For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. He has chosen you to be his people, prized above all others on the face of the earth. It is not because you were more numerous than all the other peoples that the LORD favored and chose you—for in fact you were the least numerous of all peoples. Rather it is because of his love for you and his faithfulness to the promise he solemnly vowed to your ancestors that the LORD brought you out with great power, redeeming you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 7:6-8 NET
Moses spoke these words to Israel as they prepared to enter the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He told them they were a people who were holy to the Lord. And that God had chosen them to be his people, the most prized people.
If you were to read this in isolation from the rest of the story, you might be tempted to think that Israel was a nation that faithfully followed God in all they did. And you would be very wrong. Israel would better be described as a rebellious and complaining people.
Yet God had chosen them and prized them above all other people. Why? Moses provided two reasons.
As strange as it might seem, God loved them. Not because they were especially lovable. But because God is love. It is in his nature to love. But why Israel rather than Egypt or one of the other nations at the time?
The second reason Moses gave is key to this. Because of the promise he made to their ancestors–to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God promised to make them great, multiply their descendants beyond number, give them the land of Canaan, and make them a blessing to all other peoples.
Israel was a loved and chosen people, not because they were somehow worthy of it–they were not. But because of the promise made to their ancestors. And because, through them, the Messiah would come to fulfill the promise that all nations would be blessed through Abraham (Gal. 3:16).
That promise has been fulfilled through Jesus. And all who come to him in faith become a part of God’s holy and chosen people (1 Pet. 2:9-10). Not because we are somehow worthy–we are not. But because of what God has done for us. And because of God’s promise to Abraham (Gen. 12:2-3), our spiritual father (Rom. 4:16-17). Chosen because of God’s great love.
