But thus shall ye deal with them ye shall break down their altars, and shatter their statues, and hew down their Asherahs, and burn their graven images with fire.
Israel is about to enter a land full of altars to other gods, and God's first order about that land is to smash them. Why total destruction rather than tolerance, and what gives Israel the right to carry it out?
The list moves through every physical support of Canaanite religion. The word behind "Asherim" — older translations render it "groves" — did not mean a stand of trees, as one reference work explains:
The word "grove" suggests a row of trees, but that cannot be the meaning, since people set up groves "under every green tree." ... On the whole, they were most probably wooden symbols of a goddess. They took the form of images or pillars, or plain tree trunks planted in the ground.
This was not an outbreak of national aggression. Commentators tie it to a promise God made to Abraham centuries earlier, that judgment would wait until wickedness was complete:
Some four hundred years earlier God had told Abraham, "the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete" (Gen. 15:16). But now it clearly was complete. God planned to wipe them out, as He had already done with the world before the flood and then with Sodom — only this time using Israel to do it.
Verse 6 supplies the ground for verse 5, and it is not Israel's superiority. The demolition flows from what God had made them:
Why were they to demolish their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves? Simply because they were a holy people. And who had made them a holy people? God did. He had chosen them and set His love on them. He had redeemed them and separated them to Himself. So it was His right, and His alone, to say what they were to be, and how they were to act.
The command targets objects, not just people, and the reason is that idolatry spreads by contact:
When Israel entered the promised land under Joshua, God strictly commanded them to touch nothing. They were to make a clean sweep of the nations living there and all their works. These instructions were sanitary precautions of a spiritual kind. Idolatry is terribly infectious as well as corrupting, and a policy of thorough isolation was the only safe one.
Israel never finished the job. Their later history proved the warning right:
Their later history shows what this failure cost them. It largely explains their constant dabbling in idolatrous things, which in the end brought their own judgment and scattering under the Assyrians and Babylonians. They failed to judge and destroy the evil completely, so they caught its infection and fell under its power.
The first breach came quickly. Joshua and the leaders made a treaty with the Gibeonites, a Canaanite group who arrived in worn-out clothes and with mouldy bread, pretending to have travelled from far away:
No doubt the story of the Gibeonites sounded believable, and their whole appearance gave a show of truth to what they said. But none of this should have carried the slightest moral weight with Joshua and the leaders. It would not have, if only they had remembered the word of the Lord. But they failed in this. They reasoned on what they saw, instead of obeying what they had heard. Reason is no guide for the people of God. We must be guided and governed, absolutely and completely, by the word of God.
Later kings did more than tolerate foreign worship; they imported it because it looked good. One writer traces the line from this verse straight into the present:
Israel was to destroy the altars of these enemy nations without hesitation, with their sacred pillars and all their images (v.5). However attractive these things looked, they must not dare to spare any of them. Despite such clear laws from God, king Ahaz of Judah saw an altar in Syria. He required the high priest to copy it for Jerusalem, pushing aside the altar of God's own design. Today the professing church has done many similar things (in a spiritual way) that insult the living God.
- Full — Judgment had waited long. God held off until "the iniquity of the Amorites" was complete, and then He acted through Israel instead of flood or fire.
- Holy — The ground of the demolition is God's choice, not Israel's merit. He had loved, redeemed and separated them, and that gave Him the right to say how they must live.
- Thorough — Altars, pillars, wooden symbols and carved images all go. Idolatry spreads by contact, so a half-cleared land stays infected.
- Obedient — Gibeon shows where the failure starts. The leaders reasoned on what they saw instead of obeying what they had heard, and reason is no guide for God's people.
- Infected — The unfinished work finished Israel. The nations they spared bred the idolatry that carried them into exile — the very end this command aimed to prevent.
For a holy people art thou unto Jehovah thy God Jehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be unto him a people for a possession, above all the peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
Moses has just told Israel to pull down the altars of the nations in Canaan, and to make no treaty and no marriage with them. This verse gives the reason, and the reason is not Israel's strength or worth, but what God had already made them.
The word "for" ties this verse back to the demand for total separation from the nations of Canaan. One commentator puts the logic as a chain of questions and one answer:
Why were the people to maintain the most marked separation from the Canaanites? Why were they to refuse, with firm decision, to make any covenant, or form any marriage alliance with them? Why were they to demolish their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves? Simply because they were a holy people. And who had made them a holy people? Jehovah. He had chosen them and set His love upon them. He had redeemed them and separated them to Himself. So it was His right and His privilege to say what they were to be, and how they were to act. "You shall be holy, for I am holy."
Moses says what Israel is. He does not set holiness before them as a goal to reach. One writer draws out the difference:
"You are a people holy to the LORD your God." He does not say, "You ought to be a holy people." How could they ever make themselves a holy people, or a people belonging to Jehovah? Utterly impossible. If they were not His people, no effort of theirs could ever make them such. But God, in His sovereign grace, kept His covenant with their fathers. He made them His children, a people of His own above all the nations on the earth. Here was the solid foundation of Israel's moral structure. All their habits and customs, all their doings and ways, their food and their clothing, what they did and what they did not do — all was to flow out of one great fact. They had no more to do with that fact than with their natural birth. They really were the children of God, the people of His choice, the people of His own special possession.
One study traces the Hebrew word, and the older English word "peculiar," back to their roots:
The Hebrew word means "to surround on all sides," and so "to gather together, set apart, reserve, appropriate." Applied to property, it would be the private treasure a person gained or owned himself, as distinct from what he shares with others. With kings it would be the private purse, as distinct from the public treasury. Now the word "peculiar" came from the Latin peculium, which carries much the same force. It named the private purse that a member of a household could build up and keep for himself, apart from what the family had to spend for the good of all.
What should God's ownership have produced in the people?
Since they belonged to Him alone, they should deeply appreciate this honour. They should also act in constant, positive testimony for Him. Such a life runs against the course of the world.
Separation like this can turn into looking down on others. Everything depends on what the separation rests on:
There is a great difference between being separate on the ground of what we are, and of what God is. The former makes a man a Pharisee; the latter makes him a saint. If I say to a poor fellow sinner, "Stand by yourself, I am holier than you," I am a detestable Pharisee and a hypocrite. But if God, in His infinite kindness and perfect grace, says to me, "I have brought you into relationship with Myself in the person of My Son Jesus Christ, therefore be holy and separate from all evil," then I am bound to obey.
God set Israel apart, and that standing was meant to shape their conduct. One writer carries the same principle to Christians today:
They were viewed as the chosen of God, as set apart for Him. This should have led to practical holiness, as God said, "Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God." The Christian too is sanctified and justified. God has made Christ his sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30). This points to the call of God that sets a person apart, and to the means and measure of his sanctification.
- Chosen — Israel did not make itself holy. God chose, loved, redeemed and separated them. That alone gave Him the right to say how they should live.
- Declared — Moses states a fact, not a goal. Their identity was as much a given as their birth, and every habit was to flow from it.
- Treasured — the word pictures a private purse, held back from the common fund. God owns this people Himself.
- Displayed — they belonged to Him alone. They were to feel that honour and show it in a life that runs against the course of the world.
- Practised — standing must become behaviour. Separation based on what God is makes a saint. Separation based on what we are makes a Pharisee.
Not because ye were more in number than all the peoples, hath Jehovah been attached to you and chosen you, for ye are the fewest of all the peoples;
Moses is explaining to Israel why they, of all nations, stand where they do — and he removes every reason but one. He denies that their size or importance had anything to do with it. That leaves the question every reader asks: if not for something in me, then why?
The verse rules out one motive and gives no replacement except God's own love.
Moses told Israel that the Lord did not choose them for their numbers — they were the fewest of all peoples — but only because He loved them (Deut. 7:7-8). He could give no reason except what God is in Himself. This is a great comfort, for it puts the love of God on a basis that can never break down.
The motive lies inside God, not inside the one He loves. So the same principle reaches further than Israel:
What is the motive of such love as He has made known to us? There can be only one answer—love! It found its motive in itself. He loved because He loved... Not only was there no merit or worthiness in us to call out His love, but we were lost sinners. Yet He loved us because He loved us.
Israel already knew they were God's chosen people. Being the fewest ruled merit out as the reason.
As Israelites they were familiar with the notion of election. They were used to being God's chosen people (Deut. 7:6). And they would have understood that election was not based on merit but on God's sovereign choice (7:7-8). Now, as Christians, they had been chosen in a far higher sense: before the foundation of the world, for the possession of every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3,4) and for a heavenly inheritance. God had foreknown them, and in sovereign love had chosen them.
God's choice reached back further still. It rested on promises He had already made to their ancestors.
His love for them was sovereign. Natural things did not sway it. Pure divine wisdom moved it — the same wisdom that had chosen their fathers and promised them marvellous blessing that could come to their descendants. This love had already won their amazing rescue from Egypt, so they had proof of it beyond doubt (v.8).
A chosen nation could easily think itself better than its neighbours. This verse removes the ground for that.
Israel had to be taught to remember their origin, and their true condition — "slaves in Egypt" — "fewest of all peoples" — no room for pride or boasting. They were in no way better than the nations around them. So if anyone asked them to account for their high position and moral greatness, they had only one answer: it all traced back to the free love of God, and to His faithfulness to His oath.
The same truth that removes self-confidence also makes them secure:
This truth was God's own cure for self-satisfaction and self-confidence. At the same time it formed the solid basis of their happiness and their moral security. Everything rested on the eternal stability of the grace of God, so no one could boast.
God did not always speak of His love. One writer marks the moment when He first said it.
God reveals His love when and as He will. In the Old Testament He spoke of it, but only in connection with Israel. He never even mentioned it in any divine message that has come down to us until the last days of Moses, the great lawgiver. Then in the book of Deuteronomy (Deut. 4:37; 7:7; 10:15; 23:5) it is first disclosed... God speaks of His love to act, if possible, on those to whom He reveals it. Moses then made it known, to keep Israel true to Him in later years.
If God's love depended on something in us, an honest look at ourselves would destroy our confidence. The verse cuts that thought off.
There is nothing our hearts are so slow to believe as the wonderful place we have in the love of the Father... It is all so unaccountable too if we look at ourselves. But then it is just as He said to Israel of old: He set His love on them because He loved them. That was the only reason for it; the only account He could give of such love. If it was like this with His love for Israel, is it not infinitely more so with the love He has for us?
- Not because. The verse names what did not cause God's choice: numbers, size, importance. Nothing in Israel qualified them.
- But because. The only reason given is God's own love; it "found its motive in itself," which is why it can never break down.
- Fewest. Being the smallest is the proof, not the problem. It makes boasting impossible and traces everything back to free grace.
- Spoken late. God acted in love long before He said the word. Moses tells them at the end of his life, to keep Israel true to Him afterwards.
- Therefore secure. What empties self-confidence gives real security. This love rests on God's stability, not on ours.
but because Jehovah loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath Jehovah brought you out with a powerful hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Moses is speaking to a small nation on the edge of a land full of stronger peoples, and he answers the question they would ask: why us? His answer points away from Israel — to God's own love, and to an oath sworn generations earlier to their ancestors.
The verse says God acted "because the LORD loves you." That is not an explanation; it is a refusal to look for one:
What is the motive of such love as He has made known to us? There can be only one answer to the question—Love! It found its motive in itself. He loved because He loved. This shows in the words of Deuteronomy 7:7, "The LORD did not set his love on you and choose you" for any merit or greatness beyond others — "but it is because the LORD loves you." God is love. He has set His love on us in Christ Jesus, and nothing can separate us from it.
This has a practical result for anyone who fears that God's love might fail:
He could give no reason except what God was in Himself. This is a great comfort, for it puts the love of God on a basis that can never break down.
The same love later sent God's Son, so the comfort here reaches far beyond Israel:
What comfort this is for us. God can show love — yes, He has shown love — before any sacrifice was offered up for His acceptance. If this were not so, who could be saved? If He were not love, His Son would never have come, sent by Him to make propitiation for the sins of the people. It was love that moved God to send Him; divine love, which is its own motive for its activity. Moses of old had said that God set His love on the people because He loved them.
If the reason lies wholly in God, then Israel has nothing to claim:
It is the settled purpose of God that "no human being might boast in the presence of God." All human pretension must be set aside. He will hide pride from man. Israel had to be taught to remember where they came from and what they really were: slaves in Egypt, the fewest of all peoples. There was no room for pride or boasting. They were in no way better than the nations around them. So if they were called to account for their high position and moral greatness, they had only to trace it all back to the free love of God and His faithfulness to His oath.
One writer notes what the word "redeemed" carries in the Old Testament:
This word in the Old Testament always implies power.
The rescue from Egypt did more than free them:
As for Israel, so for the Church today, the Lord did not set His love on them because of their large population, for they were few in number. His love for them was sovereign. Nothing natural influenced it. Pure divine wisdom moved it — the wisdom that had chosen their fathers and promised them marvellous blessing that could reach their descendants. This love had already carried out their amazing rescue from Egypt, so they had proof of it beyond doubt.
Within the same chapter, love appears twice on different footing:
In Deuteronomy 7 we find two kinds of love: the love that takes delight in its object, and the love of fellowship. In verse 8 we read, "the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out." Then in verse 12, "if you listen to these rules and keep and do them… he will love you, bless you and multiply you." The first is according to His oath to the fathers, and absolute. The second depends on obedience — "if you do."
Being loved put a claim on how Israel lived:
Israel as a nation were the objects of God's love. He set that love on them, not because of anything great in themselves, for they were few and insignificant, but because God was faithful to His oath to their fathers. Since He loved them in this way, they were to be a holy, or separated, people in all their ways.
- Cause — the only reason given for God's choice is His own love; it found its motive in itself.
- Guarantee — God tied that love to an oath He swore to the fathers, so it rests on a basis that can never break down.
- Power — "redeemed" always implies power; the exodus is love proved, not love promised.
- Humility — slaves once, and the fewest of peoples, Israel had nothing to boast in.
- Holiness — because God loved them, they were to live set apart; love comes first, and the life follows.
And thou shalt know that Jehovah thy God, he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with them that love him and keep his commandments;
Moses tells Israel to know something about the God who chose them. He is faithful. He keeps covenant, and His reach runs to a thousand generations. The chapter is about staying separate from the nations around them. This verse answers the question every chosen people asks: what holds the bond together — our record, or His character?
Just before this verse, Moses removes every reason Israel might give for their own standing. They were the smallest nation, not the largest. The explanation had to lie somewhere else.
Moses reminded Israel that the Lord did not set His love on them or choose them because they were more in number than any people. They were the fewest of all peoples. He chose them because the Lord loved them (Deut. 7:7-8). He could give no reason except what God was in Himself. This is a great comfort, for it puts the love of God on a basis that can never break down.
The command to know also looks backwards. Israel had to remember where their standing came from.
They were to remember that they owed all their dignity, all their privileges, all their blessings, not to anything in themselves, their own goodness or their own greatness. They owed it simply to this: the Lord had identified Himself with them, in His infinite goodness and sovereign grace, and He had made a covenant with their fathers — "a covenant ordered in all things and sure." This gave them a divine antidote against self-satisfaction and self-confidence, and at the same time formed the solid basis of their happiness and their moral security.
The title "the faithful God" is not vague praise. The word carries a definite sense, and it shares a root with the word for faith.
In both the Old Testament and the New Testament this word comes from the same root as "faith." It means being true to oneself, to one's nature, to any promise given, and to any trust committed. It is often applied to God Himself. Deut. 7:9; Isa. 49:7; 1 Cor. 1:9; 1 Thess. 5:24; Heb. 10:23; 1 John 1:9.
Faithfulness like this calls for trust.
The faithfulness of God! What a glorious fact this is, and how little we have grasped it. He must always be faithful to all that He is, and to all that He has said. He cannot deny Himself, nor can He deny the one who stakes everything upon Him and the truth of His Word. If our souls really hold to the faithfulness of God, we see that He is wholly true, and therefore He is to be wholly trusted.
The verse measures the covenant in generations — a thousand of them. That number is a figure of speech, not a countdown.
He has commanded it to a thousand generations — a round number, it seems, for as many as there may be (compare Deut. 7:9). He made it with Abraham. With an oath to Isaac, He confirmed it to Jacob as an unalterable decree, and to Israel as an everlasting covenant.
That reach has a personal side.
All this rests, as far as its blessing to me goes, on the unchangeableness of His nature. I can be sure that I will find Him to be the same God for myself that He has been to others. If He were changeable, unpredictable, limited, I could argue nothing and find comfort in nothing... How I can rejoice, then, that Abraham's God is mine.
The verse links His covenant and steadfast love to those who love Him and keep His commandments. Some read that as a price to be paid.
Is there anything of the legal element in this? Not a trace. Love and legality have nothing in common; they are as far apart as the poles... Suppose it were taught that we must earn by our obedience the high position and relationship of children of God. Then the solemn charge of legality would be fair. But to attach that label to Christian obedience is, we repeat, a serious moral mistake. Obedience could never come before sonship. But sonship should always lead to obedience.
The same faithfulness works both ways. The next verse carries a warning.
Israel was to recognise that God is completely faithful. He is perfectly dependable in keeping the covenant He had made, however many generations would follow. If Israel would keep God's commandments they would find Him true to His Word in blessing them (v.9). But if they refused to obey, they would also find Him true to His Word. He would repay their wrongdoing by destroying them (v.10).
- Chosen — Israel was the fewest, not the greatest. The reason for the choice lay in God Himself, so His love rests on a basis that cannot break down.
- Faithful — the word shares a root with "faith." It means being true to one's own nature, to every promise given, and to every trust committed.
- Forever — "a thousand generations" is a round number for as many as there may be. His covenant outlasts them all.
- Obedient — loving Him and keeping His commandments is the fruit of the relationship, not its price. Obedience follows sonship; it never comes first.
- Both ways — the same faithfulness makes His blessing certain and His warning certain. A dependable God is dependable in all He has said.
and repayeth them that hate him [each] to his face, to cause them to perish he delayeth not with him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
God keeps His covenant, and this verse shows the other side of that faithfulness: He repays those who hate Him. Two questions follow — what does it mean that God is not "slack," and who counts as a hater of God?
Verses 9 and 10 are not two different Gods. They are one dependable God met from two directions.
Israel was to fully recognise that God is absolutely faithful. He is perfectly dependable in keeping the covenant He had made, however many generations would follow. If Israel would keep God's commandments they would find Him true to His Word in blessing them (v.9). But if they refused to obey, they would also find Him true to His Word. He would repay their wrongdoing by destroying them (v.10). Therefore, it was only wisdom to fully observe God's commandments, statutes and judgments.
The same truth comforts one person and warns another.
We have two weighty facts set before us here. One is full of rich consolation and comfort to every true lover of God. The other is full of deep solemnity for every hater of God. All who really love God and His commandments may count on His unfailing faithfulness and tender mercy. They may count on it at all times and in all circumstances.
Being "not slack" means God will not go easy. That is the point people most want to soften.
God declares here that "He will not be slack with one who hates Him." This is a most solemn truth. We ought to press it far more on everyone it concerns. Men do not like to hear it; many pretend and profess not to believe it. They want to persuade themselves, and others too, that God is too good, too kind, too merciful, too generous to deal in stern judgment with His creatures. They forget that God's ways in government are as perfect as His ways in grace. They imagine that the government of God will pass over evil and evildoers, or deal lightly with them.
Few people would use that label of themselves. The verse leaves no third category.
Only think, reader, of anyone being a hater of such a One as God; and we know that all who are not lovers must be haters. People may not see this. Very few would be willing to admit they are outright haters of God. But there is no neutral ground in this great question. We must either be for Him or against Him, and in fact people are not slow to show their colours. Often the heart's deep-seated hostility to God comes out as hatred of His people, His word, His worship, His service. How often we hear such things as, "I hate religious people" — "I hate all that talk" — "I hate preachers." The truth is, it is God Himself they hate. Deep down in every heart that has not turned to God there lies a very real hostility toward Him. Every person, in his natural state, hates God.
The repayment is not distant or impersonal. It is a meeting.
There is a time coming when God will deal personally — face to face — with His enemies. How awful the thought that anyone should hate God! He is the One who is said to be, and who is, "Light" and "Love" — the very fountain of goodness, the Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift, the Father of lights. His generous hand supplies the need of every living thing. He is the perfectly holy God, and the One who has power to destroy both soul and body in hell.
The clearest measure of God's hatred of sin is not this verse. It is the cross.
Do we want a right sense of the awful reality of the government of God, His wrath against sin, and the true character of His holiness? Then we must gaze at the cross… The cross is the measure of God's hatred of sin, as it is the measure of His love to the sinner. It is the imperishable foundation of the throne of grace. It is the divinely righteous ground on which God can pardon our sins and make us perfectly righteous in a risen and glorified Christ.
Verse 9 ties blessing to keeping His commandments, which some hear as earning God's favour.
Is there anything of the legal element in this? Not a trace. Love and legality have nothing in common… If it were taught that we must earn by our obedience the high position and relationship of children of God, then indeed the serious charge of legality might justly be brought. But to pin that label on Christian obedience is, we repeat, a grave moral mistake. Obedience could never come before sonship; but sonship should always be followed by obedience.
- One God — the same faithfulness that blesses those who obey also repays those who hate Him. Israel would find Him true to His word either way.
- Not slack — God's ways in government are as perfect as His ways in grace. He will not pass over evil or treat it lightly.
- No neutral ground — all who are not lovers of God are haters of Him. That hostility often shows itself against His people, His word and His worship.
- To his face — the repayment is personal and face to face, and a time for it is coming.
- The cross — it measures both God's hatred of sin and His love for the sinner. There God pardons sin and makes the believer perfectly righteous in a risen Christ.
And thou shalt keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command thee this day, to do them.
Moses has just described a God who keeps covenant love and who repays those who reject Him. Then comes a "therefore," tying Israel's obedience to God's own character and raising the question every reader faces: how should a chosen people live?
The command to be careful does not stand alone. It draws its force from the two verses before it. There God shows Himself reliable in both directions.
So Israel was to recognise that God is completely faithful. He is perfectly dependable in keeping the covenant He had made, however many generations would follow. If Israel would keep God's commandments they would find Him true to His Word in blessing them (v.9). But also, if they refused to obey, they would find Him true to His Word in repaying their wrongdoing by destroying them (v.10). Therefore, it was only wisdom to fully observe God's commandments, statutes and judgments.
So obedience is not a burden. It is the sensible response to a God who always does what He says.
The wording is precise. "The commandment" is singular. It works as an umbrella term that covers everything else named.
"Commandment" is used in the same sense, and in the singular, just as it is used again and again in the first five books of the Bible for the whole of revelation. So in Deut. 8:1, "the whole commandment [not 'commandments' as in our English version] which I command you this day you shall observe to do." And again, Deut. 7:11, "You shall keep the commandment, both the statutes and the judgments." The commandment includes both the statutes and the judgments.
Those two verses are quoted there from an older English translation, which is what the point about singular and plural rests on. The two terms under "commandment" each carry their own shade of meaning from the Hebrew.
"Judgments" are decisions that God has made. The term translated "statutes" comes from the word for engraving, implying that these are unchangeable words... and "commandments" call for obedience.
The ESV translates "judgments" as "rules" — the settled decisions God has made.
A distinction runs through this chapter that is easy to blur. God's choice of Israel had nothing to do with their merit. But their day-to-day blessing in the land depended on how they lived.
God did not set His love on them because of their own importance, but because of His own election and love. He assures them that their faithfulness would also be the channel of blessing. God would repay them according to their ways... On His side all was sovereign grace, but sure faithfulness. On their side, the ground they stood on was the government of God. So everything depended on their holding fast to the Lord and obeying faithfully.
Grace put them in the land. Obedience was the channel through which the good of that land reached them.
Read verse 11 with the verses that follow and a pattern appears. Moses gives Israel three things to do, and God promises three things in return.
What a powerful appeal! How moving! Notice the two groups of words. Israel was to "listen," "keep" and "do." The Lord was to "love," "bless," and "multiply." But how sad! Israel failed, failed shamefully, under law and under government. So instead of the love and the blessing and the multiplying, there has been judgment, curse, barrenness, dispersion, desolation.
This is not abstract theology. Moses makes an appeal, and history records what Israel did with it.
If the blessing hung on obedience, and obedience collapsed, the promises might seem lost. Commentators point in the other direction.
But if Israel has failed under law and government, He has not failed in His rich and precious sovereign grace and mercy. He will keep the covenant and the mercy He swore to their fathers. Not the smallest detail of His covenant promise will ever fail... He cannot do this on the ground of Israel's obedience. But He can and will do it through the blood of the everlasting covenant, the precious blood of Jesus, His eternal Son.
The command tested Israel, and Israel failed. What holds the promise up in the end is not their obedience but the blood of Jesus.
- Therefore. The command looks back. God is dependable in blessing and in repaying, so careful obedience is wisdom.
- Commandment. The singular word covers the whole revelation. The statutes are the engraved, unchangeable words; the judgments are God's settled decisions.
- Grace first. God set His love on Israel by His own choice, not because of their importance. Election came before any command.
- Obedience as channel. Their standing rested on sovereign grace. Their daily blessing ran through God's government, so everything depended on holding fast to Him.
- Grace last. Israel failed and reaped judgment instead of love, blessing and increase. Yet God's covenant promise stands, made good through the blood of Jesus, not their obedience.
And it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that Jehovah thy God will keep with thee the covenant and the mercy which he swore unto thy fathers;
Moses is speaking to Israel on the edge of the promised land. He links three things asked of the people — listen, keep, do — to what God promises to do for them. So does God's oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob hang on how a later generation behaves?
The ESV opens the verse with "And because you listen to these rules." Older translations read it as a condition — "if you listen." Either way, the sentence sets two groups of words side by side: what Israel was to do, and what the Lord would do.
What a powerful appeal! How moving! Notice the two groups of words. Israel was to "listen," "keep" and "do." The Lord was to "love," "bless," and "multiply." Sadly, Israel failed — shamefully failed — under law and under God's government. So instead of love, blessing and increase, there has come judgment, curse, barrenness, dispersion and desolation.
Read verse 12 beside verse 8 and the word "love" appears twice, carrying different weight each time.
In Deuteronomy 7 we find both the love of delight and that of communion. In verse 8 we read, "The Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers the Lord has brought you out." Then in verse 12, "If you listen to these judgments, and keep, and do them … He will love you, and bless you, and multiply you." The first is according to His oath to the fathers, and absolute. The second depends on obedience — "if you do."
Could a disobedient generation cancel the promise made to the fathers? Commentators answer by separating the covenant itself from the enjoyment of it.
Promises of blessing from God on condition of Israel's obedience should have made them eager to keep His laws. He promised that if they obeyed, He would keep His covenant which He swore to their fathers (v.12). In fact, whether they obeyed or not, God will eventually keep that covenant made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for it is unconditional. Yet if Israel had obeyed God, they would have reaped the benefits of the covenant in the land. He would never have put them out of it as long as they obeyed.
So what exactly does the "if" in this verse govern?
This covenant looked back to the oath made with the fathers. It promised blessing if they obeyed, and threatening if they disobeyed. God did not promise that they would keep the land, but that they would be blessed in it. Otherwise He would drive them out of it. Yet God would show mercy to them in a far country, if their hearts turned to the Lord.
The verses that follow spell out the promise in ordinary things: children, crops, herds. Israel never saw it on that scale, and the writer looks forward for the reason.
He would bless them with children, bless the fruit of their land, prosper their crops of grain, wine and oil, and increase their livestock (v.13). He would bless them above all other nations, with not one male or female barren, whether among people or livestock (v.14). This would have been marvellous indeed, though we know it did not take place. In the millennium it will be so, however, because God's covenant with the fathers cannot fail, and the grace of God will do what law never could.
The verse promises that God will keep the covenant and His steadfast love — "mercy," in older translations. Israel's obedience never came. So how will God keep His word?
But blessed be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! If Israel has failed under law and government, He has not failed in His rich and precious sovereign grace and mercy. He will keep the covenant and the mercy He swore to their fathers. Not one jot or tittle of His covenant promise shall ever fail. He will make it all good by and by. He cannot do this on the ground of Israel's obedience. But He can and will do it through the blood of the everlasting covenant — the precious blood of Jesus, His eternal Son.
The "if" of this verse still puts a question to us, and it is not about how busy we are.
Obedience is always the test. "To obey is better than sacrifice." If this principle of unquestioning obedience marked our souls, how different the state of the church of God would be! It is a day of great activity, but is it one of obedience?
- Oath first. God's love in verse 8 rests on an oath already sworn to the fathers. It is absolute, and owes nothing to Israel.
- Then the "if." Verse 12 adds a second kind of love, one that waits on listening, keeping and doing.
- Three for three. Israel was to listen, keep, do; God would love, bless, multiply — and the failure came from the human side.
- Land, not promise. Obedience governed their blessing and their stay in the land, not the promise itself.
- Grace finishes it. Obedience never earned the blessing, so grace will keep the promise — through the blood of the everlasting covenant, doing what law never could.
and he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee, and will bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, thy corn and thy new wine, and thine oil, the offspring of thy kine, and the increase of thy sheep, in the land which he swore unto thy fathers to give thee.
Moses keeps pressing the same "if" on the people. If they obey, God will open the door to every good thing He swore to their fathers — children, crops and cattle. Two questions follow. How can God's love rest on a condition? And what happened to a promise Israel never saw fulfilled?
The chapter speaks of God's love twice, and not in the same way. One writer names the two kinds. He counts our verse's opening words with verse 12:
In Deuteronomy 7 we find both the love of delight and the love of communion. In verse 8 we read, "The Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers has the Lord brought you out." Then, in verse 12, "If you listen to these judgments, and keep, and do them … He will love you, bless you, and multiply you." The first is according to His oath to the fathers, and absolute. The second depends on obedience — "if you do."
The choice was never earned. The enjoyment of it was another matter.
Israel had three things to do. God pledged three things in return.
What a powerful appeal! How moving! Notice the two groups of words. Israel was to "listen," "keep" and "do." Jehovah was to "love," "bless," and "multiply." Sadly, Israel failed — shamefully failed — under law and under government. And so, instead of the love and the blessing and the multiplying, there has been judgment, curse, barrenness, dispersion, desolation.
This book names grain, wine and oil together again and again. Together they cover a farming nation's whole livelihood.
God set blessing before Israel in full measure. We see this when we consider that "the grain, the wine, and the oil," so often linked together in Deuteronomy and other scriptures, take in the produce of the field, the vineyard and the orchard. He made all of it yield its increase in blessing, and of Him it is said, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."
These same three items carry a further meaning for Christians:
But these things wear out as they are used. For us they are only pictures of our spiritual blessing, which is eternally rich and endlessly full. The reality behind the grain is clearly the person of Christ Himself, the One who is the fine flour of the grain offering, and the bread of God. We find the reality behind the wine in His work of redemption. Only in this sense can we understand the heart of God to be cheered by wine. And the reality behind the oil is the Holy Spirit poured out.
This verse promises full barns and growing herds. So people often read it as a formula for prosperity. One writer draws a firm line:
Israel had the promise of earthly blessings if they were to keep the law faithfully (Deut. 6:3, 7:13ff). We as children of God do not have any promise of material blessing or prosperity. In fact, we do not have any promise of spiritual blessings either. Because you are no longer promised something you already have. As Christians, we are already blessed with every spiritual blessing!
Israel never lived in the conditions described here. That does not cancel the verse. Its day is the millennium, the thousand-year kingdom still to come:
God would love and bless and multiply Israel on the ground of their obedience. He would bless them with children, bless the fruit of their land, prosper their crops of grain, wine and oil, and increase their livestock. This would have been wonderful indeed, though we know it did not take place. In the millennium it will be so, however. God's covenant with the fathers cannot fail, and the grace of God will do what law never could.
The change is in the basis, not in the promise. Law could not secure it; grace will.
- Chosen first. God's love in verse 8 rests on His own oath and is absolute. The love in this verse is enjoyed in communion, and that side depends on obedience.
- Three for three. Israel was to listen, keep and do; God pledged to love, bless and multiply. The second trio waited on the first.
- Everything covered. Children, fields, vineyards, orchards, herds and flocks. Grain, wine and oil take in a whole nation's livelihood, and the God who owns the earth gives it all.
- Types, not a contract. Grain, wine and oil point to Christ Himself, to His work of redemption, and to the Holy Spirit poured out. The Christian's blessings are spiritual, and we already have them.
- Grace finishes it. Israel failed and reaped desolation instead. Yet God will make the covenant good in the coming kingdom, by grace and not by law.