Chosen and Set Apart

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at Deuteronomy chapter 7, the first 11 verses. We're going to look at what does it mean for God to set aside His people as being particular. So, what does that mean in the life of Old Testament Israel? So, Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 1 through 11.
Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Lord, what a blessing it is. It's a blessing again today. It's a blessing to hear your word. Lord, we have the sunrise, the birds chirping, the cool air. We have coffee, and we have Your Word. Lord, You're good. Thank You. Father, we pray that You would please instruct us this morning. Help us to understand Your Word. Apply it to our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, Deuteronomy chapter 7, the first 11 verses. Here we go.
When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.
You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. So the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars, break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.
For you are a holy people. to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Therefore, know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments, and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I have commanded you today to observe them. Well, we need to ask ourselves our ABCs. A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So, A, what is this about?
God has just given them the Ten Commandments. Again, this is Moses speaking, and now he's trying to tell them, hey, this is what the Lord told you. Here's the general stipulations of these commands. And now as they're going into the land, they're to love the Lord, they're to serve Him, they're to keep His ways, but there's going to be a danger when they enter into the land. They're going to meet other people. This is supposed to be a conquest, not just a going in and intermingling with the people.
No, this is meant to be that God gave them this in a royal land grant But there was idolatry in the land and the keen danger was instead of fighting against the people, instead of taking the land, what they were going to do is they were going to intermarry, intermingle. And that as they gave their sons and they gave their daughters, what happened is they would turn their hearts away from the Lord their God who had redeemed them and loved them and turned them towards idolatry. And so he says not only are they to destroy the people, but also they're to burn their idols or to get rid of every type of sacred image and idolatry that's in the land, right? Because all of that would pull them away from their covenant king.
And then it goes on to say why the Lord chose them. God chose the Israelites because He did. Because He decided to set His love on them. And He's bringing them into the land, not because they were the best people, not because they were the most numerous, not because they were the strongest, not because they were the most beautiful.
No, no, no. None of that, right? He made a promise to the patriarchs. He made a covenant with Abraham. And God was going to keep His word. And so he's telling them, you need to remember, and he's not some dumb fool. The Lord is going to ensure that his people are held accountable. whether they follow Him or not. He's not some God of wood or stone who doesn't know what's going on, doesn't know that they might have a side girl on the side. No, no, the Lord takes notice of all of this and He'll repay to their face. And so this is the Lord's admonition to them, His warning, His reaffirmation of who He is as love, as the loving Redeemer. But like I said, also the warning that He will repay.
Oh, what's the best verse to summarize this? Man, I got a whole bunch underlined here. I have verses 2, double underlined, you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy on them. nor shall you make marriages with them." That's probably what kind of gets at the heart of this, right? This prohibition against intermarriages. But why? I have part of verse 4 underlined. I have destroy their altars, break down their sacred pillars, cut down their wooden images, burn their carved images with fire. I have verse 6, the first part, double underlined.
For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the people on the face of the earth. But you could also underline verse 9 where it speaks about God himself. Know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
So really, really, it's probably verse 2. right, two and three, right? Don't make covenants with them and don't intermarry. The rest of it is speaking about how God sees the people, who God is and how they're to respond. Well, I see calling, then what are we called to do? How does this apply to us, right? We're not Israelites. We're not in the old covenant. We're not invading a land that the Lord's given us.
But the Lord still has this opinion of you, that you are a special treasure to Him. that He poured out the blood of His very own Son to redeem you. So don't join yourself to other gods. Don't join yourself to other idols. And if you're a young person, I would encourage you also, don't yoke yourself together with a non-believer, or don't go marrying a non-Christian.
I can't tell you how frequently. This is one of these sad things of, as I've counseled people, and as I've seen this happen again and again in churches, when there's a young woman, she falls in love. She's a good Christian woman, but she falls in love with a non-believer. And the guy might not be against Christianity. He may not say that he is opposed to the God of heaven, but he's just kind of generally agnostic or apathetic. There's no real signs of him being born again. What happens is, eventually, that man will pit other things against God himself, even telling her, oh, you're really going to go to worship again today? You just went last week. Don't you love me? Don't you love our children? Why would you go to church? You're really gonna want to tithe? Don't you know that we have better things to spend our money on?
And the contention that this happens in the marriage, and what happens as the wife in her love for the Lord is pulled, as she desires to serve the Lord, she desires to keep this covenant, and yet The husband pulls her away. It often happens with women marrying, like I said, apathetic or agnostic husbands. But it works the same way with men who yoke themselves together with women who are not Christians. It just seems to happen a lot faster, where the man will love the woman so much that he'll just drop the religion altogether. Because it's like he loses his mind, he loses his values, and he goes and he follows that woman. And it's a form of idolatry, loving that person rather than loving the Lord their God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.
And so, my question is to you. Have you compromised in areas of your life? Are there places in your life where you've come into agreements you ought not to have? Are you becoming comfortable and friendly with idolatry and sin? that you knew the Lord would want you to put away from you, because you are a special treasure that He's redeemed you and bought you.
I pray that the Holy Spirit would work in your heart in such a way that you would cling to the Lord, love Him, and follow Him. Let's pray. Father, we need Your Holy Spirit to do these things in our hearts and in our lives. Father, we need You to instruct us, to turn us from the ways we would want to go, and to make us walk in Your ways. Father, we pray that You would help us.
You are the one who is faithful to Your covenant. You are the one who is true, and yet often we are those who go our own ways. Lord, we pray that You would please teach us Your ways. Please keep our hearts faithful to You. We need You, Lord. We can't do it on our own. Please help in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well may the Holy Spirit, who is so powerful that He even raised up Jesus from the dead, who dwells in you, a temple of the Holy Spirit, may He strengthen you in your inner person as you fight against sin, as you fight for joy in loving your God. I'll see you next time. Bye.