Deuteronomy - Lesson 12

We're moving now from Deuteronomy chapter 6 into Deuteronomy chapter 7, which in some ways is the most difficult text to wrestle with in terms of theology and ethics. But I want to look at this chapter under two headings. I'm dividing it into half, into two parts. The first will involve examination of the external test: the grace of election, salvation and land. And this unpacks what we saw in chapter 6 verses 17, 18, and 19, where the Canaanite population is presented as the test that will face the Israelites. “Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with you and you may go in and possess the good land He swore you by driving out all your enemies before you.” There's the test. And when you read the opening chapters of the book of Judges, you discover they didn't do so well. They didn't do so well. But in any case, here it is presented as the external test of covenant commitment. Can you trust your suzerain to deliver the land into your hands and by taking charge of the campaigns?  

Again, we'll set the context with reference to this chart. We are now in chapter 7, verses 1-26. You have the external test represented by the Canaanites. I am going to look at this particularly from the perspective of why this policy against the Canaanites, what that says about Israel. And then we'll look at the policy after that. But verse 17 turns the corner in this chapter, and it becomes a discussion of that topic from a slightly different perspective. So, we're in chapter 7, verses 1-16 here. It begins with a rhetorical presentation of the test, verses 1-16.  

Before we get into the passage though, we should remember that this is not new or original with Moses. In Exodus 23:22-33, the Lord had described in detail how the Israelites were to handle what they would meet/encounter in the Promised Land. And you remember that when Moses, when the people heard that, they were still at Mount Sinai. So, for the generation at Mount Sinai, the movement into the Promised Land was tomorrow. Virtually, it's the next item on the agenda. So, they were preparing to move into the Promised Land, and the Lord had already given this sort of speech.  

But we are now 40 years removed, so before they move into the Promised Land, it's like Moses has to bring back that message and unpack it for this new generation. And the relationship between Deuteronomy 7 and 23:20-33 of Exodus is like that of a scripture text to a sermon. Earlier we heard him recite the Decalogue as the text for this whole big sermon. But now, for this particular part, it's obvious that ringing in his ears are the Lord's words to him in chapter 23 of Exodus. He builds on that one by offering a profoundly theological interpretation of what we call the ḥērem. We'll explain that more fully in the next session. But let's talk about this chapter.  

The anticipation of chapter 7 in (chapter) 6, “Keep the commands of Yahweh scrupulously, that is His covenant stipulations, ordinances that He has charged you. Put into practice the supreme right and the supreme good in Yahweh’s sight.” I have deliberately translated it that way, ‘the supreme.’ I mean, it's usually translated, “which is right,” or “whatever is right.” It's not that. It has the article, the supreme right, the supreme good in Yahweh’s sight, which is: Yahweh only as your God. That's ‘the supreme.’ “And so that you may go in and possess the good land that the Lord promised on all to the forefathers by driving out the enemies.” 

This chapter divides into two parts: the nature of the external test, then the required response to the test, 17-26. Apart from these divisions, based on the content, it also exhibits a profoundly chiastic structure. When you look at these texts more closely, you discover these biblical authors were very, very literate. This is not just thrown together. And in this case, you notice first of all he begins by talking about the ḥērem, grounded in Israel's holiness, 1-6. He ends with the ḥērem, grounded in Israel's holiness, verses 26 to 7 [recte verses 25 to 26]. So that's the framework. You are a holy people to the Lord your God. Then he has the past victory grounded in Yahweh’s love for Israel and His oath, and then future victory grounded in Yahweh’s presence. So, victory is the common theme.  

The next section then, the character of Yahweh, the ground of Israel's present conduct, verses 9-10. The character of Yahweh, the ground of Israel's future hope, 12-16. And right in the middle: obedience, the response to Yahweh’s command. This is the critical factor. Will you pass the test of covenant faithfulness?  

Well, this segment 1-16 is framed by a detailed description of the test of faithfulness in 1-5, and the summary statement. So here are the first few verses, “When God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess it and drives out many nations ahead of you – the Hittites, the Girgashites, Amorites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you – and when Yahweh your God has handed them over to you and you've defeated them,” that's at the front end.  

At the back end, verse 16, “You must devour all the peoples that Yahweh your God hands over to you.” Strange language. It's a monstrous vocabulary. “You may not look on them with pity and you must not serve their gods, for that would be a trap for you.” So that's the framework. They will be a trap to you, therefore utter elimination.  

Well, let's look at the land that we're talking about here. This is the picture of the tribal allotments as they were distributed in the book of Joshua with Judah and the tribe of Dan here, who landed up north of there. But here are the two and a half tribes on the other side of the Jordan River. They took care of the Amorites over here, so they took over that territory. But now we're dealing with Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and whatever other “ites” you find on that side of the river; they presently occupy the land.  

But we begin by noting at the character and identity of the targets. Who are these people? Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites and whatever else we have here. Who are they? One. He identifies them by name. This is extremely important because this was never to become Israel's military policy in the distant future. We are not talking about the general conduct of warfare so that when David becomes king and he conducts his wars against, you know, the nations out there, this is not. In chapter 20, he will distinguish between the policies governing warfare against distant cities and those campaigns against the cities nearby you. There are two different policies here. What we're talking about here are the Canaanite towns. These are different Canaanite, tribes, they each have their own name. They're identified by name.  

They are seven, which is curious. And as Moshe Greenberg, actually, Umberto Cassuto said, the Italian Jewish scholar, whenever you see seven. your ears should perk up. It’s a way of saying all the nations. We know there are one or two more. It isn't exhaustive, but he quits when he has reached seven. They are in the promised land. They are formidable.  

Now, remember, we are 40 years after that Kadesh Barnea fiasco. 40 years ago, the people said, “We can’t do it. It's a great land but the fortifications reach into the sky and we've seen the Anakim, the giants. It's a monstrous world. We can’t do this.” Well, the interesting thing is, 40 years later, nothing has changed. God has not waited now until, well, the Canaanites are weak and now is our time to move in. It is exactly the same issue we had last time. And so, the challenge is, will you take the promise of God this time and will you pass the test?  

Here are the elements of the test versus 2b-5, “You must not make any covenant with them and show them no mercy.” There's a book out on this called Show Them No Mercy, and it presents four views on how Christians can deal with the ethics of the wiping out the Canaanites. It's a real problem. “You may not intermarry with them. Your daughters you may not give their sons and their daughters you must not take for your sons, because they will turn your sons away from following me and they will serve other gods. Then Yahweh’s anger will burn against you and He'll destroy you.” Again, if you act like other nations, God will treat you like other nations. And intermarriage is the quickest path to that. And so that is it.  

“This is what you must do with them: their altars you must demolish, their pillars you must smash; their Asherah poles you shall chop down, their sculptured images you shall burn with fire.” In other words, get rid of all of the symbols of Canaanite religion. All of this is gone.  

But then notice the particular application of ḥērem. We'll talk about this word some more, but it involves:  

no covenants with the enemy,  

no mercy toward the enemy,  

no intermarriage with the enemy,  

no tolerance of the religion of the enemy.

Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, chop down their Asherim, and burn. Tear down, smash, chop, and burn it, demolish it. This is a scorched earth policy. Get rid of everything here. 

Well, what are we talking about? I've got a few illustrations here. Here is a Canaanite altar from Megiddo. And this one actually dates to a little bit earlier than what we're talking about but that's a massive altar. You could offer three or four steers on that altar at the same time. So, this is obviously a very significant one. An altar that's in the round. And look at the steps. You go up there like that. Smash down. Tear them all down. All their altars.  

There are other sorts of altars. This is a four-horned altar that they discovered at Beersheba. You'd have smaller ones like this. And actually, this one is about this tall. It's not a small altar. There's one.  

Here are Tel Arad pillars and incense altars. This is south of Jerusalem. My guess is maybe 40 miles out in the desert. This was an Israelite establishment before the fall, it actually dates to before the fall of the Northern Kingdom in the 700s. But there they discovered a temple with, somewhere in the inscriptions there was the expression, House of Yahweh. And you have to ask, “Is this really orthodox because you're supposed to worship only at the central sanctuary?” But here is this one. And notice it's got two incense altars, one smaller and one larger. But there are two pillars here. Presumably representing a deity each. And you have to ask yourself how orthodox is this, or how syncretistic is this?  

These are what they discovered up at Hazor in northern Israel. The pillars. Notice some of them are engraved. A lot of them are not. We don't know exactly their meanings. This one with a lion head, that's a guardian pillar, but the one with the hands upraised to the sun (or is it the moon? It's hard to tell), that's obviously an expression of devotion. This is what we're talking about. We’ll have another image in a moment.  

Here are Asherah. This is the female goddess in the fertility religion and typically carved as a woman with exaggerated sexual features. As we mentioned yesterday, chopping down. Asherah poles were typically made of wood. So that's why the verb is always chopped down. Chop down the Asherah. You don't smash them; you chop them down. So, he's putting the ax to it.  

Well, this is a very strange thing here. You wonder about the pillars which represent the male principle in the fertility religion. This is the symbol of Baal in your worship. And, of course, this stone, this rock is at Hazor. Is this the phallic symbol that is the male, represents the male principle in the fertility religion? It's an intriguing object. There's no inscription telling us what it means. But there you have it. So that's what we're talking about. They represent the ungodly, the abominations of the Canaanites.  

But now notice verses 6-8, the basis of the test. Israel's status before God and the nations is now declared for, this is important, it's a key clause in Hebrew. Key, because you have no mercy, you tear down their images, you don't intermarry them, you make no covenant with them because, this is the grounds of the ḥērem policy, “You are a holy people belonging to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people as His treasured possession.” This is the gospel according to Moses. It underlies the whole policy. To flunk this test is to compromise the gospel or to forget the gospel.  

But then he goes on and talks about what is it that makes us special to God. And in this chapter, he provides one hypothetical possibility, “It was not because your population was larger than all the peoples that He set His affection on you or chose you, for your population was the smallest.” God has the habit of surprising everybody. He doesn't choose the impressive. If I had been God, I would have picked Egypt. What a fantastic civilization. Let's claim it for the kingdom of God and baptize it with orthodox truth. And then this is to the praise of the glory of God. You can start with Egypt, Ramses II. I mean, why doesn't God make a convert out of him and use him to proclaim His word? But no. Like He always does, He chooses the scum of the world to confound the brilliant. And here it is again. God didn't call Israel because they were so impressive, so obviously, such obviously good candidates for the mission.  

And there are lots of sermons that come out of these texts. God doesn't call us on the basis of our giftedness, our aptitudes, or whatever else. It's always the reverse. He gives us the aptitudes needed to fulfill His calling. Otherwise, we set ourselves up for trouble. If you think you have the right to minister publicly because you have the gifts, you're setting yourself up for collapse. That means all the failures will be on you. You can't blame anyone else. But if you're going that way. No. God doesn't call us because we're gifted. God doesn't call us because we're great. He calls us because He calls us. We don't know.  

He contemplates it. “It's not because your population was larger than,” it has nothing to do with impressiveness, “but it's because Yahweh demonstrates love for you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers, that Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” Notice how he keeps retelling the gospel. It's all over the place. And when you think about how you're dealing with the Canaanites, don't forget who you are and where you've come from. Don't forget the One who has made you who you are.  

But from this paragraph, these verses 7 and 8, look at the list of graces they have experienced:  

Israel is a holy people belonging to You.  

Israel is a chosen people. 

Israel is a special treasure. 

The object of the Lord's affection.  

The object of the Lord's love (that's a different verb now) nd,  

He is the object of God's saving actions.  

It is all of grace. It's not because Israel is so great that God chose them. No, it's the opposite.  

These are arranged rather logically into three pairs:  

You are Yahweh’s holy people, that is treasured people,  

He set his affection upon you, namely He chose you out of all the peoples.  

He brought you out with a strong hand, that is, He redeemed you.  

This is the grace of God in a nutshell. Israel is what Israel is entirely because of God's gracious actions.  

Of course, this whole statement is rooted in a text that must have been ringing in Moses’ ears from Exodus 19:4-5, “You've seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now if you will obey Me and keep My covenant, you will be My own special treasure from among all the peoples of the earth; for all the earth belongs to Me. And you will be My kingdom of priests, My holy nation.” There are all kinds of expressions here in God's first speech at Sinai that are echoed in the passage we just read.  

Israel is a holy people belonging to Yahweh. Well, before this, that expression was applied only to the High Priest, qōḏeš layhvâ. Here's the High priest. “You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it like the engraving of the signet, ‘Holy to Yahweh.’” That sets the High Priest apart from all others. He has been sanctified, consecrated for sacred duty, representing the people before God and God to the people, holy to Yahweh. The interesting thing in Deuteronomy, this same principle is applied to the whole nation. “You are a holy people to Yahweh,” the whole nation of Israel has been consecrated as a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, His agents of grace and mission to the world, that’s why this policy. “You have been sanctified.” That cannot be, shall we say, compromised. Like the High Priest within the temple, Israel is the link between a needy people and the resources, the gracious resources of heaven. That's the first expression.  

Second expression. Israel is Yahweh’s treasured people, sᵊḡullâ. Now this word appears, I think, only eight times in Scripture, sᵊḡullâ. But what does it mean?  

Exodus 19:6 “If you will indeed listen to My voice and keep My covenant, you'll be my sᵊḡullâ”, there it is, “among all the peoples.”  

Deuteronomy 7:6 That's our verse  

Deuteronomy 14:2 “You are a people holy to Yahweh, a people for His sᵊḡullâ.”  

And then Psalm 135:4 “Yahweh has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel, as His sᵊḡullâ.”  

And Malachi 3:17 “They shall be mine, says Yahweh, in the day when I make up my sᵊḡullâ and I will spare them as a man spares his son.”  

But what in the world does it mean? There's the only place – well, it occurs to other times with a completely different meaning, an everyday-ish kind of meaning. And when we are interpreting texts like that, you ask what a word means theologically, or you answer what a word means theologically by looking at what it means in everyday language. This is obviously theological application of an everyday expression, but what is it?  

There are two places we find it. First Chronicles 29:3, “In addition to all,” David is talking “In all that I have provided for the holy house, I have a sᵊḡullâ of my own, of gold and silver. And because of my devotion to the house of my God, I give it to the house of my God.” What is this? These are the royal treasuries. David is the king. He's got a treasury and he's saying, I am giving all of these treasuries to the Lord’s house for building this building.  

The other text is Ecclesiastes 2:8. And of course, you know, the story of Ecclesiastes. This guy experiments with every indulgence and spares nothing. He says, “I gathered for myself silver and gold and a sᵊḡullâ of kings and provinces.” By that he would mean the capitals of provinces, something like that, or that which the provinces contribute to the central coffers. “I got singers, both men and women, many concubines, the delight of the sons of men.” What is this?  

Well, I think here we have a picture of its Royal Treasuries. This is the Imperial State Crown in Britain. It's in the Tower of London, if you've ever been there. We've been there several times. One time we went with our family while they were stationed in Germany, and he's a chaplain in the Army. They came to visit us and at that point they had their third child, Ella, who has always been a little princess. And she you can tell she's dreamt of being a princess. But in any case, we took the whole clan to the Tower of London and we saw these jewels, amazing jewels, and you could just see her eyes were popping. And the wheels were turning, “Someday I'm going to wear that.” Well, here's an illustration. This, that ruby is the largest (is that the ruby or the diamond at the bottom?) the largest of its kind in the world. It’s worth millions of dollars. These are the treasures in the Tower of London.  

So now, just for the sake of illustration, let's imagine that every nation on earth is a rock. I grew up on the farm and every spring before we went and put in the crops, we had to go and take the rocks off the fields, especially the hilltops and on the prairies of Saskatchewan. I was convinced that the devil spent the winter pushing up more rocks because every year they were back and you had to do this. You never had them all out. And what do you have at the end of three or four days of picking rocks? Nothing but blisters on your hands and a sore back. We didn't have front-end loaders; it was all handwork and it was horrible. I mean, it's just a waste of time. Well, what you have to show for it at the end of the day is a rock pile, useless rocks.  

But imagine that every rock is one of the nations on earth. And so, we have a medium-sized in terms of population at least, it's a medium-sized country like my own, Canada. Russia is a big one in the background there. And of course, USA is a big one and China is massive. And the Ukraine, in terms of population bigger than Canada by double. But right at the top there is this tiny little rock.  

Now, can you imagine what would happen if one day when you were out there picking rocks and you see glistening over there a sparkle as brilliant as you've never seen before, and you go over there and you think, well, surely that's just quartzite. I've seen many hundreds of those. But you pick it up and you say, “Wow, I've never seen anything as crystal clear as this one.” And by now you're really fascinated by it. And you take it to town, to the jeweler and you ask him to look at this. And he says, “Where in the world did you get that?” And you say, I found it out on the field. And he tells you, “You know what? That's a diamond.” There are diamonds in Saskatchewan. But I didn't see any diamond when we were picking rocks. I never saw any of these. But where you get that? It's a diamond. Let me tell you, if you found a rock that big, it would make three years’ worth of picking rocks worth it. I tell you, it's precious. It really is precious. Why is it precious? Because it's a rare gemstone. 

This is what Israel is to God. Out of all the nations on earth, I handpicked you to be My holy people, My treasured people. Polished diamond. My diamond. This word speaks of a treasured gemstone. That's what Israel is.  

Well, in the ancient world, of course, gemstones were often used for seals and for carving and imprinting names, people's names, and they'd stamp it, like this one. The name on there is belonging to Ya’azaniah, the servant of the king. And the symbol of this guy is the rooster. But it's a gemstone. It's a precious stone. And when it's stamped on a piece of clay or whatever else, it is a mark of ownership belonging to that Ya’azaniah.  

Well, this is in a sense, what Israel was to God. They are His gemstone in a world of rocks, granite, and sandstone, and useless rocks. Handpicked, polished, and made into His precious jewel.  

When we were kids, one of the memories I have was of my mother sitting at the sewing machine and patching pants. We were dirt poor, never had running water in the house. I can remember when we finally got electricity but never had running water. But with 12 boys, she was always patching pants and whatever. But whenever she was at the sewing machine, and it was a foot machine, she would always sing. And she'd sing this song: 

When He cometh, when He cometh 

To make up His jewels,  

All His jewels, precious jewels,  

His loved and His own. 

Like the stars of the morning,  

His bright crown adorning,  

They shall shine in their beauty,  

bright gems for his crown.  

He will gather, He will gather  

the gems for His kingdom  

All the pure ones, all the bright ones  

His loved and His own. 

Like the stars of the morning, 

His bright crown adorning, 

They shall shine in their beauty, 

bright gems for His crown.  

Little children, little children  

who love their Redeemer  

are the jewels, precious jewels,  

His loved and His own.  

Like the stars of the morning,  

His bright crown adorning, 

They shall shine in their beauty,  

bright gems for His crown.  

I used to think that was a children's song. Well, that last verse really does apply it to children, doesn't it? But it's our song. This is who we are. God has taken a rock and made it His precious gemstone. Israel is the Lord's crown jewel. And this is why you don't mess with the Canaanites because they will dirty it, they will besmudge it, you'll lose your identity, you will be transformed back into that. Yeah, it’s the opposite of the Cinderella thing, you know, you'll be transformed into a Canaanite like the rest of them, and you don't want to go there. This is a brilliant story of God's grace taking something that is nothing and making of it Exhibit A of what grace can do. At the end of chapter 26, He'll say, See, I set you high above the nations for praise, for honor, and for glory. 

Now, of course, as you know, diamonds really don't give off any light at all. They don't. When you see the brilliant sparkle of a diamond, it's not because the diamond is creating light. It's always reflective. And that's what this is. Israel in and of herself is nothing. But when polished, when holy, when pure, when uncompromised, when passing the test, when people look at Israel, they will see the brilliance of God's grace reflected in them. That's the mission to which they are called.  

Well, what's the background to this status? And it is verse 8, “…because Yahweh loves you, and because He kept the oath, He swore to the ancestors that with a strong hand He brought you out and redeemed you from the house of Israel [recte house of slavery].”  

Now the question Moses is contemplating is, Why does God love Israel? And the first answer is, well, He doesn't love Israel because Israel is so lovable, so impressive, so useful for His agenda. No. In the end, God loves Israel simply because God loves Israel. That's as close as you can get. This is the mystery of grace. Why does the Divine Suzerain choose this group of people to be His? There's nothing in them that commends them to God. But because He loves you and because He kept the oath, He swore to your ancestors. He said to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob long before there were Israelites, He said, Your descendants are mine. He picked them without respect to any qualifications. This is the background to the status of Israel as God's special people. So, in the end, when we reflect on this, we see that Israel is the object of the Lord's election, Israel is the object of the Lord's affection, Israel is the object of the Lord's love, Israel is the object of his redemption. Take God out of this picture and what have you got? Just another rock. A puny rock. Insignificant. Utterly insignificant. But God makes of her, of the nation, this amazing sᵊḡullâ.  

Well, then we come to verses 9 to 15 where you have the importance of the test. Notice its revelatory significance 9 to 10, “So you should know that Yahweh your God is God.” We heard this kind of refrain early at the end of chapter 4, didn't we? God's action in the past was, “That you might know that I am Yahweh.” And so now Moses changes it in the third person, “So you should know that Yahweh your God is God. He is the faithful El (God) who keeps the covenant of hesed,” there's that unfailing love, hesed, “to the thousandth generation of those who demonstrate love for Him and keep His commands.” This is the revelatory significance of this test. “But He repays those who reject Him directly by destroying them. He will not hesitate to repay directly those who reject Him.” And of course, here you got the words of love and hate.  

How can God hate? You know in Malachi, “Jacob, have I loved and Esau have I hated.” This is actually a misunderstanding and mistranslation of these texts. Love means to choose for, or as the object of, one's covenant commitment. Israel is the object of God's love because He has chosen her. To hate, Hebrew śānē', doesn't mean I'd like to beat you up and just kill you. That's not what it means. It means to reject from covenant relationship. That's what we're going on. Those who reject God – He's talking now to Israelites – those who reject God from the human side directly, He will destroy. He will not hesitate to repay directly those who reject him. That's the revelatory.  

But then, verse 11, he always comes back to the, “So what? What difference does that make?” And now you've got the practical significance, which we saw in chapter 4, verse 40. History lesson, theology lesson, practical ethical lesson. “So, you must guard the command that is the ordinances and stipulations that I am commanding you today by putting them into practice.”  

But then in verses 12-15, he talks about the missional significance of this. Verse 12, “Now if you pay attention to these stipulations, and you guard them, and you put them into practice, Yahweh your God will keep the covenant of unfailing love” there's that hesed, the hesed covenant, “that He promised on oath to your ancestors. Then He will demonstrate love for you and bless you and multiply your population. He will bless the fruit of the womb, the fruit of your land – your special grain, wine, oil – the prized calves of your herds the lambs of your flocks, in the land that He promised on oath to give to your fathers to give to you. You will be blessed more than all the peoples. There will be no sterile male or barren female among your livestock.”  

This is an amazing promise of the good that comes with covenant relationship. “Yahweh will ward off every disease from you, and He will not inflict any of the dreadful diseases of Egypt that you know about, but He will inflict them on all who reject you.” Your enemies, they'll get it but you are protected. What you have here is shorthand for the blessings we'll hear about in detail in chapter 28.  

This is the passing grade. This is a test, remember? The nations are a test. Will you stay true to Yahweh or will you get sucked into their system? If you pass the test you graduate with A plus, plus, plus, plus. That's what we've got here. A plus, plus, plus. This is the reward for passing the test.  

But then let's look at this. Notice that when you look at this promise of the blessings, you see this covenant triangle. Everything is functioning like a well-oiled machine. Yahweh is lavishing the land with His grain. The people of Israel are faithful to the Lord, and the land itself in Deuteronomy, over and over again, it's as if the land is a living thing, a living part of this relationship. And when everything is ordered, the land yields, gives its fruit, and supports this magnificent economy. Here, the Israelite Covenant Triangle is flourishing exactly as designed. That's the missional significance.  

But notice the conditions, verse 12 you have the conditions, “If you listen to these judgments, and keep them by doing them.” Then there's the promise, the thesis statement, “He will love you and bless you and multiply you.”  

Now this, we have to talk about this. We talk so much and so glibly about God's unconditional love. I think we've got to qualify a lot of what we do with this. In what sense is God's love unconditional? Because here, “because you listen to these judgments and keep them, the Lord, your God will keep His covenant and His loving kindness. He will love you,” i.e., demonstrate love for you, “and bless you and multiply you.” That's totally conditional. It is totally conditional.  

But now notice what we're talking about. God's call to salvation is absolutely unconditional. Hear this carefully. God didn't come to Israel in Egypt and say, “As soon as you get rid of all your idols, I'll get you out of here.” Or, “As soon as you keep every one of the ten commands, I'll get you out of here.” He didn't set any conditions. He just says, “Come, I've come to get you out of Egypt.” The only condition He put before them is He parted the waters and invited them to walk through and all it took was faith that God would hold the waters while they're walking through. That's all it took. No preconditions. So that the call to salvation is never conditional. It isn’t. It's a free invitation of God to which we respond with faith.  

But now we're talking about something different. These are the redeemed people. They are the called and the chosen. What is this conditional love? And of course, fulfillment of the mission to which God has called His people is totally conditional. Totally conditional. A paganized, synchronistic compromising people cannot fulfill the calling of God. And in this case, he gives the conditions, “If you listen carefully to these stipulations and you keep His covenant, He will love you,” of course, make it active, “He will demonstrate love for you by” and then he lists – “blessing the fruit of your womb,” whatever else. This is the promise that He gives. The conditions, “If you pay attention to these stipulations and guard them,” and the promise, “Yahweh will keep the covenant of unfailing love that He promised on oath.”  

Now, if you look at verses 9-15, all together, we find there are three groups of verses here or statements: 9-10 on the one hand, answered by 12-13a, on the other. And then in the middle we have the fulcrum.  

In 9 notice, “Yahweh your God is God; He is the faithful God. He keeps His covenant love to a thousandth generations to those who love Him and keep His commands.”  

Verses 12-13. “Yahweh your God who keeps His covenant love with you, as He swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers.” I mean, on both sides of this teeter-totter, but where's the fulcrum?  

Verses 11-12, “Therefore keep the command, the decrees, the laws that I am giving you today by doing them. And because you listen to these laws and keep them and do them,” it will happen. The promise will be fulfilled.  

This is a different paradigm than we often think of. And so, we glibly claim God's love for us is unconditional. Well, what does that mean? That doesn't mean we can live any way we want and God will still love us, demonstrate love for us. No. The blessing of God is always contingent on the fidelity of His people.  

There's one other thing to notice here, and that is the anti-idolatry polemic, verses 13-16. Did you notice this? “He will bless the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, the grain, your new wine, your oil, the increase of your herd and your flock.” This is fertility religion. It's exactly that which the Canaanites were all after. What is God hereby saying? I am the God who provides all of this. The Canaanite gods are nothing. There is no need to go to the gods of this land because I am promising this. “You shall be blessed above all peoples, no male or female barren upon you. He'll remove all sickness.” No, the emphasis here is on Yahweh’s fertility powers. He is the one who is the source of your well-being.  

Fascinatingly, He assumes jurisdiction over spheres that Canaanites had attributed to the storm god Ba’al. That's the point. And, of course, this is polemics. God is saying, I can beat Ba’al at his own game. Don't go there. You want to be fully blessed? Let go. Trust me. Live for me. Be My agents of grace and blessing. And declare to the world what grace does. Be that trophy; shine, let your light shine.  

But there's another dimension to it. He doesn't use the ordinary words here for grain and for wine, new wine, or oil. He uses very particular words.  

There's a word for grain here, it’s dāḡān. Remarkably, this was the Philistine god of grain, Dagon. Remember in the story of Samuel? This is the word. What he is saying is that Dagon is nothing. I will give you dāḡān, the grain. I will give you the dāḡān. And Dagon is actually one of Ba’al’s titles in the Ugaritic Canaanite text, son of Dagon, he is the father of Ba’al in Canaanite mythology.  

Well, here's a modern interpretation of Dagon as a fish god. You see this in popular literature but that's absurd. The reason they do this is because the Hebrew word for fish is dāḡ. Dāḡ, that's the Hebrew word for a sea creature. And so, this is what Dagon means, little fish. No, it doesn’t. Dāḡān is a separate word, meaning grain, specialty grain. That's what he is. Here, we saw this fish god, the other day. Here's another illustration. So, the names of the products, see, he deliberately chooses words that are associated with mythology. It's a polemic against the idolatry of the land.  

Second, wine. He doesn't use the ordinary word, yayin. It sounds like our English word wine, and it's actually cognate to the Greek word oinos, wine. Yayin. That's the ordinary Hebrew word for wine. No, instead of wine, he calls it tiros. It's translated as new wine in my New American Standard, Tiros. In the Canaanite literature, we discover this God called Tirash, who is the Canaanite God of wine. What is Moses doing here? He said, Forget the idols. The Lord Yahweh assumes responsibility for everything that the Canaanites attribute to them  

Then you have olive oil. This is not the ordinary word for olive oil. This is yitzhar. Related to (presumably) we haven't found this one yet, but presumably related to yitzhar, the shining god of oil. This is deliberate polemics against it.  

And then finally, “the increase of your cattle.” Instead of talking about calves or lambs or whatever, he uses a very strange expression, šeḡer 'ălāp̄êḵā. What is that? Well, the god Shaggar/Sheger is widely attested in the literature. It's the deity probably of the full moon and is associated, for whatever reason, with the fertility of one's livestock. See what's happening here? It's an amazing text. The names of the products.  

But then also, of course, notice the solution to all the issues that inhibit population growth. In verses 14-15 he talks about this. If you persist in your sin, you will die, you will evaporate, you will disappear. And the curse may your name die out and your seed perish. That's the worst curse you can experience. It means you don't live on in your children.  

But there are two things that inhibit population growth. One is barrenness. Have you ever noticed how common this theme is in the patriarchal stories? It's all over the place. Sarah was barren; she had no children. Of course, that's a symptom of the cursed world. But then also, “He will remove from you all the diseases, the sicknesses of Egypt,” and whatever. This is premature death. The combination of these two. We got problems at the beginning of life, and we got problems at the end of life. That inhibits the population from growing, becoming like the stars of the sky.  

In the ancient world, these were thought to be the domains of agents of the god of the netherworld. Nergal in Mesopotamia was the god of death; In Canaan Mot is the god of death; he's the king of the underworld, and he sends his agents, his death-dealing agents, demons, demonic all over the world to kill people. And what does the Lord say? No fear of those demons; I'm in charge. There will be none of these frustrations in this world.  

And of course, we have all sorts of images, imaginations of what these creatures might have looked like. Here's an Assyrian demon, a Pazuzu demon. Here's another Assyrian demon.  

What's happening here is that the Lord is telling His people, if you are faithful to the Lord your God, if you pass the test and you take care of the Canaanites, no compromises, no mercy, you have nothing to worry about for I will take complete care of you, and the land you occupy will become a veritable Eden. That's the dream. That's the vision. God calls Israel to be His people. He gives them the land of Canaan so that together they can recreate in this fallen world, a picture of God's original design. That's what we've got going on here. It’s an amazing text. God's grace to Israel. But they daren’t take it for granted. Don't presume upon the grace of God.  

I was once when I was teaching a seminary at Bethel, actually, one of my stellar students, he came back to campus a couple of years later after he had graduated, and he came back and I said, “Well, how are you doing, sir? Is all well?” And then he said, “Actually not everything is well. My wife and I are divorcing, but God will forgive.” I said, “Really?” I said, “Really?” How glibly you use that kind of vocabulary. You know, and this is one of the reasons why the world doesn't respect us, because our dispositions towards a lot of these things are no different at all from the way the world looks at it. It's all the same. And so, the boundaries have blurred.  

Conclusion. Behind the firm boundaries that Moses drew between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world was the conviction of the special status of the people of God. This blessed status is reflected in five expressions here, verses 6-8. This is at the core. This is who we are. And of course, this is what Peter jumps on, “But you are a chosen generation, His royal priesthood, a holy nation, that you might show the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” He's got this text right down.  

So, what is Israel? There are holy people to Yahweh. They’re the object of His gracious election. They are His treasured people. The object of His affection. The beneficiary of His covenant love. God grants this privileged status to Israel as a free gift, unmerited, undeserved, unsought. You didn't ask for it. You didn't buy it. You didn't earn it. You didn't deserve it.  

Well, while the rest of the First Testament tends to highlight the holiness of God, in Deuteronomy, we have a reference to God's holiness only once in chapter 32, verse 51, the only time it appears. You didn't respect My Holiness, He tells Moses. In this book holiness is attached to His people, which is really interesting. Whereas the holiness of God's people is rarely mentioned elsewhere, this notion is fundamental to the theology of Deuteronomy. For you are a holy people. Called to be holy. This is the gospel according to Moses, one more time. And we'll hear it again. And with that, I end this lecture.