithfulness is the expression of that love in history. This love is not a sentimental feeling; it is a powerful, active force. It resulted in the Exodus, where God brought them out with a "strong hand," a classic description of His miraculous power, and "redeemed" them, buying them back from slavery. The love of God is a redeeming, rescuing, liberating love.

9 You shall know therefore that Yahweh your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

The "therefore" is crucial. Because God has acted in this way, revealing His character in the Exodus, Israel is to draw a firm conclusion. They are to know something about the nature of their God. He is the God, the only true God, and His defining characteristic is faithfulness. He is the "faithful God." He keeps His covenant. The word for "lovingkindness" is the great Hebrew word hesed, which combines the ideas of love, loyalty, mercy, and covenant commitment. And this faithfulness is not short-lived. It extends to a "thousand generations." This is not a literal number, but a poetic way of saying "forever." God's covenant memory is long. But notice the condition: "with those who love Him and keep His commandments." This is not a contradiction of the grace mentioned earlier. Rather, it describes the character of those who are the true recipients of the covenant blessings. God's electing love produces a people who love Him back. And that love is demonstrated in obedience. Faith and works are inseparable here. Love for God is the root, and keeping His commandments is the fruit.

10 but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to make them perish; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.

God's faithfulness has another side. Just as He is faithful to show mercy to those who love Him, He is equally faithful to execute justice on those who hate Him. The language is stark and personal. He repays them "to their faces," meaning directly, openly, and without apology. There is no hiding from this judgment. The phrase is repeated for emphasis: "He will not delay... He will repay him to his face." This is a necessary corrective to any sentimental view of God's love. The God of the Bible is not a cosmic teddy bear. His love is a holy love, which means it is utterly opposed to sin and rebellion. To "hate" God here is not primarily an emotional state, but a covenantal one. It means to reject His lordship, to despise His law, and to live in active rebellion against Him. For such people, God's justice is as certain as His mercy is for the faithful.

11 Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

The passage concludes, as it must, with an exhortation to obedience. Again, we see the "therefore." Because God's election is by grace, and because His character is one of perfect faithfulness to both His promises and His warnings, the only logical response is obedience. This is not the cowering obedience of a slave trying to earn favor, but the grateful obedience of a redeemed son seeking to honor his father. The grace of God does not abolish the law of God; it establishes it. It provides the true foundation and motivation for keeping it. God's sovereign love, demonstrated in the Exodus, is the engine that drives a life of grateful covenant-keeping. Israel is to obey, not in order to be chosen, but because they have been chosen.

Application

This passage is a strong tonic for the modern church, which is often tempted by two opposite errors. The first is the error of arrogance, thinking that God is on our side because we are so doctrinally sound, so morally upright, or so culturally savvy. This text reminds us that we bring nothing to the table. Our salvation, from beginning to end, is a result of a love that we did not merit and a promise that we did not solicit. We are, in ourselves, "the fewest of all peoples." All our boasting must be in the Lord.

The second error is the error of sentimentalism, which remakes God into a doting grandfather who loves everyone in a vague, non-judgmental way. This text will not allow it. The God who loves with an everlasting love is the same God who repays haters to their face. His hesed and His wrath flow from the same fountain of holiness. We must not try to domesticate the lion of Judah. His love is a holy, demanding, and transformative love.

The application for us, then, is threefold. First, we must ground our assurance in God's character, not our performance. He chose us because He loved us. Period. Second, we must respond to this grace with grateful obedience. The commandments of God are not a ladder to climb up to heaven, but a road for the redeemed to walk on in fellowship with their Father. Third, we must take God's warnings with utter seriousness. The call to love and obey is a genuine call, and to reject it is to identify oneself as one who hates God, placing oneself in the path of His certain and personal judgment. Let us therefore rest in His sovereign affection and walk in His righteous ways.