Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Deuteronomy 7:1-11.

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away 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 stronger than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them.  You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.  Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them;  you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.  For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods;  then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.  But thus you shall do to them:  you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven 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 His own possession out of all the peoples who are 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 of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,  but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;  but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them;  He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.  Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.”  Deuteronomy 7:1-11.

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The basis of who we are and what we do is that we are chosen by God.  We are His elect, His people.  “…  the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”  Verse 6.

Verses 1-5 literally applied to Israel in that time, but it also figuratively applies to us to today, to show how sharply distinguished and set apart that we are from “all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”  For us today, as will be seen by the following Scriptures and Canons of Dordt, we learn about how sharply distinguished and set apart that we are from all the other people primarily by the spiritual blessings that God gives us.  But, we also learn it through the earthly blessings that He gives us.  

We saw the beginning of the knowledge of this distinction in the encounter between Moses and the LORD.

Moses asked the LORD:  “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people?  Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?”

The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken;  for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.”  Exodus 33:16-17.

More generally, over time, we learn and believe that we are the elect a/k/a God’s chosen people by God doing special particular goodness to us, particularly “distinguished from all the other people”. 

Everybody gets sunshine and rain, so when we experience such common good things, we do not think that God is necessarily showing us special particular goodness to us.  But, when we feel that God is showing us special particular goodness to us, we feel that we are in distinction a/k/a distinguished from other people and we wonder and think we may be the elect a/k/a God’s chosen people.  Finally, through God’s grace in giving us the gift of faith, we believe that we are among His chosen people, His elect, His people. 

As stated in the Canons of Dordt that I will later quote more, “The elect in due time, though in various degrees and in different measures, attain the assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election”.  

So, let us look at some Scriptures.

“But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel.”’”  Exodus 9:4.

“But against any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even bark, whether against man or beast, that you may understand how the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’”  Exodus 11:7.

“And the LORD gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them;  the LORD gave all their enemies into their hand.  Not one of the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed;  all came to pass.”  Joshua 21:44-45.

“Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised;  not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant.  May the LORD our God be with us, as He was with our fathers;  may He not leave us or forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, which He commanded our fathers.”  1 Kings 8:56-58.

Here is more of the quote from the Canons of Dordt in the section titled FIRST HEAD OF DOCTRINE Of Divine Predestination.

Article 12.  The elect in due time, though in various degrees and in different measures, attain the assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election, not by inquisitively prying into the secret and deep things of God, but by observing in themselves with a spiritual joy and holy pleasure, the infallible fruits of election pointed out in the Word of God – such as a true faith in Christ, filial fear, a godly sorrow for sin, a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, etc.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.  In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.  …”  Ephesians 1:3-8.

“But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;  for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD;  you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”  1 Peter 2:9-10.