As young people, many of us often suffer from a sense of feeling utterly overwhelmed. Do you feel like this today, unable to cope with adult life? What do you do when you feel like you don’t have enough strength? What are your habits?
This passage speaks right to our struggles. In Deut 7, God lays out the task for his people and also how they are to achieve it.
(A) Strength to overcome the nations and resist their idols (Deut 7:1-5)
God promised to bring them into the Promised Land and also to clear the nations before them. This is what Moses envisions will happen in the future that will require physical strength from Israel (Deut 7:1). Prior to this, God had brought His people out of slavery in Egypt and it was a mighty and comprehensive deliverance. He promised to bring them to a land, but because of their disobedience, their journey in the wilderness was extended. Now, they are finally on the cusp of entering this Promised Land.
When they enter the Promised Land, Moses told them that they are not to make a peace treaty with the nations, nor should they intermarry with their people (Deut 7:2-3). This meant that they were not to compromise and had to be totally just without showing mercy to the nations. The point is that Israel is to be distinct and completely separate from these nations. Intermarrying results in a syncretic, hybrid culture. They are also to destroy the altars and carved images (Deut 7:5). Note that these religious structures were not private altars, but were public gathering points for worship.
Now, when we read these verses, we may think that Moses was being very harsh. Why does God want them to do this? It is important to understand a bit of the context. In Gen 10:15-17, this genealogy shows us that the nations mentioned in Deut 7 came from a common family. Moses did not choose a random set of nations, but the nations mentioned in Deut were chosen for a reason. In Gen 15:13-16, God promised the land to Abraham, and He also told him about their slavery, but also their return to the land. Gen 15:16 tells us that God is laying a purpose and a plan for Israel, and that He is using Israel to judge the Amorites and their related people. The instructions in Deut 7 thus weren’t for Israel to pick and choose because they were not the ones to decide how God judged or acted. Later in Amos 2:9, God says that He destroyed the Amorites.
When we read these verses, this task given to Israel is hard because of our morality and mortality. Deut 7 shows us that their victory is a given, but they could still choose whether they were going to obey Him and to resist the idols of these nations. The external strength required to do God’s will, He provides. But the inner strength requires something more. Sometimes we too, are fixated on physical harm, threat and conflict, but are not as worried to the inner resolve of our hearts to resist the ways of the world. Are we uncorrupted by this world and its false religion? Are we inoculated against its temptation? We need this strength to resist the nations and their idols.
(B) Strength from grace-fuelled obedience (Deut 7:6-16)
Israel was described as a people “holy to the LORD” and the LORD had chosen them to be “a people for his treasured possession” (Deut 7:6). Holiness implies relationship and being set aside. An analogy that a former pastor at GBC uses is that holiness is just like our toothbrushes. Our toothbrushes are set aside for the owner, and is also owned and exclusively used by the owner. In a similar sense, Israel was set aside unto the LORD and they belonged exclusively and purposefully to God.
In Deut 7:7-10, God sought to correct their thinking and made sure they did not come to the wrong conclusions about why they were set apart. God wanted them to realise that they were not chose because there was anything special inherently or intrinsic to them. They weren’t chosen because they were great in number, for they were the fewest of all peoples (Deut 7:7). They were small and insignificant. They were chosen because of who God is and not because of who they are.
God loved them just because He loved them, and this made them special. He also loved them because of the oath sworn to their fathers (Deut 7:8), which was promised to Abraham and built on at Sinai.
What can we learn about this God here? God is a God who loves because He loves. He doesn’t love us because we are lovable. It’s not dependent on what we do or how we perform. He is also a speaking God who gives His commandments.
In light of all these, what is required of Israel? Deut 7:11 shows us how Israel was called to “be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules” that Moses brought to the people. Deut 7:12-16 goes on to show a rich tapestry of blessing — fruit of the ground, fruit of the womb. God is going to pour out these amazing provisions. When we read these verses, we may be tempted to think that because Israel obeyed, God will do these things. But is it true? Is it the result of obedience?
Minimally, we should say that the answer is that not so straightforward. These blessings don’t come immediately as a result of obedience, because their relationship with God is not a transactional one. He has redeemed slaves when they were helpless and powerless and set His covenant love on a nation that did not deserve it. He has also required of them ongoing obedience so that He might bless them. This obedience that is required of them is not itself a transaction. It is a reflection of relationship. This obedience is a fruit and produces more fruit of blessing. For the nation of Israel which has been saved by grace, grace also fuels their obedience and produces more blessing. Obedience doesn’t earn grace. This obedience is only possible because God makes the first move.
For us, we see this relationship more clearly than the Israelites. The Israelites heard that they require holy living in this exclusive relationship with God. For Christians this side of the cross, we read Deut 7 in light of the cross. We understand that the Israelites saved by grace in the Exodus can now live lives of obedience. When they disobeyed, God will not abandon them and cast them off. He will discipline them and also bring them to Himself. Obedience is really possible only because of grace.
Do you feel burdened, thinking that you can’t meet all the demands of this world? Say to your heart that yes, you are unable to sustain yourself with strength and make fruit grow. But also say that there is one whose obedience has secured these blessings for me. Though we have failed, He has not! His gospel blessings are ours and we delight to find strength that is not my own in Christ! His resources are inexhaustible. Our joy and privilege is that we can borrow from the Lord Jesus. Our problem is that we don’t look at Him and instead reach for our own resources. Friends, remember that we have earned nothing. All we have is in Christ. Let’s not look to our weakness, but to Him, asking Him for the strength that only He can provide.
(C) Strength that comes from faith (Deut 7:17-26)
God anticipates that we will not believe his promise (Deut 7:17). He expects us to say “I can’t” and this task is bigger than us. He says that they shall not be afraid and they shall remember the great act of redemption (Deut 7:18-19). Israel is to be a people that remember redemption and know where they’ve been. They are no longer slaves! They are to remember how they were bought at a price, what He did for them and what He did to save them. They are to remember the details of what God did to Pharaoh and all the signs and wonders that they witnessed. They had seen God’s mighty hand and outstretched arm. The strength to look ahead requires them to first look back. Our ability to respond to feelings of weakness doesn’t lie in us finding strength within. Rather, we are to find our strength in Jesus.
Are there things you need to say to your heart? Maybe it’s a sin struggle that you are unable to overcome. Remember that Jesus has died on the cross for that sin. His arms were stretched out and pierced on those rugged beams so that we would not have to. He surrendered, so that we will never need to surrender to it. What are things you say to yourself when you say “I can’t”? Yes we can’t, but Jesus died and lives so that we can. Everything we need, we find in Christ. He supplies the strength that we don’t have. He makes the weak, strong; the dead, live, the sinner, righteous.
Israel is to remember the redemption and so do we.
In this last section in Deut 7:20-26, Moses repeatedly uses the phrase “The LORD will”. He is speaking of things the Lord will do in future. Based on these future actions, Moses also calls them to obedience. This future projection and Israel’s interaction is meant to build Israel’s faith.
Now, faith is not the heart’s ability to believe. It is also not the ability to suspend the mind and believe. It is not an abandoning of the mind and reason. Faith in Christianity is the heart, mind and soul taking hold of the promise and reasoning that this promise is reliable and true because of the one who saves. Thus, one can only have faith if there is an object. Faith’s object is what makes faith, strong. Thus, to get a strong and healthy faith, we need the object of faith clarified for us.
Moses is arguing now that to build Israel’s faith, they need to see God’s promises and to see that God is reliable. If they don’t see the reliability of God, they will not be able to trust Him! So it is with us too! He tells them that God will be the one who will fight by sending hornets (Deut 7:20). It will take a long time but this is a good thing because it prevents the wild beasts from coming in and overwhelming Israel (Deut 7:22). God will give them the nations at a good pace. He will also destroy the kings (Deut 7:24).
Don’t you see God’s kindness? He knows that their greatest threat isn’t just their physical security. God knows that they face a real threat of turning to idolatry (Deut 7:25-26). They will really have to take care to ensure that their heart will always be for the Lord. In this way, Israel will also find strength to pursue and rest in Him, undivided in their affections for Him.
Do you think you are strong? Is your pursuit of Him singleminded, with a heart that is not devoted to idolatry? We cannot be strong ourselves. In John 17, we have for us Jesus’ prayer for believers. Jesus speaks honestly that His followers will be sent out into the world and will face trouble, but they can go confidently, because He has given them His word, just as God did with His people in the OT (John 17:13-19). They go out and will be sanctified in His word, for His word is truth. As we do so, we find grace-fuelled obedience. We continue to put our faith only in Christ, trusting in His word and to rely on Him wholly. Anywhere else we look, we will feel perpetually weak.
If you’ve not made your peace with Jesus and have not accepted His grace for sinners, consider doing so. And if you have, how is your relationship with the God of this word? Friends, we have all the strength that we need in His word. He doesn’t call us to cast out the nations, but to go to the nations with His word.
If you are interested, here are some further reflections on this passage.