Deuteronomy · chapter 7 of 34
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Deuteronomy 7 commands Israel not to make covenants or intermarry with the peoples of Canaan and to destroy their altars, because the Lord chose them as a holy people. Moses makes clear that he chose them out of love and faithfulness to his oath, not because they were great. He promises blessing for obedience and assures them the Lord will go ahead of them.
After the call to love the Lord in chapter 6, Moses explains what that love involves in entering a land full of other gods. Chapter 7 contains one of the clearest Old Testament texts on election: God did not choose Israel for their merits but out of his love. It also includes the harshest instructions about Canaan, which call for careful reading.
Moses says that when the Lord brings them into the land and drives out seven nations greater and stronger than they (the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites), Israel must destroy them completely. They are to make no covenant or show no mercy to them, nor intermarry with them, because they would turn their children away from the Lord to serve other gods. They will tear down their altars, break their pillars and burn their images.
The reason is Israel's identity: they are a holy people to the Lord, chosen out of all peoples as his treasured possession. Moses explains that the Lord did not choose them because they were the most numerous, for they were the fewest of all peoples, but because he loved them and kept the oath he swore to their fathers. That is why he brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. The Lord is the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love him, but repays those who hate him.
If Israel obeys, the Lord will love and bless them: he will multiply their children, their fields and their flocks, and will keep sickness from them. Their gods would be a snare for Israel, and the people must not fear those nations. Moses encourages them to remember what the Lord did to Pharaoh, and assures them that he is in their midst, a great and awesome God, who will drive out those nations little by little. He ends with the command to burn the images of their gods and not covet their silver or gold, for they would be a trap and an abomination to the Lord.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Israel is a holy people to the Lord, chosen out of all peoples as his treasured possession. Holy means set apart for God, and that identity demands separation from the gods around them.
The Lord did not choose Israel for being numerous, for they were the fewest, but out of love and faithfulness to his oath. Election is pure grace: its cause lies in God, not in the people's merits.
The Lord is the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Israel's obedience answers a faithfulness God showed first.
The Lord will drive out the nations little by little, not all at once, lest the wild beasts multiply. The conquest is gradual, and God leads it with patience and a pace Israel must accept.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Seven: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. — Deuteronomy 7:1
Answer: Because they would turn their children away from the Lord to serve other gods. — Deuteronomy 7:3-4
Answer: Tear down their altars, break their pillars, cut down their Asherim and burn their images. — Deuteronomy 7:5
Answer: Not because they were more numerous, but because he loved them and kept the oath he swore to their fathers. — Deuteronomy 7:7-8
Answer: As the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love him. — Deuteronomy 7:9
Answer: What the Lord did to Pharaoh and Egypt, for he is in their midst. — Deuteronomy 7:17-21
Deuteronomy 7 reminds us that the identity of God's people rests on God's love and not on their strength or merits. Anyone who feels small or unqualified can find comfort here: God often chooses the small. In a group we can talk about what it means to live as a set-apart people today without isolating ourselves or looking down on others.
The commands about Canaan were a specific judgment at one moment in history and not a license for violence today. For Christians, the struggle is against whatever draws the heart away from God. The chapter also invites us to remember that the God who was faithful in Egypt is faithful now, and that fear is overcome by recalling his works.
Deuteronomy 7 ends with Israel called to purity and trust. In chapter 8, Moses uses the memory of the wilderness to warn of the other danger: forgetting God when everything is going well in the land.
The text speaks of the ban, a dedication to God's judgment for the wickedness of those peoples and to protect Israel from idolatry. Many readers see an order limited to that time and place, not a model of conduct. The New Testament never applies it to the church: the Christian struggle is spiritual.
It is an expression of his lasting faithfulness: his mercy reaches a long line of descendants of those who love him and keep his commandments. It is not an exact number but a contrast with the judgment on those who hate him, which is applied to each person.
The reason the text gives is religious, not ethnic: such marriages would lead the children to serve other gods. Later Ruth, a Moabite who trusted the Lord, was welcomed into Israel, which shows that what matters is faith and not origin.