Deuteronomy 7 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Deuteronomy 7

A Chosen People

7:1 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction.¹ You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.

6 “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

12 “And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. 13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. 16 And you shall consume all the peoples that the LORD your God will give over to you. Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

17 “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ 18 you shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover, the LORD your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. 21 You shall not be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. 22 The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once,² lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. 23 But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. 24 And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. 25 The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. 26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction³ like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.

Footnotes

[1] 7:2 That is, set apart (devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)
[2] 7:22 Or quickly
[3] 7:26 That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); twice in this verse

Commentary

v1-5: Separation from all that is wrong.

v1: Again, the clear statement that the people would enter and inherit the land; God's promises would not and could not fail. The Israelites had the task of possessing the land, and of driving out the inhabitants. This task was impossible without God, for each of the seven nations were larger and stronger than Israel.

Since God has good things for those who belong to Him, we should be diligent to discover all that God has for us, and live in it.

v2: The need to be ruthless, to show no mercy; see Num 33.52; the command was that they destroy them totally.

If we are to inherit all that God has for us, then we must be ruthless with those things that stand in the way, esp. any unspiritual attitudes in our own lives.

v3-4: Where the Israelites were disobedient, they would experience problems; Num 33.55.

v5: All reminders of pagan religion had to be destroyed. For those who are God's people, such things are wrong. Israel went astray a number of times when they incorporated such things into their religion.

Alec Motyer (Loving the Old Testament, page 39) adds this comment: 'We would wish that the 'slaughter of the Canaanites' were not in the Bible, but that is not the right question. The question is: 'do we want a world ruled by the Lord's moral ordinances or a world in which iniquity is never brought to book?'

v6-11: Separation to God; and by God; and for God. This is to do with holiness, a central concept in the Bible.

v6: God had chosen His people, loved them, and redeemed them. They therefore had a responsibility to be holy to Him. The word "treasured possession" (Heb; cegullah), means "shut in", i.e: something special, or wealth, or a jewel. The word appears in five other places;

In Ex 19.5, the first promise to the people that, if they obeyed His voice, they would be His treasured possession.
Deut 14.2; 26.18, like this verse, speak of Israel's great privilege and great responsibility.
Ps 135.4 is a psalm of praise to God, who chose Israel as His treasured possession.
Mal 3.17 is addressed to the nation that had departed from God, yet the special privilege could be restored through repentance.

v7: The recognition of God's grace; Israel was no greater than any other nation. Indeed, in v1, they are described as being smaller than all seven of the Canaanite peoples. In 9.4-6 they are chosen not because they were righteous. God has simply declared, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious" (Ex 33.19).

v8: The Lord took the initiative to love Israel; a never-ending, faithful love. That love delivered the people out of Egypt in great power.

v9-10: A faithful God is a God of righteousness; grace does not ignore that some rejected God.

v11: Since all these things were true, that God had called a people to be holy to Him, there was the responsibility to be careful to obey all He had commanded.

v12: Blessings follow obedience; this verse begins to describe the upward spiral of blessings for the people.

v13-15: There were specific blessings. This was important, as the people would see those things that God had given them. The blessings of God would be indisputable;

blessings on the fruit of the womb, on the crops of the land, on grain, on wine, on oil; increase of livestock;
blessings above all other peoples (i.e: being set apart); neither male nor female would be childless; referring to humans and animals;
sickness would be removed; the diseases of Egypt would not fall on them; instead such things would fall on those nations who hated them; again Israel would be set apart, and other nations would observe this testimony.

v16: The key command here was to destroy the Canaanite peoples. They were not to be complacent, nor show pity. The danger was that they would be tempted not to fulfil this command, which would lead to idolatry. The blessings promised here would be lost.

v17-19: A further temptation, that the task of destroying the nations might appear too great. The encouragement here was to remember what God did to Egypt. The same God was able and willing to bring victory over the Canaanite peoples.

v20: On a practical point, the Lord would direct hornets to chase the survivors.

v21: The Israelites were not to fear, for God was with them. The great and awesome God was on their side. Previously, they had been terrified, see Num 13.31-33.

v22: Victory would not be won in a day. The victory would be gained over a period, which demanded continued vigilance. The Lord would remain faithful to His promises; the people were commanded to be faithful too. The victory would be gradual, not immediate, otherwise the land would be uninhabited, and inhabited by wild animals.

Often, in our lives, victory over sins can be gradual, rather than sudden; or our attitudes may change over a period of time, rather than immediately.

v23: A further promise of victory; the Lord would send confusion among the peoples. The end result, that they be destroyed.

v24: Victory was in their hands.

v25: The silver and gold of the idols had to be destroyed; to keep such things would bring temptation. The people had to realise that they were God's people, and were set apart for Him; the ordinary ways of unbelieving nations were abhorrent to God, and must be rejected by His people.

v26: "Set apart for destruction", (or accursed); see Josh 6.17-19.