John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 7
John Calvin Commentary
Deuteronomy 7
John Calvin Commentary
Deuteronomy 7
"and when Jehovah thy God shall deliver them up before thee, and thou shalt smite them; then thou shalt utterly destroy them: thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them;" — Deuteronomy 7:2 (ASV)
You shall smite them and utterly destroy them. Those who think that there was cruelty in this command usurp too much authority concerning Him who is the judge of all. The objection is specious that the people of God were unreasonably filled with inhumanity, so that, advancing with murderous atrocity, they should spare neither sex nor age.
But we must first remember what we will see later—that is, when God had destined the land for His people, He was free to utterly destroy the former inhabitants, so that its possession might be free for them. We must then go further and say that He desired the just demonstration of His vengeance to appear upon these nations. Four hundred years before, He had justly punished their many sins, yet He had suspended His sentence and patiently borne with them, if perhaps they might repent.
That sentence303 is well known: “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16). After God had shown His mercy for four centuries, and this clemency had increased both their audacity and madness, so that they had not ceased to provoke His wrath, surely it was no act of cruelty to compensate for the delay by the grievousness of the punishment.
And from this appears the foul and detestable perversity of the human intellect. We are indignant if He does not smile at once; if He delays punishment, our zeal accuses Him of slackness and lack of energy; yet, when He comes forth as the avenger of guilt, we either call Him cruel or at least complain of His severity. Yet His justice will always absolve Him, and our slander and false accusations will recoil upon our own heads.
He commanded seven nations to be utterly destroyed—that is to say, after they had added sin to sin for 400 years, so that their accumulation was immense, and experience had taught that they were obstinate and incurable. Therefore, it will be said elsewhere that the land “spewed them out,” (Leviticus 18:28), as if it had eased itself when burdened by their filthiness. If impiety is intolerable to the lifeless element, why should we wonder that God, in His character of Judge, exercised extreme severity?
But if God’s wrath was just, He might surely choose whatever ministers and executioners of it He pleased. And when He had given this commission to His people, it was not unreasonable that He should forbid them to pity those whom He had appointed for destruction.
For what can be more preposterous than for men to compete with God in clemency, and when it pleases the Master to be severe, for the servants to claim for themselves the right of showing mercy? Therefore, God often reproves the Israelites for being improperly merciful. And so it came to pass that the people, whom they should have destroyed, became as thorns and briars to prick them (Joshua 23:13, and throughout the book of Judges).
Away, then, with all rashness, by which we would presumptuously restrict God’s power to the puny measure of our reason. Rather, let us learn reverently to regard those works of His whose cause is concealed from us, than wantonly criticize them. Especially when He declares to us the just reasons for His vengeance, let us learn to submit to His decrees with the humility and modesty that is fitting for us, rather than to oppose them in vain and, indeed, to our own confusion.
303 “On sait ce qui fur dit a Abraham,” etc. — ,” etc. — Fr..
"For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God: Jehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth." — Deuteronomy 7:6 (ASV)
For you are a holy people. He explains more distinctly what we have recently seen concerning God’s gratuitous love. The comparison of the small number of the people with the whole world and all nations significantly illustrates the greatness of God’s grace, and this subject is considerably expanded upon.
Almost the same expressions will very soon be repeated, and also in the Song of Moses. However, there it is by way of reproof, while here it is directed to a different object, as is plain from the context: namely, that by so great a blessing, they might be obligated to devote themselves and their services to God.
He begins by declaring the purpose of their election: namely, that God had seen fit to bestow this peculiar honor upon them so that He might acquire for Himself a holy people, pure from all pollutions. Then, by adding the circumstance I have referred to, he magnifies the excellence of the benefit.
From his argument drawn from their dignity—that they should therefore strive for holiness—we gather that in proportion to the abundance of grace with which anyone is endowed, they are solemnly bound to live piously and justly. For God does not wish the gifts He bestows upon us to lie idle, but to produce their appropriate fruits. We must especially remember that when He adopts us and gathers us into His Church, we are not called to uncleanness, but to purity of life, and to shew forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Thessalonians 4:7; 1 Peter 2:9).
The Hebrew word סגלה (segullah), which we translate as “peculiaris,” special, some understand to mean a “treasure,” or a precious and desirable thing, as was stated in the commentary on Exodus 19. Undoubtedly, it appears from many passages that gold, silver, pearls, and the like are designated by this word. Substantially, however, it is agreed that this title is given to the elect people because God delights in them. In this, His incomparable goodness shines forth: that He so highly esteems such miserable and worthless creatures (homunciones).
Thus, it also appears that by His holy calling He, as it were, creates out of nothing “things which are not,” so that they may excel every earthly being.
"Jehovah did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples:" — Deuteronomy 7:7 (ASV)
The Lord did not set his love upon you. He proves it to be of God’s gratuitous favor that He has exalted them to such high honor, because He had passed over all other nations and condescended to embrace them alone.
For an equal distribution of God’s gifts generally obscures them in our eyes; thus the light of the sun, our common food, and other things, which all equally enjoy, either lose their value or, at any rate, do not obtain their due honor, while what is peculiar is more conspicuous.
Moreover, Moses takes it for granted that there was nothing naturally in the people to cause their condition to be better or more distinguished; and therefore infers that there was no other reason why God should choose them, except His mere choice of them.
We have elsewhere observed that by this His love, whatever men would bring of their own is excluded or annihilated. It follows, therefore, that the Israelites could never be sufficiently grateful to God, since they had been so generously dealt with by Him, without any merit of their own.
"but because Jehovah loveth you, and because he would keep the oath which he sware unto your fathers, hath Jehovah brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." — Deuteronomy 7:8 (ASV)
Because he would keep the oath. The love of God is here referred back from the children to the fathers. For he addressed the men of his own generation when he said that they were therefore God’s treasure, because He loved them. Now he adds that God had not just begun to love them for the first time, but that He had originally loved their fathers when He chose to adopt Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But although he more clearly proves that the descendants of Abraham had deserved nothing of the kind because they are God’s peculiar people only by right of inheritance, still it must be remarked that God was induced to be kind to Abraham by no other cause than mere generosity.
A little further on, therefore, he will say that those who then survived were dear to God because He had already loved their fathers. But now he still further commends the goodness of God because He had handed down His covenant from the fathers to the children, to show that He is faithful and true to His promises. At the end of the verse, he teaches that the deliverance of the people was both an effect and a testimony of that grace.
"Know therefore that Jehovah thy God, he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations," — Deuteronomy 7:9 (ASV)
Know therefore that the Lord your God, he is God. The verb220 might have been just as properly translated in the future tense. If this is preferred, an experimental knowledge, as it is called, is referred to, as if he had said that God would practically manifest how faithful a rewarder He is of His servants. But if the other reading is preferred, Moses exhorts the people to be assured that God sits in heaven as the Judge of men, so that they may be both alarmed by the fear of His vengeance and also attracted by the hope of reward.
This declaration, however,221 was appended to the Second Commandment and there explained. Since it is comprehended in the Decalogue, it was not right to separate it from there. But since it is now repeated in confirmation of the whole Law, it is fittingly inserted in this place. It will not be out of place, nevertheless, slightly to touch upon what I there more fully explained.
The promise stands first, because God chooses rather to invite His people by kindness than to compel them to obedience from terror. The word mercy is coupled with the covenant, so that we may know that the reward which believers must expect does not depend on the merit of their works, since they have need of God’s mercy. We may, however, understand the phrase as follows: keeping the covenant of mercy, or the covenant founded on mercy, or the mercy which He covenanted.
When it is required of believers that they should love God before they keep His Commandments, we are thus taught that the source and cause of obedience is the love with which we embrace God as our Father. With respect to the “thousand generations,” it is better to refer to the Second Commandment, because it is a point which cannot be hurried over in a few words.
220 “Heb. And thou shalt know.” — Ainsworth. “Et scies.” — . And thou shalt know.” — Ainsworth. “Et scies.” — V..
221 See on Deuteronomy 5:9, 10, , vol. 2, p. 110, , et seq..
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