Chosen by Love, Not by Greatness

Deuteronomy 7 establishes the theological ground for everything that follows. Moses begins with the command to destroy the nations' worship sites and to make no covenant with them. But before giving the reason in terms of holiness or danger, he gives a much more searching reason:

"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. 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, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers." — Deuteronomy 7:6–8 (ESV)

Christopher Wright, in his Deuteronomy commentary (NIBC, 1996), observes that this is one of the most disarming passages in the Old Testament. Election is stripped of every possible ground except one: God's love and His faithfulness to His own word. Israel cannot take pride in their election — they were "the fewest of all peoples." They cannot attribute it to their righteousness — Moses will spend chapter 9 disabusing them of that notion. The only explanation Deuteronomy offers is the love of God, exercised freely, and bound to the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Election is rooted in God's love alone. Israel's chosenness cannot be explained by their greatness, their numbers, or their merit — only by God's free love and covenant faithfulness. What strikes us here is that this is not an argument Israel can use to feel superior. It is an argument that removes every platform for superiority. You were the fewest. You were slaves. The only reason you are here is because God is faithful to His word and because He loves you. The appropriate response is not pride but something closer to wonder.

The Wilderness as Theological Education

Deuteronomy 8 is one of the most searching chapters in the book. Moses turns from the nations' threat to a subtler one: the threat of prosperity. The wilderness is now framed not as punishment but as curriculum:

"And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God." — Deuteronomy 8:2–3 (ESV)

This passage is the source of Jesus' response to the devil in the wilderness temptation (Matthew 4:4). Jesus, who spent forty days in the wilderness, was consciously reliving Israel's forty-year wilderness experience — and where Israel failed, He would succeed. Moses names the lesson the wilderness was meant to teach: human life is not self-sustaining. It is sustained by God's word. The manna was not simply food. It was a daily tutorial in dependence.

The wilderness was theological education. Hunger, manna, and dependence taught Israel that life is sustained by God's word — the lesson Jesus later cited in His own wilderness test. We find it significant that the very experience Israel complained about the most — the wilderness, the hunger, the manna — is reframed by Moses as a gift. Not punishment. Curriculum. God let them hunger so that they would learn to receive. The manna that appeared every morning and could not be hoarded was a daily demonstration: your life does not come from your own hands. It comes from Mine.

Not by Our Righteousness

Chapter 9 is Moses at his most confrontational. Having told Israel they were chosen because of God's love, he now turns to the reverse: they are not entering the land because of their righteousness.

"Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has pushed them back before you, 'It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.'" — Deuteronomy 9:4 (ESV)

Moses then proceeds to catalog Israel's failures — the golden calf above all, but also Taberah, Massah, Kibroth-hattaavah, and Kadesh-barnea. The list is not offered to shame but to instruct: a people with this track record has no ground for self-congratulation. The land is a gift. J.G. McConville, in his Deuteronomy commentary (Apollos OT Commentary, 2002), notes that Deuteronomy 9's placement — immediately after the election theology of chapters 7–8 — is strategic. Election and humility are not opposites; they are inseparable. The chosen people must learn that being chosen is not an achievement but a mercy.

Righteousness is not the ground for receiving the land. Moses' catalog of Israel's failures in chapter 9 removes every basis for pride before the conquest begins. This is a striking thing for a leader to do with his people on the eve of their greatest challenge: remind them of every time they failed. But it is not cruelty. It is protection. If they enter the land thinking they deserve it, they will be blind to the grace that gave it to them. And blindness to grace is exactly what produces the pride that eventually destroys a people.

Circumcise Your Heart

Chapter 10 reaches its climax with one of the most demanding commands in Deuteronomy:

"Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn." — Deuteronomy 10:16 (ESV)

Physical circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. Here Moses reaches for what the sign was always pointing toward: an inward disposition, a willingness to be shaped and corrected by God. The stubborn heart — the heart that hears and refuses to be moved — is what Moses is confronting. The prophets will return to this image repeatedly (Jeremiah 4:4, 9:25–26), and in Deuteronomy 30:6, God will promise to do what Israel cannot do for themselves: circumcise their hearts Himself.

The command of chapter 10 and the promise of chapter 30 frame the whole covenant: Israel must change inwardly, and God alone can accomplish that change. Inward transformation is what God requires. The command to "circumcise the foreskin of your heart" names the spiritual reality the external sign of circumcision was always meant to represent. What we notice is that Moses issues both the command and the eventual promise of God's action in the same book — as if to say: you must try, and you will fail, and then God will do what you couldn't. There is something deeply honest about a covenant structure that anticipates both the call and the rescue.

Last updated: March 3, 2026.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.