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.