(REFLECTIONS ON Deuteronomy 7:1-11)

The Israelites were the chosen people of God not because they were the most deserving or the greatest of all the nations on earth. They were the chosen people of God, because God loved them and because God made a promise to their ancestors. This shows us God’s faithfulness rather than any great characteristics or features about the people themselves.

Being the chosen people of God, Israel was set to inherit the Promised Land, because that also was a promise made by God.

As we read Moses’ instructions to the Israelites, they were to drive out the nations before them in order to take hold of the Promised Land. The reason was because the Israelites were God’s chosen people, and they needed to be holy and devoted to the God that called them, rather than be influenced by the culture, traditions, and religions of these other nations. Moses reminded Israel saying,

6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

Israel needed to understand that any thought they may have had about their own involvement in becoming the chosen people of God needed to be wiped away, just as they were commanded to wipe away the other nations.

What would be left is that they would know that the Lord is God, not just one of the many gods, but the one and only true God, and that He is a faithful God, meaning that His promises are a guarantee and His words are true.

Brothers and sisters, we are also a chosen people, by the grace of God, through the sacrifice of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Just like Israel, this calling for the church wasn’t because we were any better, stronger, or more capable than others, but because we believe in the one and only true God. He is a faithful God, bringing salvation to the world, as He promised through the Messiah.

Yes, we are to be holy and devoted to the God that called us, but not because of anything we have done, or ever will be able to do, but that we can be called sons and daughters of the Lord Most High, is because God is God, and He is a faithful God.

What are the things in our life then that we need to remove, that take our attention away from God, that turn us from being a people holy to the Lord, and causing us to turn our focus to idols, other gods, the world and its riches, and to our own desires?

We are reminded, as if Moses’ words are for the church as well, that “the Lord your God has chosen you out all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” Since we are His treasured possession, may we live as people of grace, rather than continue living as people of this world.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy 7